Bernd? Burnt.

[nwg]

Tete would have won that header.

My cat would have made that save.

Far too often, I find myself wondering if and why Leno is a top-flight keeper. Too often, a ball that seemingly every other #1 parries wide slips through his mitts, and he either reacts too slowly or does not communicate fast enough with his centerbacks.

Castagne. Why? I honestly cannot figure out why he is and has been the choice over Tete, barring the latter's injury spell. He is short, slow, and offers nothing offensively.

How can an individual who has done nothing but kick a ball around for twenty-odd years be totally incapable of kicking it with both feet? For all of Robinson's speed and work rate, his peg right leg is a constant handicap.

For all of his industry in the second half, Paulinha was hideous. The first half was perhaps his worst in a Fulham kit, one in which he did not complete a pass to a player in white, let alone the set-piece miss.

As a team, the most pathetic constant was the inability to move the ball through the middle third. From all four backliners, clearance headers and unchallenged advance passes were simple giveaways, over and over again.

And for all of that piss-poor play and lack of engagement in the first half, this leg was a draw. Imagine if Tete and Wilson had started and if JP had played his usual.

[Arthur]

Reading your post, I'm going to guess you were not at the game. If you had been, I think you would have a stronger sense of the dynamics of the evening and be be less critical of the performance.

We were up against a better team who scored early and took confidence from this, and the tie might easily have been beyond us by half-time. Sometimes in football, a team has to dig in. I felt we had to try not to lose before we could try to win. The players did that. We didn't have the quality in our ranks that our opponents did, but I thought every player tried his hardest. To restrict Liverpool's opportunities to put the tie to bed and score ourselves when we know we don't have the greatest of attacking threats is to the players' credit. My regret is that, with the clock ticking down, we didn't give our opponents a chance to press the 'panic button' by simply getting the ball, along with a couple of extra players, into the heart of Liverpool penalty area and try to cause a melee.

Your criticism, to my mind, is both ill-timed and unduly harsh.

[Bassey the warrior]

Idiotic post. Firstly, it's PALHINHA!

Leno made a bad error, the double deflection seems to have distracted him. He more than made up for it with several excellent saves.

We'll never know if Tete would've stopped Diaz, I feel he had a better chance though. His recovery speed over short distances and slide tackling is very good. This is why I wanted him to start.

Robinson did well, why the dig?

[colinwhite]

Entitled and unrealistic post. Are you a Chelsea fan ? Sounds like it to me.

[bencher]

The OP is nuts and clearly doesn't remember the dross of the days of Bodurov, Hoogland, not to mention the early to mid 90s. We didn't play particularly well but how nice to be a relatively solid PL team that can go deep in domestic cups.

[Holders]

From some of the OP's spelling and phraseology, he doesn't seem to from the UK and one wonders about his knowledge of football.

No offence intended to our knowledgeable overseas posters.

[bill taylors apprentice]

As you say let's "imagine"!

Lets imagine we were playing a team at the bottom of the division, not the top of the table who are playing their best football.

[KJS]

Tete would have won that header.

My cat would have made that save.

Far too often, I find myself wondering if and why Leno is a top-flight keeper. Too often, a ball that seemingly every other #1 parries wide slips through his mitts, and he either reacts too slowly or does not communicate fast enough with his centerbacks.

Castagne. Why? I honestly cannot figure out why he is and has been the choice over Tete, barring the latter's injury spell. He is short, slow, and offers nothing offensively.

How can an individual who has done nothing but kick a ball around for twenty-odd years be totally incapable of kicking it with both feet? For all of Robinson's speed and work rate, his peg right leg is a constant handicap.

For all of his industry in the second half, Paulinha was hideous. The first half was perhaps his worst in a Fulham kit, one in which he did not complete a pass to a player in white, let alone the set-piece miss.

As a team, the most pathetic constant was the inability to move the ball through the middle third. From all four backliners, clearance headers and unchallenged advance passes were simple giveaways, over and over again.

And for all of that piss-poor play and lack of engagement in the first half, this leg was a draw. Imagine if Tete and Wilson had started and if JP had played his usual.

Obviously an Arm Chair fan, Leno has been outstanding since he joined so you critism of him is totally out of order!!!

[fulhamfever]

I can sit here and bash my team, but truth is mate what could of been hey? We drew yesterday 1-1 and lost 1st leg 2-1. I cannot fault the players, Liverpool was the better team over the 2 legs. We had chances and didn't put them away, Newcastle United this Saturday so lets get it.

[bog]

Reading your post, I'm going to guess you were not at the game. If you had been, I think you would have a stronger sense of the dynamics of the evening and be be less critical of the performance.

