What's happened to Bassey?

[SerbianLad]

Can anyone say specifically what to look for in reviewing the "he is worse than last season"? Do you mean in the build-up, in defense, both? Every single post is so generic and everyone is just agreeing without anyone providing any type of context or examples.

He's a bit erratic at the moment. I do think he's been okay overall, but he's been our worst defender by a country mile. He's overcommitting and then he either makes a foul or the opponent goes through. He's not winning as many duels as he used to(stats back this up too, 1.91 to 0.67 tackles per game or sometthing like that, as an example of this) and he makes passing mistakes in very dangerous areas. His mistakes against Manchester United and against Leicester should have been punished with a goal and he was lucky that both teams managed to mess it up.

I still think he'll return to his best this season and be one of our key players, but I wonder if it might be time to give someone else a chance and let Bassey back in the 11 later.

[hovewhite]

Can anyone say specifically what to look for in reviewing the "he is worse than last season"? Do you mean in the build-up, in defense, both? Every single post is so generic and everyone is just agreeing without anyone providing any type of context or examples.

He's a bit erratic at the moment. I do think he's been okay overall, but he's been our worst defender by a country mile. He's overcommitting and then he either makes a foul or the opponent goes through. He's not winning as many duels as he used to(stats back this up too, 1.91 to 0.67 tackles per game or sometthing like that, as an example of this) and he makes passing mistakes in very dangerous areas. His mistakes against Manchester United and against Leicester should have been punished with a goal and he was lucky that both teams managed to mess it up.

I still think he'll return to his best this season and be one of our key players, but I wonder if it might be time to give someone else a chance and let Bassey back in the 11 later.

quite possibly not motivated now the legend Ream has left.i would ship Diop to the left and play Anderson on the Right side as Diop has been brilliant so far.

[AJW48361]

I think he switches off sometimes and can get out of position. Ipswich got behind us to easily especially 2nd Half.

[WindyCity]

Yeah, Bassey seems a bit off so far.  I'm a little more concerned about Iwobi being off so far this season.  One of my favorite players from last season, but so far this season has not impressed.  Hope both these players come good again, and soon.....

[Matt10]

Can anyone say specifically what to look for in reviewing the "he is worse than last season"? Do you mean in the build-up, in defense, both? Every single post is so generic and everyone is just agreeing without anyone providing any type of context or examples.

He's a bit erratic at the moment. I do think he's been okay overall, but he's been our worst defender by a country mile. He's overcommitting and then he either makes a foul or the opponent goes through. He's not winning as many duels as he used to(stats back this up too, 1.91 to 0.67 tackles per game or sometthing like that, as an example of this) and he makes passing mistakes in very dangerous areas. His mistakes against Manchester United and against Leicester should have been punished with a goal and he was lucky that both teams managed to mess it up.

I still think he'll return to his best this season and be one of our key players, but I wonder if it might be time to give someone else a chance and let Bassey back in the 11 later.

I haven't rewatched those two matches, but genuinely what was wrong with Ipswich? He won his duels, he bullied a couple different players. Won headers. Distribution was good enough. Even on the goal we scored his curling low pass to Iwobi was brilliant, then the switch to Tete was smart.

I just got done rewatching the Ipswich match to review Pereira's play and again, I'm just not seeing these things with Bassey that are mentioned. I know some don't have the ability/time to rewatch the match - but I'd like to find these moments that makes supporters feel the way they do.

Again,I apologize if I seem confrontational. I'm just seeing a recurring theme both here (not this specific thread) and Twitter of an echo chamber and ganging up on players with no actual evidence or examples that would make someone think a certain way about a player. I feel general statements are just being suggested - and the power of suggestion is exactly that, powerful. 

[HV71]

Good post( as are your assessments on the other Ipswich match threads) .We have long needed a matchday thread entitled" Scapegoat Corner " or "precipice" might be more apt as we always want to throw someone over the edge when we lose.

I'm guilty of it myself - it's the passion and hope that kills and frustrates you . Rational behaviour goes out the window and that is why I try not to post on what I see as poor performances from players

Your analytical approach is therefore a breath of fresh air - thank you

[SerbianLad]

I haven't rewatched those two matches, but genuinely what was wrong with Ipswich? He won his duels, he bullied a couple different players. Won headers. Distribution was good enough. Even on the goal we scored his curling low pass to Iwobi was brilliant, then the switch to Tete was smart.

I just got done rewatching the Ipswich match to review Pereira's play and again, I'm just not seeing these things with Bassey that are mentioned. I know some don't have the ability/time to rewatch the match - but I'd like to find these moments that makes supporters feel the way they do.

Again,I apologize if I seem confrontational. I'm just seeing a recurring theme both here (not this specific thread) and Twitter of an echo chamber and ganging up on players with no actual evidence or examples that would make someone think a certain way about a player. I feel general statements are just being suggested - and the power of suggestion is exactly that, powerful. 

