Fulham A 26/12

[sycophantia]

Are we happy that an £18M player achieved a season-high ‘ok’ last time out?

I’m not - write the money off, pack him off on loan somewhere, and sign players that are intelligent enough (in football terms) to play the system we will clearly be playing for a while yet. Bennett hoofing the ball up to the Traore, in a style reminiscent of under-12s football, makes my eyes bleed.

Its taken too long for him to show any form, but I doubt we're going to get rid any time soon, so I'm happy to give him some more time to see if it was a one off or maybe the coaching is actually starting to sink in at last

 

[Paddingtonwolf]

I think we will keep him and probably upgrade. He has something, but we absolutely cannot rely on it at the moment.

 

[Jabbawolf]

I think we will keep him and probably upgrade. He has something, but we absolutely cannot rely on it at the moment.

Will - I know this has been done to death, but can only ever see him as an impact sub.

Anyway, Moutinho and Traore out, MGW and Jota/Cav in for me.

 

[Paddingtonwolf]

Oh I agree - and I would keep him for that impact sub stuff as long as he was happy to do that.

 

[Norman Deeley]

I was listening to one of the Sky pundits talking about Richarlison recently, saying that he hadn't yet learned to play as a central striker at this level. Well. if Richarlison hasn't had enough games to learn, Traore certainly hasn't as - to the best of my knowledge - he has never previously played through the middle. Quite clearly Nuno is prepared to give a player time to adapt to a position and to learn and improve. So for me, he has at least until the end of the season.

 

[Paddingtonwolf]

I agree. I think we will see where we are in the summer with Adama.

 

[Parkins left foot]

Not sure that we will splash out enormously in Jan (value is quite often degraded then) as we have enough to get through this year without getting into serious problems.

We will need to deal in the summer as there will be questions to answer then - how much do we want to risk to make the next step up - is Jonny going back to Athletico - do we want to pay another £30 m or so for Raul.

 

[Paddingtonwolf]

We will buy both of those assuming that Atletico are prepared to play ball with young master Castro Otto.

Hopefully the rumours of them being interested in Tagliafico are true.

 

[White Wolf]

Feel weirdly unconfident about this one. Their defence is poor yes but we never thrash anyone so I don't think we will cut them apart, and Mitrovic will give Coady a lot of problems. Going to say draw, which wouldn't be the worst result.

Personally I'd go back to our old 3-4-3 system for this:

Patricio
Bennett - Coady - Boly
Jonny - Moutinho - MGW - Vinagre
Cavaleiro - Jiminez - Jota (if fit)
​

Think Vinagre could have a real go at them and would be very effective against Fulham. Neves has been poor going forwards still and I'd like to see Moutinho and Gibbs-White have a game as a pair for this one. Jota to start if fit and if he isn't put Cav on the left and Costa on the right. Traore to come on with 20/30 to go as this is the sort of game where he should be making a big impact from the bench.

Obviously don't expect Nuno to go for that though, realistically I think he will swap out Saiss for MGW and if Jota is fit he'll come in for Traore, otherwise roadrunner starts.

Also fuck Sky for having this game at a time where it is impossible for our fans to make it on the train. Supporters shafted as usual.

 

[Parkins left foot]

Also fuck Sky for having this game at a time where it is impossible for our fans to make it on the train. Supporters shafted as usual.

Not a defender of Sky, but whatever time this was on then our supporters weren't getting there on a train as there aren't any.

Unless you are near enough to get a bus in (Sunday service only) then it's not easy at all

 

[White Wolf]

Are there not? My bad, thought that there were a small number that went to Euston on Boxing Day.

I'll take that back although my thoughts about Sky remain. :icon_smile:

 

[Parkins left foot]

Are there not? My bad, thought that there were a small number that went to Euston on Boxing Day.

I'll take that back although my thoughts about Sky remain. :icon_smile:

Pretty sure that there are no trains running on Boxing Day - certainly aren't in the South or in London & given that the latter is the only important place in the UK then if they are not running there then they won't be anywhere else

 

[Alan]

I agree. I think we will see where we are in the summer with Adama.

Agreed.

Incidentally, you'd have one hell of a baller if you combined Richarlison and Adama.

 

[playtheace]

Had this (and Cardiff) down as a loss earlier on in the season.
Not sure what it is, some mental championship voodoo shite but I'm not optimistic.

 

[b3h]

Agreed.

Incidentally, you'd have one hell of a baller if you combined Richarlison and Adama.

Adama with any player with a brain would be good :scouse:

 

[big mean bunny]

We got murdered tactically by Fulham last year at there's. They looked so quick and fluid. Completely seem to have lost that identity.

 

[The Bear]

Both Lawro and Merson going for a 2-1 Fulham win.

 

[big mean bunny]

Lawrenson comment accompanying his at least makes sense from the point of view of a neutral.

 

[lemonjelly]

jim glennie has us to win! what a god!

 

[Deleted Cyber]

A game we really just be looking to get maximum points from. Defensively Fulham have been awful so I am glad to see they got their first clean sheet. That's a duck we can't now break. However I can see them scoring. We need a fast start and to make the most of what we create. Will be pissed off to lose here. There are often some odd results in boxing day and can throw up either mind numbing boredom or goalfests.Time for a real performance. Traore to score. 3-2 to us