Rico, Mawson, Zambo and Sess

[bornafulhamfan]

Can someone who watched the game tell me how that bunch played, as I thought those four were the only players who could become regular starters?

[jayffc]

Rico: had nothing to do really, when called upon dodnwhat was needed with little fuss. A few wayward kicks as he practiced that routine we do of lobbing the ball to our full back on the byline for 90% of our goal kicks. Hard to judge on this performance but certainly didn't do much wrong.

Sess: drifted in and out as he does. Not massively effective running at people so not much use as an attacking wing back. Tracked back well and as he does, out of nowhere sprung in behind with a couple of crosses that were close to being assists. Quite for large portion of the game, but then can get an assist out of nothing...typically Sess.

Anguissa: has some class and works hard to break up play. Fairly obvious why he's never scored a goal...missed an absolute sitter but controlled the middle pretty well. Gave the ball away a couple of times being tricky but wasn't playing in top gear in a game against easy opposition.

Mawson: not gonna look into this one too much. Literally was just a workout for him to get fit. Strong, but off the pace as you'd imagine. Hes a way off a first team appearance I'd say, needs to up his fitness with a few more 90 mins under his belt I'd say.

All in all we were a class above and the game was a breeze, never really needed to hit second gear and yet were miles better than Exeter as we should be with the amount of investment! Our second team more than capable of dealing with this level of team.

[bornafulhamfan]

Rico: had nothing to do really, when called upon dodnwhat was needed with little fuss. A few wayward kicks as he practiced that routine we do of lobbing the ball to our full back on the byline for 90% of our goal kicks. Hard to judge on this performance but certainly didn't do much wrong.

Sess: drifted in and out as he does. Not massively effective running at people so not much use as an attacking wing back. Tracked back well and as he does, out of nowhere sprung in behind with a couple of crosses that were close to being assists. Quite for large portion of the game, but then can get an assist out of nothing...typically Sess.

Anguissa: has some class and works hard to break up play. Fairly obvious why he's never scored a goal...missed an absolute sitter but controlled the middle pretty well. Gave the ball away a couple of times being tricky but wasn't playing in top gear in a game against easy opposition.

Mawson: not gonna look into this one too much. Literally was just a workout for him to get fit. Strong, but off the pace as you'd imagine. Hes a way off a first team appearance I'd say, needs to up his fitness with a few more 90 mins under his belt I'd say.

All in all we were a class above and the game was a breeze, never really needed to hit second gear and yet were miles better than Exeter as we should be with the amount of investment! Our second team more than capable of dealing with this level of team.

Thanks for your thoughts. That being said, I would start the same team that started against Burnley against Brighton. Maybe, but just maybe, I would start Rico, as I watched him many times and he looked world-class in most of the matches.

[jayffc]

I wouldn't be against it but perhaps a touch harsh on Betts. It's certsinly a position there to be claimed by a set of 3-4 good performances

[Porthogs FC]

I wouldn't be against it but perhaps a touch harsh on Betts. It's certsinly a position there to be claimed by a set of 3-4 good performances

And Betts had a poor performance

[nose returns]

Rico: had nothing to do really, when called upon dodnwhat was needed with little fuss. A few wayward kicks as he practiced that routine we do of lobbing the ball to our full back on the byline for 90% of our goal kicks. Hard to judge on this performance but certainly didn't do much wrong.

Sess: drifted in and out as he does. Not massively effective running at people so not much use as an attacking wing back. Tracked back well and as he does, out of nowhere sprung in behind with a couple of crosses that were close to being assists. Quite for large portion of the game, but then can get an assist out of nothing...typically Sess.

Anguissa: has some class and works hard to break up play. Fairly obvious why he's never scored a goal...missed an absolute sitter but controlled the middle pretty well. Gave the ball away a couple of times being tricky but wasn't playing in top gear in a game against easy opposition.

Mawson: not gonna look into this one too much. Literally was just a workout for him to get fit. Strong, but off the pace as you'd imagine. Hes a way off a first team appearance I'd say, needs to up his fitness with a few more 90 mins under his belt I'd say.