Don't know exactly when it happened, but I remember commenting on the match thread how he made a similar mistake to the Manxhester United one and how he got lucky again. Apart from that mistake he was okay, and he was better at Ipswich than against Manchester United, but he just didn't seem as comanding as he was last season or as comanding as Diop has been this season. Something just seems off. Or at least that's my opinion, I understand we may view things differently.

[alfie]

Why are footballers considered different from the rest of us, we all make mistakes

[Chi_FFC]

Last season when Tosin wouldn't sign a contract I was one of a number of people that said we should be playing Diop so that he would get playing time to form a partnership with Bassey to see if they complimented each other, I believe they still haven't played a dozen competitive games together. We now have two new CB we need to integrate and it will take time. Just throwing together the two precieved best ones doesn't mean they will form the best partnership and I believe its the most important partnership in the team.Hangerland and Hughes were not the best individually but together they were one of the best. We might find that Bassey is more comfortable with Andersen but at the moment Diop is playing well, it's a delema for Marco one which I think could have been made easier if he had given them more playing time together last season.

Nonsense. I think anyone who had watched Diop and Bassey play had a pretty good idea what that pairing would look like even before they played a match together. Solid enough defensively but not offering much in terms of buildup play (which is obviously quite important to how Marco wants to play). And now that they've played a handful of matches together that is exactly what we've seen. It is what it is and their partnership wouldn't look much different even if they'd played a dozen more matches together last season. This is why Marco had ball playing CB's high on his shopping list this summer. As for a new CB pairing and how long it will take to gel, sure it could take time but Fulham fans have seen CB pairings that looked good pretty much from day 1 (Brede/Hughes and Tosin/Bassey, for example).

[Thailand Mick]

Last season when Tosin wouldn't sign a contract I was one of a number of people that said we should be playing Diop so that he would get playing time to form a partnership with Bassey to see if they complimented each other, I believe they still haven't played a dozen competitive games together. We now have two new CB we need to integrate and it will take time. Just throwing together the two precieved best ones doesn't mean they will form the best partnership and I believe its the most important partnership in the team.Hangerland and Hughes were not the best individually but together they were one of the best. We might find that Bassey is more comfortable with Andersen but at the moment Diop is playing well, it's a delema for Marco one which I think could have been made easier if he had given them more playing time together last season.

Nonsense. I think anyone who had watched Diop and Bassey play had a pretty good idea what that pairing would look like even before they played a match together. Solid enough defensively but not offering much in terms of buildup play (which is obviously quite important to how Marco wants to play). And now that they've played a handful of matches together that is exactly what we've seen. It is what it is and their partnership wouldn't look much different even if they'd played a dozen more matches together last season. This is why Marco had ball playing CB's high on his shopping list this summer. As for a new CB pairing and how long it will take to gel, sure it could take time but Fulham fans have seen CB pairings that looked good pretty much from day 1 (Brede/Hughes and Tosin/Bassey, for example).

so if Marco already knew what sort of partnership they would form and it would cause us problems then why is he playing them together when we had Cuenca signed early in pre season and who Marco has wax lyrical about how good he is and will surprise alot of people.

[Chi_FFC]

Last season when Tosin wouldn't sign a contract I was one of a number of people that said we should be playing Diop so that he would get playing time to form a partnership with Bassey to see if they complimented each other, I believe they still haven't played a dozen competitive games together. We now have two new CB we need to integrate and it will take time. Just throwing together the two precieved best ones doesn't mean they will form the best partnership and I believe its the most important partnership in the team.Hangerland and Hughes were not the best individually but together they were one of the best. We might find that Bassey is more comfortable with Andersen but at the moment Diop is playing well, it's a delema for Marco one which I think could have been made easier if he had given them more playing time together last season.

Nonsense. I think anyone who had watched Diop and Bassey play had a pretty good idea what that pairing would look like even before they played a match together. Solid enough defensively but not offering much in terms of buildup play (which is obviously quite important to how Marco wants to play). And now that they've played a handful of matches together that is exactly what we've seen. It is what it is and their partnership wouldn't look much different even if they'd played a dozen more matches together last season. This is why Marco had ball playing CB's high on his shopping list this summer. As for a new CB pairing and how long it will take to gel, sure it could take time but Fulham fans have seen CB pairings that looked good pretty much from day 1 (Brede/Hughes and Tosin/Bassey, for example).

so if Marco already knew what sort of partnership they would form and it would cause us problems then why is he playing them together when we had Cuenca signed early in pre season and who Marco has wax lyrical about how good he is and will surprise alot of people.

Well, in the first place Cuenca didn't sign early in the pre season. He signed less than two weeks before our first PL match. Second, I doubt many Fulham fans are the least bit surprised that Marco has yet to give a PL start to a 24 year old CB who 1) again signed less than two weeks before the start of the season and 2) has zero experience in the English game.