Fulham 2-0 verdict thread

[darlowolf64]

He is a Fucking Carthorse he has played 1 decent game all fucking season.
Hes a big lump who if you play him like Coady did he'll hold you off anx do what he did.

Step off him give him half a yard by the time the lump.has started to turn take the fucking thing off him

He's hardly played all season (Benitez wouldn't pick him much to the surprise/anger of the Newcastle fans I know) and moved to Fulham in January...5 games, 2 goals and looks dangerous in their set up

 

[Penk Wolf]

No.it was not it was Coady

Definitely Bennett.

 

[Langers]

When ypu lool at their team barrimg one or 2 exceptional players they are not that good.

Kevin MacDonald, and Mitrovic are dross there keeper is useless.

They have 2 excellent players in Cairney, and Sessegnon
They then have another 3 or 4 top 6 championship players none that could play in a title winning team.

We were that bad last night, however t anyone who even suggests we were poor and its a worry is always abused on here.

Last night was a disgrace

If you're unable to give the opposition the credit for an excellent performance then I give up. Fulham were the best side we've played this season by some distance. Ream had a brilliant game, Sessegnon a constant threat, McDonald and Cairney won the midfield battle and Mitrovic played extremely well.

No-one is suggesting we played well because we didn't and deservedly came away with nothing. And yes, improvement is needed and Nuno has work to do. I'm not getting worked up because I trust him 100% to do that and get us winning again. He's earned that patience and respect from us.

But your post just seems to be a tirade of hyperbole and a total inability to look back at the game sensibly and logically.

Honestly mate, calm down - we lost to a good side, we were below par but we'll recover quickly. We're going to be fine.

 

[GLASGOWOLF]

If you're unable to give the opposition the credit for an excellent performance then I give up. Fulham were the best side we've played this season by some distance. Ream had a brilliant game, Sessegnon a constant threat, McDonald and Cairney won the midfield battle and Mitrovic played extremely well.

No-one is suggesting we played well because we didn't and deservedly came away with nothing. And yes, improvement is needed and Nuno has work to do. I'm not getting worked up because I trust him 100% to do that and get us winning again. He's earned that patience and respect from us.

But your post just seems to be a tirade of hyperbole and a total inability to look back at the game sensibly and logically.

Honestly mate, calm down - we lost to a good side, we were below par but we'll recover quickly. We're going to be fine.

Yes they played well.
Because we fucking let them.

When you have a team.as good as we are we still had 3 players of premiership quality, and possibly Coady, it's not about how they play it's about how we play and we were fucking shit.

If we play to our ability no team in this league would get a point.

The last 3 games as been shit and Nuno has to take the majority of the blame.
It's not hyperbole its nothing more than looking at the game and not being happy with what your watching.

This team is Fucking awesome but dropping Jota whe we are already with out Neves was a bad call, especiallly fir a player who has not scored since December and has not played for a while.

 

[Norman Deeley]

In the cold light of day I'm still disappointed by last night's performance. Plenty of players last night showing they won't be anywhere near good enough for the Premier League and sadly, too many players last night just not looking up for it. The contrast between the physical presence of Mitrovic and Sessegnon vs. Bonatini and Costa was alarming. Yes, we will still win the league, barring a momumental stumble, but I want to win the league in style, I do not want to stumble over the finishing line with Colin Wanker breathing down our necks. And like Slink, I am not going to buy into blind faith 'in Nuno we trust.' Nuno got it badly wrong in the second half agaisnt Norwich: he was comprehensively out thought yesterday. He has serious work to do before next Saturday, including a tough, tough decision on Ruddy, who looks increasingly fallible

 

[Parkins left foot]

Was going to join in with this on the train coming back, but having seen what the mood was decided to wait till things calmed down a bit.

Was that good - clearly not. With the best 2 players we have not on then we can't have others playing below par & we had too many of them against what is a decent Fulham team (with a couple of better players than that in Sessengnon & Cairney) who can play if allowed to - which we did.

Ruddy was nervous as almost gifted them 2 other goals when advancing too slowly & getting lobbed (saved by Coady getting back to clear) then almost dropping the ball at Sessengnon's feet by spilling a shot & just getting it at the second attempt

The back 3 were OK & surprised at the vitriol for Coady as though he was one of the better performers (though to be fair his bad time with Mitrovic was in the second half when it was all a long way away). Though why Bennett (& Doherty) decided that they had become part of the crowd & just watched Sessengnon score is unfathomable.

