Fulham v Derby County

[peakram]

I'm on Derby for the League at 11/1 so excuse me if I get a little more worked up than most other posters, thousands of pounds on the line which would be very welcome indeed!

[archram]

I wondered if they hadn't noticed they were wearing yellow shirts so kept passing to the chaps in black and white?

[Alan Ramage 4 EVA]

Was there a stream for the Fulham match ????

[PistoldPete2]

Well quite a lot went wrong. We have a very strong squad but we do rely on three key players to make us tick... Thorne, hughes and martin. Without those we can still have players stepping up to the plate like ince and bent, but really missing 2 out of those three is a big miss for us, especially if eustace isn't fit to sub for Thorne. We just don't have the balance in midfield if neither Thorne nor eustace are playing, and Thorne is real class. Hope we get him and martin back and quick. For those criticising christie well he does go awol defensively but playing shotton at right back just meant at 2-0'down we were lacking decent de.ivery into the box. Russell was busy but rusty , ince is more of a scorer than a provider so we needed decent delivery from fullbacks. 

[unclej]

Yes Alan.

 

[Guest]

was at the game yesterday and now watched all the replays etc. Yes an off day as everyone has said. The two reasons we conceded though were another abject performance from Omar real amateur stuff for the first goal and for the second a clear foul by Parker on Hughes. Omar is a liability in that position and we should play Shotton there if GT and Eustace are not available. 

[Anon]

An absolute waste of a Saturday afternoon.

I don't get the level of criticism being fired at Mascarell. He's our third choice DM and right now our only option in that position. He didn't have a great game, but he was better than both Hughes and Hendrick who got completely dominated by Scott Parker. It's time for Bryson to get his chance to start a game.

I'm annoyed with McClaren regarding Christie. The guy has been in a run of poor form for a while now and Shotton played well when he was brought in at right back. I don't see the logic in sticking by the player in poor form only to haul him off at half time when (surprise, surprise) he puts in a stinker of a display.

Also, Dawkins should've come on instead of Russell. We were struggling to retain possession high up the pitch and had had no joy all afternoon trying to play down the flanks. Dawkins would've been much better suited to trying to change the pattern of the game. Russell just did the same as Ince and Lingard with depressingly similar results.

[ben_dcfc]

Well quite a lot went wrong. We have a very strong squad but we do rely on three key players to make us tick... Thorne, hughes and martin. Without those we can still have players stepping up to the plate like ince and bent, but really missing 2 out of those three is a big miss for us, especially if eustace isn't fit to sub for Thorne. We just don't have the balance in midfield if neither Thorne nor eustace are playing, and Thorne is real class. Hope we get him and martin back and quick. For those criticising christie well he does go awol defensively but playing shotton at right back just meant at 2-0'down we were lacking decent de.ivery into the box. Russell was busy but rusty , ince is more of a scorer than a provider so we needed decent delivery from fullbacks. 

[RamNut]

Watched the first 45 on Ramsplayer.

we did  little wrong for the first 20 minutes.

grant was kicking long again - strange that we identify this as the root cause of trouble one week - and then he goes back to doing it again? 

The first real mistake was on 21 mins - poor forward ball by omar, maccormack nutmegs keogh, and they could have scored through  Tunnicliffe.

Next move hendrick over hits a pass badly. Shortly aftewards  a cross field pass from Shotton sails into touch. Then mascarell chips a ball straight thro to their keeper when well placed. A sloppiness creeps in. This is where you want your experienced players to urge for extra effort. Ince does little to prevent a long ball into the box and we concede a corner.

when the corner is taken no-one goes short, so when the ball goes back to the taker, only mascarell has made any effort to close him down.  This leaves bodurov free. No-one tracks bodurov moving into acres of space in the box. Mascarell is beaten easily and the ball breaks to the unmarked bodurov who finishes well. Whilst mascarell is at fault, i'm wondering where ince was?

Another attacking move ends with a sloppy effort by christie who might want to blame the pitch. Two minutes later he launches a dreadful forward ball straight into the arms of their keeper following a corner. Fulham get another strike on goal when their forward easily evades mascarell again. Suddenly we are looking second best in midfield due to their better workrate. When hughes was easily knocked off the ball, they found a huge hole in the back four behind christie as he was caught up field and keogh allowed them to run and run. Remember Forest's winner? 2-0. We clearly don't learn from previous errors.

there are so many parallels with the non-performance v Forest.

