We'd have won that if....

[Somerset Fulham]

I can only think of one and he made the keeper work, although it was a weak attempt.

Not his best game, agreed but I also think he was lacking service.

[bog]

Why did Lukic and not Harrison Reed come on? Is Harrison not 100%?

And why did Jimemez try to score from 40 yards when Willian was clear and unmarked on the right?

We missed the player we have mot replaced.

Painful once again.   

[WolverineFFC]

TC is going to struggle against athletic central midfields. That's not a revelation. This was a 0-0 game if not for a silly error by Diop. Chelsea barely created anything either. Strange to pick out TC as the issue here.

The broadcast made the key point to me. Andreas has 1 goal this season in the league. The team needs more than that from their number 10 or they will continue to struggle for results away from home.

To clarify my position; I don't think Cairney was "the issue" today but he didn't play as well as he has been doing recently. He wasn't given time or room to shift the ball on to his favoured left foot and that nullified him and forced him into more errors than he usually makes. I think "the issue" today was that the attack never functioned. We rarely looked like creating any clear chances and were unable to maintain pressure to push Chelsea on to the defensive. That may be a function of the lack of recovery time after Liverpool. It was also because we lacked the energy of Iwobi and his forward runs. It should also be said that the midfield failed to gain enough possession to create forward pressure. We definitely need reinforcements in this window if we are going to progress from a sound first half of the season.

My post was more about the OP's statement. Seemed strange to go at TC and laud Connor Gallagher. I actually like both players, but if you had switched them today the result would have been the same.

Fulham have a creativity, athleticism gap without Iwobi in attack. As Matt10 noted, having another player in his style could go along way for the club which explains the Andre attention IMO.

[Luka]

Our squad is thread bear and not helped by AFCON.
If all we can bring on is Lukic and Muniz, then we are always going to under achieve.

On Lukic, he is quite possibly the slowest player I have seen at this level.
Struggling to understand how he gets to wear a 1st team Fulham shirt.

[S.F.Sorrow]

...we had at least one CB capable of playing out from the back under pressure. Tosin in particular is a liability against high-pressing teams.

[KJS]

Blah Blah Blah same criticism of a team that played in a huge semi final less than 64 hours ago, didn't get back until 2am on Thursday, are missing 2 key players in Iwobi and Bassey and yet had chances through the game and had the Referee and VAR done their job then we would have been playing against 10 men (if not 9)

We have a break to recharge now after an extensive run of Difficult games, long way to go and in our 1st semi final since 2002, if all have to worry about is today's result then count yourself lucky.
COYW

[Southcoastffc]

TC is going to struggle against athletic central midfields. That's not a revelation. This was a 0-0 game if not for a silly error by Diop. Chelsea barely created anything either. Strange to pick out TC as the issue here.

The broadcast made the key point to me. Andreas has 1 goal this season in the league. The team needs more than that from their number 10 or they will continue to struggle for results away from home.

To clarify my position; I don't think Cairney was "the issue" today but he didn't play as well as he has been doing recently. He wasn't given time or room to shift the ball on to his favoured left foot and that nullified him and forced him into more errors than he usually makes. I think "the issue" today was that the attack never functioned. We rarely looked like creating any clear chances and were unable to maintain pressure to push Chelsea on to the defensive. That may be a function of the lack of recovery time after Liverpool. It was also because we lacked the energy of Iwobi and his forward runs. It should also be said that the midfield failed to gain enough possession to create forward pressure. We definitely need reinforcements in this window if we are going to progress from a sound first half of the season.

My post was more about the OP's statement. Seemed strange to go at TC and laud Connor Gallagher. I actually like both players, but if you had switched them today the result would have been the same.

Fulham have a creativity, athleticism gap without Iwobi in attack. As Matt10 noted, having another player in his style could go along way for the club which explains the Andre attention IMO.

That was exactly my point in making the OP. If we'd had Gallagher's energy and direction instead of an off the boil TC who frequently conceded possession today I think we would have won.

[WindyCity]

I'm not sure, we'll never know, if results v Liverpool and Chelsea would have been any different, but lacking Iwobi and Bassey impacts this team.  Cap tip to the lads for trying and putting in good effort, but coming away empty handed is very frustrating and disappointing.....

[Angus Telford]

Agree with Wolverine.

Gallagher is, and today showed that he is, a bang average, mid-table PL player. Definitely no better than Cairney. He'd be a good squad player for a mid-table team like us but would struggle to make our starting XI with any regularity IMO.

[WolverineFFC]

Agree with Wolverine.

Gallagher is, and today showed that he is, a bang average, mid-table PL player. Definitely no better than Cairney. He'd be a good squad player for a mid-table team like us but would struggle to make our starting XI with any regularity IMO.

I actually like Gallagher. Have since I saw him in the Championship with Swansea. He's a younger, bigger, faster version of Harrison Reed. Fulham would do great to have him in the side for games like Liverpool this past week. The issue is he isn't "40 million transfer fee" great. And he isn't a particularly creative player which was the issue for both squads today. I think we agree on that though.

