Fulham away to Sheffield Wednesday

Not going to blame Kit for the set piece D on Saturday. Looking at each goal, defenders were on hand and in the right position, but failed to make the play. It comes down to the players getting the job done. Have to turn the page quick because it's going to be an interesting week, with the return of Mark Hughes and Stoke in the League Cup and the intensity of our true SW London Derby foe, QPR on Saturday.

 

While listening the thing that bothered me the most was how much I heard the names Ream and Stearman while we were in possession. When they've got the ball so much, we're probably not in an attacking position. I watched a good chunk of the replay and in the first half many of the Fulham players seemed to have no interest in moving the ball forward. Almost every pass from Pringle went back. When he did send the ball forward it was a mess. Richards did much of the same. In fact Richards almost never sent the ball forward even on throw-ins. I don't know if this was just bad decision making by some of the players (O'Hara seemed willing to press forward) or the desired style of play, but it drove me crazy.

With less possession Sheffield generated more opportunities early on by sending down the wings and then putting crosses into the box that were either dangerous on their own or went out for corners. Our attempts to move down field were often poor long passes that rolled harmlessly over the end-line.

We attacked more in the second half, but we waited too long. And where was McCormack? Why is Burn the guy charging into the box with a late chance to score? Good try by Burn, but he's not our striker.

I'd like to see Christensen gets the start over Pringle in our upcoming matches to help make our midfield more attacking.

On the plus side, Ream and Stearman did seem to work well together, so hopefully our CB issues have been resolved as long as they stay healthy. We've also been competitive in almost all of our matches which is a nice improvement over the regular stinkers delivered last year.

 

Joe, I'd agree with that but only up to a point. He said recently that players didn't like working on set pieces in practice so they didn't work on it as much. I also question the wisdom of assigning a green forward like Dembele to mark the back post runner. You'll often see good aerial forwards in a free role to go get the ball, but tight marking usually isn't in their skillset. But yeah, a lot of it is on the players as well.

Not surprised by McCormack, that's his m.o. He disappears for a stretch of games then catches fire for a couple. There's not much consistency in his track record.