Douglas's set pieces were awry & Matt please stop trying to cross high to the back post - you can't

Saiss & N'Daiye were disjointed & the pass radar was clearly in the repair shop - lost count of the passes just behind or too far ahead of the intended player. N'Daiye's desire to break forward meant that there wasn't always an out pass so the ball just got recycled backwards.

Cavaleiro tried hard, though with too much over complication at times & Costa (bright first few minutes aside) seemed unwilling to get into challenges. Something that Bonatini suffered from as well. Subs improved things a little without having any major influence.

Despite all of this we could still have nicked something - if Jota had scored when he should (even with his eyes shut) & 10 mins to go then it would have given the team hope & Fulham a bit of nerves.

Interestingly a Fulham fan on the way home said that he still though that we were the best opposition he had seen at The Cottage this season (it is odd though for fans of both sides to travel back to the same small Dorset town that is over 100 miles from either club!)

It is unfortunate that this result came just after we had the Norwich result as had we won that suspect that the mood would been somewhat different. Still think that we will get there, but this will give the chasing pack a bit of hope & I trust ensure that our lot don't think that its job done.

For all the good play nothing has been achieved yet. On to Reading

 

[MARKakaJIM]

I think it's a bit of a cop out to say Fulham played excellently last night or point to their recent form. It's a convenient excuse in my eyes, they didn't play that well and only really got in on goal by Mitrovic turning Coady easily twice.

Wolves' problems were for the most part caused by Wolves, Fulham didn't force many errors nor did they cut Wolves to ribbons, they were competent and took advantage when they could. Wolves on the other had looked lethargic, uninterested and completely lost at times, there were opportunities that Wolves would've punished earlier in the season that weren't pressed home last night through a lack of application or determination.

 

[Siggy]

First of all I think Fulham were excellent, when we have lost this season it has very rarely been because we were outplayed but we were last night. They worked hard off the ball and used the ball well when they had it using the balance of the team very well and of course have a sprinkle of real quality in there.

For us, we missed Neves badly, the engine of the team just wasn't there and too many players just went missing. I was quite critical in the match thread of Alf who did misplace a lot of passes however he never hid and tried to make things happen so he stays in for me, Saiss on the other hand did very little and also gave the ball away. The lack of quality in CM was evident so many moves broke down because of this, with Neves in the side he controls everything and makes sure the ball gets to where it needs to get, we didn't have that.

Up top Bonatini may as well have stayed in Wolverhampton, a very poor showing from him and he can have no complaints if he is dropped next week. Costa seemed to want to hide when things got tough and was rightly subbed, I don't like to see players backing out of challenges but he did that several times.

Both goals are avoidable IMO, the first whilst its a good save (a save he should be making) he palmed it nicely on a plate for someone to tap in, which they gladly did. The 2nd was just too easy we should be stronger than that.

As for the changes, Jota coming on for Costa made perfect sense but MGW coming in to CM didn't work, Alf was pretty bad on the ball but off it he did ok, MGW got skinned several times and showed that hes nowhere near ready for the responsibility that comes with that position, further up in a slight formation change or in the front 3 for now please Nuno.

For me next week I want to see Jota - Afobe - Cav up top, Costa & Bonatini should be dropped no question in my mind.

MOTM - Boly, defended well and tried to get things moving.

 

[Lord Knows]

I think its easy to be over analytical of a particular performance and highlight the negative moments while not grasping the fact the run of the ball is often in the hands of the Gods. I feel for the most part within a sequence of matches Wolves pattern of play is holding up well even during a period of games such as now when the precision of passing and clarity of thinking has dipped slightly.
I feel that Wolves just have to continue what they are doing and expect more of the big moments will break in Wolves favour. Cant see a lot wrong with us at the moment to be honest.

 

[Premier Quality]

My hindsight view is - the first goal was always likely to make a big difference and if we’d scored one of our chances the game would have been very different. I don’t think nuno did anything wrong today, but he was let down by some of his players.

Bonantini was beyond awful - he just didn’t contribute at all, he probably needs some u23 games to get himself moving again.
Doherty - watching Sessegnon run in to score was a horrendous lack of desire - completely unacceptable imo
N’Diaye did his best, but his game doesn’t suit our system - we’re built on the back three, wing backs and two sitting midfielders - when he breaks it can look good, but our shape is completely fucked and allows the opposition to break on us which never happens when he’s not there.
Coady did surprisingly well in midfield, but we shouldn’t start mucking about with our system and move him there. He just needs to learn how to deal with the likes of mitrovic better.

