Fulham v Chelsea 2-3

[AustrianGeezer]

Not sure what changes I'd make at HT. We don't really have much by way of defensive options?

Maybe Charles to try and steady the ship in the middle?

I'd remove iwobi from the middle. Either stick him on left wing and replace palacios with charles or replace him with charles in midfield.

[LittleErn]

Not overly impressed with Garcia yet. He is still getting to grips with how quickly  Premier League defenders close him down. Hopefully he will adjust to that. However most of our problems are with the defence. Palmer is their main threat and needs to be man marked. Still it's not a bad performance so far against a very good team.

[SerbianLad]

Iwobi and Cuenca off Charles and LDF on, cant be any worse

I agree, but I'd add Kevin for Palacios.

[Woolly Mammoth]

The next goal is so very important, let's hope it's Fulham who score it.

[demeant0r]

My summary of the half:

We are shockingly terrible at defending. Possibly due to playing Bassey out of position. GET YOUR FINGER OUT TK AND SIGN A RCB.

Leno made some saves you'd expect him to make but he's still really shaky and he'd be someone I'd be looking to replace next season, if not this one.

On the positive side: Off the ball, I've never seen press as much as we have this half in all of the years of Marco.

King is going to be incredibly important for us this season.

We are making attempting some nice Spanish one-twos and some are working, some aren't but it's a nice change from the boring style that Marco had us play.

[hongkongfulham]

I think we all new with a new system and some new players this might be shaky. I think I saw more impetus going forward in that first half then our final 10 games last year combined. back line a major issue though. I imagine we are more used to being more set in to banks of 4 than transition

[andyk]

We're well in this game. Bossed most of the half. Of course, they break quick. But win, lose or draw, this looks better than i expected.

[Bassey the warrior]

Midfield way too open, Iwobi keeps abandoning post, he's not a natural cm. Berge looks a little sluggish too, been disposessed a few times. Back five looking a bit jittery, though it has to be said Castagne is continuing his pre-season form of looking very bright going forward.

Going forward things are much more positive, getting lots of success down the right wing, King looks superb and some lovely little triangles on the right with Castagne and Bobb.

[Twig]

The left side of the team is a mess. Palacios has no positional awareness or repoire with Robinson. They're both bombing forward with no cover leaving Cuenca on and island and he's been awful. Pretty naive.

Actually, I very much agree with this, our left side is so disjointed.

[SimonDaviesEnjoyer]

Long season ahead

I think we'll have games where we win 5-0 and overrun the opposition... Then sort of the opposite.

45 points and safe.

[Karlos]

The left looks a problem, stick Iwobi out there for a bit and S.Charles on for me

Iwobi showing today he aint good enough for CM

Very worrying from Cuenca too, think a CB has to be the next signing

[LC]

Well that was a very interesting half. I got Jokanović 18/19 vibes in parts today which is terrifying and other parts were very exciting stuff and attractive stuff - especially down the right hand side.

I think we definitely need some defensive reinforcements and I don't think we can play this system with our current midfield, I'm hoping Charles comes on next to Berge and helps provide some cover as they are getting through us to easily.

I also think we need another wide forward player, Bobb can play on either side by the looks of it and he looks good today - bringing someone in like Nwaneri would give us an extra edge. And on a final note, I'm not sure about Garcia yet, I think he has some ability but I need to see more of him.

[ClintDempseysBottleOpener]

Both the young Spanish lads look half a pace off premier league football right now. I have faith they will come good but looks naive to play them in the first game. Palacios in particular just doesn't look fast enough, once he beats a man they catch back up with him quickly.

[junior white]

I always thought palacios was a 10 not a left midfielder

[Deeping_white]

CB's need to be more narrow, I get what AA wants to stretch the pitch but you lose the ball and it's basically a  free chance on goal. Iwobi will be a bench option by October I reckon, we will get tighter at these things as we progress but that's the main thing in tightening the structure. We know that a right footed CB will bring more balance and that will improve things I think; Cuenca back to being a benchwarmer, doing himself no favours tonight. I would get Kevin on for Palacios andd Charles for Iwobi, tweak the system to get the CB's more narrow and sit another CM a bit deeper to protect us in transition. Otherwise I see plenty of positives, this was always going to be a baptism of fire and after the first 5 and their second goal, we controlled the game quite well I think

[AnOldBrownie]

There is one obvious from the first half.

Cuenca is not a starting CB option at this level...in this style of play.   Not fast enough and not good enough with the ball at his feet.    We need two CB with pace..and a #6 that's also fleet of foot.

We're too open to have a slow CB.

[FFC007]

I hope the second half isn't a cricket score....

The wide centre back philosophy will not work with these players. If Andersen does give away possession in future games in wide areas he will not have the pace to get back.

[Matt10]

I don't think it's about replacements outright, it's just badly needed sample size for the likes of Palacios and GG. Both goals came from that left side and it's mainly because our system in transition is completely different than Marco's. Robinson is so far up that Cuenca and Berge are left exposed immediately. Pair that up with Iwobi and Palacios occupying the same space - they just get caught out. Happened on the first goal and one move by Palmer vs Berge, it happened again. I think Bassey was way too overaggressive to cut off a pass, abandoning the middle of the 18 yard box that would've cut out the slotted pass back to Rogers.

Overall, not unhappy with how we've played. Good fight, keep shooting on the shaky Sanchez, and we should get a good reward. I'd give the young Spaniards about 15 minutes before considering Muniz and ESR for those two, then later bringing in Kevin and Sess for Iwobi and Bobb eventually.

[Rj Fulham]

Just as an aside, i saw we have 3 games in 6 days, if there's fitness lacking in the squad we'll soon find out.

[cookieg]

Yah we need a new keeper.

Leno had no fault here, he's had good saves thus far

He has had some awful distro, he has been average

Looks like Leno is this season's scapegoat already. Even though he hasn't been at fault for either goal.