FoF MOTM & POST MATCH: Fulham 2-3 Chelsea = Josh King

[Sgt Fulham]

Yeah this one's easy. That England camp has done him well, and I hope Reece James has the decency to apologise to him for that nonsense.

[AnOldBrownie]

Sky commentary and written updates all built around this idea that Chelsea blew us away. Not really sure the stats reflect that?

Fulham played OK in parts but were wildly open at the back at times. It's going to be fun under Arbeloa but they are way off Chelsea's standards.

The open at the back thing is true but way off seems a bit much.

To be fair...Chelsea spends way more than we do on attack and defense...and they barely got their 3 points.   Our offense looked better than theirs.

We really need two players in the middle to slow down attacks.   I'd only play Berge in cup games and off the bench.  Prior to the season people said he couldn't play in Arbeloa's system...and they were 100% correct.

[Fulham 1879]

King. Next question, please.

[Coastwalker]

Castagne and King,can't separate the two.

[Super Mick]

Sky commentary and written updates all built around this idea that Chelsea blew us away. Not really sure the stats reflect that?

Fulham played OK in parts but were wildly open at the back at times. It's going to be fun under Arbeloa but they are way off Chelsea's standards.

The open at the back thing is true but way off seems a bit much.

2.3. Hardly blown away 🙄

[SimonDaviesEnjoyer]

There first 2 goals horrendous from Fulham with no understanding at all despite that
Bassey good, çuença different to last season as a liability this game.Castagne superb.
King and bobb very good palacous hard worker and will be important over the season when he adjusts.Garcia delighted for him and a really hard worker.
Muniz more performances like that then JKA will replace him .Charles will be an asset.

Didn't Muniz have about 5 minutes at the end though?

[bog]

Josh the King for me.

[Woolly Mammoth]

King of the Castle, oozed class, foresight and vision.

[Moussa Dembele the 3rd]

I think the main issue with the team tonight was that the left side was a complete mess. Both offensively and defensively. Cuenca had an awful performance, but he was mainly on island because of the lack of cohesion further up the pitch. Palacios was all over the place and had no understanding of his relationship with Jedi both going forward or defending. If Jedi is bombing forward you have to play a left wing with more discipline/positional awareness.

I thought this was incredibly naive of Arbeloa. Anyone who has watched any tape of Fulham playing over the past 5 years will know that one of our greatest strengths is the interplay between Robinson and whoever is playing on the left wing. It has been our main source of attacking threat for years now. Why start a kid out of position when we have other capable more experienced options. I like Palacios andI think he has a bright future but I think it was a huge mistake for Arbeloa to start him on the left tonight. I actually think it cost us the game.
 

[KentFulham]

For me the poor performers were Berge, Cuenca, Robinson, Leno, Bassey and Bobb and Iwobi.

Bobb looked a lost boy everytime he got into the area. Robinson is a shadow.

King great, Garcia looks good. SC will be a starter over Berge soon and as for Muniz, i think his time is over as 2nd choice to JKA

[Count Flapula]

Pretty surprised at how many negative comments there are on this thread about Bassey's performance last night.

Before the game I was worried about him playing at RCB but I thought he did admirably there.

His passing - with both feet - was immense last night. Played several magnificent long balls Andersen would've been lauded for that sparked dangerous attacks.

Was up against one of - if not the - best front 3 in the league who each bring a totally different threat and gave as good as he got. Joao Pedro is a handful for anyone in this league and Calvin did well against him in the majority of their personal duels. Roger's was on his side and apart from his goal was fairly quiet. Cant blame him for Roger's goal IMO - Lecroix needed to be shut down. Just one of those things. Palmer was the one who tore us to pieces, absolute world class performance. Played like he had something to prove after being left out of the WC squad and after a summer well rested and over his niggles, he is going to be an absolute force this season.

Some saying Bassey was over eager but that's how we will be told to play under AA - aggressive, in-your-face, pushing up at all times so the margins are smaller. Stood up to all challenges and played like a leader.

