A "different" view on yesterday?

[FPT]

I've seen a lot of people say that we were poor yesterday, we didn't deserve a point and certain players' performances were opposite to what I actually thought, so here we go...

I actually thought we played some really good football on a dodgy pitch yesterday, even before their red card (which we'll come back to), we had 69% possession. Okay, it was lower league opposition, but we had essentially the reserves out, with 5 young players playing the majority of the game. Also, to be fair to them, our youth were the bright sparks, in particular, Muamer Tankovic who I thought fitted in seamlessly yesterday, he's certainly a fantastic prospect, and one we need to tie down to a new contract asap.

I haven't seen one person praise the youngsters for trying to play football. We're trying to produce footballers comfortable with the ball at their feet, and comfortable passing the ball accurately, and that's absolutely commendable to the staff within the academy, because it shows, but even more commendable to the players sticking with their beliefs and philosophy on a pitch that didn't suit their style. I don't know about you, but I want to Fulham play good football, and keep the ball on the ground, because at times, the interchanging play featuring Mujo in particular was superb, I recall 2/3 one-twos that confused the Sheffield United defenders.

To those dismissing the positives because "we couldn't break down a League One side with 10 men," I really recommend that you learn something about tactics and defensive play, because after going down to 10 men, Sheffield United were close to perfect. They maintained a low-narrow block, meaning their defence was essentially sitting on the edge of the box, with the midfield not that far ahead of them, it's simple, but effective. That style of defending helped Chelsea defeat Barcelona at the Camp Nou, the only way to defeat it is to keep circulating possession both vertically waiting for a gap to form, if they stay concentrated, which to be fair, they did, it proves difficult in the past.

I find it embarrassing as a genuine lover of the game that Nigel Clough didn't even get his team to attempt any form of possession play. Okay, they wasn't helped by the red card, but even in the first half, we had the majority of the game. His side led to dirty tactics, and his captain is a disgrace, for no reason kicking out at a 20 year old because he's simply a better footballer than he has ever been. Brian Clough is a legend of football, coining one of my favourite footballing quotes "If God has intended football to be played in the air, he would have put grass in the sky" and he is decimating the heroic name of Clough. Fair enough, they should have had a penalty, but to completely ignore that Hugo Rodallega's penalty appeal happened and saying he feels "a sense of injustice" is a pure and simple temper tantrum.

I'll avoid really getting started upon Sheffield United, by saying that Pajtim Kasami was pretty awful yesterday, as poor as I've seen him. He showed little quality, so I'm not quite sure how people are naming him their man of the match. He lost the ball 6/7 times through poor touches and misplaced passes as well. The only thing of note I can say that he provided yesterday was the cross, which was fantastic, when Senderos hit the bar.

Must finish on praising the performances of Plumain, Passley and David. Plumain wasn't helped by the ball simply struggling to move out wide, but still looked a tricky customer. Josh Passley's yellow card was straight out of the veterans book, he supported the right well, though rarely used, nice moment for him after being at the club since he was 9.

[CorkCity]

I haven't seen anyone who said we didn't deserve a point !

[FPT]

I haven't seen anyone who said we didn't deserve a point !

Do you have Twitter?

[Julius Geezer]

I'll avoid really getting started upon Sheffield United, by saying that Pajtim Kasami was pretty awful yesterday, as poor as I've seen him. He showed little quality, so I'm not quite sure how people are naming him their man of the match. He lost the ball 6/7 times through poor touches and misplaced passes as well. The only thing of note I can say that he provided yesterday was the cross, which was fantastic, when Senderos hit the bar.

At times he picked up the ball and ran 20+ yards, taking Sheff Utd players out the game.

He looked like our only player who was going to create a chance, very positive - probably why people called him man of the match.

[Cravenawin]

"Fulham were truly woeful and Sheffield Utd totally dominated the game". Just two of the quotes I've read in the papers. My god, is there not one journalist out there who hasn't got it in for us. How can a team totally dominate a game of football with only 25% possession? Also, apparently Josh Passley is Swedish according to the reporter in one of the papers. Where do they get them from as they obviously know nothing about the game.

[jmh]

At times he picked up the ball and ran 20+ yards, taking Sheff Utd players out the game.

He looked like our only player who was going to create a chance, very positive - probably why people called him man of the match.

He looked like he was going to, but he didn't, really, which I think is why FPT was saying he wasn't great.  (Not as bad as Taarabt, to be fair.)

