Fulham vs. Queens Park Rangers

Discussion in 'Fulham FC News and Notes' started by astroevan, Mar 13, 2018.

  1. astroevan

    astroevan Well-Known Member

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    This Saturday Fulham host London rivals QPR in the early match to conclude the busy schedule before the international break. This match will be live on ESPN3 at 8:30 EDT (I guess the UK hasn't changed their clocks yet). Fulham look to continue the Championship's longest unbeaten streak to 16 matches. QPR are away at Villa today (Tuesday) so they will have a short turn around prior to Saturday's match.

    I know there was talk of the team being gassed at the end of the Preston match, but I say if it's not broke, don't fix it. Keep feeding Mitrovic in the middle. Keep running Sessegnon and Ayite/Ojo/Piazon up and down the wings. Keep the core midfielders and defenders. And most importantly of all, keep the clean sheet!
     
    #1
  2. BarryWhite

    BarryWhite Well-Known Member

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    A full week off between matches should be enough to freshen up the legs so I’m all for playing the core group mentioned above.
     
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  3. jumpkutz

    jumpkutz Well-Known Member

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    If it ain't broke, don't fix it...unless Kalas is fit again. I like Odoi, but preferably outside, not inside. Still, can't argue with the results with him in there, so let's go again! And in the good news, bad news category, the HA's played, and won convincingly, tonight at Villa Park, 3-1. So it figures they'll be fancying a result in a derby come Saturday. Except an extra match is an extra match. And we're on one of the most amazing streaks that I've seen since becoming a supporter in 2011. There is no reason to believe we can't keep the thing going. Winning is contagious, and it's still winning season. Will we catch Cardiff (who beat Brentford tonight as well, 3-1) or whoever sits second? I don't know, but our chances improve if we continue to take care of business and focus on our own matches. Keep it going, keep it going, keep it going, FULL STEAM!
     
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  4. HatterDon

    HatterDon Moderator

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    i was concerned that this might be the "come a cropper" match, but I think the Rs got it out of their system in spanking Villa today. I see yet another dousing for THA SHIRT late morning on Saturday.
     
    #4
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  5. SoCalJoe

    SoCalJoe Well-Known Member

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    If one of our neighbors was going to help us yesterday I would’ve bet large on Brentford at home versus Cardiff (a goal in first half stoppage time by Cardiff doomed the Bees). Shocked is a mild word for the performance QPR displayed at Villa. We thank them, and guaranteed Joka will have the lads not going in overconfident.
     
    #5
  6. jumpkutz

    jumpkutz Well-Known Member

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    #6
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  7. HatterDon

    HatterDon Moderator

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    evidently, if we avoid defeat tomorrow, that'll be sixteen matches without losing -- something no Fulham team has done ... EVER ... since 1879!
     
    #7
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  8. MicahMan

    MicahMan Administrator

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    Mar 4, 2014
    UMBC kept me up later than I would have liked, but I'm up and ready for the match! Still no Kalas and Piazon gets the start over Ayite

    Bettinelli
    Fredericks, Odoi, Ream, Targett
    McDonald, Cairney, Johansen
    Piazon, Mitrovic, Sessegnon

    Subs: Button (back after a 2 week absence due to illness), Christie, Norwood, Ojo, Ayite, Fonte, Kamara
     
    #8
  9. dcheather

    dcheather Administrator

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    Sigh, I need to stick to not watching. It just works better that way.
     
    #9
  10. HatterDon

    HatterDon Moderator

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    Well, on the one hand, the shirt is still working. It's a shame that FFC stopped working after Piazon's goal. There won't be the View that I had hoped to write. The first half included about 25 still pictures lasting between 5 and 30 seconds and i missed pretty much all of half-time and the first 10 minutes of the second half. ESPN3, you let me down!

    Here's what I DID see, though. We were sublime in the first half -- great passing, great hold up play, and two lovely goals. As soon as the Piazon celebration ended, though, Fulham took their collective foot off the gas and never really put it back on. The one thing I feared from QPR was set pieces. While we've been very good defending them recently, they are a HUGE factor in QPR's successes this season. Sure enough, that was their first goal.

    I had hoped that Joka would have put the fear of God into them during the interval, but ... not so much. While we never looked like getting our third, Rangers played well enough and aggressively enough to have earned the entire three points. That would have sent THA SHIRT into the washing machine that's running at this moment instead of waiting two weeks for it's next wearing. Thankfully, Betts turned in a MOtM performance and the streak still lives.

    If Joka didn't have an impact at half time, his double substitution late pretty much guaranteed we'd not take control of the match at the death. He took off our two most creative players and replaced them with a somewhat game Ojo and the sheet of tissue paper that is Rui Fonte.

    So, I guess we should be satisfied with the fact that our unbeaten run continued to 16 [12 or 13 for the shirt; I ran out of fingers], as opposed to losing which is what we really deserved. Shame though, had we kept our intensity, it could easily have been 4 or 5-0 to us.

    Hmmmm, I guess maybe this IS a view, sort of.
     