Contender for MOM with King for me - who was outstanding and clearly going to revel in AA's system. He was owed a goal against them so glad he got it - and in the first game. Now Harry is gone, we need him to step up and get more goals this season to take the pressure off of Gonzalo (who was also really good and relieved to see him get off the mark early too). He's strong, dynamic, uses the ball well but the key for me over Muniz and even Raul is GG seems to make better decisions with the ball. Very pleased with him as a signing, his ceiling is probably the highest we've had for a young striker since Saha.

Going to be a rollercoaster ride under AA with this style so buckle up!

[e4b]

King had a great game and ran himself into the ground.

[Shredhead]

It makes you wonder why we sold Diop.
Having 2 left footed CBs did not work for me and Iwobi struggled playing a deeper role.
Robinson was too far up the pitch some of the time.
But positive aspects too.

[@jolslover]

For me the poor performers were Berge, Cuenca, Robinson, Leno, Bassey and Bobb and Iwobi.

Bobb looked a lost boy everytime he got into the area. Robinson is a shadow.

King great, Garcia looks good. SC will be a starter over Berge soon and as for Muniz, i think his time is over as 2nd choice to JKA

I thought Bobb was good. Looked a threat going forward and shouldn't have come off

[SimonDaviesEnjoyer]

For me the poor performers were Berge, Cuenca, Robinson, Leno, Bassey and Bobb and Iwobi.

Bobb looked a lost boy everytime he got into the area. Robinson is a shadow.

King great, Garcia looks good. SC will be a starter over Berge soon and as for Muniz, i think his time is over as 2nd choice to JKA

I thought Bobb was good. Looked a threat going forward and shouldn't have come off

Yeah I thought he looked a handful, and wasn't it him who teed up GG in the first half on the edge of the six yard box?

[S.F.Sorrow]

I can see what Arbeloa is trying to do, and it's certainly more exciting football than Silva. Unfortunately we don't have enough quality to pull it off. At least not yet. At times it looked like Chelsea vs 11 headless chickens.

If AA insists on playing this kind of kamikaze attacking football against all teams, home and away, I fear we might be looking at a relegation fight. It reminds me of Jokanovic in the Premier League. Wonderful, entertaining football at times, but it was never gonna get us the results we needed to survive.

We will at the very least need a quality midfielder and some serious upgrades in defence. Not just one RCB, but two. Cuenca-Bassey wasn't ideal, but that was was very much down to Cuenca having an unusually poor game. Bassey actually had a good game at RCB (although his playing out from the back looked a bit awkward at times). I actually think Andersen at RCB with these tactics would have been a lot worse! At least we know Cuenca can do better. Andersen's lack of pace will be very, very scary with these tactics. I honestly can't see that working at all to be honest...

[Count Flapula]

It makes you wonder why we sold Diop.
Having 2 left footed CBs did not work for me

While I certainly don't disagree in the longer term that bringing in a top class RCB is probably our most urgent transfer need, having 2 left footers wasn't the issue in itself yesterday. Please point to me an occasion where it was.

Cuenca also played some nice long passes and while, yes, defensively he wasn't great, he was playing in his natural position.

For me though, while AA's system and formation is an exciting watch, your CB pairing pretty much need to be world class as so much pressure is put on them. They need to be lightning fast, read the game well/have excellent split second decision making, strong, good in the air, good on the ball and good at passing. If they are not then you are going to ship lots of goals as you you are screwed if get turned over to the high press/misplace passes/are open to balls over the top if you have no pace etc.

[Bill2]

Has to be Josh, gave Chelsea a lot of worries last night and had to resort to hacking him down. First time I thought was borderline red card as he was potentially last man and it was also high. Need to see it again. Then James hacked him down and got a yellow. Then had the audacity it to have a go at Josh as though he dived.

[demeant0r]

It makes you wonder why we sold Diop.
Having 2 left footed CBs did not work for me and Iwobi struggled playing a deeper role.
Robinson was too far up the pitch some of the time.
But positive aspects too.

We sold him because he was on the last year of his contract, was approaching 30, and was not very willing to renew his contract.

[hopper]

Josh King by a country mile. Was absolutely sensational, yesterday felt like his real arrival.