Post Match Thread: Fulham 1 (2) - 1 (3) Liverpool

[ffcthereligion]

I'm not sure what to make of the whole thing to be honest, but nobody disgraced themselves and Sky got the final they would have been desperate for.

I am going to sleep on it.

My thoughts exactly

[demeant0r]

It was disappointing but let's be honest, if this were a league match we'd be delighted with a point. 

[Nick Bateman]

I felt we had lost the tie in the first leg, a Liverpool under pressure to win as favourites in front of the Kop and they were there to be beaten. But DeCordova-Reid failed so badly twice even Sky's build up to today's match remembered it. Yet Silva picks him to start!??!

Wilson should have started, that was obvious, even to the match pundits who said it's MASSIVE playing against one's old club. And he showed it when he came on.

We just got momentum when Silva subbed Tom Cairney. He angrily took off his armband and we lost that momentum. I think Silva has either a mental block or a personal issue with this skillful playmaker Fulham are fortunate to have.

After Cairney went off 'Pool found it easy to see out the game.

Was the best crowd atmosphere I have witnessed and the fans played their part, while the players let us down in the first half with negative slowing the match down with this boring goalie to defenders time wasting when we were 0-2 down - didn't make any sense.

So many sloppy passes, Robinson was culpable so many times. Silva is a guilty as the players but we failed fair and square even though the officials started to err on Liverpool's side towards the end.

[Eton White]

A good performance overall, but ultimately frustrating. Conceding that first goal was gutting considering we'd started off pretty positively, and it knocked our confidence and momentum for the rest of the first half.

After Diop's goal, I really thought we might get something from the game, but MS's substitutions baffled me a bit. It was almost as though he thought we were 3-2 up, not 2-3 down. Taking Cairney and Andreas off for Reed and Muniz was never going to win the game for us.

Still, overall I was very pleased with the effort the players put in. When you think of where we are now, regularly going toe to toe with the league leaders and only narrowly losing, it shows the huge progress we've made under Marco Silva.

Shame we didn't make the final, but I'm proud of how we played.

[SP]

Proud of the lads tonight, they gave everything. Liverpool's players are a different level.

From where I sit by the dugout, I couldn't see many fans celebrating in P1, 2 & 3 when we scored so I'm guessing it was full of away fans?

[demeant0r]

Something just occurred to me, they gave most of us white flags to wave... that's just surrendering. Why not make them black and white?

[Bassey the warrior]

For once I'm going to quote Parker, "it's about them fine margins". We came close to getting more goals and conceded two due to deflections.

[Fulham Tup North]

We didn't really play our game until we scored.
If we could have got our goal earlier... but we will never know...
Great after we scored... but needed another 15-20 mins to hope for another goal...
Well done chaps..
COYW

[SuffolkWhite]

Watched on tv, we were in this semi for both legs but it is clear we lack squad quality. I think also you need luck to win a cup and they had two deflected goals overall.

Better league cup run this season though !

[_Putney_]

Thought the first half lacklustre and sloppy. Second half was much better.

[Holders]

I know others disagree but I still think that the penalty in the first game was a dive.

[fulhamfever]

TC was fouled I counted 5 times and not a single yellow for a Liverpool player. We did well Semi-Finals of a cup 1st time in our history. I hope now we take it seriously season in season out.

[bog]

After that early rather soft goal we had to avoid conceding a second as they were very quick on the break. I thought we played as well as we could given who we were up against. In the closing stages we needed a break like the one for them with that deflected shot up at Anfield. 
Just like 1958, 1962, and 2002, in being bloody painful. 
 
Why couldn't we have drawn Boro?   

Three times we have played Liverpool this season and each time run them close.

Bring on Newcastle I want revenge for that 4-5 Cup defeat in 1956.
 
What is with the sports bloke on GB News? After the 4-3 loss at Anfield he gave this as 3-2 and this morning Liverpool won 2-1 on aggregate. Mind you his best one was informing that in one Euro game Man City were 0-2 down at half time but came back to win 3-0.     

[southwest6]

Overarching feelings were one of pride and sadness. But today I feel more proud of the team and can reflect on what was a special night at the cottage. Atmosphere at times was electric and felt very connected to everyone in the ground.

Concerning the game, first half we were not at it. It's alright to be outplayed, but we were second best in the tackles, recovery runs, etc. I was hoping for a bit more aggression in our play, but can understand that many of the players were probably quite nervous.

I don't think people give Liverpool enough credit. They are simply a very, very good team. They make it look very easy at time. Always creating space for each other and always seem to have an extra man across the pitch. Every defensive header from VVD fell to Liverpool player. It's small details like that which do set apart the good from the great.

Standouts for me were Willian and Raul. Both gave 100% and provided quality.
I was disappointed with Robinson, Reid and Pereira. As a 10, pereira was far too absent for me. But I am not going to jump on players, as on their day, they are all quality and have been great servants to us, especially Bobby.

We are still in the FA cup and have the league to focus on. It's a privilege to get to semi final of a cup and proud that we got there. Still a lot to play for this season and hopefully we can build on it on the next.

