Bassey

[Al-Fayed]

Diop is a clumsy Championship player bereft of any ability on the ball. We've got three other centre backs much better than him, thankfully.

[Ronnief]

It's highly likely that both Iwobi and Bassey will not return to the UK until Thursday. If they win the final today I expect the Nigerian team will return to Nigeria for celebrations.

[jayffc]

Diop is a clumsy Championship player bereft of any ability on the ball. We've got three other centre backs much better than him, thankfully.

Thats out of left field, on the whole he's been good for us.

Hes definately a premier league player, he has the odd lapse but far less than Tosin for a start who frequently gets caught out a couple times a game. It'll

[Angus Telford]

Diop is a clumsy Championship player bereft of any ability on the ball. We've got three other centre backs much better than him, thankfully.

He's probably our weakest CB in possession.

But he's a much better defender than Ream, probably better than Tosin too when we don't have the ball.

Don't know where that puts him overall. Probably joint 3rd/4th choice with Ream.

"Championship player" is nonsense.

[ffcthereligion]

Yes he is. Grow up

You grow up

Haha sorry Perry couple of shandy's last night and couldn't help it after seeing yet another Cairney/Ream Perry post!

I retract the grow up comment and will endeavour to do so myself

[bobbo]

Yes he is. Grow up

You grow up

now now there's a corner you could both stand in ( by the cottage )

[hovewhite]

In general diop is a quality defender in possession not as good as ream ,he's still
Influential in our side.
Bassey successor to ream whilst if tosin goes another RCB replacement needed.

[alfie]

Tbf, Tim Ream had a very good game today. Apart from his excellent (or so it seemed from the Hammy End) defensive game, his great interception and astute pass to BDR led to the first all-important goal. Whether he or Bassey starts when Bassey returns remains to be seen. (I guess Villa will be too soon for Bassey anyway, maybe bench at most)

Not sure why it would be too soon, he has only been doing what he does every week, playing football.

[filham]

We've missed Bassey and Iwobi. Both are nailed on starters.

Silva has a habit of gradually easing in players who have been out of the team for any length of time.
I think you may find Bassy limited to 30 minutes off the bench against Villa.

[Chi_FFC]

It's highly likely that both Iwobi and Bassey will not return to the UK until Thursday. If they win the final today I expect the Nigerian team will return to Nigeria for celebrations.

Still think they would be back Tuesday night or Wednesday at the latest. If they do return to Nigeria for a victory celebration my guess is they'd fly in and have some kind of parade tomorrow (which is what Senegal did in 2022). The players have been gone for over a month in the middle of the season from clubs who pay them a lot of money and everyone involved knows they need to get back asap.   

[Somerset Fulham]

If Bassey doesn't get hurt tomorrow he should absolutely start next Saturday, especially considering we're facing a top side in Villa. Tim was fine today (motm/world class performance...you're having a laugh!) but Bassey is a considerably better defender and his pace and physicality have been sorely missed since he's been gone. He also gives Robinson more freedom to get forward.

Would you ever play a back three?

Tactically does that even make sense/work for us?

I think we did yesterday, when FBR came on.  It looked to me as though Robinson moved into the left of a three, but equally I could have misread that.

[btffc]

If Bassey doesn't get hurt tomorrow he should absolutely start next Saturday, especially considering we're facing a top side in Villa. Tim was fine today (motm/world class performance...you're having a laugh!) but Bassey is a considerably better defender and his pace and physicality have been sorely missed since he's been gone. He also gives Robinson more freedom to get forward.

Would you ever play a back three?

Tactically does that even make sense/work for us?

I think we did yesterday, when FBR came on.  It looked to me as though Robinson moved into the left of a three, but equally I could have misread that.

We did play a back 3/5 yesterday and have done so several times this season while protecting leads at the end of games. Only time it was ever sort of attempted from the start was against Arsenal when Bobby played like a wingback of sorts and dropped to the backline when Arsenal was in possession. I think we also tried to play similarly against Liverpool away in the cup game but it didn't work quite as well against them because they don't really sit in the final third in possession. They play much more direct so having Bobby settle into the backline didn't happen much.

