Fulham 1-1 Wolves: Boxing Day Verdict Thread

[Johnny75]

Is it because you're a superstitious weapon without any self awareness.

Happy Xmas by the way.

 

[Deleted Cyber]

Is it because you're a superstitious weapon without any self awareness.

Happy Xmas by the way.

You too. Bah humbug. By the way I had winning tickets in both the euromillions and the Thunderball last night. Just wondering what to spend my combined winnings of £8.20 on

 

[Kenny]

Having beaten Bournemouth palace Southampton West Ham showing our capabilities I reserve the right to cop the hump when we lose to two teams below and sneak a point off the third. Is Fulham.

This is not Wolves 2010 when points from any team were almost a bonus. We are rightly seen as a decent side along with the Bournemoth Watford Leciester Everton Brighton mid table bunch and thats about right.

Everton beat Fulham and Cardiff drew with Huddersfield
Bournemouth beat Fulham beat Cardiff beat Huddersfield
Watford beat Huddersfield, Cardiff drew with Fulham
Leicester beat Cardiff beat Huddersfield drew with Fulham
Brighton lost to Cardiff drew with Fulham beat Huddersfield.

So of the five teams around us their collective record against Cardiff Huddersfield and Fulham is 15 games W10 D 4 L 1

And you don't see why I get pissed off?

So despite them being ACE against "shit" teams we are ahead or a 1 point behind them?

If football results were based on league position it would be a dull sport indeed....and a bastard for us as we would remain bottom all season.

If come May we are sat in 10th I won't give a jolly fuck that we had a couple of bad results against teams no longer in the Division. We took 1 point and scored 0 goals against the worst team in the League last season. If we were currently sat where Cardiff or Fulham are I would be concerned.

 

[Deleted Cyber]

So despite them being ACE against "shit" teams we are ahead or a 1 point behind them?

If football results were based on league position it would be a dull sport indeed....and a bastard for us as we would remain bottom all season.

If come May we are sat in 10th I won't give a jolly fuck that we had a couple of bad results against teams no longer in the Division. We took 1 point and scored 0 goals against the worst team in the League last season. If we were currently sat where Cardiff or Fulham are I would be concerned.

Doesn't mean I can't moan about it does it. And I will. Loudly. As I have no self awareness.:Victory:

Basically, whilst I am chuffed that we have 26 points I want us to get at least 26 more. Personally I think we may struggle. I think about 45 to 50 points will be our lot given who we have to visit second half of the season. In that time I want us to

Win at Huddersfield, at home to Cardiff at home to Fulham, at home to Brighton at home to Leicester.
Not lose at Southampton, Burnley, at home to palace or West ham.

Everything else is bonus points. Just how I see it.

So second half 5 4 10 is the worst I expect on a bad run, head wind, against the tide,

So a total of 45 points is the minimum I expect for our season now.

 

[Alan]

It's all relative innit. No team at this level is actually truly, properly mince.

 

[White Wolf]

Who are the bookies favourites for relegation? They don't get much wrong

Is that a joke? You've literally paraphrased Dean Saunders. :icon_lol:

 

[HanDoJin]

It's all relative innit. No team at this level is actually truly, properly mince.

Not this season, no. Last season's stragglers were pretty grim, the season before even worse

Sent from my SM-G960W using Tapatalk

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

Burnley are the worst team I think, they're just a mess everywhere and nothing looks right for them. Huddersfield and Cardiff do at least work as a team but severely lack quality.

Fulham have some horrible weaknesses (also how did Seri ever get linked with Barcelona?!) but they aren't as bad as some of the rubbish we've seen in the past.

To expect us to just turn up and win is a very weird mindset, I could get on board with it last season playing your likes of Burton and Reading at home, not now. Fulham gave us a right doing less than 12 months ago at Craven Cottage. We also did not "pinch a point" today, we really weren't that bad at all.

 

[Dire Wolf]

Disagree that we weren't that bad at all, though we weren't bad for all of the game. But for the majority of the 1st half we were terrible and somewhat fortunate to not go in 1 or 2 down. We improved a lot in the 2nd half without really being a fluent attacking threat in any meaningful way. Then we conceded a poor goal and decided to suddenly play and attacked with some purpose and threat. Even then we were a goal line clearance from losing.

Moutinho, Saiss and Boly were excellent, Traore, Gibbs White and Costa at best anonymous, at worst abysmal. A point earned I guess, but disappointing that we really didn't show up to try and win the game until too late. We can and should be able play better, but need the consistency of performance that should make the games against poorer teams less of a struggle.

 

[The Bear]

I reckon Cyber still thinks we're playing in League One.

 

[east-coast-wolves]

Other than the goal, we didn't really create a really good chance all game, just Jimenez making the best from a couple of situations. That has to be a little disappointing against a team who have conceded so many this season (although I suppose that stat carries less weight now Ranieri has come in and binned off a lot of their fluid football for a lot of men behind the ball). It's hard to therefore say we were good. And for most of the first half, we were straight up bad.

Moutinho and Saiss were excellent though and Cav was bright when he came on. He really had to start.

Good to see Nuno can make calls like leaving out Neves though. Probably the right call atm.

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

Disagree that we weren't that bad at all, though we weren't bad for all of the game. But for the majority of the 1st half we were terrible and somewhat fortunate to not go in 1 or 2 down. We improved a lot in the 2nd half without really being a fluent attacking threat in any meaningful way. Then we conceded a poor goal and decided to suddenly play and attacked with some purpose and threat. Even then we were a goal line clearance from losing.