 

 

 

 

[Ram8]

I agree completely with ( someone earlier on ) that when we are missing any two of our 3 KEY players ( Hughes , Martin , Thorne ) then we have a big challenge to compete with teams ( particularly ) who stand off us and just invite us to break them down ..

And I was thinking , after watching a couple of Thorne's long , raking , hugging the ground , defence splitting passes against Charlton .. who else had I seen doing this on a regular basis in the Premiership ? Answer .. Yaya Toure .. 

[EastKentRam]

Although I cant defend that performance in any way, I do think that was a foul on Hughes for the second goal.

Hughes is practically stand still and he just runs in and barges him over, ref stood a yard away as well. 

[Ambitious]

I've just watched the full game, courtesy of fulhamfc.com, and it is absolutely no way on earth as bad as some people are making out. Fulham defended brilliantly for the most part and you have to give them that. I don't quite think it's even comparable to the performances away to Leeds and Middlesbrough. I thought our passing, for the most part, was on done well, we didn't make too many errors and we had a lot of the ball. 

Ratings:
Grant - 5 - he's conceded twice, although he couldn't do too much with either, and nearly scored an own goal. 

Christie - 3 - extremely poor in the final third. It's a shame because we needed him to be on his game, replacing him with Shotton killed our attacks down the right hand side. 
Keogh - 5 - McCormack's made a mockery of him on more than one occasion. He did win a fair share of his battles, but he's been turned inside out one too many times for me. 
Shotton - 6 - he was much better at CB than he was RB, but all in all, it was an okay performance.
Forsyth - 6 - classic Forsyth performance. He was frustrating going forward but defended well. 

Mascarell - 7 DMOTM - our best player for me. He's put his body on the line, kept the ball well and constantly made himself an option. Most tackles, most interceptions, most chances created, most touches...etc there can be no doubt. It's a shame that some people have let mob mentality overrule their own conscious thought. 
Hughes - 6 - very poor in the first-half, good in the second. Obviously at fault for the second goal, although it may be a foul, but picked himself and dusted himself off and came out a much better player. He didn't create enough for me, mind. 
Hendrick - 5 - he's shown himself to be tidy once again but really offered very little. He didn't show for the ball nearly even close to enough as he should have done. Mascarell has made nearly double the amount of touches, for example. He's a good player, no-one can deny that, but he needs to show a hell of a lot more. 
 

Ince - 7 - If we were going to score, it was going to be through him. He's the only one that was really showing any creativity in the final third. He's got a great engine on him, never stops showing. 
Bent - 4 - one of, if not the worst, striker performances of the season. If you're going to take up that role in the team and play the way he does then you need to be as sharp as a knife in the box but his first touch let him down far too often. He didn't help his side out and looked flat-footed. 
Lingard - 6 - tidy, but looked a little isolated at times. He was always running and offering though. I can't understand why he was taken off. 

------

Bryson - 5 - he became a victim of McClaren's bad management from the Bent substitution. It seemed like no-one had a clue where they was playing. He was tidy but often left running down blind allays. 

Buxton - 7 - he won his battles, was left flat-footed from the long ball that McCormack nearly scored but got back to do enough, but all in all made us look a lot more solid in the second.

Russell - 5 - He didn't get in to it, really. He looked decent when he first came on but shortly fell off the radar almost completely and offered little. 

-------

McClaren - 4 - I'm not going to pick him up on who he started with or how he set out tactically, but he killed the game for us with the decision to bring Bryson on, ahead of Ward and Dawkins, for Bent. It was a senseless decision. It looked incredibly disjointed. Easily up there with his decision to bring on Kwame Thomas against Leeds and Leon Best on half-time and to go 4-4-2 against Boro. Bad, bad decision. 

[RamNut]

Ince doesn't deserve a 7.

he's not defending.

[Anon]

grant was kicking long again - strange that we identify this as the root cause of trouble one week - and then he goes back to doing it again?

[Dimmu]

​Fulham had done their homework and pushed up high when Grant had the ball, preventing him from playing the ball out to Omar or the centre backs.

It is alarming just how effective this simple tactic is against us.

[bcnram]

I've just watched the full game, courtesy of fulhamfc.com, and it is absolutely no way on earth as bad as some people are making out. Fulham defended brilliantly for the most part and you have to give them that. I don't quite think it's even comparable to the performances away to Leeds and Middlesbrough. I thought our passing, for the most part, was on done well, we didn't make too many errors and we had a lot of the ball. 