[Arthur]

I think where it went wrong was before that with Castagne and how he initially challenged Luiz for the ball, which was wrong on a number of levels. Didn't dominate, wasn't on the right side of Luiz when he went for the ball. Once Luiz won it he had a clear run in on goal and castagne was left for dust. As someone else said, don't think that'd have happened with Tete at Rb at the time.

While I would have preferred Silva to have started Tete, I think your criticism of Castagne is somewhat unfair.
 
Firstly, I think it has to be recognised the pass, itself, was perfect. If the ball drops a yard shorter or is a yard higher, Diaz, in my opinion, almost certainly doesn't take Castagne out of the game with one touch. I think Castagne's position at the moment of the pass is reasonable. It's not clear to me what you mean when you claim he was on the wrong side because it wouldn't make sense, surely, to suggest he should have be touchline-side of Diaz.

Interestingly, Silva, in his post-match interview on the offal, seemingly sees the shortcoming for the goal differently:
"And Liverpool scored in a moment that we have to defend much better on our right hand side – a big diagonal from them, first challenge our central defence should be closer in that moment to cover our full-back, and we were not able to do it in the best way..."

Having re-watched the goal, I agree. As Castagne moves towards the touchline in his attempt to prevent the pass reaching Diaz, so Tosin ought to be moving across to maintain the gap between himself and Timothy, rather than go straight towards Leno. If Tosin had done so, the 'clear run in on goal' would have been less so: Tosin would (and should) have been in a position to confront Diaz nearer the edge of the penalty area.

[LittleErn]

After that early rather soft goal we had to avoid conceding a second as they were very quick on the break. I thought we played as well as we could given who we were up against. In the closing stages we needed a break like the one for them with that deflected shot up at Anfield. 
Just like 1958, 1962, and 2002, in being bloody painful. 
 
Why couldn't we have drawn Boro?   

Three times we have played Liverpool this season and each time run them close.

Bring on Newcastle I want revenge for that 4-5 Cup defeat in 1956.
 
What is with the sports bloke on GB News? After the 4-3 loss at Anfield he gave this as 3-2 and this morning Liverpool won 2-1 on aggregate. Mind you his best one was informing that in one Euro game Man City were 0-2 down at half time but came back to win 3-0.     

ExactlY BOG. You forgot the disappointment of 75 though. I saw all those games live - 56 onwards except the 2002 one.

[jarv]

To get the results that we did in TWO matches against Liverpool is not bad. The next few league games are important and winnable. Another back to back 5-0 will do just fine.

[HV71]

I think where it went wrong was before that with Castagne and how he initially challenged Luiz for the ball, which was wrong on a number of levels. Didn't dominate, wasn't on the right side of Luiz when he went for the ball. Once Luiz won it he had a clear run in on goal and castagne was left for dust. As someone else said, don't think that'd have happened with Tete at Rb at the time.

While I would have preferred Silva to have started Tete, I think your criticism of Castagne is somewhat unfair.
 
Firstly, I think it has to be recognised the pass, itself, was perfect. If the ball drops a yard shorter or is a yard higher, Diaz, in my opinion, almost certainly doesn't take Castagne out of the game with one touch. I think Castagne's position at the moment of the pass is reasonable. It's not clear to me what you mean when you claim he was on the wrong side because it wouldn't make sense, surely, to suggest he should have be touchline-side of Diaz.

Interestingly, Silva, in his post-match interview on the offal, seemingly sees the shortcoming for the goal differently:
"And Liverpool scored in a moment that we have to defend much better on our right hand side – a big diagonal from them, first challenge our central defence should be closer in that moment to cover our full-back, and we were not able to do it in the best way..."

Having re-watched the goal, I agree. As Castagne moves towards the touchline in his attempt to prevent the pass reaching Diaz, so Tosin ought to be moving across to maintain the gap between himself and Timothy, rather than go straight towards Leno. If Tosin had done so, the 'clear run in on goal' would have been less so: Tosin would (and should) have been in a position to confront Diaz nearer the edge of the penalty area.

This is a much better assessment of the issue with their goal. Castagne doesn't cover himself in glory but then there is a second when we move towards Diaz but stop ,hesitate , and in that moment lose the chance to block Diaz ( it may have failed of course ). Then the shot is deflected and squirms past Leno.
It's always possible to see failings in 99% of goals and this was a series of minor errors that sadly proved decisive on the night.
The good news is that we did eventually get our act together and everyone gave it their all . Over the two legs we deserved the game to go to extra time - we were that close .

[JimmyConway]

I would say for a semi final 2nd leg performance it was overall poor. Only player I would say who offered us a glimmer was Harry Wilson when he came on. Manager like the team last night a distance 2nd best. Hard one to take when we played so well in the 1rst leg to give us the opportunity let alone the league game there. One obvious issue when chasing the game or looking for goal/s is the alternatives up front?

[Woolly Mammoth]

To get the results that we did in TWO matches against Liverpool is not bad. The next few league games are important and winnable. Another back to back 5-0 will do just fine.

The FA Cup game is the most important, which happens to be the next one.
It's all on the day, no second chance.
The League games will take care of themselves, after all there are 38 of them.