Fulham @ West Brom

For as poorly as we played, dang near smashed and grabbed the 3 points. Turn the page cause it’s a short turnaround with a Sat trip to The Hawthorns. I’m praying that Scott mixes it up. Would love to see Kebano play that Cav role (not a long term solution, but he’s capable of playing that spot for 60 minutes, and he knows where the goal is) then bring in Mitro for 25-30 minutes (more if he’s fit enough).

Not everything is doom and gloom, we did snag a point and deny Brighton a deserved 3, AND we still have a game in hand. Other positive is Fat Sam isn’t stupid, they HAVE to win as well, so both teams should be going for it and I love our guy between the pipes. The key is not falling behind, if we do the Baggies will park the bus and hoof it forward.

 

Well said. COYW.

Relegation make-or-break at Hawthorns
Sam Allardyce has made little secret of his concern about West Brom’s home form. How do you tighten up a side that has conceded 22 goals in its last five home games? Perhaps by facing Fulham, whose shyness in front of goal is in danger of making their survival prospects almost as sketchy. Fulham could have smashed and grabbed their way to a late win at Brighton but had to settle for a drab point that keeps 17th place within sight. They look hard to beat but they have only scored four in their last nine games – three of them coming, a touch perversely, against Liverpool, Spurs and Manchester United – and there is little sign of a proven internal solution unless Scott Parker finds a way to accommodate Aleksandar Mitrovic. West Brom seem the perfect opponents for a confidence boost but the stakes are likely to dictate another cagey affair. Another pasting for Allardyce’s team would suggest their cause is almost impossible. https://www.theguardian.com/footbal...league-10-things-to-look-out-for-this-weekend

 

Still twenty minutes to go as I post this, but I think this second half will cost Parker his job.

 

Didn't see that 2nd Fulham goal coming, but overall I'm still very disappointed with result. Still wouldn't be surprised to see Parker go.

 

Game summary- would’ve, could’ve, should’ve, didn’t.

 

Absolutely spot on.


If Fulham had lost I'd be just as pissed. Fulham should have been up 3-0 in the first half, but they couldn't close the deal. At about the 35 minute mark West Brom seemed to just give up and Fulham responded accordingly - as GJ likes to say, everything was "walking pace". Fulham needed to continue to push for that second goal but they chose not to. It was so incredibly frustrating that they had West Brom on the back foot and didn't get a second. Instead they started playing like they had a 3 goal lead that didn't exist.

Then West Brom came out in the second half ready to fight and Fulham was still looking lazy. Fulham looked shell-shocked until the subs came in. At least Parker didn't wait any longer to make a change.

Fulham has blown their best chance to be competitive with poor play in the past two matches. This week's results have made it much harder to stay up and far less likely to happen.

 

Barring some 2008 Great Escape magic, relegation is a tragic inevitability. It's not just we drew against the 19th place team or we haven't won since Giving Tuesday or the points gap is glaringly large and increasing. It's how we drew today's match.

Although much is made of how we dominated the first half, I think it overlooks how awful WBA were. They clearly had zero interest in playing and let us do whatever we wanted. And yet we scored just one and had another hit the post.

Anytime you're playing your relegation rival and they're that poor (they had a .04 xg at half! at home!), you need to go for the jugular; not post a meek .73 xg and be ahead by 1 goal. And then, to come out so flat and unable to string 2 passes together because the opposition decided to do the bare minimum by simply waking up is so irritating. We didn't enter our opponents box until the 62nd minute. Thankfully we equalized and spared two black eyes, but rather then pressing for a third we coasted the final 10 minutes of the match.

It's strange to think there's a must win game on January 30, but this was it.

 

Reminds me of the "middle eight" in American football, and how important it is to dictating the outcome. Today's match was an example how we lost the middle eight.

 

Didn’t get a chance to watch the whole match yet, but based solely on the extended highlights, there’s not much to add to what’s already been written here. In fact, there’s nothing to add.

 

I've come to believe that Parker is doing the best that can be done with what's at the club. We must keep him.

We need one player. A Cavaleiro type who can also convert at least an average number of chances.