10 observation from Fulham v Palace

[FulhamStu]

Fulham's football was all about keeping the ball, using the width of the pitch and getting on the end of crosses, nothing new there.

From the Palace game here are some observations.

1.  Until they ran down the clock Palace looked to go forward every time they had the ball.
2.  Fulham on the other hand were happy to go sideways and backwards to ensure we kept posession.
3.  I lost count of the number of crosses Christie put in, way over 10. I would say only 2 or 3 of these were good, having said that Christie was a threat and far more effective than Bryan.
4.  With only Mitro truly up top and him not to up to full fitness he struggled to get on the end of crosses, when he did we came closest to scoring.  Mitro is key and we must keep him fit.
5.  Players like Cairney, Seri, even KMac and Mitro are very good at keeping the ball, same for Chambers and Max.
6. It will take time for Bryan and Sess to build up an understanding, both very inexperienced at this level and the game is much quicker than they are used too.
7.  Vietto looks to have ability and could allow us to play 4-4-2, but who plays wide right MF and who do you leave out of central midfield.  We are built to not only play posession football but also to play 4-3-3 which is a problem away at Spurs/Liverpool/City etc as we will give them too much space.
8.  Where as in the Championship we had good pace in the team, compared to Palace we were slower, especially at the back.
9. Mawson will give the defence better balance, Max and Chambers very similar, good technical players but lack a bit of bite and pace.  For me Chambers and Max are too slow to play full back. Ream is also similar or Max.
10. We look a good team, with good players and nice on the eye, what needs to happen is for Fulham to adapt their style to the quicker pace of the division and this may mean getting to ball forward quicker and being better set up to defend from quick breaks, we need more cover in midfield and may have to play only one of Seri and Cairney v the top boys away from home.

[Statto]

All reasonable points.

I agree about Christie's crossing but IMO you're being harsh on Bryan. Palace had a very good RB which I think is why Christie got more opportunities on the other side. IMO he was crossing it much to early and from too far away.

As to the pace/counter-attack issues, IMO you're inferring too much from one game. Palace came to play that way, relying on counter-attacks, and it only worked because (a) we got knackered quite quickly, (b) they had a few very good fast players suited to that style, (c) they had a lot of luck, with Mitro being profligate, their GK being excellent and the ref missing a stone wall penalty. I don't think every team will play that way and once we're fit and firing on all cylinders, I think those that do will find themselves 2-0 down against us within half an hour. Also Anguissa will hopefully be an upgrade on Mcdonald and break up counter-attacks more effectively.

[HillingdonFFC]

Think in the prem you have to score when you're on top . Dominated for 40 minutes & their keepers kept them in the game. Think we're going to struggle to shut sides out this year, when Palace started breaking second half we struggled with their pace. We do look a bit one dimensional. Thougt Bryan did ok & this is going to be a massive learning curve for Sess. Unfortunately despite being no slouch he's going to come up against a lot of defenders who are faster. Just hope he still finds that knock to get in goalscoring positions because you wonder where our goals are going to come from

[grandad]

Not a lot wrong with the crosses from Christie. Not his fault we had hardly anyone in the box to do something with them.

[Statto]

Not a lot wrong with the crosses from Christie. Not his fault we had hardly anyone in the box to do something with them.

When Ive played as an amateur (a good few years ago now unfortunately) Ive automatically put crosses in the same dangerous areas every time and thought, that's a good cross that someone should get on the end of.

But surely at the top professional levels it's about looking up and aiming for a person rather than area. If no one is there on the end of it then you shouldn't have bloody kicked it there and it's a bad cross

[FulhamStu]

All reasonable points.

I agree about Christie's crossing but IMO you're being harsh on Bryan. Palace had a very good RB which I think is why Christie got more opportunities on the other side. IMO he was crossing it much to early and from too far away.

As to the pace/counter-attack issues, IMO you're inferring too much from one game. Palace came to play that way, relying on counter-attacks, and it only worked because (a) we got knackered quite quickly, (b) they had a few very good fast players suited to that style, (c) they had a lot of luck, with Mitro being profligate, their GK being excellent and the ref missing a stone wall penalty. I don't think every team will play that way and once we're fit and firing on all cylinders, I think those that do will find themselves 2-0 down against us within half an hour. Also Anguissa will hopefully be an upgrade on Mcdonald and break up counter-attacks more effectively.

