Post Match Thread: Fulham 0-3 Arsenal

[AnOldBrownie]

The team did the best they could taking into account the opposition and the fact we are in the Premiership now, so I'm proud of the boys today who got us back up into the Premiership; however, now we need to move on and upgrade.

My only gripe currently is we have still not brought in even one CB and this sits squarely with the recruitment in fact I'd say it's diabolical, inept and quite frankly a disgrace.

But you don't know WHY we haven't brought in a quality CB.   Who are you looking at, and how much are you willing to spend?  Oh, and make sure you know that player wants to come to a relegation battle.    You make it sound very easy to do.

[davew]

 :016:

[Lyle from Hangeland]

There seems always to be comments on about how useless we are. How about a bit of credit for Arsenal?  Who did they beat in their last two competitive games before this one?

Of course I am not saying we had a good game, far from it. And yes, we didn't really threaten a lot, but Arsenal are much better organized under Arteta. We had our work cut out.

One poster commented that we lost the midfield. I thought we generally held our own. If there was a positive, I thought we played the ball confidently in the midfield, especially in the first-half.

I agree with this. I don't think we look out of our depth at all and this was our Championship side without Mitrovic starting.

[FFCFOREVER]

In no particular order:

* I'm glad we lost like this because I hope it has taught Parker that this side is NOT good enough to compete in the Premiership
* Moving the ball sideways and backwards in the Premiership doesn't cut it.  It just allows the opposition time to set up and organise behind the ball and we cannot create any chances, we need to be direct.  Several times in the first half, Kebano burnt Odoi by not passing to him on the overlap and just going backwards again.
* Conversely, we are NOT good enough to play out from the back in this league, we don't have the same time on the ball.
* Mitro needs support.  Kamara is not the answer.
*  We have about 5-6 players who would not start for any other Premiership side (Odoi, Ream, Hector, Kamara, BDR, Kebano - I only exclude Cav from this because he has played in the Prem for another side).

On the flip side, I thought Anguissa provided something different when he came on.  He had a certain dynamism and energy with and without the ball.  Perhaps even more impressively, he looked to play the ball forward at times as well. 

I think we've learned that Cairney CANNOT play the deep lying role in the Prem.  He needs to be further up the pitch in support of Mitro.

For me we should drop Cairney for Anguissa and Cavaleiro/AK for Mitro. Need another winger and cb.

I suppose Areola will come in but I don't lay too much blame on Rodak, apart from the 2nd goal that went through his legs.

Anguissa didn't work anywhere near hard enough today, certainly not enough to get in ahead of Cairney

is that a joke?

Eh?? Maybe I was watching a different game.

[Deeping_white]

In no particular order:

* I'm glad we lost like this because I hope it has taught Parker that this side is NOT good enough to compete in the Premiership
* Moving the ball sideways and backwards in the Premiership doesn't cut it.  It just allows the opposition time to set up and organise behind the ball and we cannot create any chances, we need to be direct.  Several times in the first half, Kebano burnt Odoi by not passing to him on the overlap and just going backwards again.
* Conversely, we are NOT good enough to play out from the back in this league, we don't have the same time on the ball.
* Mitro needs support.  Kamara is not the answer.
*  We have about 5-6 players who would not start for any other Premiership side (Odoi, Ream, Hector, Kamara, BDR, Kebano - I only exclude Cav from this because he has played in the Prem for another side).

On the flip side, I thought Anguissa provided something different when he came on.  He had a certain dynamism and energy with and without the ball.  Perhaps even more impressively, he looked to play the ball forward at times as well. 

I think we've learned that Cairney CANNOT play the deep lying role in the Prem.  He needs to be further up the pitch in support of Mitro.

For me we should drop Cairney for Anguissa and Cavaleiro/AK for Mitro. Need another winger and cb.

I suppose Areola will come in but I don't lay too much blame on Rodak, apart from the 2nd goal that went through his legs.

Anguissa didn't work anywhere near hard enough today, certainly not enough to get in ahead of Cairney

is that a joke?

Eh?? Maybe I was watching a different game.

