Fulham 1-1 Wolves: Boxing Day Verdict Thread

[White Wolf]

Started the game strongly but they started to boss it after about 20 minutes and had us on the ropes at times, although the ref missed a blatant penalty from Second-half was much more positive and we controlled possesion even if we did not create many chances. Goal was coneded from a set-piece, finally managed to equalise when Cav put in a good ball leaving Saiss to score. Looked very dangerous after equalising and Fulham lost their organisation but no real opportunity to score - in fact Fulham could have won it but for Coady clearing off the line.

Decent point overall and it's the scoreline I expected. Some positive aspects for sure.

 

[Lycan]

Preferring to focus on the positives with this one. A point away in the Premier League is never to be sniffed it and we dominated the game for long periods. Moutinho & Boly were superb.

 

[Premier Quality]

Poor performance, decent result.

The way we’re set up we will struggle against defensive sides unless at least two of our front three are playing really well - in the first half, Traore didn’t achieve a lot with the ball humped his way, Jiminez fell over a lot, and MGW struggled to find much space to break. In the second, Costa achieved less than nothing, but Jiminez picked up due to the movement of Cav who had a good game - particularly his ball for Saiss goal, which was fantastic.

Given the front three weren’t working, I thought Vinagre was the sensible sub to give them a bit more support, and he did really well - much more attacking and positive than Jonny. Before he came on, we went backwards far too much, allowing Fulham’s six defensive players to get set into their positions, we were our own biggest issue.

Having said that, on another day we could have had an early penalty, and Chambers could have been sent off. Hoping for an improved show at spurs.

 

[Kenny]

Worst thing today was me going mental at Cav for strolling back from an offside position....we then score from the space he created by his strolling.

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

Seems our fans are becoming very entitled very quickly.

Been over most of it on the other thread but there were more positives than negatives today.

 

[Jack Regan]

Worst thing today was me going mental at Cav for strolling back from an offside position....we then score from the space he created by his strolling.

I said exactly the same sort of thing "get back Cav you lazy shit" Cav obviously channelling Thierry Henry.

 

[HanDoJin]

There was a moment in the first when Traore basically ran into Johnny on the edge of their box. Could have gone anywhere else to collect a pass but ran directly at the man with the ball. No more please Nuno.

Never complain about an away point, but Fulham look wank. Would have been better bringing in only one or two over the summer

Still couldn't really be happier with our start, even if it's pretty clear we've at least another gear to kick into in a lot of games. Spurs should be highly entertaining and that's how I'm looking at this first season of mid table anonymity

 

[Lupo]

Mention too for Jimenez who got into some good positions and could have scored a couple of GOTM contenders, in particular the overhead kick. Moutinho is such a calm and classy performer and Saiss provides a good dose of grit alongside him doing the dirty work, reminds me of the Pirlo/Gattuso combination for Italy a few years ago.

Traore was cack and rightly subbed. Cav transformed us in the second half, so much so that I felt the Fulham goal was a little against the run of play.

A rollercoaster of a game where both teams had periods of dominance but I feared we had lost when they took a lead so I'll settle for a point.

 

[White Wolf]

My post is going to sound very critical even if I don't intend to be as a point away from home is always pleasing and I wasn't too positive about our chances in this one, but I do think Nuno made the wrong choice with the formation today. They played a proper five at the back last week and we expected them to do the same today which is why I thought we needed to really get at them and use our old 3-4-3 and play Vinagre also.

I like Gibbs-White but this wasn't the right game for him, it was too compact in the middle and he couldn't get in the game at all which was a shame. Jiminez was bright especially at the start but he was isolated and was unable to link with Traore. Traore's link up play is awful as is, so was never going to work with Fulham's shape.

I feel like I'm stuck on repeat now but Traore is not suited to start any game. He's just not good enough to do it. His movement off the ball is poor and he merely reacts to what is going on rather than making space for himself or making a good run. Traore needs the space which he was never getting against Fulham's five especially early on. Nuno's decision to play the sort of front line we did and have Traore be a part of it means we wasted our chance to get at them in the first-half.

