Strong Attack, Creative Midfield, Weak Defence

[Robbie]

We are at risk of throwing away this season for a £3-4m investment to strengthen our back-line.
Mawson and Odoi now just seem to be calamitous .. Ream is OK but needs good players around him.
Until we get this sorted we should suspend trying to play like Barcelona at the back.

[Sting of the North]

I think that Ream is by far a worse defender than Mawson. Mawson was ok except for the one obvious situation. Ream was a gift that kept on giving to Luton all day. But think our biggest problem first half was our midfield losing every battle and therefore letting Luton roam freely against our defenders.

[grandad]

Odoi has been our most consistent back 4 player.

[Logicalman]

I think that Ream is by far a worse defender than Mawson. Mawson was ok except for the one obvious situation. Ream was a gift that kept on giving to Luton all day. But think our biggest problem first half was our midfield losing every battle and therefore letting Luton roam freely against our defenders.

Unfortunately you are spot on.
I know Ream has his fans on here, and I can understand that, but he makes mistake after mistake that cost us goals and possession. I don't put it all down to him though, I have to question what our defensive coach is doing in tactics, as going through the keeper a dozen times a game not only provides impetus to the opposition to press higher, but also provides opportunities for mistakes, all of which costs us goals.
Today we were to narrow, allowing the Luton players to crowd us, playing a few more balls wide together with one-touch passing would have stretched them and denied them those opportunities to crowd.

[ALG01]

I thought our midfield were dreadful. sure reed and onomak played ok in patches but they are the wrong two playing in the wrong formation.

we played our best wioth stefjo and TC sitting deep and bobby reid in front of them..since we changed from that we have been poor. the manager simply has to revert to that midfield trio if we are to make a challenge. with TC so far forward he is totally ineffective as we saw under claudio ranieri, he may as well not play. the second reed went off today and TC dropped back we took over and started to play. I think the manager is pretty clueless and maybe at the end of the season when we miss out he needs to be replaced with our ex, mr jocanovich.

[One Martin Thomas]

I have a bit of a problem with the title of this post ! If the point is we have three banks of players that don't play like a team .... I agree . Our team is totally disjointed with no leadership or obvious plan ! The attacks are obvious and predictable and the midfield play like OAPs ! No energy, no nothing ! Utter crap

[Statto]

We are at risk of throwing away this season for a £3-4m investment to strengthen our back-line.
Mawson and Odoi now just seem to be calamitous .. Ream is OK but needs good players around him.
Until we get this sorted we should suspend trying to play like Barcelona at the back.

Considering £15m buys you Mawson, what do you expect to get for £3-4m?

[georgiajohn]

Not sure if this is the right place to post this this, but this total obsession now that teams have got with playing out from the back is totally asinine, Man City started it so everybody as got to do it, no Man City have really highly skilled players Fulham does not, but we are not alone, I have watched so many teams try this tactic, and in 90% of the cases it does not work, most of the time the team passes it back to the GK who them kicks it down the field, and all you have achieved is to waste a few seconds and pissed off your fans. In all my tears of watching playing reffing I have seen very few goals scored in the oppositions net from your own. Stupid tactic for some teams including Fulham

[georgiajohn]

Sorry about typos should be then and years, I have had a few.

[One Martin Thomas]

We are at risk of throwing away this season for a £3-4m investment to strengthen our back-line.
Mawson and Odoi now just seem to be calamitous .. Ream is OK but needs good players around him.
Until we get this sorted we should suspend trying to play like Barcelona at the back.

Considering £15m buys you Mawson, what do you expect to get for £3-4m? Mawson as he is today 😅!

[Statto]

We are at risk of throwing away this season for a £3-4m investment to strengthen our back-line.
Mawson and Odoi now just seem to be calamitous .. Ream is OK but needs good players around him.
Until we get this sorted we should suspend trying to play like Barcelona at the back.

Considering £15m buys you Mawson, what do you expect to get for £3-4m?

Mawson as he is today 😅!

As he was when Parker got hold of him

[Bill2]

According to the paper today all the goals conceded yesterday were due to defensive errors with Alfie Mawson getting a special mention for the first

[Andy S]

Playing it short or long is ok as long as you mix it up. The opposing team then do not know whether to defend long or deep. That give us the advantage. If we do not vary it that's gives the opponents the advantage

[One Martin Thomas]

We are at risk of throwing away this season for a £3-4m investment to strengthen our back-line.
Mawson and Odoi now just seem to be calamitous .. Ream is OK but needs good players around him.
Until we get this sorted we should suspend trying to play like Barcelona at the back.

Considering £15m buys you Mawson, what do you expect to get for £3-4m?

Mawson as he is today 😅!

As he was when Parker got hold of him

In a higher division !

[Bill2]

According to the paper today all the goals conceded yesterday were due to defensive errors with Alfie Mawson getting a special mention for the first

Just watched the highlights and to be a fair to Alfie, the ball to him by Marek put him in an awful position.

