Fulham vs Scum Sunday morning

The Scott Parker era (if one can call it that) begins with the middle Sunday match, which means all eyes should be on the Cottage with a 7 and 11:15 sandwiched around us. Scum was having issues of late, especially scoring, but coming off a shutout of Spuds WITH Harry Kane, have they righted the ship? A goalkeeper flap and Roman’s patience with Sarri may be about to pay off. They’ve still got formidable offensive weapons, and Higuain’s got to start clicking with them sooner or later. You would fancy your chances against our defense this season, eh? There’s no reason to believe that we can stop them, unless Scott decides to start Fabri and he stands on his head. Not verily likely and I wouldn’t expect it. IF we can frustrate them for a bit and nick an early goal, things might get interesting for a bit, but they’re gonna score, it’s just a matter of how many. If we can get the ball out of the back, or, more likely, win enough long goal kicks and balls into the box, we might score a few. That’s if Scott puts Mitro, Sess, Cairney, McDonald, Babel and Chambers out together in a sensible formation.
I think it’s time to try Fabri in goal again. And, can we recall StefJo from West Brom? What have we got to lose?

 

I’ll be there in the Haynes Stand, my first time at the Cottage since 2012. At this point, I think the best I can hope for is that the lads show up and demonstrate at least a bit of fight. It would be little consolation in this dumpster fire of a season, but I can hope for a win, right?

 

But will Johansen really want to leave his sweet gig at the Chez Paul?

 

There’s got to be a second half against Brighton at home performance still lurking back there somewhere, eh gang? Whatever the result, try to enjoy the day, and the experience Tim. If you spot any clearance items from last season in 3XL, I’m good for it!

 

Scott Parker picking his first lineup, be like “what do we have, what do we have?”

 

Not too different from Parker, but I think this starting XI does make sense:

Rico
Odoi, Nordtveit, Ream, Bryan
Chambers, McDonald
Babel, Cairney, Sessegnon
Mitrovic

Subs: Fabri, Le Marchand, Seri, Christie, Anguissa, Vietto, Ayite

In Scott Parker's final appearance as a coach for Tottenham's youth squad he led them to a 9-0 victory over Arsenal. Is that a sign of what is to come today? Certainly not. However it is nice to know that if Fulham were capable of putting 9 up against Chelsea, Parker wouldn't stop them due to some misplaced sense of sportsmanship.

 

Deserved something from that!! Best match from Sess (I'm sure that was Scott Parker's first order of business to just sit down and tell him he believes in him) in a long time, and it would've been nice to get a bad call on the offside (it was, but just barely) on the would-be equalizer. Ayite's sweet overhead flick to Mitro HAS to be buried. Played w/pride and fight and at least we were standing on their throat at the end and not giving up that nail in the coffin goal that we've done all season.

@tim Great that the you got to see that kind of effort and performance in person.

 

Not sure we deserved more than what we got, but it WAS encouraging to see more effort and better execution from the vast majority of our players. Also encouraging to see our best players start in a practical, workable formation with a doable tactical plan. But let’s be honest. Scum put in another less than stellar performance, typical of many by them this season that’s put Sarri on the hot seat and Hazard wanting out. As poorly as they played, they should have scored at least 3 more goals in the first half, and could easily have scored 7 or 8. They just “outtalented” us. But...we could just as easily have scored two in the second half and not only nicked a result, but WON! I am glad we played better and not only stayed within striking distance, but gave ourselves a chance to win. Cairney, Sess, Mitro, K-Mac, even Ayite, looked like the players they were last season that we thought could compete at this level. I was holding my breath every time the blue team got into our final third. I’ll feel better if we can replicate today’s effort or, hopefully, improve upon it for the final 9 games, starting at Leicester Saturday. They were less than convincing in Brendan Rogers’ debut at Watford today, losing in injury time.
If Scott can shore up the defense more with a full week of practice, I like our chances of getting our first road win next week. We made progress today. I like our chances of making more Saturday.

 

I didn't get a chance to watch the match (I had to go to church, an especially important day to go to church if you are a United Methodist, especially when the church leadership announces the church isn't going to be United Methodist for much longer) however I was heartened to hear that the crowd gave a standing ovation for the effort shown by the team. It seems that Scott Parker got the best he could out of this squad and everyone recognized that.

I'm not sure if they showed a clearer replay during the match, but based on the highlight clips it seems like Rudiger's elbow might have pushed that final ball through to Sessegnon. Rudiger's turn velocity matches the speed of the ball better than Vietto's forward momentum, but I never took physics so I can't go on anything more than my gut. Doesn't matter at all now, but drawing even a the death could have been the highlight of the season.

 

Upon further review, I agree with Joe. We DID deserve something from this one. The undead didn’t play that poorly and we played much better for the full 90 plus than I originally thought. Mitro was incredibly unlucky not to score. He just put Sess’s deflected cross that popped right up for him in the 27th minute and Ayite’s brilliant aerial flick on in the 88th too close to Kepa. The Spanish kid is a pretty darn good keeper, lost in a thicket of them behind David de Gea. It warmed the cockles of my heart to see number 11 back out there. Floyd was kind of the odd man out, along with Kebano and Piazon, by the time we got to Wembley last season. We don’t get that far without them, in my humble opinion. The shot Mitro took in the 60th minute didn’t miss by much, but he really, REALLY should have slipped Sess in, who was, in the immortal words of Billy Tubbs, wide-ass open at the dead center top of the 18. And I mean WIDE-ASS OPEN. A miss from there would have constituted a felony. After watching the replay multiple times, it sure looks like Sess is onside for what should have been the equalizer. But, does it get reversed even if VAR is in play now instead of next season? For me, it’s a 50-50 and, thus, probably not. Here’s hoping our luck changes to coincide with our form at Leicester and beyond.

 

Yes, they lost as expected, but that was the most entertaining Fulham match in quite a while. The team looked engaged and energetic. Hopefully they continue to (at worst) entertain me for the rest of the season.

 

@tim Any thoughts on the match with Chelsea since you were an eye-witness?

 

Yep, was planning on posting today...

The guys showed up. After several performances that could generously be described as listless, there was a real fight in the squad. It really starts making me ask the annoying "What if" questions....replicate the performance from Sunday for this whole season, and we wouldn't be looking at relegation.

As for specific players:

• Cairney is a beast. Not only was he all over the field...what really impressed me was his skill on the ball. He did very well in traffic and (almost) always made the correct pass. I really hope we can hang on to him. He certainly has Premier League quality, so I'm not super optimistic.
• Sessegnon is legit. He will develop into a reliable top-flight player, so I would expect a mid-table club to buy him this summer.
• As has been mentioned above, Chambers impressed, as well. Of the three, I think we have the best shot at keeping him around, but won't hold my breath.
• The back line actually played a pretty good game. A team with Chelsea's quality can easily put two on the board against just about anybody on the right day, so no blame to the defense for the loss.
• Both keepers had great matches, each with a number of really quality saves. I was inching off my seat a couple times thinking we for sure would score, only to see Kepa make a save.
• Anguissa was less than helpful, coming off the bench. Almost invariably, his first instinct was to go backwards.

I don't have a ton to compare it to, as this was only my third Premier League match, but the atmosphere was excellent. Lively, energetic, and very savvy. Applause for every good play/pass/tackle. Lots of appreciation shown to the players at the match's conclusion, and they responded in kind to the crowd.

It goes without saying that I highly recommend the Cottage experience to anyone who is able to make it there. I was in the upper half of the Haynes stand a bit to the Hammy end of midfield and it was a fantastic vantage point.