Thankfully this was seen and corrected in the first-half with Cav on. We didn't create all that much second-half but we were able to pass the ball around a lot more and Cav actually made himself available and looked to bring others in play. Didn't create many chances but we were very comfortable in the second period save for one time when Sessegnon got in behind Bennett which Boly dealt with well and that one long ball out to Mitrovic leading to Coady clearing on the line - the actual goal we conceded was from a set piece (missed the initial foul so can't comment on it) which we have been very shaky on now.

Mitrovic dominated our defence first 45 but we pressed much more effectively after half-time and denied him his support, everything worked a lot better. Very good cross by Cav and we got our goal. We might not have created much but the draw was absolutely deserved.

Need to watch the goal again but my first impression was Coady (I think) gets sucked in towards the ball and vacates the space so Sessgnon is free to smash it in. It looked a hard punch for Patricio as he was under pressure - need to watch again before passing judgement on who was at fault.

Bit of a disappointing first-half and I don't think the lineup/formation was right, Nuno made the right changes and our gameplan worked for the most part with us seriously limiting Fulham's chances after that. Poor goal to concede but we reacted the right way. Traore was awful, Costa poor when he came on. Jiminez started strong but later struggled to have an impact, MGW was isolated all game. Another good game for Saiss, probably my MOTM. After limited involvement early in the season he's had a very good month and shown that he still has a lot to bring to the team, I'm impressed. Coady struggled as expected, Boly did well and Moutinho had a strong game. I do think the choice to drop Neves was correct and it was something I was calling for after Liverpool - last season he was undroppable and we looked lost without him, but we're lucky to have another extremely gifted midfielder in Moutinho and he looked the part today.

Some of this talk about us saving our game for the big teams is rubbish also - it's about the way we play not attitude. We're a counter-attacking side that are at our best when teams don't sit back. Teams at the bottom tend to sit back, although I'm surprised at the extent Fulham did when they were bottom and in need of a win. We've actually beaten 4 of the bottom 7 anyway, so it's not an argument that makes holds a great deal of weight for me. Teams have different styles and perform better against different systems - that's how the game works.

Solid point and on to Spurs on Saturday, looking forward to it.

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

Goal was down to us leaving Mawson spare at the back off a deep free kick, we kept doing it.

Raul jumped into Rui and stopped him getting any distance on the punch so will not blame him there.

 

[PuntsWolf]

Leaving the man out there is fine, as long as the deepest man gets out there as soon as the ball is kicked. Doc for some reason ran inside and then got semi pinned by ream so couldn’t get out there. If he gets out there straight away he either clears it, puts it behind or Mawson doesn’t manage to put the ball in a dangerous area.

 

[Deleted Cyber]

Seems our fans are becoming very entitled very quickly.

Been over most of it on the other thread but there were more positives than negatives today.

Sorry, not having that. First 10 minutes it was fine. After that Fulham could have been 3 up at half time. Mitrovic created havoc. 7 attempts he had in the first half. Great save from patricio. Second half and Nunos changes improved us. Poorgoal to concedebut great ball from Cavy for the equaliser. 70% possession, only 3 shots on target. We are getting a reputation for doing shi t all against the worst teans. That really must change in the second half of the season. I am sorry to be negative but if we are to do better or duplicate the 7 5 7 record in the second half of the season we will need to improve against shit teams.

We are better than we played today. It's nothing to do with entitlement

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

Against the bottom half:

P10 W6 D1 L3

Against the rest of the top half:

P9 W1 D4 L4

Yeah, huge issue.

 

[Deleted Cyber]

Against the bottom half:

P10 W6 D1 L3

Against the rest of the top half:

P9 W1 D4 L4

Yeah, huge issue.

Come on Dan

A team that can beat chelsea, hold Arsenal, Manchester United and Manchester City yet lose convincingly to Huddersfield Watford and Cardiff? We sneaked a point today.