I have to agree with the overall idea of the OP.  We had to use a substitution in the first 10 minutes and had Duff playing out of position in defense.  We had Passley making his first team debut, and while I like the effort of Hughes and Senderos and Stockdale, they're all limited in their own ways.  Karagounis is past his best, we know, and Tankovic and David and Plumain aren't quite ready yet.  Rodallega was making his return from injury.  It was a pretty severely limited team (as would be the case for any team outside the top six or seven big spenders if they wanted to rest their entire top group of players) and they still played attractively and got a decent result, especially with Sheff Utd bunkering for a solid 55 minutes.  

[RidgeRider]

Very good view and spot on. Too many supporters get caught up in final score and what we should have done as if we had our best out there on the pitch and they don't see the positives from an opportunity like this to see our youngsters. As you mention, we had our 'C' team out there, on a poor pitch, away from home, and in a tournament that is not a priority.

Thought some of your observations were exactly how I was seeing things but could never explain as well as you do.

[epsomraver]

What ever way you dress it up we are becoming very goal shy again, is this Ray the crab's influence? I hope not, FPT says we tried to play football on a poor pitch, no we didn't , we played the only way we know, round and around back and sideways and then hastily back to Stockdale who generally lumps it to them. On a pitch like that you cannot play fancy passing as we saw to our cost, you have lump the ball up and use the wide men to create space and width, we were always trying to take the ball too close through the D, hit the shots as soon as you get sight of goal should have been the instructions yesterday, on that kind of pitch with a greasy ball you make their goalie work, we did not and until they were down to ten they did

[jmh]

We took 25 shots.  "goal shy" seems a bit harsh.

[alfie]

Very good view and spot on. Too many supporters get caught up in final score and what we should have done as if we had our best out there on the pitch and they don't see the positives from an opportunity like this to see our youngsters. As you mention, we had our 'C' team out there, on a poor pitch, away from home, and in a tournament that is not a priority.

Thought some of your observations were exactly how I was seeing things but could never explain as well as you do.

Do you know what i liked about the reports from the game no one really had a dig a Senderos blaming him for the goal, in fact someone even said it was Hughes fault. The player got between the 2 of them and stuck out a foot.

Of course not sure that i have seen all the posts, but the ones i have were ok.

[MJG]

How many real clear cut chances did we have? That for me is the real issue. Are players creating chances for others to finish off?



Sent from my GT-I9505 using Tapatalk

[FPT]

"Fulham were truly woeful and Sheffield Utd totally dominated the game". Just two of the quotes I've read in the papers. My god, is there not one journalist out there who hasn't got it in for us. How can a team totally dominate a game of football with only 25% possession? Also, apparently Josh Passley is Swedish according to the reporter in one of the papers. Where do they get them from as they obviously know nothing about the game.

The BBC's match report referred to him at Josh Pressley.

[filham]

The object of Sunday's match was to keep a dozen of our best players at home fresh and fit for the important trip to Swansea on Tuesday and if possible to stay in the FA Cup. We have achieved these objectives and at the same time given some youngsters a taste of 1st team football.

Save the moans in case we do not perform on Tuesday.

[epsomraver]

We took 25 shots.  "goal shy" seems a bit harsh.

I really find that hard to believe.even so if you believe the stats 5 on target!

[PokerMatt]

I agree with most points in the OP.

Although if you had taken a look at some of the posts during and just after the game you would have seen me along with others saying good things about the kids and some of the football on a mousse of a pitch.

I particularly agree with your view of Plumain. He was slated by a lot for a lack of an end product, but I focused on how easily at times he got past one or two players at a time even with the ball sticking. I was very impressed. He's only 18 after all. And as for Clough, I criticised his anti-football tactics during the game and his post-match comments sum up who he is, so the less said about him the better.

I'm sure some people would be happier on here if we played like Wimbledon's Crazy Gang or the current West Ham side sometimes. No sideways passes there - just aimless punts. But at least the ball went forwards, eh?

[jmh]

We took 25 shots.  "goal shy" seems a bit harsh.

I really find that hard to believe.even so if you believe the stats 5 on target!

5 on target from 25 attempts isn't great, but that speaks to a lack of quality in execution (reasonable given the players used and the conditions) rather than a lack of positive attitude, which is what you seemed to be complaining about.

[RidgeRider]

We took 25 shots.  "goal shy" seems a bit harsh.

I really find that hard to believe.even so if you believe the stats 5 on target!

5 on target from 25 attempts isn't great, but that speaks to a lack of quality in execution (reasonable given the players used and the conditions) rather than a lack of positive attitude, which is what you seemed to be complaining about.

not to mention it was our 'C' team.....why some fret so much about how this game went is beyond me.

[bog]

From what I heard on 5 live commentary and saw on ITV later I thought we played well. Even if Sheffield are a lower league side their players have experience and our youngsters have not. Did not know that our right back has been at the club since he was 9. Another George Cohen coming through?
As for the pundits one on the wireless commentary was laughing at our efforts! twit!