    #10
  11. jumpkutz

    jumpkutz Well-Known Member

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    I suppose we were due to lay an egg. At least we got a point, but it sure felt like a loss. I don’t know why we play well against the stronger teams and not as well against the weaker sides. It’s a habit we need to break.
    Despite our early dominance in posession, I thought we wern’t brave enough with our attacking passes. The goals were strictly a result of our superior talent. Piazon’s was especially well taken, after some good work by Fredericks and, I think, TC in the box. Holloway was clearly intent on sitting back and putting 11 behind the ball in the first half, seemingly to prevent Mitrovic from beating them. I really thought the goal we conceded from the set piece right before halftime was the key play of the game. That was a momentum killer. The 2nd half, Ian changed tactics, going with the higher line and pressing. We just didn’t deal with it. Betts really saved the point for us, Odoi’s howler notwithstanding. The subs from both managers were quite curious indeed, but the bottom line is ours had no positive response mpact on the proceedings whatsoever.
    Again, just glad we got this mulligan out of our system and lived to earn an undeserved point. Hopefully we get our mojo back for the one Friday night March 30th at Carrow Road, although this result probably kills any hope of finishing 2nd, Looks like it’ll be playoff roulette again, which is certainly fine given our position in mid-November. Oh well, won’t have to worry about Jap Staam’s Reading this time. Guess I better go ahead and order a fresh bottle of Prozac
     
    #11
  12. MicahMan

    MicahMan Administrator

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    Official highlights from QPR:


    Watching that really illustrated how each half were like two entirely different games. Seemed like whoever was going at the Putney end had the mojo.

    The most disappointing aspect of our performance was the choice of subs, particularly Ojo and Fonte. This was an aspect of the game that was entirely in our control, but the decision made absolutely no sense. No doubt, we needed subs, just not those two. I thought Christie would come in for Fredericks since he seemed to be getting worn out and I thought Johansen should have been subbed since he was making a number of poor passes that lead to turnovers. Not that Norwood is famous for his possession skills, but what we needed more than anything late in the second half was ball control and a midfield of Cairney, McDonald, and Norwood would have given us a better shot at that. Bringing on Ojo and Fonte made me feel like we were going to lose. At least that didn't happen, but they made absolutely no positive impact for Fulham.

    We've been on such a good run it is easy to forget that this wasn't a loss. It was a draw. Not only that, it was a draw that moved us up to third place! This is the best that Fulham has ever played and one bad half isn't the death knell for this team. Hopefully the team learns from this and figures out how to avoid another half like yesterday's last 45. Getting automatic promotion was always going to be a longshot for a team that was in 17th place in November. And it is still a longshot. Cardiff's match against Derby was postponed due to snow so they may end up with a mid-week match tacked on to a period in April already filled with mid-week matches. So whatever chance we may have had for finishing second has stayed about the same - it still requires a miracle, but not impossible. Most likely we are going to the playoffs and that cannot be considered a failure. It is a testament to the quality we have on this team that it is now in third place when at one point it seemed like the season could be written off.
     
    #12
  13. HatterDon

    HatterDon Moderator

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    A very late thought about this match. The main reaction to our getting out 16th straight undefeated match ranged from despair to anger. There was no celebration of setting a mark unmatched since our first match in 1879. Instead ... .

    And that got me to thinking about two things.

    First things first. When HatterMom and I got to Craven Cottage a few years back, we were hosting Man City. While not the machine they are now, they were already the richest club in the world and loaded with talent. The first half had us scrambling everywhere -- except for the much maligned Stephen Kelly who had a brilliant half right in front of me. The most memorable thing about the first half was the total domination of Yaya Toure. Despite this, we were down only 0-1. The second half began with an easy goal by City and then ... and then there was a stiffening of the Fulham backbone and the match turned on its head. There were two more goals scored in the match, both of them by Fulham, and the two of us -- and pretty much every Fulham supporter left elated at picking up a point -- pretty much like every QPR fan felt Saturday. City supporters? They were down -- pretty much like ... .

    Second thing -- we also dropped two points that day, like last Saturday. You pick up one, you drop two. Here's the difference though, and I'm really NOT surprised it took me a few days to recognize this. Throughout our history, whenever we've either fought back to secure a draw or conceded late to lose a draw, we've been struggling for points. Imagine any other time when a 16-match unbeaten streak continuing would not cause excitement.

    The difference ... and this is pretty weird as I type this -- the difference is that, in the Championship right now, we are A BIG CLUB. And, just like Barcelona, Man U, Liverpool, Man City, PSG, Bayern, etc. etc. etc., any result that isn't three points is now upsetting to the majority of our supporters. THIS IS WHAT IT FEELS LIKE TO SUPPORT A BIG CLUB!!!! Weird

    And that's why the half-dozen Fulham Facebook pages that I follow -- as well as three Fulham websites -- were so negative after Saturday. My goodness, did we ever think we'd be here?

    16 unbeaten, the Cauley shirt is still active ... and we're supporting a big club. Don't it feel weird.
     
    #13
  14. BarryWhite

    BarryWhite Well-Known Member

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    Newburgh, IN
    A bit Twilight Zoneish
     
    #14
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