Our most convincing display was probably against Burnley. We could and should have scored 5
We were not great at palace and West ham but ground out a win
Performances Arsenal Chelsea and in many ways spurs were my top three

Unlucky to lose at Brighton and Leicester. Will the real wolves please stand up. Neville said today that against 3 or 4 sides we have been as bad as anyone and he was right. That needs to change .

 

[Kenny]

Watford aren't a shit team.
Burnley are and we took them apart. We dealt with Southampton as well.

Half way point...smack bang in the middle. Pretty much perfect for me on our return to this level.

 

[Deleted Cyber]

Watford aren't a shit team.
Burnley are and we took them apart. We dealt with Southampton as well.

Half way point...smack bang in the middle. Pretty much perfect for me on our return to this level.

And that's fine. But it could have been even better and probably should have been. We must learn and just improve and we must be more clinical.

We took Burnley apart 1-0. Exactly my point

Incredibly , I said to my son that I reckoned we would do better against spurs than Fulham this week.

 

[Kenny]

*walks away from another trip to crazy world*

 

[Templeton Peck]

Traore was shit today and he is definitely getting worse. If we use him at all it can only be as a sub.

 

[sycophantia]

I wondered on Friday if Traore had turned a corner and the coaching was finally getting through....or was it a flash in the pan, I'm going with the latter now.
Disappointing result against a poor team but overall at the halfway stage of the season I'm chuffed. We really need Jota back as we could do with playing him, Jiminez and Cav as front 3 for the next few games, would be useful if we could have a couple of games where we have a comfortable lead so Costa can come on with no pressure to try and get his confidence back

 

[White Wolf]

Come on Dan

A team that can beat chelsea, hold Arsenal, Manchester United and Manchester City yet lose convincingly to Huddersfield Watford and Cardiff? We sneaked a point today.

Our most convincing display was probably against Burnley. We could and should have scored 5
We were not great at palace and West ham but ground out a win
Performances Arsenal Chelsea and in many ways spurs were my top three

Unlucky to lose at Brighton and Leicester. Will the real wolves please stand up. Neville said today that against 3 or 4 sides we have been as bad as anyone and he was right. That needs to change .

Didn't lose convincingly to Cardiff - disagree completely. We were bested at set pieces but they only won by one goal and it was quite a good one.

If you actually watched games without looking for cliches and superstitious nonsense or posted without trying to fit a narrative I might give this more credit but this is just another one of your superstitions - we're not good against bottom teams because... what? Because they are at the bottom? We beat West Ham when they were at the bottom, same with Burnley. If you could at least explain why it happens rather than citing the fact that they are bottom that would be very helpful. Because it seems to me that the bottom sides prefer to sit back and not commit men which we aren't as good at playing against compared with the style the bigger teams play, which is why don't score loads past them which you appear to expect.

Gary Neville said it and I disagreed, you say it and I'll disagree more. I doubt he's seen all of our games so is making an impression based on a few select performances, you most likely have and are rubbishing our performances!

Lost narrowly to Cardiff, bested at set pieces and got our tactics wrong by trying to match them at their own game. Watford - figured us out tactically and were the first team to do so this season, fair play to them and Javi Gracia. Not a 'shit team' at all and currently 1 point off 7th with a game in hand. Huddersfield - awful and inexcusable, everything went wrong - most seasons you get a game like this and it was then. Against Fulham we held them when they were on top and looked very comfortable second half, conceded at a set piece but then equalised.

I was at Palace - we were completely and utterly the better side. Restricted Palace to what, one or two half chances all game? It was very very comfortable and a top performance. West Ham was an even game, we played well at times and if you had to choose a winner I'd say we deserved it. Not actually one of the 'shit teams' though are they, I'd argue grinding out a win against them was impressive. Conveniently forgetting Southampton who we beat 2-0 also and are in the bottom 5.

Take a look at the bottom 7 - we have beat 4 of them.

We're not a team that scores a lot of goals, if you are expecting us to thrash teams as a sign we are good it's not going to happen. For better reference look at how good we are seeing out games when we take the lead.