Like a training game for Fulham really tbh - they had a strong side out whilst we were even weaker than usual. Let's hope for some new signing and our key attacking players keep fit. Great goal from Vata.
Seen the goals - Fulham first was very good but the second frustrating as we lost the ball for their penalty which was tight and then the 3rd just lost sight of the ball from the corner. Bond might have done better with the headed goal - Bachmann would have got pelters. Looks llike Kayembe is the boo boy now- maybe we should have played Sissoko then.
That was a strangely fun game to be in the crowd for. Always fun at an FA Cup game to have a huge away allocation (there were >4,000 of us) making a racket for the whole game, especially given how sparse and docile the Fulham crowd was. Lots of people still singing on the way to the station. Everything went crazy when we scored the equalizer. Such a shame about the penalty, that really changed the game, and annoying to concede so soon after a kick-off AGAIN. One tactical thing I found hugely frustrating was the goal kicks. In the first half, we had lots of success with Bond playing it long, and he was actually doing a good job of distributing the ball and finding our players. Second half, for some reason we change to playing it short, putting us under loads of pressure and giving away that penalty (and more generally after that giving the feeling to Fulham that they were totally controlling the game, because at worst for them they were letting us have the ball in our own third). I understand why we want to do that in the Championship, although I still struggle to understand the data and analysis behind this shift in how football has been played. But against a much better Premier League side, it makes sense to play it longer, especially for the first 10 mins of a half when we know we have a psychological problem of conceding early goals!
The penalty came from losing the ball in such a situation I think. Poor play getting put under pressure facing our own goal . Managers and players will never learn it seems and it ends up costing them the game and jobs.
Yep, and it felt so needless. Was clearly an instruction from the manager at halftime to start playing it short. I don't understand how it's more advantageous for our defender to have the ball on the edge of the box, facing our goal with an attacker right on their shoulder rather than for us to be playing head tennis on the halfway line.