Moutinho, Saiss and Boly were excellent, Traore, Gibbs White and Costa at best anonymous, at worst abysmal. A point earned I guess, but disappointing that we really didn't show up to try and win the game until too late. We can and should be able play better, but need the consistency of performance that should make the games against poorer teams less of a struggle.

We can't be struggling that much with the record we've got.

In fact you might say that we have a problem with better teams given we've beaten a grand total of one team who currently sit above us.

They didn't bother us that much in the first half, one header from Mitrovic when he was offside anyway and his one on one which was a good save, that's what we pay Rui a hell of a lot of money for. I'm not bothered about pea rollers from 25 yards out.

At stages in the second half we had close to 80% possession and I believe their goal was their first shot of the half.

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

Other than the goal, we didn't really create a really good chance all game, just Jimenez making the best from a couple of situations. That has to be a little disappointing against a team who have conceded so many this season (although I suppose that stat carries less weight now Ranieri has come in and binned off a lot of their fluid football for a lot of men behind the ball). It's hard to therefore say we were good. And for most of the first half, we were straight up bad.

Mentioned on the other thread but they were effectively playing six defenders today - a full on back five (Christie and Bryan hardly ever got forward) and Chambers parked in front of them. Ranieri has gone damage limitation until he can buy some new defenders.

We were never going to create huge amounts against that set up. We did however have 14 attempts on goal, away from home, with Traore offering nothing for 45 minutes and Costa not much more than nothing for the time he was on the pitch.

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

xG:

Fulham 0.93 - Wolves 1.49

Wow, what a smash and grab...

 

[Dire Wolf]

So you don't think we've struggled against Fulham, Huddersfield and Cardiff? Heck, we weren't that good against Newcastle either but got the last minute winner when a draw would probably have been a fairer reflection. But whatever, we are in a good position and nobody can be disappointed in how the season is going. It is a little disappointing that with better consistency the season would look truly magnificent. But I do accept that getting that consistency is not easy at this level, doesn't mean we shouldn't wish for it...

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

Well we didn't struggle against Burnley, Southampton, Palace, West Ham or Bournemouth (and there's no way we should have lost to Brighton), so no, I don't think there's some endemic issue with us, it's a weird narrative that's been picked up over the last month or so.

We got the tactics badly wrong vs Cardiff (still probably shouldn't have lost) and had a severe off day vs Huddersfield. Today a draw was about right although we've had more shots, xG says we should have won, we had a clear penalty turned down and they should have had a man sent off. We struggled for about 25 minutes then found a way to largely fix our issues in terms of ball retention up the pitch and subduing Mitrovic to a point.

We managed to draw a blank at home against all of Swansea, Sunderland and Sheffield Wednesday last season but I don't live in fear of playing teams whose name starts with S.

 

[sycophantia]

Burnley are the worst team I think, they're just a mess everywhere and nothing looks right for them. Huddersfield and Cardiff do at least work as a team but severely lack quality.

Fulham have some horrible weaknesses (also how did Seri ever get linked with Barcelona?!) but they aren't as bad as some of the rubbish we've seen in the past.

To expect us to just turn up and win is a very weird mindset, I could get on board with it last season playing your likes of Burton and Reading at home, not now. Fulham gave us a right doing less than 12 months ago at Craven Cottage. We also did not "pinch a point" today, we really weren't that bad at all.

Agree with this, are some of our fans turning into man u style 'entitled' type? We have to be careful not to be a bit patronising to other teams. Overall we've done well with the players we have, hopefully one or two additions in January will push us a bit further on but I expect us to be a bit inconsistant for the rest of the season.

 

[Tony Towner]

I'm unsure why this is a debate, but it's the mentality of the opposition we have struggled with not where they are based in the league. For example if Bournemouth had come to Molineux and played a flat back 5 out of possession and 2 holding midfielders we would have struggled to break them down. We beat them because they came with the intent to try and impose their game on us and we proved to be the better, not because at the time they were above is in the table

There is a conversation to be had about what we should do against that style though. As I said on the other thread, even the shit Premier League sides by and large hold their shape so moving the ball around until you find the overload isn't likely to happen like it did last year. This season there isn't a top half side like Burnley last year or Stoke under Pulis who employ those tactics, those that do sit in the lower half of the table, where a point against Wolves is now seen as a decent result and if you can grab a goal from a set piece - Cardiff, Huddersfield, Fulham then job done. Which again is an issue worthy of conversation as the number of goals we concede within 10 seconds of a set-piece must be north of 2/3.

We do struggle to break down a certain type of side, but it's all about their tactics and not their league position

 

[jd1981]

Any away point at this level is a good one, performance was the greatest but I’ll take that over playing well and losing.
First half if we are given the penalty and score it changes the complexion of the game in a way that usually suits us well.
Didn’t get at the end how it was made out that Fulham were robbed.
Yes they were far better first half but 2nd we had far more control of the game and dominated the ball. Mitrovic was good but if he didn’t score.
Some of our fans need a serious reality check, we’re 10th in the top flight, 14 points clear of relegation.
I grew up in the 90’s and will never wing eat that situation.

 

[Deleted Cyber]

We do struggle to break down a certain type of side, but it's all about their tactics and not their league position

Agreed but it makes it even more frustrating to lose or not win against those bottom 4 teams. There is no hiding that.

Anyone watching yesterdays first half would not have had us as the higher placed team. We stank for about 30 minutes, after a bright start.

There is definitely something in defending set peices. We concede too often from them or within 10 seconds of them.

A point was fair yesterday.