[JimOG]

True but I think Parker is sending confusing messages to them. After the match he was initially quoted as saying 'they didn't sense or smell the danger' (or close to that). Then on FFCTV he talks about how we didn't manage the first half well but dominated the second. We did the latter partly because they withdrew to protect their lead.

So what messages do Mawson/Rodak & Ream hear in training? 'Play out from the back'....OK boss. Play out from the back if it's safe?  I've only got a split second to weigh it up. I think Mawson didn't 'smell' the danger because he didn't believe Rodak would put him in the mire. Bryan as well was slow to react to Ream's hospital pass. All of this is coachable....by Roy

[Matt10]

True but I think Parker is sending confusing messages to them. After the match he was initially quoted as saying 'they didn't sense or smell the danger' (or close to that). Then on FFCTV he talks about how we didn't manage the first half well but dominated the second. We did the latter partly because they withdrew to protect their lead.

So what messages do Mawson/Rodak & Ream hear in training? 'Play out from the back'....OK boss. Play out from the back if it's safe?  I've only got a split second to weigh it up. I think Mawson didn't 'smell' the danger because he didn't believe Rodak would put him in the mire. Bryan as well was slow to react to Ream's hospital pass. All of this is coachable....by Roy

It's a very basic fundamental as a defender to know where immediate danger is. There's a reason not everyone can be a defender because they have to monitor those around themselves immediately, and those who might be a threat.

3 out of the 4 defenders screwed up in roles that had nothing to do with defending - but getting or keeping possession. We know these are good players in the open field, but struggle under pressure obviously - and they need to do better with their in-game decision making.

[clarkey]

Unbelievable criticism of Ream.

Game after game he is left exposed by the defensive shortcomings at FFC. Bryan is terrible defending, and not great going forward, Christie should be nowhere near the team. Mawson has severe control issues, and never wins tackles and clearly believes he is good at shooting. Newsflash: he isn't.

Ream saves us again and again, Odoi is his most reliable partner. The disastrous failure to sign Target is shown up every single game....we bought Anguissa and Seri when we needed two full backs. Terrible mistakes.

Fulham currently have two average wingers who always get to play, a side totally dependent on Cairney for creativity, an absence of consistency in  midfield with bizarre treatment of Stefan who was MofM three games running then has not played since, and a failure to service Mitro properly.The two Reids, Sonoma and Rodak all positives but frankly the tactics and subbing are a mess.And Ream is not the problem.We need to get that defence organised.

[Matt10]

Unbelievable criticism of Ream.

Game after game he is left exposed by the defensive shortcomings at FFC. Bryan is terrible defending, and not great going forward, Christie should be nowhere near the team. Mawson has severe control issues, and never wins tackles and clearly believes he is good at shooting. Newsflash: he isn't.

Ream saves us again and again, Odoi is his most reliable partner. The disastrous failure to sign Target is shown up every single game....we bought Anguissa and Seri when we needed two full backs. Terrible mistakes.

Fulham currently have two average wingers who always get to play, a side totally dependent on Cairney for creativity, an absence of consistency in  midfield with bizarre treatment of Stefan who was MofM three games running then has not played since, and a failure to service Mitro properly.The two Reids, Sonoma and Rodak all positives but frankly the tactics and subbing are a mess.And Ream is not the problem.We need to get that defence organised.

So many generalizations in one post, it's hard to keep up.

Mawson has shot a total of maybe 3x? He was actually pretty close on target with his attempt in the Luton match.

Christie has been a rock defensively and offensively. He's set up crosses for Mitro and others, has definitely improved in that area. Defensively he's made critical tackles, including a significant block to prevent another goal for Luton.

Bryan has a brilliant cross on him. Remember Swansea away? Brighton last year? He's fine defensively as well. He needs to improve on his physicality and strength, and actually fight back when he's being bullied - because he tends to just absorb physicality - which does not get called.

Ream has indeed been exceptional for me. He's made some forward passes that not even the best midfielders could make. He's also made critical challenges in deep positions. He made one mistake vs Luton, and it's being blown out of proportion.

As a fanbase, it's unfortunate that we have this tendency to take one or two instances of our players and completely generalize their entire footballing existence.

[Statto]

Ream has indeed been exceptional for me. He's made some forward passes that not even the best midfielders could make. He's also made critical challenges in deep positions. He made one mistake vs Luton, and it's being blown out of proportion.

Exceptional?!Exceptionally poor perhaps. He's been at least 50% responsible for loads of goals this season.

Don't get me wrong, Mawson, Bryan and Bettinelli when he was playing, have all had cock-ups lead to goals conceded on a weekly basis. But Ream is at least as bad, if not worse than anyone else at the back.

Luton was a perfect example. First goal Mawson's fault, perhaps with Rodak contributing. Second goal Ream and Mawson both terrible. Third goal Ream and Bryan.