Relive every moment of every first team game since the beginning of the 2005/06 season. Our archive of matchday threads originally posted in the General Discussion Forum.
Monkeybubbles wrote:
Tbf, I thought Noble was going for some quite precise through balls that didn't quite come off. Pedro was playing safer passes on the whole, at a time when there was less of a need to be expansive, so I think those stats don't tell the whole story.
I agree entirely.
Nevertheless, I think this backs up the original post. This was a very clever substitution, especially as Noble was on a yellow.
Mark gave the ball away needlessly in dangerous locations several times today with wayward passes - Fulham weren't able to capitalise on it luckily for us. Not his best game today. His passing going forward was better (one setting up the goal and another almost putting Antonio clean through) but we looked more defensively solid in midfield with Obiang coming on I thought. Obiang has more pace and got much tighter closing their players in possession down and is generally quicker and more athletic in that defensive anchoring role. With Mark already on the yellow it was a timely sub from Pellers and we saw the game out pretty comfortably in the end.
I also thought Fulham played some very good one touch passing in the first half and were cutting through us with ease at certain points. Ranieri also had them pressing us hard and we struggled to cope with that at times. Defensively there is still some work to be done as we gifted too many chances early on and as others have said; a better side would have punished us. However it is another clean sheet and yet another win on the road and we can really start to look up the table now rather than worry about what's going on down below.
Things I really liked today:
- Our brutally clinical finishing
- Antonio getting back to his best
- Arthur's strong performance
- Snodgrass's hot streak of form
- Anderson's flair and hard work
- Fabianski; safe as houses
While I am thrilled that Arthur didn’t score an own goal, concede a penalty, gift wrap a scoring opportunity, or spit on anyone, it’s yet another occasion where he had an alright match against a poor opponent. You can’t have a player who does ok against a crap side, then always gets found wanting as soon as we play anyone half decent.
Swiss Pauli wrote:I think we will get thumped at some point if we carry on playing 4-4-2, but not today.
2-1 win. A two nil stroll with a nervous end.
Fulham showed how to get at us: play a number 10 in a free role and bring a nominal winger (Cairney) inside to outnumber our CMs. Thankfully, their finishing was as awful as their defending.
I've lost count now of the amount of times Masuaku switches off and loses his man who ghosts in at the back post to either score or get a chance at goal. Mitrovic thankfully fluffed his lines when he really should have buried his headed chance but f*** me Masuaku is one dozy player. Shocking defender who also DOES give the ball away (contrary to the song) but is good when he does find himself up field in the right areas of the pitch furthest away from where he finds himself playing.
Colours never run wrote:I've lost count now of the amount of times Masuaku switches off and loses his man who ghosts in at the back post to either score or get a chance at goal. Mitrovic thankfully fluffed his lines when he really should have buried his headed chance but **** me Masuaku is one dozy player. Shocking defender who also DOES give the ball away (contrary to the song) but is good when he does find himself up field in the right areas of the pitch furthest away from where he finds himself playing.
Thought that was his best game for us this season tbf
Funny old game I thought.
All the back five made key contributions, but felt overall we could have defended better.
Loved Diop's clipped ball out to the wing in the second half and Anderson tracking back and making the tackle right in front of the manager.
Comical moments from Obiang's miss control for a throw in and Noble passing inside to no one.
Did enough, but felt we should have created more.
That was the lowest attempts on Fulham's goal all season.
One wish for the rest of the season though is for Zaba score.
Sitting in a bar in southern Spain with a nice pint of white wine, staring at his phone, waiting for the call that will come from some Chairman that hits the panic button.
Yup! - bet he’s on his third pint the greedy f**ck - I know a few palace fans have been talking about a return for the dinosaur. - personally, I reckon his time is up in the SOS game.
I can only hope he’s been keeping an eye on the West Ham way for the last few weeks.
Irrons wrote:Mark gave the ball away needlessly in dangerous locations several times today with wayward passes -
Don't think he was on his own with this, wayward passes brought the ball straight back on the defence a few times to many yesterday.
Along with throw-ins that go from advantage to disadvantage.
I thought it was a great game, and everyone got fully behind the team, quite a few players made errors not just One as some try to claim, we can break so fast now, no kick & hoof football any more! but from late on with the last substitution it was so clear he is not fast enough and will never fit into our game now, we need a younger striker someone exciting not one dimensional.
jaybs wrote:I thought it was a great game, and everyone got fully behind the team, quite a few players made errors not just One as some try to claim, we can break so fast now, no kick & hoof football any more! but from late on with the last substitution it was so clear he is not fast enough and will never fit into our game now, we need a younger striker someone exciting not one dimensional.
peter49uk wrote:
Don't think he was on his own with this, wayward passes brought the ball straight back on the defence a few times to many yesterday.
Along with throw-ins that go from advantage to disadvantage.
Agree... this is one thing we do need to improve on. We frequently lose possession cheaply in the centre of the pitch. It's great when a counter attack comes off but I think we rush a little bit sometimes. Usually in the first half. That's where the bigger teams punish you.
Our centre backs do have this strange tendency to lose their markers on set pieces and crosses from the wings.
Better teams would have punished us.
We are playing really well at the moment but to a certain extent we are riding a bit of luck I would say.