Friends of Fulham

Who was your FoF MOTM and why?

Tete Cuenca & Diop difficult to split?

Obviously he wasn't the sole reason we lost, but I believe all our problems today started because of Reed starting. Last season, in this situation (Berge out and a match against Arsenal), I would have started him, but Reed has been very poor this season, Liverpool wonderstrike aside. TC should have started, especially after him and Lukic looked decent together vs Brentford away. Midfield is such a key area on the pitch. It unsettled our midfield, our attack and our defence.

2nd big problem was Robinson. I've already said my thoughts on his performance in the Robinson thread.

I actually thought we managed to settle down well after their disallowed goal and I thought we might get a late equaliser or something, however, we conceded another poor goal(Robinson at fault again) and after their 2nd goal, we never looked like getting a result. Referee was atrocious, but had no impact on our result.

We need a significant improvement in performance against Bournemouth, which is our game of the season.

As for MOTM, I don't know who honestly. Leno and Bassey at fault for their 3rd, Andersen was pretty poor today too, Robinwwas terrible. Castagne was probably our best defender today, at least he got himself in two decent chances today. Reed, I'm not sure he touched the ball in the first half, completely invisible. Lukic, pretty poor performance from him too and an unnecessary booking. Have some sympathy for him though because of him playing with Reed against a team as good as Arsenal. Attackers barely got on the ball so have some sympathy for them too. Chukwuze had most good moments in a sense that he managed to dribble past his opponents a few times. On the other side, he tracked back way less than other attackers and his crossing was very poor.

Lukic put in a shift and was probably my MoTM, and I thought Bassey - although not fault free, showed strength and commitment...King showed some good touches....but the rest were with ineffective, anonymous or worse. Maybe performances were affected by the flu, but I fear that wasn't the reason

There is no player worthy of the accolade this week.

Castagne the best of a poor lot.

Definitely hard to pick a ´Legend´of the match out of that lot!

Wilson shouldn't start another game, won't be here in August and clearly thinking about his next move. Need to start playing committed players in their preferred position.

Robinson as others have said elsewhere appears to have lost the plot.

The tactics were dire today, half this forum could've told you how to contain Arsenal better than we did, so how does our manager not see it? Losing Berge and having to play Reed was a massive handicap, but you surely adapt and play a much more defensive lineup and plan to deny Arsenal space, rather than giving them acres of space inside our half and making it look like a training game...

Did anyone else hear of a virus at the club? Cos that's why Berg was missing. 

Quote from: bog on May 02, 2026, 09:16:26 PMDid anyone else hear of a virus at the club? Cos that's why Berg was missing. 

Yes, I thought I heard that earlier but couldn't find confirmation anywhere!
If true, I can see why we weren't at it today!

We were complete shiiiiite

The coach Driver - MOTM, had to drive them there and take them back

Quote from: Deeping_white on May 02, 2026, 09:14:22 PMWilson shouldn't start another game, won't be here in August and clearly thinking about his next move. Need to start playing committed players in their preferred position.

Robinson as others have said elsewhere appears to have lost the plot.

The tactics were dire today, half this forum could've told you how to contain Arsenal better than we did, so how does our manager not see it? Losing Berge and having to play Reed was a massive handicap, but you surely adapt and play a much more defensive lineup and plan to deny Arsenal space, rather than giving them acres of space inside our half and making it look like a training game...

That's exactly what it looked like first half, a training exercise for them. Arsenal first team running through attack v defence routines against their youth side.

Quote from: bog on May 02, 2026, 09:16:26 PMDid anyone else hear of a virus at the club? Cos that's why Berg was missing. 

Yes, Berge was sidelined by the virus and several others were apparently affected. What with the virus and our injury list I'm really not surprised we couldn't match Arsenal. I'm giving the players and Marco a pass on this one and am not calling out individuals, especially as we don't know who was suffering from this virus.

If there was a virus going around, couldn't there be a case to request this match to be rescheduled? It could affect Arsenal as well.

Quote from: demeant0r on May 02, 2026, 09:47:48 PMIf there was a virus going around, couldn't there be a case to request this match to be rescheduled? It could affect Arsenal as well.

