Shearer On Christie

[Andy S]

I don't  take any notice of the pundits and I hope the players don't either. I don't remember shearer being a good player against quality defences....

[Nick Bateman]

Yeah, crucify him on TV for viewers' titillation - great for the confidence of our only available right back.

Thanks Shearer.

One would rather have Shearer spell out the bad points, than Fulham suffer further from a useless wing-back out of his depth!

[Nick Bateman]

I don't  take any notice of the pundits and I hope the players don't either. I don't remember shearer being a good player against quality defences....

You are talking out of your proverbial backside Andy S: Shearer was the greatest striker in the world!  He proved it at every level, against every team, with lethal dispensation!  Shearer is actually helping us, unlike you!
Identifying our weak links is the first part of fixing things.

[EJL]

Yep, Christie's not the answer. Even if he managed to get back in position most of the time, his end product is absolutely shocking. We can't be playing everything down the right only for him to cross into the first man. He did put one good ball in, though, for Kamara -- but it wasn't enough IMO.

[RaySmith]

Christie is our only available right back, and needs encouragement, and confidence building, not criticism, especially from someone  who couldn't care less about Fulham - probably wants to undermine us, in fact, as Newcastle fan.

All the team were poor against Arsenal, so it seems wrong to pick out one player as scapegoat.

[Milo]

It's not his fault... it's Tony Khan's technically as it was his job to recruit and failed to identify full backs as important to our style and formation. I pointed this out when the window closed that this would come back to haunt us.

Only thing is that we can't complain really as he spent so much money elsewhere!

Anyway, I reckon if we can scrape 20 points from first 19 games we will be fine. We were stronger in second half of season last year and it'll be similar this year.

[toshes mate]

Christie is backed by SJ every time he gets the nod for first team duty, at least to the extent of his selection being 'the only option open' to him.  If that isn't enough for Christie to perform to the best of his ability barring the one-off bad games then he has a problem.  I would be critical of last Sunday's  team in its entirety for the second half demonstration of ineptitude.  Even Odoi who was my MOTM for us would admit to it being an all round poor showing in that dreadful fifty minutes or so.  Hopefully every player will have a long hard look at what they should have done rather than what they did do and vow to be better.

We have had bad shows before and we have countered in the next game.  Let us hope that sort of recovery shows itself against Cardiff.

[Chutney]

Christie is backed by SJ every time he gets the nod for first team duty, at least to the extent of his selection being 'the only option open' to him.  If that isn't enough for Christie to perform to the best of his ability barring the one-off bad games then he has a problem.  I would be critical of last Sunday's  team in its entirety for the second half demonstration of ineptitude.  Even Odoi who was my MOTM for us would admit to it being an all round poor showing in that dreadful fifty minutes or so.  Hopefully every player will have a long hard look at what they should have done rather than what they did do and vow to be better.

We have had bad shows before and we have countered in the next game.  Let us hope that sort of recovery shows itself against Cardiff.

That was Christie playing to the best of his ability. That is the issue. We needed to recruit a quality full back due to Fredericks departing, we failed. Not really Christie's fault nor is it the managers fault.

[toshes mate]

That was Christie playing to the best of his ability. That is the issue. We needed to recruit a quality full back due to Fredericks departing, we failed. Not really Christie's fault nor is it the managers fault.

I don't think we have seen, and may be will not see, Christie playing to the best of his ability.  I do not see him as a natural wing back.  He has neither the pace nor the guile to take on defenders on either foot, which means he is, at best, a full back who can attack in beneficial circumstances.  He is not Fredericks and never will be, and I wonder just why the recruiters bought him given what we really needed.  To me the whole Fredericks and Targett sagas stink of truly poor judgement by senior officials.

As you say neither Christie nor Jokanovic can be held to account for that poor judgement.

[clarkey]

The point is the manager saw how awful we were defensively and got the subbing entirely wrong. Taking Ream off and bringing on AK47 was ridiculous. It just gave the game away. Kamara made no impact and Ream holds the defence together. Just a really bad sub.

In fact he set the team up entirely wrongly too. He is out of his depth, that is clear.

[sarnian]

Move Odoi to right back against Cardiff, Le Marchand left back, and Chambers and Mawson in the middle. I know they may not have played great up to now but would keep the centre half pairing who have premiership experience together for the next 8 games and give them time to gel. They could not leak more goals than the print chopping and changing.

[Bassey the warrior]

Move Odoi to right back against Cardiff, Le Marchand left back, and Chambers and Mawson in the middle. I know they may not have played great up to now but would keep the centre half pairing who have premiership experience together for the next 8 games and give them time to gel. They could not leak more goals than the print chopping and changing.

MLM is too slow for full back, he's good at centre back.

[toshes mate]

Move Odoi to right back against Cardiff, Le Marchand left back, and Chambers and Mawson in the middle. I know they may not have played great up to now but would keep the centre half pairing who have premiership experience together for the next 8 games and give them time to gel. They could not leak more goals than the print chopping and changing.

MLM is too slow for full back, he's good at centre back.