Mitro and Frank made a massive difference when they came on. Frank can actually hold players off him whereas Tom can't. At this level there's no point having TC because we're not going to dominate games, play a proper box to box midfielder instead and give us a bigger presence, we need our midfielders driving forward at pace to make things happen, whereas TC's first thought is to stop and make a 5 yard pass or knock it to a full back

[Nero]

Think Hectors got a bit of baby brain

[itombomb]

I think at this level AK is still very useful, and is our back-up to Mitro unless we play a false 9, but realistically he's someone to bring off the bench when defences have already put a shift in, rather than start as a wide forward.

[Sgt Fulham]

Only at Fulham is losing 3-0 to Arsenal considered a decent performance. Genuinely found that game a bit upsetting because of the performance rather than the scoreline.

We watched a completely different game. The performance wasn't bad I thought. The scoreline flatters Arsenal.

I respect your opinion, let's agree to disagree though.

[Tonywa]

Of todays team the only ones to feature in the game vs Leeds are Hector Cairney, in spite of their poor games, Reed, Mitro, Zambo, & Onomah. GK is a toss up. Tete, Robinson, Aina & possibly Knockaert to come in.

thought josh was poor I'd drop him for lemina

Quite agree. Onomah looked totally out of his depth and Zambo made a big difference.  Odoi and Ream just as they were two seasons ago and Hector made some horrible errors.  Was almost longing for Mawson.

[bog]

I agree. Last time up, at times, we looked a disinterested rabble. But not today. We were up against a very good side. All is not lost.

092.gif   

[Sting of the North]

 :plus one:

[Lyle from Hangeland]

Well done to the players for sticking together as a team. In a difficult game, no one gave up. We didn't have enough in any department to give ourselves a chance of picking up one point, let alone three, but thankfully not every team has a striker as good as Aubameyang. I hope the players don't feel too down. I'm sure Scott will work to put us in a stronger position to compete for the points for next week. We are capable of getting something if the players don't let their belief take too much of a knock.

Today was a tough beginning, but overall, in my view, the team deserve more praise than criticism.

Well said.

[VamosFFC]

Yes, I thought we actually had an OK game. We weren't played off the pitch or anything like that. Arsenal just took their opportunities and converted them. We also played our passing game quite well I thought against a good team like Arsenal, but once we got into the attacking third we have no outlets. That's one of the areas we really need to improve in.

[Tabby]

We have no idea how to go forward as a team. Our front 4 was only standing still when the defenders or Reed/Cairney had the ball in their feet.

Better when Zambo and Mitro came in, but still lot of room for imporvment.

For all that people are high on Parker, attacking play has been a constant issue even in the championship. Not sure why anyone would expect that to change with promotion.

Oh well, on to the next game.

[ChesterTheTabby]

Wonderful spirit, here here!!!

[SuffolkWhite]

Well done to the players for sticking together as a team. In a difficult game, no one gave up. We didn't have enough in any department to give ourselves a chance of picking up one point, let alone three, but thankfully not every team has a striker as good as Aubameyang. I hope the players don't feel too down. I'm sure Scott will work to put us in a stronger position to compete for the points for next week. We are capable of getting something if the players don't let their belief take too much of a knock.

Today was a tough beginning, but overall, in my view, the team deserve more praise than criticism.

Stay positive,  it's one game :54:

[PaulJ123]

Think it's time to look past the rose tinted glasses and realise that Kebano isn't and won't be up to PL standard.

Could do with a new, quick winger in the next week. Let's hope Boetius joins.

[fulhamben]

Think it's time to look past the rose tinted glasses and realise that Kebano isn't and won't be up to PL standard.

Could do with a new, quick winger in the next week. Let's hope Boetius joins.

a new winger would be fantastic. But I'd also like to see if Kebano looks better when we have a better midfield 3 and mitro up top. That will make a huge difference

[FFC1987]

I know we lost, and I didn't get to watch today (I play football myself and had a 12:30 KO in which we won our opening league game 5.1!!!) but i'm glad to see some positivity amongst the vocal minority moaning after one game. I must admit, when I saw the team, I expected a loss but from what comments are being said, we didn't just quit but were just beaten by a better team. Lots of positives with new players coming into this team!

[Bassey the warrior]

Ream > Hector today....Hector had a horrible game today!

We definitely need to get a quality CB in, but for all the Ream bashers, he actually had quite a good game. Maybe not the defense collectively, but Ream himself I thought looked good.

They both need upgrading if we're being brutally honest but with Tony looking for CBs we'll be lucky to get 1.   


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Hector is good enough to start. Had a fairly good first half but poor second. Let's give him a chance.