I don't think playing a back 3/5 really makes much sense for us except in certain situations when we are protecting a lead late or when we play top teams who will dominate possession like City or Arsenal. One of the issues is we are quite a poor counterattacking team because we have almost no pace in our attacking players. Though the return of Adama and the addition of Broja may change that some.

[Carborundum]

Touch tight all game to salanke today.

He had a great game, best he's played for a while. Did a couple of things in possession that were out of the very top draw.  Won his personal battle.

There's a reason he was tight to Solanke, which is that Solanke chooses to stand on him not Diop.  Solanke's not daft and knows that in a one on one, he's better off against Ream than the destructive Diop.  Bassey's a different proposition, one of the players of the tournament at AFCON.  There's surely no way we can yield up so many shots against us in our last two home games and not play him just as soon as he is ready.  We just play higher with him in the team, because we can.

One of the moments of the season for me was Bassey sending Origi into row C in a one on one foot/strength race early on in the game.  Broke Origi's will and the tackle that led to our goal against Arsenal was special too.

I've always admired Ream the man, sometimes despairing at Ream the player.  Whatever he is he's not the future and Bassey could be rather special.

Diop's a quiet destroyer. If he can just keep his distribution sensible, he's good value in the mix.  Big "if" though and he had a wobbly five minutes yesterday.

[perry geyton]

Yes he is. Grow up

You grow up

Haha sorry Perry couple of shandy's last night and couldn't help it after seeing yet another Cairney/Ream Perry post!

I retract the grow up comment and will endeavour to do so myself

All good mate I'd had a few myself

[copthornemike]

We have four quality, but not perfect, CBs and we have needed four quality CBs this season.
Tim Ream was quality today, but competition is a good thing.
He is not getting any younger so enjoy him while we can 👏

[Bassey the warrior]

I think Iwobi and Bassey will be given time to rest so will start from the bench for a bit

[Jim©]

Diop is a clumsy Championship player bereft of any ability on the ball. We've got three other centre backs much better than him, thankfully.

No doubt someone who has written off muniz and players like him in the past. He'd be the best defender in the championship by some.distance if he was playing there!

[SerbianLad]

Diop is a clumsy Championship player bereft of any ability on the ball. We've got three other centre backs much better than him, thankfully.

No doubt someone who has written off muniz and players like him in the past. He'd be the best defender in the championship by some.distance if he was playing there!

Apart from long balls, I'd personally put Diop ahead of all of our centrebacks, apart from maybe Bassey.

He makes some terrible mistakes from time to time, and unfortunately that's the only thing some people seemingly remember. There were multiple games this season where he was the best Fulham player or close to that.

One other underrated aspect of his game is the ability to play both the right and left centreback at a pretty similar level. Bassey and Ream, and to a lesser extent Tosin, all play significantly worse if they don't play on there prefered side.

[alfie]

I think Iwobi and Bassey will be given time to rest so will start from the bench for a bit

Why, they are only doing what they do every week here.

[Arthur]

Apart from long balls, I'd personally put Diop ahead of all of our centrebacks, apart from maybe Bassey.

He makes some terrible mistakes from time to time, and unfortunately that's the only thing some people seemingly remember. There were multiple games this season where he was the best Fulham player or close to that.

One other underrated aspect of his game is the ability to play both the right and left centreback at a pretty similar level. Bassey and Ream, and to a lesser extent Tosin, all play significantly worse if they don't play on there prefered side.

Wouldn't you say his ability to perform to a similar standard in either position is primarily because passing and carrying the ball forward is nowhere near as much a part of his game as it is Bassey's, Ream's or Tosin's? If Diop were trying to hit as many either lengthy or precise forward passes as our other centre-backs, I reckon he'd have a preferred side too.