There's still plenty of time, but we can't feel sorry for ourselves - Thoughts on the Fulham game.

Yes we should have had a pen, but we should have created more chances against this team, and the fact that the same mistakes seem to crop in -

- Giving away silly freekicks under little pressure
- Simple balls in against mediocre teams causing us issues.
- Vulnerability at fullback - Having rash fullbacks who can't read the damn game.

I don't understand why Gayle was drifting out to the wing so often.

I think Rafa got this one wrong. We will need more of a presence in the the box if we want to win games, and having Gayle or Perez alone in the center; they will simply get swamped.

Ratings -

Sels - 5 - Good in the air, average distribution and kicking, some sloppy first moments.

Janmaat - 4 - Some good physical defending, but worrying poor reading of the game and positioning. Same stupid attitude problem as last season also.

Lasceless - 6 - Quite solid, but maybe could have done more to prevent that goal.

Hanley - 5 - Bang average really. Stupid yellow card.

Dummett - 3 - Looks just as **** in the CC as in the PL.

Hayden - 4 - Didn't make a mark on the game at all.

Colback - 4 - ****ty needless fowls, headless chicken.

Anita - 7 - Some really decent runs and good passing and vision. Also good defending.

Perez - 5 - Some good moments, but let himself down with final touches. Drifted away towards the end.

Ritchie - 6 - Good work rate and physicality. Some half decent balls in. Looks potentially very good.

Gayle - 4 - Really disappointed. Don't know where he went. Was expecting him to be running defences ragid.

Aarons - 4 - Some decent runs, but missed a good chance. Looked a bit lazy IMO.

Armstrong - 5 - Good work rate, but didn't have much of an impact.

Shelvey - 4 - Looks uninterested.

Rafa - 5 - Will probably be a learning curve. I see what he tried to do but I don't know if his 4-2-3-1 with a smaller striker will work against defensive sides.

MOTM - Anita was the only one making significant impact so I'd say him. A bit worrying if a makeshift fullback is your best threat....

 

Err, he was **** mate. Pass completion must have been close to 0% in the first half. Should be dropped.

 

Yes we should have had a couple of pens, corrected for you

Anita - 7 - Some really decent runs and good passing and vision. Also good defending.

I also laugh in yer face for this one, gave the ball away so many times

are you sure you were not watching a repeat of the spurs match last season

 

**** me Anita was the ****test player there! I gave up counting how many times he gave the ball away and we were only 10mins into the game!

I though Gayle did well, perez on the other hand was awful. Don't see how he stayed on as long as he did.

Personally I thought Shelvey changed the game, we finally looked like we might score when he came on, although you rated him a 4!

Think Rafa had the right idea with the front 3 but perez wasn't disciplined enough to stay out wide so we lost our shape. But worse than that was letting perez take free kicks - it was as stupid as Roy letting Kane do the same at the Euro's.

I was also really impressed with Hayden looked a great player, Ritchie looked good too. **** game shirt result but on the plus side our defence will be bolstered with Clark and with gale hayden and Ritchie I think we will be OK for the rest of the season! Looking forward to Mitro playing with Gayle think we deff missed his presence tonight, we were a bit lightweight at the top.

Rant over with.

 

We didn't play a front 3; Perez was central behind Gayle in a 4-2-3-1. I agree Perez taking set pieces (corners in particular) was a disaster and you'd think Ritchie or Shelvey would be the better options for those duties. Have to disagree with you on Gayle, though. He was anonymous and marked out of the game by their excellent CBs, and he was coming deep too much. Not a good performance. Mitrovic would have made a big difference had he been available although we need more creativity and generally we just needed more hustle.

 

I'm beelin.



Didn't expect that one bit.

 

Shelvey looked like he couldn't be arsed.

 

Not necessarily dropped, but he ain't a winger - when I saw the formation and Anita right up in attack i was WTF?! He was excellent at full back last year, why would I you change that?!!