Ratings:
Grant - 5 - he's conceded twice, although he couldn't do too much with either, and nearly scored an own goal. 

Christie - 3 - extremely poor in the final third. It's a shame because we needed him to be on his game, replacing him with Shotton killed our attacks down the right hand side. 
Keogh - 5 - McCormack's made a mockery of him on more than one occasion. He did win a fair share of his battles, but he's been turned inside out one too many times for me. 
Shotton - 6 - he was much better at CB than he was RB, but all in all, it was an okay performance.
Forsyth - 6 - classic Forsyth performance. He was frustrating going forward but defended well. 

Mascarell - 7 DMOTM - our best player for me. He's put his body on the line, kept the ball well and constantly made himself an option. Most tackles, most interceptions, most chances created, most touches...etc there can be no doubt. It's a shame that some people have let mob mentality overrule their own conscious thought. 
Hughes - 6 - very poor in the first-half, good in the second. Obviously at fault for the second goal, although it may be a foul, but picked himself and dusted himself off and came out a much better player. He didn't create enough for me, mind. 
Hendrick - 5 - he's shown himself to be tidy once again but really offered very little. He didn't show for the ball nearly even close to enough as he should have done. Mascarell has made nearly double the amount of touches, for example. He's a good player, no-one can deny that, but he needs to show a hell of a lot more. 
 

Ince - 7 - If we were going to score, it was going to be through him. He's the only one that was really showing any creativity in the final third. He's got a great engine on him, never stops showing. 
Bent - 4 - one of, if not the worst, striker performances of the season. If you're going to take up that role in the team and play the way he does then you need to be as sharp as a knife in the box but his first touch let him down far too often. He didn't help his side out and looked flat-footed. 
Lingard - 6 - tidy, but looked a little isolated at times. He was always running and offering though. I can't understand why he was taken off. 

------

Bryson - 5 - he became a victim of McClaren's bad management from the Bent substitution. It seemed like no-one had a clue where they was playing. He was tidy but often left running down blind allays. 

Buxton - 7 - he won his battles, was left flat-footed from the long ball that McCormack nearly scored but got back to do enough, but all in all made us look a lot more solid in the second.

Russell - 5 - He didn't get in to it, really. He looked decent when he first came on but shortly fell off the radar almost completely and offered little. 

-------

McClaren - 4 - I'm not going to pick him up on who he started with or how he set out tactically, but he killed the game for us with the decision to bring Bryson on, ahead of Ward and Dawkins, for Bent. It was a senseless decision. It looked incredibly disjointed. Easily up there with his decision to bring on Kwame Thomas against Leeds and Leon Best on half-time and to go 4-4-2 against Boro. Bad, bad decision. 

[RamNut]

second half.........despite the subs, their four in central midfield continue to crowd us out and out number us. They drop deep when they have to. There is no space. mccormack provides an extra man in the middle too.

When we go wide the quality of the wide play is not great.

their tactics suffocate us and we have no answer.  

A great block by fozzy prevents a certain goal.

Another howler by grant almost gifts them a goal.

The injury to bent at the very moment we were bringing on bryson was just bad luck, but bryson did ok.

overall i think they deserve some credit and - like Ambitious - i don't think we were as bad as many suggest. The problem was the lack of space and a general doziness that allowed them two goals in the first half.

We just have to take it on the chin.

It always seems to sound so much worse on Radio Derby.

Ed Dawes bickering with Ramage and bemoaning every refereeing decision doesn't help, the commentary on the video is so much better.

 

P.s. Strange that their fans were so hostile towards Bent.

[unclej]

Being from Tenerife, I guess he can, but can Omar Mascarell speak English so he able to communicate effectively with his two center-backs?

[TroyDyer]

We have said it many times but I think we lack leadership in games like this. When Bucko came on it looked a wee bit better but there was an awful lot of players looking around at each other, and flinging their arms around. Thorne tends to have that cool head in the middle of the park, and that is contagious. 

There have been a few occasions this season where the team needs someone to grab them by the scruff of the neck. At one nil down, we really needed that. The disarray is contagious too, and seemed to spread like wildfire all across the side. 

 

[RamNut]

 

Also, Dawkins should've come on instead of Russell. We were struggling to retain possession high up the pitch.....