Kit Symons criminal substitution costs us another game.

[Bill2]

A total moron.

If u want to make a sub don't take off the main ball winner and target man. Take off Ross and bring on Dembele.

From Mr angry

Matt was shattered and you could see he could not offer anything more. Mind you I can't think of any occasions where where we won any of his flick ons so not sure if it was worth keeping him out there

[Bill2]

We have new signings. A brand new season. I don't care that the defense isn't that great. The midfield and attacking options should be able to make up for it.  If we get a cb or two and then a striker in there will be no good enough excuse for me. The guy makes absolutely bizarre substitutions and only 2? Why were only 2 made? You have THREE. As long as board/management continue to falter then so to will the club. It doesn't even matter what players we bring in at this point.  Unless someone figures out how to clone Messi and send him here.   

Not if Hutchinson does the sort of stupid tackle he did in the last minute of extra time. I will never understand why he did the tackle, any player with half a brain cell will know that all he needed was to cover the area the player was running into.

[Reznor]

Oh get a grip. One poor performance at home yet we hung in until the 94th minute. Almost written in the stars that our defence would be poor. But we lacked pace and it was only when it was introduced did we look more dangerous. So a sickener and a performance that illustrates the problems we all knew were there.

But this overreaction over one sub was not the problem that made us lose. Lack of pace, poor defence and LVC actually not turning up and Ross taking another day off were the problems. I wish we could put down the problems to the manager. But it simply isn't so.

Poor today but we learned what we already knew. Need to press higher and have pace in the side.

I don't really think it is an overreaction this time. More like the realisation that nothing much has changed since last season.

[alfie]

A total moron.

If u want to make a sub don't take off the main ball winner and target man. Take off Ross and bring on Dembele.

From Mr angry

Well Mr angry do you know why he was taken off?, in another thread it was said apparently he picked up an injury and was in a bit of pain, so just maybe that was the reason.
Still never mind good excuse to dig out the manager.

[Nick Bateman]

A total moron.

If u want to make a sub don't take off the main ball winner and target man. Take off Ross and bring on Dembele.

From Mr angry

To a point I agree with your view Skatz.  Symons sees something in Dembele I've yet to see, and once again, subbing Smith has cost Fulham points.  Despite doing this last season and then again recently against Cardiff, he subbed our huge target-man for a small, inexperienced kid, and not a tactical substitution which one could understand.  This action has been heavily criticised by Sean Davis & Jim McGullion yet KS continues to do this.

Smith still has not had 90 minutes, and Symons did not play Kacaniklic until later in the second half - not going for "Power & Pace", preferring Pringle out-of-position instead of dropping the poorly performing LVC and including some genuine width (& pace) in Kaca.

Symons has slumped back just as he was looking promising and winning over the doubters.

Perhaps the board will hurry through those rumoured signings as KS needs every bit of help.

[Neil D]

Had Dembele (although I would have preferred Cauley) scored, Brighton would have caved in.

Not if you'd seen him against Wycombe. 

[DeuceBigelow]

Wholly agree with original poster. If Smith had stayed on and Dembele  or Woodrow replaced Ross, I'm sure we would have won. Yes Smith had lots of chances, mostly because he does what he does well, gets in good positions and is a handful. Once Smith went off we seemed impotent in attack.
Behind the dugout, where I sit, several fans called for Ross to be replaced with Dembele.
O'Hara good again.
Pringle seemed a bit light weight.
Hutchinson's tackle was outside the box.
Cairney should play behind the front two.
Ross out of sorts, apart from one firecracker.

[FPT]

The long balls were not working. We were lumping it to absolutely no avail - nobody was winning or collecting the second ball so why have a target man on the pitch?

How I like thinking about it is, do you think Jamie O'Hara, Tom Cairney and Lasse Vigen Christensen will want a target man ahead of them that they can't play and use their technique off of? Our a penetrative striker who they can play in with their defence splitting passing and get themselves closer to the goal to play?

[laurencecapel]

The long balls work if you have dynamic midfielders who can play off of the target man - unfortunately today on too many occasions Smith won the knockdown for a Brighton player to win the second ball unopposed.

Agree with Ross being subbed but what club whips off their captain?

[Barrett487]

Pringle was awful today and deserved to be substituted, he persistently failed to pick up his man when defending leaving Voser exposed. I don't remember him doing anything going forward either.

