Two big weaknesses exposed today

[fulhamfever]

Drop Cuenca he is a liability against United and today both goals was his fault v United

[MickTheBeard]

Silva mentions we were weak in defending from a defensive position and corners especially 2nd half,well are you going to tell him or do I mention that in ever game this season we never look like winning from a defensive position shall we say 1 - 0,we set up poorly and we do not have leaders in defence 4 average centre backs not fiscally able or with brains to see it through,palace we're happy to let Anderson go,
The  Present everton manager whilst at westham got rid of diarra to us,and the famous Dutch club did not think Bassey was up to it,let's face it we can't keep a clean sheet and I think a change is required not just the coach director of football a must.

[LC]

We should have been 4-0 by half time. Raul had to pass to Wilson and he missed the target from close range - terrible.

[JimmyConway]

It's often the case of looking for scapegoats in games like today! The concern has to be how poor a few individuals performances have been recently but injuries and unavailability has kept them in the team. Play your best team do not worry about loyalty? Fans don't want to know if you get beat. For me personally we just don't compete enough in midfield. We tend to lose the battle not only physically but we get exposed with our lack of pace centrally. Last season it was quite evident this season even more.

[fulhamfever]

Cuenca mistake free kick and Cuenca beaten to the ball by Casimero then the Cunha goal stop acting like he is defender of the year bring Bassey back and we good to go.

[HV71]

I'm a huge Cuenca fan - but his two brain farts today ( when he seemed to think this was the Superbowl) means he should not start over Bassey against City.

[Whitestone]

The central midfield is a continual disaster zone. We were good in the first half because our quick attacks down the flanks forced their midfield back. In the second half, when they pressed, we couldn't challenge them in midfield. I'm desperate enough to try Bassey as a defensive DM. He's quick, hard tackling and physical. We need an enforcer.

We got dominated in the middle in every match we played with Iwobi there bar the Sunderland match. I don't think he's a solution at all. Iwobi again had some great moments in attack, but I feel like we waste him by playing him so far back, especially as it worsens our defence too.

Iwobi is new BDR. Can play many positions. He's playing where he is currently because who else do you play there ?

[SerbianLad]

Iwobi is new BDR. Can play many positions. He's playing where he is currently because who else do you play there ?

In today's game(no Lukic or TC or no new signing) it was absolutely the right call. I would have maybe played a back 5 though, as I think it would have made things slightly better. What we really should have done is, we should have got a new cm in.

[Whitestone]

Iwobi is new BDR. Can play many positions. He's playing where he is currently because who else do you play there ?

In today's game(no Lukic or TC or no new signing) it was absolutely the right call. I would have maybe played a back 5 though, as I think it would have made things slightly better. What we really should have done is, we should have got a new cm in.

Exactly this.

[Dammy]

How Bassey can be dropped for Cuenca is beyond me! Defenders do make mistakes but Bassey is twice the defender Cuenca is!
I hope all those touting Cuenca over Bassey have seen the difference!

[perry geyton]

TC and Leno are not good enough

TC didn't play today BUT if he would of he'd of grabbed that game by the scruff of its neck

If only

[jayffc]

TC and Leno are not good enough

TC didn't play today BUT if he would of he'd of grabbed that game by the scruff of its neck

If only

Agree that the game was crying out for Tom from 60 mins

Now wether Silva would have done that is another matter


Honestly if he's fit I'd start hin, he's been brilliant this year

[sonnyjim]

We could have been 3 or 4 goals up at half time if we had a striker that could hit the target.

Raul is poor, let's not keep lying to ourselves. He was too greedy to pass the ball across to Wilson and then couldn't even get his shot on target from about 6 yards out.

Even the goal was hit straight at the goalkeeper and only went in because it hit the Everton player.

If you don't take your chances when momentum is swinging your way you are more than likely going to regret it and that was the case again today.

Cuenca's performance was also bad today. He should have been replaced with Bassey.