MLM is better in a back three than he has appeared to be in a back four, but I agree he isn't pacey enough for a wing back role.

[nose returns]

the pundits absolutely got wrong the game as a totality.
the first half was very even, nothing in it, both teams attacking and leaving spaces. ses was brilliant, vietto looked good In fact the defence was working pretty well against a talented side. True when christie goes forward he does not get back anywhere near quick enough.

second half, they were lucky to get the early goal but we remained in it but our substitutions and change of shape killed us. when ream left the field the chance of us getting back went with him. sess  went back to LB the midfield became pnderous and we ripped to shreds. but if slava would have kept his nerve I suspect we may yet have got a result.

christie was targeted, he does not run back and shearer showed that endlessly and no matter how you play, and I do not mind him going forward, when you lose possesion turn round and get back ASAP not at a walk or slow trot.

[Denver Fulham]

MLM has been our best CB this season by a significant margin, despite a couple horror passes that led to goals. He should not be used at LB, although with Bryan's and TFM's injuries, we're very short right now at fullback.

Christie is not a wingback. If we're playing a back 3, then someone else needs to play in that role, and I'm not sure that person exists on the roster. Ayite, perhaps?

As bad as our defense has been, we've been ravaged by injury this season. Bryan and Fosu-Mensah currently. Mawson hasn't looked fit. Ream was out for a long while (and hasn't looked fit and/or his ceiling has been found). Additionally, Chambers was terrible when he played. Whether it's bad luck, bad recruiting and/or bad coaching, our CBs have been a complete mess ... with the "help" of our FBs struggling/being hurt, Anguissa being disappointing and Cairney being out, and playing with two wingers who don't defend.

I think it's all related. But what's fixable we won't know until several things come together at the same time.

[MJG]

Move Odoi to right back against Cardiff, Le Marchand left back, and Chambers and Mawson in the middle. I know they may not have played great up to now but would keep the centre half pairing who have premiership experience together for the next 8 games and give them time to gel. They could not leak more goals than the print chopping and changing.

MLM is too slow for full back, he's good at centre back.

MLM is better in a back three than he has appeared to be in a back four, but I agree he isn't pacey enough for a wing back role.

I'd consider him as the LB in a five of we were away (or even at home) against the better sides and his job was just defend. He showed he at Brighton he can't get forward, but still a decent defender. To shut up shop in a way, he could do that role then.

[Carborundum]

the pundits absolutely got wrong the game as a totality.
the first half was very even, nothing in it, both teams attacking and leaving spaces. ses was brilliant, vietto looked good In fact the defence was working pretty well against a talented side. True when christie goes forward he does not get back anywhere near quick enough.

second half, they were lucky to get the early goal but we remained in it but our substitutions and change of shape killed us. when ream left the field the chance of us getting back went with him. sess  went back to LB the midfield became pnderous and we ripped to shreds. but if slava would have kept his nerve I suspect we may yet have got a result.

christie was targeted, he does not run back and shearer showed that endlessly and no matter how you play, and I do not mind him going forward, when you lose possesion turn round and get back ASAP not at a walk or slow trot.

Nose, Your post makes a lot of sense to me.  Towards the end Christie was absolutely cream crackered.  I dont think he's particularly unfit, it's just that we set ourselves up in a way where he had a ridiculous amount of running to do.  Others walked off that pitch a lot lot fresher.  They should all be utterly spent and scapegoating someone who did an attacking job I'm sure he was asked to do isn't my inclination.

[Matt10]

Yeah, the more I watch the full match, the heatmaps, Christie was completely gassed in the 3-back system. I don't think this is fitness per se, this is a whole new system than what we are used to. He starts pressuring very high with Vietto on the right, then tracks all the way back to our endline, then all the way back to the other endline to help Vietto. Just for comparison sake, watch any match from last year and see where our full backs pressure. They pressure quite deep. To compare Christie to Fredericks, is completely skewed, because we have never used a wingback formation like this.

It's interesting of Slav to use this for the first time against Arsenal. That's where I question the logic, but upon seeing the 4-3-3 return, and how absolutely stale we were on both sides, I can see why the change was needed. Personally, I would have suggested a 5-4-1 against a team like Arsenal, but our coach likes bravery as a system versus just a character trait of the players.

[Carborundum]

That was Christie playing to the best of his ability. That is the issue. We needed to recruit a quality full back due to Fredericks departing, we failed. Not really Christie's fault nor is it the managers fault.

I don't think we have seen, and may be will not see, Christie playing to the best of his ability.  I do not see him as a natural wing back.  He has neither the pace nor the guile to take on defenders on either foot, which means he is, at best, a full back

Those who saw him in the Fulham v Middlesbrough match at the Cottage might disagree with this.  Trouble was, he was wearing a Middlesbrough shirt.  He scored and caused us no end of trouble.

[snarks]

Interesting that Martin O'Neil has had a go at Shearer for his criticism of Christie (as in Wednesday's Fulham Stuff post), saying it's down to what the manager asked him to do. However having saud that, Christie did not do as well as Sess at covering the gaps, but then Arsenal did target our RHS not the LHS