Fulham vs Oldham Athletic-The FA Cup-3rd Round

This one is on SUNDAY! SUNDAY! SUNDAY! at 2 p.m., BST, 9 a.m.. EST, too damn early, PST. Wouldn't it be nice if we could win SOMETHING? It still rankles me a bit to see the phrase "Fulham have never won a major honour..." in the second paragraph of our Wikipedia page entry. This competition is probably our best shot. I would even go so far as to say I'd accept what happened to Wigan in 2013: won the FA Cup at Wembley against Citeh one weekend, relegated from the Premier League the following weekend. They can say that at least they've won something. The Latics also have two EFL Cups and a League One championship to their credit. We have nothing. Yeah, I know, we got a trophy for winning the Championship play-off final at Wembley against Villa, but apparently that doesn't qualify as a "major honour." Of course, it's highly unlikely we'll win anything this season, but stranger things have happened (see Wigan, above). They finished 18th with 36 points, 3 behind Sunderland, with a -13 goal difference to boot. So 3 more points wouldn't have mattered. Oldham are 10th in League Two, with a 10-8-8 record and a +7 goal difference. So they're competing well in their corner of the world. They're 3-0-2 in their last five, but one of the losses stands out: a 6-nil drubbing at Carlisle on Boxing Day. They sacked the gaffer after that one and are currently under a caretaker manager. He's 2-0.
Here are highlights from their last two, both victories.





The question is: What do WE do? Do we run out some of the subs/academy kids? Or do we put out a competitive lineup? I'm from the Herm Edwards school of thought...YOU PLAY. TO WIN. THE GAME!!!

 

A number of changes for today's lineup, but all potential Premier League starters - no youth players with the exception of Steven Sessegnon on the bench. I had a bit of trouble figuring out the formation, but here is my best guess:

Bettinelli
Odoi, Chambers, Ream, Le Marchand
Cisse, Seri, Cairney
Ayite, Vietto, Kebano

Subs: Fabri, R. Sessegnon, Mitrovic, Schurrle, Christie, S. Sessegnon, Kamara

The bench players are clearly on call in case Fulham doesn't put this one to bed by the middle of the second half.

Some other results of note from yesterday...

Huddersfield lost to Bristol City, League One's Gillingham defeated Cardiff, Southampton lost a 2 goal lead to only draw with Derby, and Newcastle barely drew with Blackburn after being awarded a penalty in the 84th minute. Hopefully Fulham can avoid the fate of the other bottom of the table teams and get a win today.

 

We SUCK, that is all.

 

All I can say is I'm really glad I didn't get up early to watch this one.

 

Speechless. And if you think this will "just let us concentrate on the league," I've got news.

 

I was thinking this during the match, but I'll Ranieri say it in his words.

"I can also say I gave a chance to the players who haven’t been involved, and they missed their chance."

"I wanted to see the players who aren’t involved so frequently. But I didn’t see the desire, I didn’t see the passion that I saw from the Oldham players."​

It seemed to me that Fulham thought that they didn't need to try to win. Vietto has lost all of my support at this point. Also (as someone has previously stated on these boards), Fulham have no hope if Mitrovic gets injured or suspended.

 

I agree...with all of the above. Whether coincidence or indicative of a let down, NOT scoring and then conceding shortly thereafter has occurred far too often thus far. COYfW.
And once again, I turn to...

 

The only good thing about these highlights is that I appreciate the commentary. Oh, and Odoi did a really cool flip. We totally crushed Oldham in the flipping game.

 

Even with all the changes, we should have won. Easily. Nev’s video is spot on. It sure looks like Ranieri has lost the dressing room...if he ever had it in the first place. This team doesn’t believe in him, hasn’t bought into his tactics, and it shows. His deserved reputation as a tinker man hasn’t helped. Clearly the wrong man for the job. Don’t think new transfers are going to make much difference. Was still holding onto a glimmer of hope of staying up. Not after this.

 

I can't see this because I don't subscribe to fulhamfctv, so I don't know if Denis actually said the word improve, but there's a headline writer somewhere at the club with a dry sense of humor...or a wicked case of unawareness. Either way, uh, no s##t, Sherlock.

 

What a disaster. In a season where our defense has been terrible but offense adequate, what irony its our offense that is terrible.

As I've mentioned in threads of yore, outside of Mitrovic we literally have zero other forwards/strikers. Instead we have 5-6 attacking midfielders who play in a forward position on the field. This result reinforced that.

If there's one silver lining, its official the players we thought we might rely on, and a few of those on the fringes, are heretofore unreliable and would be best if the team moved on from them.

Kebano and Ayite should be loaned away, as we may need them in the Championship next season.

Vietto should remain on the bench with his bud Schurrle, where the two could teach the other about their game (Vietto passes when he should shoot, Schurrle shoots when he should pass). If we can send both back, great.

Tom Cairney...oh boy. Everything was set up for him to thrive, and he did literally nothing. People have been saying he needs to start, that he's our engine room, he's the captain blah blah blah: well, *this* is his production: https://understat.com/player/6835 This is atrocious (and if anyone cares to know, Seri is outperforming him in every category). I would hate to lose such a young, promising player when you may need him next season, but considering this inexplicable rot within the team, the PK fiasco vs Huddersfield, not showing up versus a L2 side, and Ranieri too-often critical comments: doesn't a lot of that rest with the captain? It's a really tough call to make, and I may eat my words, but I think we may need to move on, and give the armband to someone else.