FoF MOTM Fulham 0 v 1 Bournemouth and post match thread = Bassey

[KentFulham]

Down to 12th on todays scores currebtly

[SerbianLad]

Down to 12th on todays scores currebtly

Palace are playing well atm. They look more likely to score a winner than Everton.

[v]

I thought Chukwueze struggled on the left and his best moments came when he switched to the right. He's a good player, but I'm struggling to see why we should spend £24m on him. Wilson was hopeless and has been since the Villa rumour. Agree that Bobb and Kevin should start against Wolves.

Lukic and Cairney did a good job. Castagne. Robinson and Bassey were decent.

Muniz and Andersen were woeful. Probably would have been better taking Muniz off for Diop.

Agree with this.

Esp first half Cairney free to pull strings in midfield with Lukic beside him. Always looking to stretch the opposition, with an eye for the space.
Fullbacks much improved yesterday (heard they were both poor v Arsenal)
Bassey seemed to hold his own.

Big question is why going down to ten men hurt us more than them: maybe taking off ESR was not the right choice, as he was having a good game till then and getting stuck in?
We're waiting a long time for Muniz to 'click'. Maybe he will, maybe he won't. But yesterday his game seemed limited to flicking on headers...

[SP]

In terms of the big question v, for me, I think Evanilson was having a quiet game (by his high standards) whereas we missed ESR badly.

[susiescw]

I watched the match last night after listening to Gentleman Jim on Saturday and reading all the comments here. I nearly didn't watch it due to so many doom and gloom reports but was surprised and impressed by what I saw. Overall I think the team were brilliant in the first half and pretty good in the second, despite some seriously unbalanced refereeing. The loss of Jao via another debatable VAR decision was utterly demoralising and highly debatable. I accept that after the Bournemouth red, his robust tackle was perhaps unwise as he has acknowledged. However on several replays he clearly got the ball first with both feet. In my view the cynical diving, tumbling, drama queen antics of Truffert made it far too easy for VAR to play 'even stevens'. A yellow maybe, but I'm not even sure about that. Truffert was running after the ball and at Jao and could have and should have jumped over him as I have seen our guys like Bassey and Raul do on many a similar situations. Second half there were several unpunished, nasty fouls on our guys  including the bad foul on Tom Cairney that I think Lukic was trying to point out when he was unfairly carded. There was a very dangerous foul on Muniz towards the end that looked far worse and much more cynical than the tackle that got Jao sent off. In the second half the refereeing was unbalanced and yellow cards seemed reserved for our players who must have been infuriated. Many individuals were hobbled with yellow cards they didn't deserve, Antonee and Josh being good examples, whereas Bournemouth fouls were given a pass, encouraging them to kick harder and more often. Not sure what happened to the ref as he was quite balanced, fair and effective in the first half. Fulham persevered nevertheless with some lovely, flowing forward football orchestrated by TC but constantly interrupted by thuggish fouls and gamesmanship by Bournemouth who were the worst team throughout by a country mile. They did not deserve their win, indeed they should be ashamed of themselves. However I accept that the game is about goals and we didn't score any despite some great well crafted chances. Lady luck was definitely looking the other way with Leno so close to but missing a critical save, Muniz with his open goal failed header and the excellent Josh King effort. All three just a few inches between success and failure and we had many other well crafted chances. Personally I would have taken off Muniz and left Tom on as despite great grit we lost the middle when we lost Tom. The best team didn't win but many, including ESR, Tom, Lukic, Castagne, Bassey, Chukweze (the latter two were everywhere with Bassey surging forward to fight for the win at the end) should be proud. The subs of King, Kevin and Bobb contributed some great football and showed tremendous potential. In summary this match was not anything like the debacle I'd feared before seeing the game. In fact Fulham really dug in, worked together as a team and played quality football despite some very one sided refereeing. We should have and could have won and the guys deserve our support in the next two and beyond. 

[AJW48361]

Cairney for me would've been lost in midfield without him and really missed Iwobi ball carrying skills.

[junior white]

Been reflecting on the game as was disappointed with the result but not necessarily the performance.

Some things I would say positively were Bassey, Lukic (few rough corners at the end of the game, and Jedi (his crossing mostly good but some poor ones). On the negative side was Muniz, Andersen and Chuk. Muniz had to do better with the header in the first half and aside form that did pretty much nothing other than get a yellow card, Andersen should have known better and was an unneeded reckless challenge, Chuk just didnt get into the game.

results sort of went our way a bit on Sunday but sadly would seem Euro chances are over for another season.

As for MOTM Bassey for me

[Jim©]

I'm glad some people seem to be noticing the same as myself- that is that we were actually pretty good.

We were playing a team unbeaten since start of January, with a few key players missing (Iwobi, Sess and Raul would all start I'd assume, possibly Berge too).

The game was won by a goal that had an XG of just 0.02. Myself and others around me thought it was deflected or Leno would have saved it. That's the one position I'd seriously look at upgrading above all others. He's close to the bottom of save % in the league and bottom of expected goals prevented.

We just couldn't didn't take the 3 or 4 good chances we had. Bournemouth could struggle massively next season if they get Champs league.

[SP]

The omens definitely aren't good for Bournemouth after a number of their fans travelled to Putney by river boat on Saturday. The last teams to do this, Norwich, Leicester & Derby all lived to regret it.

 

[HV71]

Security should have boarded the vessels - we must stop the boats!

[WindyCity]

Overall I think the team were brilliant in the first half and pretty good in the second   

Interesting.....
FFC had 2 shots on target for the match, hardly brilliant/pretty good.  And one of those shots was from distance by Lukic, which was a very good shot and the type of shot I wish we would see more of from FFC.  But, we all have different views on these games, and I was totally non-plussed by the FFC show.  Not impressive at all.