Cup Shocks

[The Rational Fan]

We stopped doing cup upsets in 2010. As has been said, we try and beat superior teams at their own game and it shows.

In the EPL and Now, we have done well against teams with similar squads to us Derby, Aston Villa, Burnley, Southampton, Huddersfield, Brighton, Bournemouth, Cardiff, WBA, and Leeds. Our problem is we have lost almost every game with someone better than us (i.e. any of the top 13 teams in England) and have plenty of upsets with squads significantly worse than us like Barnsley, Luton and Charlton.

We need to learn to play as both an underdog (against ManCity with us playing for a draw) and as the top dog (against Charlton with them playing for a scoreless draw), not only as an equal (against WBA and Leeds).

[alfie]

I understand all this talk about Shrewsbury, but although they were playing Liverpool, the team Klopp put out were of a similar standard to Shrewsbury, they were not facing Silva x 2, Jesus, Mahrez, etc.

[charlieFFC]

To those saying it was a good performance and we shouldn't be getting on their backs, that is irrelevant to what this thread is about.

Even if we had a fully fit squad we would still setup in the same way we did.

This current Fulham squad and the one for the last 3 seasons is incapable of causing an "upset" or cup shock as the thread said.

This isn't a meltdown its simply saying that we cant setup in an effective way against far better opposition.

Definitely a worry and something we should be talking about if we truly want to be a sustainable premier league club.

[Whitesideup]

Learn from Shrewsbury?  Who are we kidding? 16th in League 1. One great performance. They may even beat Liverpool's reserves or U23s in the replay. And good luck to them. 

And we were playing a proper Man City side who have averaged about 5 goals a game in recent cup matches against teams from lower divisions.

[The Rock]

I thought we looked as good as we were going to look given the circumstances as well. 

But playing out of the back and getting dispossessed 18 yards out EVERY SINGLE TIME is just poor management. I wonder why we wouldn't play a single long ball almost all game?

We all knew it would be lambs to slaughter, but to subject your team to looking like that? We're not THAT bad! Or are we?

[Woolly Mammoth]

No shame in losing 4 0 away to Man City with one man shy. Bigger teams than Fulham have gone there and come away shell shocked from a crushing defeat. We may have even made a few friends.

[The Rational Fan]

I thought we looked as good as we were going to look given the circumstances as well. 

But playing out of the back and getting dispossessed 18 yards out EVERY SINGLE TIME is just poor management. I wonder why we wouldn't play a single long ball almost all game?

We all knew it would be lambs to slaughter, but to subject your team to looking like that? We're not THAT bad! Or are we?

Obviously, Fulham is pretty good at playing out from the back at training and that's Parker used it against Luton. Unfortunately, we weren't as good at it in matches under pressure so avoided it for a while, I am sure Parker is keen to try it again what better time than a ManCity cup game to see if we are better. If passing out from the back works against them, we can use it all the time.