I was pleased Smith went off, two missed open goals in the space of a few minutes isn't the mark of a good striker. With him on the pitch we were predictable, which wouldn't matter if our execution had been better. He also didn't seem aware of team mates that were around him at times (Ross pointed it out to him on one occasion). When he went off Betts started rolling the ball out to a defender, so 'hoofing' it to Smith was Kit's master plan up until that point.

In the first half they closed our midfield down...... where was our closing down when they had the ball? There was no harrying from our midfield.

Budurov looked disinterested and i can't understand why Dan didn't replace him (or start). Hutch played ok up until his reckless challenge. Voser struggled, but was left exposed by a non-existent Pringle. Jazz was by far our best defender and supported the attack well.

I'm not a fan of Kaca, but i warmed to him today. He positively affected our play and i'd have him to start in place of Pringle next game.

I also agree with a previous poster who pointed out that communication between Betts and our defenders was worryingly poor.

[SouthIslandWhite]

I think sadly that the club is only marginally better than this time last year.  Sorry, but we just aren't that good.

[MJG]

Can't understand him at all with his subs,  last week only manager in championship to make one sub,  yesterday only two.
They are there to be used and it's really a 14 man game. He clearly has not learnt how to use them after 41 league games in charge.

[laurencecapel]

Poor decisions again but again as previously mentioned, boils down to not wanting to sub the captain....who was ineffectual all game.

Watching Hughton with 10 to go bring on Rohan Ince for a striker shows a tactically aware manager defending for the point.

We'd played long ball all game, why give the guys 5 minutes to change that by taking off Smith?

[Twig]

I know this is a post about substitution tactics and agree that Kit seems loathe to use his bench.  However the point that is really concerning me is the midfield's failure to get players close enough to Smith to benefit from his headed knock downs.  Like it or not he is the only viable option as a starter up front so we need to resolve that issue fast. 

[laurencecapel]

I know this is a post about substitution tactics and agree that Kit seems loathe to use his bench.  However the point that is really concerning me is the midfield's failure to get players close enough to Smith to benefit from his headed knock downs.  Like it or not he is the only viable option as a starter up front so we need to resolve that issue fast. 

Completely and totalling agree - would also add that no wide men means no crosses in to the box....makes no sense. Let's play centrally but bypass the whole midfield with long balls.

[Denver Fulham]

I know this is a post about substitution tactics and agree that Kit seems loathe to use his bench.  However the point that is really concerning me is the midfield's failure to get players close enough to Smith to benefit from his headed knock downs.  Like it or not he is the only viable option as a starter up front so we need to resolve that issue fast. 

Completely and totalling agree - would also add that no wide men means no crosses in to the box....makes no sense. Let's play centrally but bypass the whole midfield with long balls.

General comment without having seen the match: This also may be somewhat resolved by signing Dunk and/or Ream to play centrally and actually having CBs who can pass the ball as well as not defend like donkeys.

[Skatzoffc]

I know this is a post about substitution tactics and agree that Kit seems loathe to use his bench.  However the point that is really concerning me is the midfield's failure to get players close enough to Smith to benefit from his headed knock downs.  Like it or not he is the only viable option as a starter up front so we need to resolve that issue fast. 

:plus one:

[Julius Geezer]

All game Brighton were rinsing Voser - Kaca comes on and problem solved. How he's not starting is beyond me? Playing a target man and putting 0 crosses in to the box is laughable.

The only positives are that Richards and O'Hara looked quality.

Richards was beaten time and time again, not sure he even blocked one cross!

Majorly over-rated player.

Brighton obviously saw our full back positions as our biggest weakness and boy were they right.

[laurencecapel]

All game Brighton were rinsing Voser - Kaca comes on and problem solved. How he's not starting is beyond me? Playing a target man and putting 0 crosses in to the box is laughable.

The only positives are that Richards and O'Hara looked quality.

Richards was beaten time and time again, not sure he even blocked one cross!

Majorly over-rated player.

Brighton obviously saw our full back positions as our biggest weakness and boy were they right.

To be fair to Richards, he done a lot better with no cover and was actually dangerous on the attack.

[bill taylors apprentice]

How many people commenting here that Smith should have stayed on were actually at the game?

Because to me his legs had gone or was injured and could have gone off 10 mins earlier.

McCormack IMO is likely to tuck one away however much of an off day he is having.

Kaca should have been on earlier, I'm not convinced about him but we needed to give the opposition something to think about on the left and Pringle was poor.