Vinicius: Why?

[nwg]

Last week, I posted essentially the same comment: you cannot win playing 9 men, and Vinicius remains a -1. After his kick-out, he is lucky not to have put the squad down an actual man.

As others pointed out last week, Marco is clearly uncomfortable fielding an XI without a 'big' 'striker', but the lack of movement in the final third - save Andres's positive work rate today - has only exacerbated Vini's inept presence. Is there a stat for 'entered passes that do not stick'? He is just clueless how to position himself and ward off the defender that he knows he coming through his back, so every ball given to him has been dispossessed on contact.

Jedi's 100-yard crosses have not helped...but maybe he has purposefully been overshooting Vini.

[Rightwhite]

Yes agree. Don't wanna see him in a Fulham shirt ever again.

[nwg]

More subs...and Vinicius remains on the pitch: galling.

[Rj Fulham]

Are we going to see this thread at the end of every game now?

[Macu]

Still better than Robinson's and Cedric's crossing. The truth is that we were terrible in creating chances for him. The same situation as with Mitro two years ago.

[TC's Sporran]

pereira does run around but he goes for glory too much, shooting numerous times when its not really on and attempting dribbles and getting dispossessed. pass and move keep possession and play someone in better placed to shoot.

[alfie]

I was more concerned that both Tete and Diop on the bench, that was a mystery.

[KentFulham]

Sack him basically - Totally useless.

We do also need to accept at some point we need an alternative system to compete higher up the table, one where we include depth upfront, players that can play in more than one system

[Pluto]

We don't have any other options. Massive error not to recall Muniz or get another striker in the January window

[KentFulham]

Still better than Robinson's and Cedric's crossing. The truth is that we were terrible in creating chances for him. The same situation as with Mitro two years ago.

You really are being too kind, even when passed straight at him he has the touch of an elephant

[Lighthouse]

It wasn't his fault we scored an own goal or nearly gave away a second through sloppy defending. Or had countless crosses that went nowhere near a Fulham player. So keep on blaming him by all means. But remember he wasn't the reason we keep on losing and playing badly.

I am amazed our coach lacks ideas. It is not as if Mitro has been fit all season and yet we have no plan B. We can dominate possession and have shots but clear chances are non existent.

[Black and White Town]

I've been willing to give him time to show what he's got. He's done that now, and what he's got is...

... not much.

Totally useless today. Didn't jump for anything in the air, didn't challenge much for first and second balls, hardly ever in the right position.

We'd be better off without him on the pitch and have another attacking midfielder.

[Deeping_white]

I'm assuming because of the speed of some of these posts you lot weren't at the game. I was there and I can tell you in real time he had so much space and we kept passing the ball wide for some rubbish crosses rather than playing the ball into his feet. The two times we actually thought about it and played it to his feet we created two chances. Being a target man isn't his strengths so why we insist on putting crap crosses vaguely in his direction is entirely the fault of the coaching team

[SerbianLad]

I think he shouldn't start in our next game, but to be fair to him, he did create our best chance, which Andreas really had to take.


Also as others have said, crosses have mostly been very poor. Apart from one cross Cedric made in the first half and that Tosin chance in the second, I can't remember any good crosses. Robinson has once again been paeticularly poor at them. Great athlete and has mostly been good defensively this season, but I don't think I know anyone who has worse crossing ability.

[LC]

I'm assuming because of the speed of some of these posts you lot weren't at the game. I was there and I can tell you in real time he had so much space and we kept passing the ball wide for some rubbish crosses rather than playing the ball into his feet. The two times we actually thought about it and played it to his feet we created two chances. Being a target man isn't his strengths so why we insist on putting crap crosses vaguely in his direction is entirely the fault of the coaching team

I don't like criticising players but when you play the ball into Vinicius it never sticks. He did a couple of good things today but he didn't offer much outside of the two chances you mentioned. Personally, I would give one of our academy players a chance.

It's clear we need to bring in more forwards in the summer 

[LittleErn]

I'm assuming because of the speed of some of these posts you lot weren't at the game. I was there and I can tell you in real time he had so much space and we kept passing the ball wide for some rubbish crosses rather than playing the ball into his feet. The two times we actually thought about it and played it to his feet we created two chances. Being a target man isn't his strengths so why we insist on putting crap crosses vaguely in his direction is entirely the fault of the coaching team

Why do you think they don't pass to his feet? I suspect they have lost confidence in his ability to hold the ball or do something attacking with it. I agree that being a target man isn't his strength, but I struggle to see what is.

[ffc73]

This is a guy starved of service & when he creates a gilt edged chance for Pereira the latter fluffs it.

We are pedestrian in our build up, predictable in our attacks & cannot cross. But by all means blame Vini.

Any striker would struggle with the lack of chances we are creating.

[KentFulham]

I'm assuming because of the speed of some of these posts you lot weren't at the game. I was there and I can tell you in real time he had so much space and we kept passing the ball wide for some rubbish crosses rather than playing the ball into his feet. The two times we actually thought about it and played it to his feet we created two chances. Being a target man isn't his strengths so why we insist on putting crap crosses vaguely in his direction is entirely the fault of the coaching team

I was at the game and I can't see what his strength is at all?

[Deeping_white]

I'm assuming because of the speed of some of these posts you lot weren't at the game. I was there and I can tell you in real time he had so much space and we kept passing the ball wide for some rubbish crosses rather than playing the ball into his feet. The two times we actually thought about it and played it to his feet we created two chances. Being a target man isn't his strengths so why we insist on putting crap crosses vaguely in his direction is entirely the fault of the coaching team

Why do you think they don't pass to his feet? I suspect they have lost confidence in his ability to hold the ball or do something attacking with it. I agree that being a target man isn't his strength, but I struggle to see what is.

He's perfectly fine being given a normal pass into his feet (I.E last week against Bournemouth where he was able to basically set our goal up) but most of the time the players stuck to our really stupid strategy of get it to a full back who floats in a crap cross to the back post over his head. Again the two occasions we gave him a half decent pass he could control, something actually happened.

[Twig]

We don't have any other options. Massive error not to recall Muniz or get another striker in the January window

It wasn't an error because we aren't allowed to recall Muniz, or Stansfield or anyone else once we have entered into a loan arrangement (outside of the transfer window).