[iansthailand]

I'm a huge Cuenca fan - but his two brain farts today ( when he seemed to think this was the Superbowl) means he should not start over Bassey against City.

Agree, i think the United game was a game too far or him and yesterday i'm not sure what planet he was playing on. Marco had to stick with him as it was his place to lose yesterday, he lost it.

[General]

Reading this and having not watched the game I thought we'd done really badly and fallen apart against Everton... then I watched the highlights and thought- 'bloody hell we have a dramatic set of fans'..

We had huge amounts of chances to score goals, multiple shots off the post and close shots that just missed/went wide

What I read in the OP vs what I saw couldn't have been more different, from the highlights below it was a question of us not scoring from what looked like an onslaught of opportunities - and nothing to do with Marco, who motivated and set up the team in such a way for us to do so.

Let's not forget how good Everton have been away from home and how average we seemingly made them look.

The other thing I thought and noticed was that for Evertons winner - why wasn't the goal considered a foul on the GK.. their player couldn't have been more of an obstruction if he tried. Perhaps my understanding of the rules if poor, but I thought that type of behaviour against Goalkeepers was frowned upon.

Look, we have lost two games in a row now, but against two in form teams who had a bit of luck on their side and they've been closely fought matches, where we could've/should've got something.

Let's not get overly critical or hyperventilate about it

Today, for whatever reason, didn't come off for us, whereas on many other occasions it most likely would've.

Let's go again

P.s. if bobb played (didn't see anything yet) how'd he do?

Interestingly as well, sky sports commentary says similarly... it actually implied the opposite from what the OP says about subs, and that the double change of Jimenez and Chukwueze was what made us disjointed and allowed Everton to equalise, and the second goal looked like a foul on Leno

https://www.skysports.com/football/live-blog/11661/13503239/fulham-vs-everton-live-premier-league-match-updates-news-score-and-highlights?postid=11011733#liveblog-body

[fulhamfever]

I wasn't expecting anything against Everton as they have become a bogey team again as they once was under Moyes for Fulham

[RogB]

I'd add to the two problems. Apart from the back 4 we only had one other player who is defensively minded and can put in a 'shift' when needed if the game is going against us. Even Berge is a bit questionable in that role.
Also don't understand the corner defending where we put small players on big players and leave our centre backs in zones - not working.

[cookieg]

Reading this and having not watched the game I thought we'd done really badly and fallen apart against Everton... then I watched the highlights and thought- 'bloody hell we have a dramatic set of fans'..

We had huge amounts of chances to score goals, multiple shots off the post and close shots that just missed/went wide

What I read in the OP vs what I saw couldn't have been more different, from the highlights below it was a question of us not scoring from what looked like an onslaught of opportunities - and nothing to do with Marco, who motivated and set up the team in such a way for us to do so.

Let's not forget how good Everton have been away from home and how average we seemingly made them look.

The other thing I thought and noticed was that for Evertons winner - why wasn't the goal considered a foul on the GK.. their player couldn't have been more of an obstruction if he tried. Perhaps my understanding of the rules if poor, but I thought that type of behaviour against Goalkeepers was frowned upon.

Look, we have lost two games in a row now, but against two in form teams who had a bit of luck on their side and they've been closely fought matches, where we could've/should've got something.

Let's not get overly critical or hyperventilate about it

Today, for whatever reason, didn't come off for us, whereas on many other occasions it most likely would've.

Let's go again

P.s. if bobb played (didn't see anything yet) how'd he do?

Interestingly as well, sky sports commentary says similarly... it actually implied the opposite from what the OP says about subs, and that the double change of Jimenez and Chukwueze was what made us disjointed and allowed Everton to equalise, and the second goal looked like a foul on Leno

https://www.skysports.com/football/live-blog/11661/13503239/fulham-vs-everton-live-premier-league-match-updates-news-score-and-highlights?postid=11011733#liveblog-body

The thing is it's the manner in which we lost it in the second half which is frustrating. We could well have been home and hosed at half time but Moyes did a number on Marco and he didn't do anything early enough to try to steady the side. Why wait so long to make changes? Marco is so predictable with his late substitutions Moyes would have told his players what they need to do so surely why couldn't Marco have been bold and made changes at half time to throw a spanner in Moyes' game plan? And as for making substitutions when they had a corner was a real school boy error.