We were up against a better team who scored early and took confidence from this, and the tie might easily have been beyond us by half-time. Sometimes in football, a team has to dig in. I felt we had to try not to lose before we could try to win. The players did that. We didn't have the quality in our ranks that our opponents did, but I thought every player tried his hardest. To restrict Liverpool's opportunities to put the tie to bed and score ourselves when we know we don't have the greatest of attacking threats is to the players' credit. My regret is that, with the clock ticking down, we didn't give our opponents a chance to press the 'panic button' by simply getting the ball, along with a couple of extra players, into the heart of Liverpool penalty area and try to cause a melee.

Your criticism, to my mind, is both ill-timed and unduly harsh.

+1 100%

[Rightwhite]

The fact the OP can't even call one of our players by his real name says it all about the nonsense post it actually is. It's a bloody insult to all genuine fans and the staff of FFC.

[Skatzoffc]

An unfortunate error from the usually excellent Leno.

Robinson one of the best players on the pitch imo.

We were up against the top of the league, playing in 4 competitions!
I thought we had a go at them and had a good run in the competition overall.

COYW!

 

[Kimbleman]

Idiotic post. Firstly, it's PALHINHA!

Leno made a bad error, the double deflection seems to have distracted him. He more than made up for it with several excellent saves.

We'll never know if Tete would've stopped Diaz, I feel he had a better chance though. His recovery speed over short distances and slide tackling is very good. This is why I wanted him to start.

Robinson did well, why the dig?

Also the double deflection put an unpredictable spin on the ball which I think was why it appeared to slip through his hands (it was also shiny wet). I think without the deflections he would have saved it.
So two of Liverpool's goals (the other being the huge deflection off Tosin's back in the first leg) were rather fortunate.
We are playing some great football so before overly criticising the team please just remember the shambles under Parker and previously Ranieri and give thanks to Marco for delivering us (by and large) some entertainment on the pitch.

[Deeping_white]

Castagne is taller than Tete but don't let facts get in the way of a troll-esque rant

[Bassey the warrior]

Idiotic post. Firstly, it's PALHINHA!

Leno made a bad error, the double deflection seems to have distracted him. He more than made up for it with several excellent saves.

We'll never know if Tete would've stopped Diaz, I feel he had a better chance though. His recovery speed over short distances and slide tackling is very good. This is why I wanted him to start.

Robinson did well, why the dig?

Also the double deflection put an unpredictable spin on the ball which I think was why it appeared to slip through his hands (it was also shiny wet). I think without the deflections he would have saved it.
So two of Liverpool's goals (the other being the huge deflection off Tosin's back in the first leg) were rather fortunate.
We are playing some great football so before overly criticising the team please just remember the shambles under Parker and previously Ranieri and give thanks to Marco for delivering us (by and large) some entertainment on the pitch.

Don't forget Felix Magath. That man was a loon and some of his squad selections were bizarre.

[Whitestone]

Leno was a fault for the Liverpool goal irrespective of the deflection. I was right behind it in the Hammy End and thought so at the time. That is also the general consensus in the media. Judging by his body language I'd say he thought so too.

Don't get me wrong, Leno has been magnificent for us overall and I'm fully behind him but that's not the first goal he should have saved in recent weeks. Take a look at Bournemouth's first goal. If anything that mistake was even worse.

[S.F.Sorrow]

Leno's insane stats last season strongly suggested that he overperformed.

This season we are perhaps starting to see why Arsenal let him go, but he is still a VERY good GK and we're lucky to have him. Maybe he should have saved that shot last night but the double deflection made very it difficult for him.

As for the rest of our players... We lost marginally to one of the best teams in the world. Possibly THE best team in the world at the moment, with resources we can only dream of. There's absolutely no shame in that.

[Surlyc]

What an absolutely bizarre rant. You don't think Leno is a top flight keeper? Have you actually ever been to a game of top flight football?

We played Liverpool, they are a good side. It is not like we struggled to break down Tranmere.

[filham]

First of all lets be clear that Fulham put up a good show in losing that Cup tie by only the odd goal, Liverpool were under pressure at the end of the match and were pleased to hear the final whistle.
OK we had a few bad moments in defense but then we were playing a top team,
Our real weakness was as usual in attack and in only scoring that single goal at home. We really need more bite in the box and that problem needs to be addressed in the next week while the transfer window is open.

[RaySmith]

Leno, distracted by two deflections, actually got a hand to the ball, pushed it onto the post, though it obviously went in.
Not as easy a save as it might seem, plus look at how he saved us on other occasions in the game, and his performance throughout the season.

The OP seems a WUM, hard to take such a post seriously - not a Fulham supporter anyway.