Defence, What defence

[The Swan]

I have supported Fulham since 1961 so I have seen some awful Fulham defenders over the past 50  years. Out of our five defenders yesterday only Riether is good enough to play in our team.
Stockdale has made a few good saves but he can be beaten very often.
Riise, Amorebieta and Senderos were as bad as I have ever seen  our defenders play.
They were all bad against West Ham and were even worse yesterday.
If we continue to play such below standard defenders we are sure to be relegated this season.
I know that Hangeland is still not ready to come back but if we can't improve our team in the transfer window we are in for another few big defeats.
Our next game away to Arsenal it will be very difficult to get a shot on target let alone score. Arsenal will tear us apart and could score at least five goals . ( I hope I am wrong)
When we were in trouble before Roy came in the first thing he did was to sort out our defence. We were so good . I can't remember us getting hammered under Roy.
So come on Rene Meulensteen please sort out our defence.

[ScalleysDad]

Albeit with a slight detour we have just got back and tried all day to escape over analysing the performances yesterday. However some mud stuck and Riether did not escape criticism. I am sure he is nowhere near the player we so desperately wanted to stay. Might be the tactics, it might be the players round him but he certainly looked fed up for most of the game. Still the best bet out of the five, although Stockdale is getting some harsh treatment bearing in mind the supposed N0.1 is a china doll, but still not the player he was.

So Mr Khan. That's four defenders, two midfielders, two strikers, a couple of spares, someone who can take corners ............................... blimey it really was a grim day and what is worse the debate required fuelling with beer. Not the best start to the slimming comp.

[Burt]

It is our achilles heal...

RM seems to be sorting out the rest of the team, we are certainly playing better than we did under Jol, but if we continue to concede more goals than we score... Ugh... Doesn't bear thinking about.

[Deanothefulhamfan]

Stockdale had a shocker, but I think Steklenberg is awful... so no improvement there

Riise improved for the first couple of games under RM, but now he looks the liability he was before RM came.

Senderos is not great but Amorebieta is worse.

Hughes has been a great servant, but his best days are beyond him.

That leave us with Hangeland who has been injured, and a young lad who played his first game for fulham last weekend.... I honestly don't know what  to do with our defense anymore

[ltd-ffc]

Stockdale had a shocker, but I think Steklenberg is awful... so no improvement there

Riise improved for the first couple of games under RM, but now he looks the liability he was before RM came.

Senderos is not great but Amorebieta is worse.

Hughes has been a great servant, but his best days are beyond him.

That leave us with Hangeland who has been injured, and a young lad who played his first game for fulham last weekend.... I honestly don't know what  to do with our defense anymore

Stockdale had a shocker, but I think Steklenberg is awful... so no improvement there

Riise improved for the first couple of games under RM, but now he looks the liability he was before RM came.

Senderos is not great but Amorebieta is worse.

Hughes has been a great servant, but his best days are beyond him.

That leave us with Hangeland who has been injured, and a young lad who played his first game for fulham last weekend.... I honestly don't know what  to do with our defense anymore

see i truly believe stek is a better goalie than stockdale by quite a bit.
get burn playing hangeland fit a new centre back for more solidity and a new left back we are screaming out for an aaron cresswell or somebody

[filham]

We can all see the big problem we have in defence but can Rene, Wilkins or Curbishly, you would think at least one of them would be pulling their hair out asking for a couple of new defenders.

[MJG]

Its not solely the back five at fault for our defensive lapses but clearly we have some major issues.

Lets look at the GK's. I dont think either of them have individually cost us a game or saved us a game. Stockdale was poor on Saturday, Stek has been poor at times as well. I would have not paid 4-5M for Stek and would have used that money elsewhere, with Stockdale being our number 1. They are not the real issue.

At right back Reither gets a lot of praise, he's a fans favorite and rightly so. But he's not that great of a defender and fitness wise for the last 15 minutes of a game he is shot. Look at how many goals or attacks come down that side late in a game when he is stuck up field. He cant run back. Zevotec has shown no better when he has played. I'm a fan of Passley in the U21's and think he should be the reserve RB. Reither is fine for the rest of the season, Id ask him to sit back a bit more as the game enters last quarter.

At left back you could draw lots, spin a coin, do eeny, meeny, miny, moe to decide who plays there..Riise, Richardson and Briggs when fit. None of them are that good enough now to play that role. Vital we get someone in this window. I like Riise and feel he was a little hard done by on saturday with no cover in front of him. Richardson is a sprint away from pulling his hamstring. Briggs need to get fit and then have some coaching on how to defend.

Now the four centre backs, hangeland, Hughes, Senderos, Amore. They have all at times this year just been rubbish. Amore is on the pitch when ever we have a heavy defeat. Senderos is just a player I have never rated. Hughes is still steady but has no luck this year at all. Brede's injury has been his downfall.
Burn should now be one of the main 3 CB's, Hughes as 4th backup. If Brede is over his injury then great. But we need another CB, someone in their mid 20's would be ideal.


The rest of the team, ok Sidwell, need to stop tackling, putting their foot out, or anything that invites freekicks within 30 yards of the goal. Stand up, hassle etc.

[JBH]

We can all see the big problem we have in defence but can Rene, Wilkins or Curbishly, you would think at least one of them would be pulling their hair out asking for a couple of new defenders.

How do you know they're not  :028: (and Wilkins can hardly pull his hair out can he)

[RaySmith]

We can all see the big problem we have in defence but can Rene, Wilkins or Curbishly, you would think at least one of them would be pulling their hair out asking for a couple of new defenders.

I'm sure they feel as frustrated as  we do, and are desperately looking for solutions.

Our defenders just aren't good enough, but how easy is to bring in new  players, presumably on a restricted budget - well, probably not that easy at all in Jan - and then thy have to  bed in.

Roy brought Hangeland in, and hopefully the big man's return and bringing in at least one other younger versions of him, might help our abject defending.

A couple of good results and clean sheets would also help confidence, which is sadly lacking.

[Berserker]

We can all see the big problem we have in defence but can Rene, Wilkins or Curbishly, you would think at least one of them would be pulling their hair out asking for a couple of new defenders.

How do you know they're not  :028: (and Wilkins can hardly pull his hair out can he)

Maybe that is why Wilkins is bald, previous hair pulling in other jobs

[aFFCn_Fan]

We can all see the big problem we have in defence but can Rene, Wilkins or Curbishly, you would think at least one of them would be pulling their hair out asking for a couple of new defenders.

I'm sure they feel as frustrated as  we do, and are desperately looking for solutions.

Our defenders just aren't good enough, but how easy is to bring in new  players, presumably on a restricted budget - well, probably not that easy at all in Jan - and then thy have to  bed in.

Roy brought Hangeland in, and hopefully the big man's return and bringing in at least one other younger versions of him, might help our abject defending.

A couple of good results and clean sheets would also help confidence, which is sadly lacking.

Agreed, but what I (and I'm sure a lot of us) don't get, why send Burn back out on loan? I didn't see the Norwich match, but read good things. Why not let him get on the bench or straight in? From what I've seen he can't be worse than Amorebieta or Senderos