Agree with all of that and have confidence that Bryan will be good, listen considering he had only been transferred 2 days before he did remarkably well.  Fact is, he will need to get used to the higher speed of the Premier League as will all of last year's squad.

If you look at the quality of crosses most Premiership teams play into the box, it far better than ours last week.  Even The excellent Seri made a few poor crosses.  Fact is crossing from wide is one of our main tactics and we need to improve the quality and, get more people attacking the ball.

[Statto]

If you look at the quality of crosses most Premiership teams play into the box, it far better than ours last week.  Even The excellent Seri made a few poor crosses.  Fact is crossing from wide is one of our main tactics and we need to improve the quality and, get more people attacking the ball.

Hmmm... on this point we may have to disagree because as I said on another thread I can't remember any goals last year coming from long, high crosses, except Kamara's late header versus Boro and even then I think we were only lobbing the ball into the box because it was the dying moments of the game. I don't have the stats to back it up but to me it felt like the vast majority of our success "crossing from wide" actually involved the winger or full-back getting all the way down to the byline and angling a short low pass back to the penalty spot or edge of the 6-yard box. Fredericks in particular, if he couldn't get down to the by-line he'd generally just cut inside and dribble towards goal.

[toshes mate]

I think they are all fair points looking at the one game. 

I feel that crosses should either be aimed at the dangerous corridor of uncertainty just outside the six yard box, or lifted beyond the defenders and keeper to the far post.  Both of these require players in the central areas reading the game intelligently and a large part of that is playing together regularly.  Given the circumstances of most of the team being 'new' to both formation and team mates it was a reasonable performance that could have gone, on another day, in our favour.  I am not sure I agree with the issues of pace either in comparison to Palace or in its own right on our side.  Zaha is a known quantity and knows what to do when he is in space and perhaps he should have been man-marked or at least better marshalled.   We made professional mistakes and I have little doubt these issues will be dealt with over the course of time, but I didn't see anything really bad or genuinely wrong in how we played.  Some players are clearly not match fit but that is something you often see at the start of a season.

I remain optimistic but sad that we still don't seem to get transfer windows together in a way that gives us a better chance of hitting the ground running.

[snarks]

MOTD analysed the crosses, and pointed out that some were not great, and to give Mitro a chance they had to be better. Christie was the one singled out. Too may times he hit the first man or over hit the cross.

[nose returns]

MOTD analysed the crosses, and pointed out that some were not great, and to give Mitro a chance they had to be better. Christie was the one singled out. Too may times he hit the first man or over hit the cross.

christie's defending was goodish
attacking he was confident, supported the attack, kept possesion for far too long and distribution was exceptionaslly poor.
If you lum enouigh aimless balls into the box occasionally one or two will be close, however it was poor crossing and when he cut in he ignired schurlle negating th german's threat and playing him out the game. I genuinely think it was a case of trying to hard to impress, he needs to play quicker and simpler in the final third and he will become a top man.

[FulhamStu]

If you look at the quality of crosses most Premiership teams play into the box, it far better than ours last week.  Even The excellent Seri made a few poor crosses.  Fact is crossing from wide is one of our main tactics and we need to improve the quality and, get more people attacking the ball.

Hmmm... on this point we may have to disagree because as I said on another thread I can't remember any goals last year coming from long, high crosses, except Kamara's late header versus Boro and even then I think we were only lobbing the ball into the box because it was the dying moments of the game. I don't have the stats to back it up but to me it felt like the vast majority of our success "crossing from wide" actually involved the winger or full-back getting all the way down to the byline and angling a short low pass back to the penalty spot or edge of the 6-yard box. Fredericks in particular, if he couldn't get down to the by-line he'd generally just cut inside and dribble towards goal.

My point is that getting the ball wide and then on the end of crosses is our no 1 target to score a goal?  To that point, that final delivery is vital.    Something I felt we need to improve.

[The Rock]

Funny no one is mentioning Schürrle, who was left to play cards, throw some grass in the air for a 9 iron, some tippy tap, AND won a penalty uncalled and unattended. He had like 3 crosses.

These things will come together. Side to side is an issue, but I think that has more to due with dictating the speed of play. We only got to 3rd gear.

I can't wait to see what we look like when we meet palace in the winter