[Sting of the North]

He's had two good moments in two games, that's it !! watching him doing circles all day embarrassing.
  harrison Reed should start every single game.

One of the worst takes I've seen here. TC has dominated many games this season, and been playing well in almost all of them. Reed has had what, one good half and a bunch of average to poor performances (he was slightly better last season though).

Didn't see anything today for which Reed felt like a solution. Our pressing and defense was fine, our creativity and ball retention wasn't on top. Reed is the opposite to a solution for that problem.

[KentFulham]

We would be top of the league if we had played much better this season

[HV71]

He's had two good moments in two games, that's it !! watching him doing circles all day embarrassing.
  harrison Reed should start every single game.

One of the worst takes I've seen here. TC has dominated many games this season, and been playing well in almost all of them. Reed has had what, one good half and a bunch of average to poor performances (he was slightly better last season though).

Didn't see anything today for which Reed felt like a solution. Our pressing and defense was fine, our creativity and ball retention wasn't on top. Reed is the opposite to a solution for that problem.

Bad take on TC - I totally agree but your ( ever present)  blind spot with regards to Harrison Reed is also way off the mark . In my opinion of course.

[hopper]

Agree with Wolverine.

Gallagher is, and today showed that he is, a bang average, mid-table PL player. Definitely no better than Cairney. He'd be a good squad player for a mid-table team like us but would struggle to make our starting XI with any regularity IMO.

Cairney has been great this season but he was really poor today I thought. We clearly need to improve our depth at midfield as Lukic hasn't worked out at all.

[Palhinha Colada]

I thought we made a lot of tired plays -- bad decisions given multiple options and bad execution on opportunities. Tack on giving away a penalty in really stupid fashion, and we get a 1-0 defeat.

We played pretty well, to my eyes, and I think we deserved a point from it, but our wastefulness once again unwinds a largely good performance on the road given the quick turnaround.

[Sting of the North]

He's had two good moments in two games, that's it !! watching him doing circles all day embarrassing.
  harrison Reed should start every single game.

One of the worst takes I've seen here. TC has dominated many games this season, and been playing well in almost all of them. Reed has had what, one good half and a bunch of average to poor performances (he was slightly better last season though).

Didn't see anything today for which Reed felt like a solution. Our pressing and defense was fine, our creativity and ball retention wasn't on top. Reed is the opposite to a solution for that problem.

Bad take on TC - I totally agree but your ( ever present)  blind spot with regards to Harrison Reed is also way off the mark . In my opinion of course.

Yes, I'm sure he's had the odd good game this season that I've forgot. But I remember many, many games where he's been somewhere between poor and average.

I'm aware that I am biased against him, but I honestly thinks he's a very average player at this level. I also think he's been worse this year than last, and I assume Silva agrees since he's generally preferred TC for quite some time now. I wouldn't call it a blind spot, just a preference.

So I'm not saying that Reed is useless, just not very good. In my opinion.

Happy for others to disagree.

[HV71]

He's had two good moments in two games, that's it !! watching him doing circles all day embarrassing.
  harrison Reed should start every single game.

One of the worst takes I've seen here. TC has dominated many games this season, and been playing well in almost all of them. Reed has had what, one good half and a bunch of average to poor performances (he was slightly better last season though).

Didn't see anything today for which Reed felt like a solution. Our pressing and defense was fine, our creativity and ball retention wasn't on top. Reed is the opposite to a solution for that problem.

Bad take on TC - I totally agree but your ( ever present)  blind spot with regards to Harrison Reed is also way off the mark . In my opinion of course.

Yes, I'm sure he's had the odd good game this season that I've forgot. But I remember many, many games where he's been somewhere between poor and average.

I'm aware that I am biased against him, but I honestly thinks he's a very average player at this level. I also think he's been worse this year than last, and I assume Silva agrees since he's generally preferred TC for quite some time now. I wouldn't call it a blind spot, just a preference.

So I'm not saying that Reed is useless, just not very good. In my opinion.

Happy for others to disagree.

Good man 👍

[colinwhite]

a decent ,hard working performance against a side full of talent. Proud of the the team and some comments on this thread ...... embarrassing frankly.we fought until the end and 1 mistake cost us. we threatened them all game .They have a good defense .
To criticise TC is staggering and not worthy of the discussion.

[Angus Telford]

Agree with Wolverine.

Gallagher is, and today showed that he is, a bang average, mid-table PL player. Definitely no better than Cairney. He'd be a good squad player for a mid-table team like us but would struggle to make our starting XI with any regularity IMO.

Cairney has been great this season but he was really poor today I thought. We clearly need to improve our depth at midfield as Lukic hasn't worked out at all.

In fairness I don't think there's much between them. Cairney is better technically IMO, but Gallagher brings a bit more energy. Wouldn't object to seeing either in a Fulham shirt, but if we showed some ambition and had of midfield of say Andre, Palinha and Iwobi, neither Gallagher nor Cairney would get in the team.

[Nick Bateman]

Leno is a terrific goalkeeper but absolutely hopeless on penalties. Palmer's pen was poor yet Leno dived out of the way! Somebody has to coach him to wait for the ball to be kicked.