Combine that with a major lack of attacking penetration and you have the problem - Fulham were far from brilliant, just the were organised, defended in numbers and kept their shape at the back. Gayle and Perez were out muscled by a load of big defended and offered nothing up front, Mitro would have failed much better.

Very disappointing, only Richie really stood out, lots to do.

 

Had myself a dream last night that we signed Andy Carroll back for £15m......oh how we could've done with him last night!! Would've destroyed that Fulham side.

I will try and have a snooze, maybe we sign Payet and Cresswell too for good measure

 

Sels - looked confident in the box, but the chop and change of keeper during pre-season and centrebacks hasn't helped him
Janmaat - Always looks like a red card waiting to happen these days. Very average.
Lascelles - Good captain material but showed today he is just a young defender
Hanley - Disappointing but again no real matches in pre-season
Dummett - Pure and utter ****. Would make a good 5th choice cb. At LB, he really should be left back.......
Anita - As a right winger pure and utter gash, as soon as Colback went off and Anita went in his place he became the player we know he can be.
Colback - Pure and utter ****. If we are playing Hayden we need a more creative midfielder next to him. Colback is **** at defending, passing, running with the ball etc
Hayden - Looked reasonable but could tell he was young.
Ritchie - Where has he been the last few years a jeez he was our best winger for a decade! Had pace, skill, shooting not bad and a bit of aggression!
Ayoze - Not sure which Ayoze the likes of Barcelona are supposedly looking at but it sure isn't this one. Hasn't progressed at all since arriving and will at this rate go the same way as Vuckic.
Gayle - Lots of running but as a lone striker will never work. Mitro, hurry up from your suspension!

Subs:
Aarons - Truly awful. Worse than Shane Ferguson, no pace, no skills, no crossing.
Armstrong - A bit like Hayden, you can see the potential but young
Shelvey - Our best central midfielder on the day but just not good enough over the course of a season.

So, we need a left back urgently, another winger urgently and a central midfielder urgently.

Yes we were robbed due to the penalties but did we actually create anything?

 

We're **** simple as that

 

All ****e. I think those who thought we were in for an easy time have had the rude awakening. Fortunately it's a long season. Lot of new players. We were rarely troubled defensively. We just had no fluidity and struggled once they sat deep, which a lot of teams will do. We need a knockaert. The Anita experiment was a disaster but he won't abandon it. We need more from full backs - they offered nothing in attack. Rafa appeared to tell janmaat he was finished at the end

 

We're going to be looking at the playoffs at best

 

Colback was useless as usual. He had better get used to warming the bench with his useless arse I think. Ritchie looked good but we need another winger. Gayle does not look like a No. 9 to me. Perez was useless too. Dummett is crap. Hanley looks like a tank and is just as mobile as one. Janmaat was the usual Janmaat, ****. Overall it was like watching last season, I was expecting more TBH. The team looked so slow of brain, it was taking an age to move the ball around the pitch, boring to watch and easy to play against. Teams will not be quaking in their boots when they play us after this performance. Deja Vu all over again, and McClown was there to watch also, which made it more galling. My bubble of optimism has been well and truly popped last night. Bring on the mighty Huddersfield next week, 1-1...

 

Eat some Musli I'm trying to get this flux capacitor going

 

To be honest I was struggling to tell who was out on the right and I hadn't seen the formation pretty game so to me looked like gayle and perez were switching out wide so looked more of a 4-3-3, than a 4-2-3-1 but either way Anita was ****e

I think gayle had to feed off scraps and once we try and get behind the back four a bit more he will start to perform a bit better.

 

obsessed

 

I thought Richie looked excellent, great instant control, dribbling, passing and decision making. He'll do more damage with Haidara or Mbabu overlapping and making space for him than the limited Dummett.

 

Down to earth with a bump some might say.
Maybe we needed it, to get a sense of perspective, that this season isn't going to be a cakewalk.

I wouldn't complain about the players making their debuts, but, the perennial failures will surely have limited playing time in upcoming games.