Gibbs-White to fill the neves role against reading for me, next to saiss.

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

https://oscillatingwildly.net/reaction-fulham-2-0-wolves/

 

[Norman Deeley]

https://oscillatingwildly.net/reaction-fulham-2-0-wolves/

Nice write up & well balanced. 'Pull the trigger' hits the nail on the head for me

 

[Parkins left foot]

https://oscillatingwildly.net/reaction-fulham-2-0-wolves/

A very balanced report again - much more so than comments coming out elsewhere

 

[Siggy]

Nice match report DW, a good read.

 

[Sedgley Wolf]

https://oscillatingwildly.net/reaction-fulham-2-0-wolves/

Thank God for that. Some common sense to be found in a flood of pant-wetting.

Superbly written, sir :tiphat:

 

[GLASGOWOLF]

Thank God for that. Some common sense to be found in a flood of pant-wetting.

Superbly written, sir :tiphat:

I dont see any pant wetting.

I have not seen anyone say we are going to blow it, we are not going up.

Everyone has rightly had a go about the performance yesterday, Dan said pretty much the same as everyone else albeit slightly more eloquemtly, which is not surprising given his journalistic tendencies.

I still think.we will win the title, however we have to.play a darn site better than that at Villa Park, Cardiff and even against thise teams in the bottom 6 they are going to be scrapping like fuck to get points.

 

[Tony Towner]

I'm with Slink in that the over reaction is OTT, but so is the metaphorical shrug of the shoulders, 'you win some you lose some' casualness.

We aced the first half of the season with some fair to decent Championship players and some that have no right being at Molineux, however our making was the system. This is an over simplification, but for the first couple of months teams didn't know what to make of it and the next couple they were scared to play against us so often didn't try to really win the game, they either parked the bus or kicked lumps, with the odd piece of success, but were largely unsuccessful in either tactic.

Some sides still have that attitude, Preston a couple of weeks ago being one, however by and large a few things have changed. Teams have worked out we need to control the midfield so they are putting an extra man in there, they know that the wing backs are key and neither are great defensively so they are pushing men on to them, they can see that as good as Coady's distribution is he's not a career centre half and cannot cope with a physical presence on him. In summary they have a gameplan on how to win which is beyond kicking lumps out of us and 11 men behind the ball. Forest, Norwich and Fulham all played reasonable football in getting their results against us because they knew that as long as they can push on our weaknesses they could then focus on their own strengths to get a result. Ruddy's relative collapse in form is nothing to do with the opposition, but another contributory factor.

Yesterday we played the best side in the league since Xmas away from home where they've won their last 8, losing that in isolation isn't something to be overly concerned by, however the overall pattern as described in my 3rd paragraph is. I still think we will go up, but Nuno needs to see what is happening to us and come up with a plan to compensate. He's trying things like the second half formation versus Norwich and putting Afobe on to be more of a number 9, but they don't seem to be the answer.

 

[AndyWolves]

I make this the first league game where we've been really outplayed (Cardiff and Sheffield united away aside). Fulham are absolutely flying at the moment

The reaction from some fans is ridiculous, we were poor but Nuno and his team have surely garnered a little faith and belief from the fans. This team have set pieces expectations very high and then when we play poorly the toys get thrown out of the pram.

Nuno has shown how he's learns from other games where we've played poorly and I'm sure he'll do it again

Some of things I've seen on Twitter and Facebook make me ashamed to be a wolves fan.

 

[StuardoWulf]

Our formation is the key and if we execute properly we win 9/10 however yesterday was sloppy. I wouldn't panic yet a while though.
Controling the midfield being key we missed Neves and Saiss was not very good. Frustrating? oh yes Beginning of the end? Nah chance

 

[Tredman]

Good article that DW, not entirely sure I agree with this part

We don’t have a manager who won’t use his squad properly. We don’t have a squad full of players who have plenty of miles in the legs and are starting to struggle with a high intensity style as we reach the final stages of the season. We don’t have a manager who is obstinate enough to keep playing players when they are quite obviously in need of a break

Although we do have a clear first team, Nuno has been very reluctant to change players who could perhaps do with a break. Jota, Saiss (pre injury), Douglas and others might have benefited from sitting the odd game out.