Brilliant point, well done to Rene for being brave and picking an adventurous team. Let's hope this is the performance to left the team and drive them forward now. Coyw
That's the kind of performance I wanted to see. That was a well deserved point (regardless of what the commentary team were saying). We had more discipline than in recent weeks and in the first half we had a really good counter attacking set up which led to us having two good chances to United's one. I thought Burn was great today Richardson (in spite of his miss) provided much more of an outlet on the left then Kaca. Holtby is a really good player, Kvist and Tunnicliffe played really hard all game. Our January signings really performed today.
That was a team performance from the old days. Fulhamish performance! My partner thinks I have double personality from high to low to high!!! But you have to support Fulham to understand this!
Keep the faith! The radio kept going on about late Man Utd goals and it was us who scored in Fergie time!!
So glad Bent (of all people) shut the commentary teams up! Anyone would think we were morally obligated to let them win!
Well done guys a hard fought out point there. Just hope you can enough between now and the end of the season. But well done on a terrific battling team performance.
Firstly, I will eat my hat for all the rotten things I've said about Steve Sidwell. He was immense. Secondly, I berated bringing on Darren Bent for 49 minutes. Him, I will now take my hat off to. There when it mattered! Thirdly, for all the 'parking of the bus' we saw, I was impressed how many players we got into the box when we did go forward. Fourthly, as Fred said, how pleasing to do it in 'Fergie time'. Today we fought for 95 minutes and you can't ask for more than that. Finally, well done, so well done the lot of you. PS Think Dan Burn should get a special mention - he showed a maturity beyond his age and experience.
Great effort all round from everyone Sidwell immense Burn 22 clearances Richardson up and down all game best outlet Bent actually worked and closed down Tankovic what a 60 yard run for Richardsons chance Holtby great ball for Sidders goal Riises block before there first goal I could go on but can't pick a man of the match they all deserve it
My player ratings (feel free to dispute!): Stekelenburg - 8. Played well, some great saves. Not at fault for any of the goals. Why does he insist on punching it though, when under no pressure? Riether - 8. Was good at sheparding the United players out wide for harmless crosses, blocking shots and was defensively disciplined. Did switch off a little for the first goal though. Riise - 7. Similar to Riether. Riise was targeted but held up okay under pressure. Burn - 9. Was under siege in the air, dealt with nearly all of them. Considering his youth, he was exceptional today. Heitinga - 8. Considering this was his debut for us, I was very impressed today. He was a better foil for Burn than Hangeland, playing the Hughes role to Burn's Brede. Looked exhausted at the end, but he really put in a good shift today against some talented United attackers. Sidwell - 9. This was the good Steve Sidwell. With defensive wingers (and a 442), he actually had a chance to be an outlet from the midfield whilst Kvist & the wingers kept things tight. Great gut busting run for his goal and really seemed to lead from the front. Kvist - 8. Kvist could turn out to be one of our more valuable signings. He played really well and the defensive shield that we've not really had since Etuhu. Tunnicliffe - 7. Ran hard and showed good discipline. He was out of position too, but played to the tactics set out by Rene. Looking forward to seeing more of him in less role defined matches. Richardson - 8. I know he missed the chance. But he was our main attacking outlet down the left and he actually did what you'd want from your left winger. Holtby - 8. The player with vision that we've been crying out for? He was beaten up pretty effectively by Carrick/Vidic, but his pass for the opener was fantastic. Tries hard and seems to be the player we all wanted Ruiz to be. Tankovic - 7. I wasn't sure what I was watching, a forward with pace and movement? A baptism of fire for the Tank but he played very well. I feel he was hauled off too soon. Bent - 6. The equaliser has added about 5 points onto this score. Bent looked slow, weak and unable to jump for most of the game. Big equaliser, but hard to look past the fact he didn't hold the ball up even once and was a main culprit for why we slipped deeper and deeper in defense. Parker - 6. Is Parker the problem in midfield? He played well when he came on, but we actually played better in the middle than we have in a long time without him. Should probably have closed down Carrick before the deflected goal. Cole - n/a. Not enough time to do anything. I wonder if he'll be given the chance to beat out Dejagah on the right wing? As an aside, we ended the game with seven English players on the pitch. Not sure what to make of the fact that the worst two were our ex-England internationals off the bench!
Agree with nearly all the above but think you have been harsh on Bent, let's not hide the fact that most of the time we were just clearing the ball aimlessly up the pitch to a 6 foot 6 Smalling and Vidic. I thought Bent tried to close down in hard circumstances for a forward. Also if you watch the equaliser he starts his 6 yard sprint into the box before Richardson gets his shot away in anticipation. Haven't just watched that game I wouldn't criticise anyone for effort
Great point guys. Wasn't rooting for Utd at all, we will dig ourselves out of trouble regardless of teams around us. Glad the annoying commentators were shut up.
Maybe I have been harsh on him. His positioning and movement for the goal was very good, but I just felt he didn't do anything for the previous 49 minutes. I got very tired of watching him not try to compete for the ball. However, maybe I should have been more lenient - everyone was more tired, so he didn't exactly get a lot of service.
Would you adam and eve it. The radio commentary was priceless. Bent is a striker that lives in the 6 yard box. He's not the outlet that you need if you just need to boot it upfield. He's a poacher plain and simple and took his goal well under pressure. I've seen them missed! Very brave of RM to mix things up for the game. Great and unexpected point. COYW
I've only seen text and heard radio updates - does anyone know what the formation of the starting 11 was?
We played 4411, with Tunnicliffe covering Riether and Holtby playing up behind the Tank. In the second half that became more of a 550, with Kvist dropping back as an auxiliary centre back and Bent and Holtby in the centre circle.
It was either a straight 4 - 4 - 2 or a 4 -4 - 1 - 1. There were very definitely two banks of 4 , although when United had the ball on the left we switched to 5 - 3 - 2 with tunnicliffe dropping in at right back. I agree with all the above, for me though Richardson answered a few critics today. He performance as left winger was very impressive. He showed good pace and great strength, disappointed for him he could convert his chance, it would have done him the world of good. Most of all though we looked the most balanced I have seen us for a while. Credit has to be given to Rene and the coaching staff, some will say it was boring negative football, but those people are probably not rooted to the bottom of the table. We did what we needed to do today and it worked. If anyone was going to understand how to neutralise man united it was the ex head coach. So Rene, take a bow, a bold line up in a huge game.
