Just unlucky!

[Nero]

For a bit of perspective some of the posters on this thread should bear in mind that we literally played Reading reserves today ,
Dress it up however you like, losing to Reading is a dreadful result.

I don't think anyone on here is suggesting this wasn't a dreadful result...We lost, and it sucks! However, albeit far from a top performance from us, I don't think we played all that poorly. We just didn't put away our chances which cost us today. Yes, one could argue this is the definition of playing poorly, and sure it could be put that way, but overall I don't think it's as bad as some are making it out to be. I'm not making any excuses, I just don't think it's time to panic yet.

Now, if in the next month or two this is the pattern, then maybe it's time to give thought to why this may be.

We're creating chances and fluffing them but It's the defending that worries me against the poor sides. We could have played poorly and won this 1 nil. We miss Tete badly and Mawson deserved to keep his place imo and I hope Bryan was injured as he should have played today after Brum. I remember someone on here saying that Mawson and Tosin could be a potential PL partnership if he can stay fit.

My worry is if Tosin keeps playing next to Odoi he'll end up like Hector double guessing himself to cover for him and end up losing it

[Luka]

25 shots, 5 on target but only 1 goal is not bad luck but terrible finishing.

Exactly, although hitting the woodwork twice IS unlucky

Hitting the woodwork is not unlucky unless the attempt on goal is deflected off onto the woodwork ...its a straight forward miss. Our finishing was poor.

[WindyCity]

I normally don't buy the 'unlucky' excuse.

You make your own luck or good fortune.  Being unlucky has nothing to do with our last couple of losses.  FFC simply wasn't good enough, particularly in the area of 'finishing'.  And opposing defenses collapsed and defended well enough and didn't allow FFC that much needed equalizer.

[ALG01]

we were never unlucky we were very poor
they had a simple plan to frustrate us and it worked perfectly. they were by far the better team and our stats mislead. loads of  crosses and shots but none of them really troubled the reading keeper, he was hardly troubled. our central midfield was shocking and cav and challobah were so poor in their speed of thinking. cav wasted so many good opportunities to make things happen by being selfish or foolish, take you pick, and chall, can he pass the ball further than 6 yards? can he pass quickly? I think not on yesterdays display.

we were not unlucky nwe were poor and the manager choosing to play bdr in a central role was a grave error when he has been so good on the left linking with robinson, cav looked like he hated robinson in that he never released him the ball unless it was an afterthought and way too late.

dreadful, not unlucky.

[WindyCity]

we were never unlucky we were very poor
they had a simple plan to frustrate us and it worked perfectly. they were by far the better team and our stats mislead. loads of  crosses and shots but none of them really troubled the reading keeper, he was hardly troubled. our central midfield was shocking and cav and challobah were so poor in their speed of thinking. cav wasted so many good opportunities to make things happen by being selfish or foolish, take you pick, and chall, can he pass the ball further than 6 yards? can he pass quickly? I think not on yesterdays display.
we were not unlucky nwe were poor and the manager choosing to play bdr in a central role was a grave error when he has been so good on the left linking with robinson, cav looked like he hated robinson in that he never released him the ball unless it was an afterthought and way too late.
dreadful, not unlucky.

Good critique, especially about Cav.  This is one of my biggest frustrations with him.....either too selfish or too stupid....but, I think he simply isn't 'good enough' in the sense he doesn't 'see' those opportunities that are presented.  He usually has any number of chances during a game to make a real nice play/pass, but it is never made.  Maybe he just doesn't see it or can react properly to it.  Has missed many Robinson overlap chances, like you said, maybe he doesn't like Robinson?  Anyway, Cav is who he is.  We've seen this sort of play over past couple of seasons.  You just have to accept his limitations I guess.....

[Guardian]

What has set Fulham apart  from the others sides, is that little piece of quality. Yesterday we huffed and puffed but lacked that little piece of craft to open up a well organised defence. In the first half we were being over run on our right, Odoi was having a tough half but to be fair he was getting very little support. The balance to midfield on this occasion did not work, was not sure if BDR was playing on the right of a 3 or a number 10 ? Wilson was excellent against Birmingham but i thought had a poor game, I thought we looked more threatening on the right when Kebano came on! All in all disappointing performance but no need to panic.

[AnOldBrownie]

See, you say that, but when we lose to Blackpool and Reading in 2/3 games, I'm not sure when we aren't supposed to be a bit negative? We've had a pretty harmless run with much harder to come and we find ourselves losing any gap we started to build and on same points as teams who have dropped in form ie Brom and on the same points as Coventry.

I'm not saying sack the manager,or that a wheels fallen off, but it's obvious we have a flat and it needs sorting. How a squad like this can go from losing to Blackpool as a blip, smashing Brummie to get the confidence and mentality growing, then lose to Reading at home abs finish like a team flirting around the relegation zone is beyond me. Players who have recently scored and started to show 'form' too. It's just beyond me.

You're not giving Reading and Blackpool enough credit.     They played defensively and it worked for them (and Reading were actually good with the ball at their feet).

To be fair...Manchester United can draw or lose to poor teams and still beat Chelsea 3 times in a season.  Why? Because smaller teams will sit back and wait for their opportunities to counter.   They are harder to open up (like Reading and Blackpool) while Huddersfield was wide open. Hopefully the likes of Bournemouth won't sit back and look to hit us on the counter.


OT:  imo counter attacking teams are the worst teams to play Seri in the holding mid spot.   He may be able to put in a tackle, but he is NOT a defender and he doesn't have pace.   I'd play Chalobah in that role against the likes of Reading and Blackpool.   Then Onamah or Reed further up the pitch.

[AJW48361]

At least I'm looking forward to attending games again certainly a better and more entertaining watch.