Guys I'm starting loosing patience now. Poor subs strategy, players walking on the field, enough is enough... Just got back and was thinking of leaving in the first half. It was a torture!
Agreed. it was really very bad. Could NOT defend. Baird and Riise, Riise especially had a shocker, senderos was pretty crap too, and Stockdale, with better positioning, should have kept two out. attacking we were ok every now and then in the second half, but it was the constant standing still that got me. We cant break, everything we do takes so much time and is labourious. We especially aren't playing through balls. One player gets it, stands still, waves his arms in exasperation, attempts to go off on a mazy run (Ruiz and Dembele) and then looses the ball. The rest just pass backwards to someone else not moving, who then looses the ball instead. Trully gutted, it was absolutely awful
Gilly you are spot on. The amount of space utd had at thei disposal in first half was amazing. Murphy was walking most of the time. No passion. Thought Ruiz and Dembele had a good game although they need to offload the ball faster. One point that really gets me is AJ and his poor finishing ability. Had 2 clear chances and 2 others and blew them all. No wonder Jol is not willing to offer more that 1 year! Hopefully will bounce back or will get another thumbing against Chelsky.
To all the follower of this forum. What have I constantly been saying about AJ. apart from 3 or 4 average to good performances F.....G U....S.
Terrible first half. We just didn't turn up and at 3 nil down at half time it was game over. Second half was much better and I hope the team takes some consolation with this but what was the point of Zamora coming on 5 minutes at the end ! It's important that we do much better in the next couple of games as I did think we were improving as a team before this game. Hard one to take - going to bed in a bad mood !
I was hoping that the team would put in a good performance, boost their confidence and take that into the holiday games. Letting in an early goal and the 3rd one just before half time, killed the game for us, poor defensive performance. Lets hope for a better fighting performance against Chelsea, Norwich and Arsenal. I'm expecting us to get our home form back on track from Charlton cup game onwards when we start a run of matches against teams not in the top 6. Lets hope our confidence hasn't been shot to pieces by then.
And I'm sorry but Jol is useless. He seems tactically inept, and if not then he seems unable to inspire. He was not up and down the touch line shouting his bollocks off, he just sat there. He isn't a leader, he has broken up our defensive partnership, knocked us out of carling cup, europa league (piss easy group) and wrestling shot in the league. I no it's the players tht are incapable of playing more than one half of football every 2 games, but thea agee has to take some if the blame
I think that Jol could take some lessons from Martinez, a man like Roy who can install confidence in mediocrity.
There are a few key areas that the team is lacking. If I was manager, this would be the options that are in front of me. We have no transition pace. The key element of what makes Kerim Frei and Moussa Dembele so talented is their change of pace and their usefulness in a counter attack (Dembele showed this vs Sunderland). But we lack player who knock the ball on in 2 touches. If you are not doing this in a 4-2-3-1 you aren't going to score any goals. If Jol knows this then Murphy is set to leave, if he doesn't we are in deep deep trouble. Our defence is being told to be zonal way too deep which is effectively standing off. It gives the opposition so much time to choose whether to go down the wing or cut in. Our defence is simply not in control. They are not being given tactical advice either (Valencia was never shown onto his left foot by Riise). AJ was never going to make any inroads on the United defence like he did vs Bolton, we all knew that. Bobby should have played. We would have had more possession should we have done that. AJ is more likely to find holes in a high defensive line like Chelsea. We lose possession because we have no outlets so people like Dembele are forced to run and then lose the ball. Our formation is far too loose as well. We need to be more rigid vs United. Some serious issues. Substitutions were non-existent too. VERY worried for our season (Considering Jol won't be fired).
Last night's formation was 4-4-2. Clearly 2 zones of defense. But once we lost possesion our FB were out-paced easily by the wingers... Game over. Ferguson's idea to play Smalling and Evans as CB paid off as Smalling is quick and probably faster than AJ. I agree that BZ probably should have played. Don't understand why he was not brought in 60th minute or something. January is close and we need strengthening but also change of mentality from Jol. We need at least 3 points from the remaining 3 matches over Christmas...
You think it's 4-4-2 because the formation was never clear. The team had no idea what they were doing. I don't know what Jol told them to do. I suspect he just let them play how they wanted to. At one point the formation was 4-6-0 then sometimes 5-4-1. There was no structure to it.
I just think we got turned over by a much better team. There was no formation due to Man U playing so well and people like Riise, Etuhu and Sendoeros playing like it was Sunday morning match. Baird was out of position and Briggs would have been mullered. He is good but still needs a few games against lesser opposition. IMHO! Keep believing. Any points against the big boys are a bonus - keep positive guys and girls.
Agree with everyone here. After trudging dejectedly through Bishop's Park, i couldn''t face MOTD and instead gave vent to my feelings (exactly the same as you have posted) in another thread. A day later - no change, and everything borne out by fellow Whites at work. The recurring theme is - 1. Jol's inability to make constructive substitutions; 2. Jol's apparent belief that one good performance justifies selecting the same XI for the next game without allowing for the fact that the next lot up are different (in this case, in every way from Bolton; and 3. The lack of structure FFC4L introduces a new and important point - zonal play. Spot on sir. There's no point in standing in your allocated area if you don't get close to an opposition player who perchance wanders into it. I won't even bother to instance the multitude of times we merely 'stood off' or illustrate the consequences. Although their second goal was the best example - from the second they took the short corner (the 3rd but not the last time they did this) you just knew what what going to happen. My son and everybody around us shouted themselves hoarse all night pleading that we get close to them (I'm naturally more Fulhamish in such situations). Not that I don't feel the anguish any the less. But to end the rant here I quote (yet again) the guy two seats along - "what is it we can see that Jol can't?"
I was shouting that too C58, I wonder if you're the guy sitting behind me! I think I uttered something similar to the guy next to me as well!
This. The only disappointment I have is that we tried to park the bus and didn't do even do that well. If we'd done what we did at the beginning of the second half for the whole 90 minutes we might have made a better account of ourselves. Our season won't be defined by games against the top 6 clubs. One encouraging thing was (what I heard of) MJ's post-match interview. He didn't reel off the sorry excuses and show any kind of illusion that we were robbed or anything like that. He was angry at the players and I trust he'll give them the rocket they need.
Cravingawin think you are not doing any justice to Etuhu. He was the only one running. It was a zone system but poorly implemented more like a sieve!