The two teams don't share changing rooms so I don't think the Arsenal players are likely to be affected. It presumably spread amongst our lads whilst at our training facilities.

As to whether we could have requested a postponement, I don't think so. The Prrem would be incredibly reluctant to postpone at this late stage of the season and anyway Marco was able to get eleven players out on the pitch so it wouldn't be deemed serious enough.

People of the Match

The 3000 travelling Fulham Fans paying good money to watch that drivel.

Quote from: Twig on May 02, 2026, 10:02:51 PM

Quote from: demeant0r on May 02, 2026, 09:47:48 PMIf there was a virus going around, couldn't there be a case to request this match to be rescheduled? It could affect Arsenal as well.

The two teams don't share changing rooms so I don't think the Arsenal players are likely to be affected. It presumably spread amongst our lads whilst at our training facilities.

As to whether we could have requested a postponement, I don't think so. The Prrem would be incredibly reluctant to postpone at this late stage of the season and anyway Marco was able to get eleven players out on the pitch so it wouldn't be deemed serious enough.

Well, not in the changing rooms but since some of our lads were Arsenal lads, I presume they would have a chat pre/post match and that could be transmitted then. Not that I care if Arsenal gets it.

MOTM for me was Bassey, closely followed by Lukic.

The referee.
For blowing the whistle at the end of the match and putting us all out of our misery.

Can't pick a MOTM no one deserves the accolade. The match really showed who should not be in the team next season.

I picked Castagne for being our only goal threat.

Shockingly bad performance in the first half really. Embarrassing.

Worst game I have been to in a few years

Quote from: KentFulham on May 03, 2026, 08:01:00 AMWorst game I have been to in a few years

I'll bet. It was depressing watching it on the box.

Quote from: HobGoblin on May 02, 2026, 09:32:03 PMThe coach Driver - MOTM, had to drive them there and take them back

Taking them back is where he lost all credibility, he should have made the buggers walk!

For me Bassey, Lukic and Castagne did their best with Bassey man of a very poor match, although we did improve in the second half. If there was a virus sticking its viralic nose in then we may have a reason. If I we did then why did we not flag more in the  2nd half?     
   
At half time there were 3 minutes added, nothing happened in those 3 mins so when that time was reached why did the ref play on? Oh yes! Silly me! The league leaders were attacking, one can't stop them when they are in full flight and may score another goal.  ::tongue::

Big mistake starting Reed.
Diop should have played in a five .
And for their energy King and Bobb should have started.
Thought they were excellent pressing when they came on against Villa.

Just a disappointing affair, again.  I thought of the lot, Lukic and Bassey probably the best players.  But I'm having a really hard time casting a vote for anybody in this game.  So, no vote from me.
Andersen and Robinson really off their game.  Very disappointed in Robinson.  The few times we were in attacking third, some very poor passes that negated.  And defending I just don't understand.  How can he just stand there watching Saka move into space for the goal he scored?  That's the one guy he is charged to defend against, and he's a bystander.  Thought Leno was poor also, could have/should have done much better on several goals scored.  Saka was basically 1 v 1 and most keepers are gonna lose that battle, but he was beaten short side.  Third goal was a joke.  And even the first, just not good enough.  The overall team performance was poor, and the starting XI selection was up for debate (Reed v TC?). 
Oh well, on to next game, probably biggest game of the season (as it relates to Euro hopes).

I will give Kusi-Asari credit as well for his short spell on the pitch. Despite being put on he left wing(!), he showed calm, determination, confidence and made a great run to try and stop an Arsenal counter near the end.

There is certainly an argument to put him ahead of Muniz in the pecking order (I know it won't happen of course!)

I don't remember a MOTM poll with less votes! And everyone who got 5+ votes didn't even play that well, they just did the bare minimum you'd expect from a professional footballer. Both things tell you everything you need to know about the performance.

I usually have a pretty positive view on everything, and we did play against the team that will either be Champions or runners-up, but I'm still really disappointed with the overall performance.

Quote from: bog on May 02, 2026, 09:16:26 PMDid anyone else hear of a virus at the club? Cos that's why Berg was missing. 

Yes, it's called the i can't score virus, Chelsea also have it.