All in all we were a class above and the game was a breeze, never really needed to hit second gear and yet were miles better than Exeter as we should be with the amount of investment! Our second team more than capable of dealing with this level of team.

whilst I agree mainly, mawson looked a class act in a against a very easy opposition and won everything and passed well too... good vibe.
the goalkeeper had little to do but his distribution was diabolical when kicking dead balls. missed the player every time. in free play distribution rather better but hardly inspiring. caught three crosses and fouled up one completely.... in truth could not make a proper judgment  but the kicking was terrible, i cannot imagine that was his normal form.

[General]

Our third choice keeper has won the europa league twice.. how much difference a summer can make.

Think Mawson did what he needed to comfortably.. standouts for me were chambers in particular.. Anguissa and Kamara. Anguissa just strikes me as a player who's so naturally athletic that he doesn't ever seem to struggle getting around the pitch. He did lose the ball a couple of times but probably more due to complacency as his sharp one touch passing was so effective for 90% of his game.

Re sess I thought he played very intelligently, obviously told not to bomb up as much as has done in the past but marshalled their wingers easily and effectively. They never really got past him.

Fonte was the most confusing player... it just didn't fall for him today.. that and he didn't win a header in the air or knowingly take a shot... his positional sense was his key let down.. he never found space and was often surrounded by or positioned close to opposition players.. he and Kebano got in each others way a couple of times.

Johansen for me had a surprisingly off game.. he got around and harried players and every now and then contributed to defensive and offensive play but he just seemed off the pace.. a few wayward passes, losing possession and ineffective attempts to retrieve the ball or play the right pass..

Cyrus christie also had an off game I thought.. yes he did his usual bombing up and down the pitch but tried to do too many Maradona turns etc which meant he lost the ball quite a bit too when had he not we could've been on the attack.

[KingofCheese]

Our third choice keeper has won the europa league twice.. how much difference a summer can make.

Think Mawson did what he needed to comfortably.. standouts for me were chambers in particular.. Anguissa and Kamara. Anguissa just strikes me as a player who's so naturally athletic that he doesn't ever seem to struggle getting around the pitch. He did lose the ball a couple of times but probably more due to complacency as his sharp one touch passing was so effective for 90% of his game.

Re sess I thought he played very intelligently, obviously told not to bomb up as much as has done in the past but marshalled their wingers easily and effectively. They never really got past him.

Fonte was the most confusing player... it just didn't fall for him today.. that and he didn't win a header in the air or knowingly take a shot... his positional sense was his key let down.. he never found space and was often surrounded by or positioned close to opposition players.. he and Kebano got in each others way a couple of times.

Johansen for me had a surprisingly off game.. he got around and harried players and every now and then contributed to defensive and offensive play but he just seemed off the pace.. a few wayward passes, losing possession and ineffective attempts to retrieve the ball or play the right pass..

Cyrus christie also had an off game I thought.. yes he did his usual bombing up and down the pitch but tried to do too many Maradona turns etc which meant he lost the ball quite a bit too when had he not we could've been on the attack.

Fonte had a shot saved I thought and Johansen got the assist with a beaut of a ball through a crowd of players for the second goal. However, he did huff and puff abit and I wasn't really sure what Fonte brings overall although they both seemed up for it. Rico slightly worried me with the distance he came out when we had the ball, my son thought he was a "rush goalie" and that he would take the ball and try and score! Hopefully Rico is a really really good judge of a game and felt that Exeter weren't much of a threat..although with that little guy Jay in the team I would have been more cautious.

[brightster]

A plus side for Rico was his communication, with the sparse crowd tonight I could here him instructing the back four, calling and catching a couple of crosses, not sure there is much of a problem with the language with him.

[BedsFFC]

I thought mawson was class

[millsy]

Agree Mawson looks top drawer and Chambers also played well tonight.

[fulham traveller]

I would not read much into tonight's game, it was like a training session

[Roberty]

I wouldn't be against it but perhaps a touch harsh on Betts. It's certsinly a position there to be claimed by a set of 3-4 good performances

And Betts had a poor performance

Yes - very poor command of his sofa at home