On another day we could have won that but watching the game it felt inevitable that they would score in the second half.

[General]

Reading this and having not watched the game I thought we'd done really badly and fallen apart against Everton... then I watched the highlights and thought- 'bloody hell we have a dramatic set of fans'..

We had huge amounts of chances to score goals, multiple shots off the post and close shots that just missed/went wide

What I read in the OP vs what I saw couldn't have been more different, from the highlights below it was a question of us not scoring from what looked like an onslaught of opportunities - and nothing to do with Marco, who motivated and set up the team in such a way for us to do so.

Let's not forget how good Everton have been away from home and how average we seemingly made them look.

The other thing I thought and noticed was that for Evertons winner - why wasn't the goal considered a foul on the GK.. their player couldn't have been more of an obstruction if he tried. Perhaps my understanding of the rules if poor, but I thought that type of behaviour against Goalkeepers was frowned upon.

Look, we have lost two games in a row now, but against two in form teams who had a bit of luck on their side and they've been closely fought matches, where we could've/should've got something.

Let's not get overly critical or hyperventilate about it

Today, for whatever reason, didn't come off for us, whereas on many other occasions it most likely would've.

Let's go again

P.s. if bobb played (didn't see anything yet) how'd he do?

Interestingly as well, sky sports commentary says similarly... it actually implied the opposite from what the OP says about subs, and that the double change of Jimenez and Chukwueze was what made us disjointed and allowed Everton to equalise, and the second goal looked like a foul on Leno

https://www.skysports.com/football/live-blog/11661/13503239/fulham-vs-everton-live-premier-league-match-updates-news-score-and-highlights?postid=11011733#liveblog-body

The thing is it's the manner in which we lost it in the second half which is frustrating. We could well have been home and hosed at half time but Moyes did a number on Marco and he didn't do anything early enough to try to steady the side. Why wait so long to make changes? Marco is so predictable with his late substitutions Moyes would have told his players what they need to do so surely why couldn't Marco have been bold and made changes at half time to throw a spanner in Moyes' game plan? And as for making substitutions when they had a corner was a real school boy error.

On another day we could have won that but watching the game it felt inevitable that they would score in the second half.

The irony here, isn't that we lost, but the fact that so many people seem to have said the solution lay in making substitutions and doing so earlier..and that both of the goals we conceded came straight after having made substitutions - within minutes..

So everyone said make substitutions, and Marco did, and by doing so we lost our composure and rhythm and conceded two goals..

I also think the 2nd goal was a foul and refs and var are having a shocking season so far

[Milo]

Reading this and having not watched the game I thought we'd done really badly and fallen apart against Everton... then I watched the highlights and thought- 'bloody hell we have a dramatic set of fans'..

See above from General - I've shortened the quote so we aren't copying/pasting each other repeatedly

I suspect the highlights might have given you a skewed view of the way the game went.

Agreed we did well in the first half and should've been out of sight.

However, at half time they came out the much better team.
At 60 mins we were really flat and hadn't touched the ball in their penalty area (as opposed to 8 times for them). I think we were all crying out for subs on FOF match thread and they didn't come for something like 10-15 minutes after we first identified the need for change. Their goal was within a minute or two of the sub and to blame a change of system is naive by their commentator - the writing was on the wall for 10 minutes prior to that.

I.. don't think I agree that the GK was fouled. I don't think it's illegal to stand in front of the keeper and technically he didn't push or tackle him (?) although I don't know the rule book inside out admittedly.

We all have our differences of opinion of course, but I think these are 2 recurring themes (late subs, and poor defending from corners) that I've identified numerous times this season and not just yesterday.