Bloody hell that is a very interesting team. Love seeing McCormack and dembele up top together and hyndman and David is really exciting. Got a good feeling about this. Should also point out that 9 of the 18 players are from our academy. Whatever the result that is an amazing achievement. Come on lads, start as we mean to go on.
Disappointed to lose, but Ipswich were far more street smart than us. I think it is important to remember that Ipswich were good at home last year and McCarthy's teams are always hard to beat. We had a lot of possession in the first half but not much incision. Hutchinson made two mistakes and they led to two goals. Our defensive unit really needs to spend some time getting to know each other. However the way we played in the last 15-20 minutes (especially Hyndman/Eisfeld/Roberts) does give me hope that we can find our feet in this division. Sidenote: Did Parker always do that stop-pirouette-passback routine? I understand it's because he doesn't see options, but it's very frustrating to watch!
Agree with Surlyc One thing I will add is that I think Stafylidis is going to be a favourite player of mine this season...
Totally with you surly. I thought that we were punished for a few mistakes we made. As a manager that is a lot easier to work on than a technical melt down. There were many positives though: David and hyndman were excellent and looked to distribute quickly. Stafylidis looks a class act. Well taken goal from Hoogland. Eisfeld and Roberts coming on gave us more attacking flair. Negatives: Defence needs time to gel, they looked a little lost at time. Dembele did not have to much impact, although to be fair to him we did not give him much service. Too many long balls from the back, none of which gave dembele or McCormack a chance. The negatives are indicative of a team who has not yet got the individual understanding that develops in time. When it does we will be a team that is hard to stop scoring. Great to get the season under way. COYW
I thought we looked okay. Read the reports in the Guardian and the Telegraph and they both reckon we are in for a long season and lack quality. Seems a bit harsh. I don't think the media is very keen on Felix judging by the articles, they don't seem to think he will be able to manage in the second tier - especially the telegraph who did quite a large article on him today.
Can somebody please give me some positive news about today, I was working and did not get to see it... This is how my match reactions have been 1. Check score Fulham lose 2. Check bbc , shows 66% poss away from home 3. Check bbc states fulham started very well til first goal went in 4. Check FoF loads of negatives especially about Parker, but Hyndman and Roberts praised 5. Check neutral reports state other than one mistake Parker looked really good 6. Check paper reports state Ipswich deserved win and controlled game, I'm confused as we had 66% poss
Cookie, I have been following Friends of Fulham for ages and recently there are a lot of very negative posts, not what it used to be unfortunately. As for today, if I am being honest, we played the better football ( technically ) but Ipswich gave what we can expect a lot of this season. They were physically much bigger than us and put some hard but fair tackles about. They had a good spell in the second half. Their first goal was a good finish, the second was scrappy. To summarise, we can play all the good passing game we like but unless we get the ball into feet to Dembele or McCormack we are going to struggle against strong defences. Too often the ball was played in high and we lost every time. Do not think Ipswich deserved to win and they certainly did not control the game.
Agree with all of that Surly, particularly the Parker comments. The first half was frustrating since, although we had lots of possession, there was nobody really prepared to run with the ball at their defence. Second half and especially the final 20 minutes was very different .. Hyndman and Eisfeld much more direct and then there was of course Pat Roberts!! No surprises that this is a tough combative League and we’ll need to learn quickly that fouls which might be given in the Premiership won’t here. Which in a way re-inforces that fact that we are still lacking a strong defensive midfielder. Not entirely sure, but Cameron Burgess seemed to be given a role in front of the two CBs today and that’s one he’s certainly not familiar with. And Parker .. I won’t dwell on any more. Of course it’s a disappointing result. However in a way it might be a blessing. It was an away game and we showed that we can hold onto the ball .. I believe we had 65% of the possession. But we (hopefully) learned that that is not enough - we need to push into the opposition defence more sharply and not just in the final minutes. And yes, there were one or two below par performances. Overall though there were so many more positives and every reason to believe that as the group get used to playing together and this League in particular, the better they will become.
Yes, Pat Roberts looked the part, when he came on he had me on the edge of my seat. Looking forward to seeing more of him!
Well it's not really a surprise that time is needed for us to gel as a team, and also that Fulham have to acclimatise to the toughness in this league. Some good signs but early days! It was good to hear that there were 1,539 Fulham fans at the game. COYW
Agree with most of what has been said but I also think Joronen looked very nervous in goal. Understandable but not what we need behind a new/inexperienced back line. Burgess in defensive midfield is such a strange decision. He could have played the exact same players but used Hoogland as DM, Bodurov as RB and Hutch and Burgess as CBs. That seems much more balanced to me.
