Fulham @ Manchester United

Well, I won't argue with much of what you guys are saying, it just seemed we were still stuck in preseason mode! for the first 45 minutes.

The 15 minute display where united scored their first three goals was the end all of that match. After that we were shell shocked and couldn't get ourselves back into the game. Had Bouba scored that breakaway, instead of shooting it right at VDS, it would've been a different game entirely. Lastly, every goal Manure scored was off a cross so lets hope we can fix this before Wednesday! Our CBs didn't cut it.

Some bright spots:
Jimmy Bullard is the real deal. Kept moving and wanting the ball.
Queudrue was awsome although he got caught up front a bit and United capitalized on the open space when they were on the counter attack.
Rosenior was good but he had his hands full with Ronoldo

BOA WAS A HUGE DISSAPOINTMENT. He did not act like a Captain and I feel he still has to prove himself as one. Brian did more captaining than Boa and he was only on for 15 minutes.

As for the fans that went, we had a great time despite the glory hunting manure fans and the lack of performance from our team. At 4-0 we kept singing, although we were depressed that our team lacked fight.

On the way home, me and a friend discussed that at 3-0, maybe cookie backed off knowing we weren't going to win and decided our teams energy will better be used on Wednesday and Saturday. Regardless, it was unacceptable.

Well, we got our worst game of the season out of the way!

COYW's

 

A fair assessment of the match, a must read:

http://football.guardian.co.uk/Columnis ... 85,00.html

 

As bad as that was....I'll reseve judgement til after next Saturday.

 

Well that was a painful start to my Fulham fanhood. I got all worked up for the game and it seemed like it was over before it started...

After the first half my brother (who doesn't have a favorite team, claiming he watches and cheers for "greatness") was just shaking his head and saying, "You have to pick a different team."

Not going to happen.

Here's hoping for better things in the coming week.

 

As we all know, Sunday was not good for Fulham. In fact, it was probably worse than any of us imagined it could potentially be. Regardless, I am curious as why this happened. Who or what is responsibile for the lopsided loss yesterday?

1. Are the Fulham players simply not good enough?

2. If the players are good enough to compete in the Premiership, do you blame Chris Coleman and his tactics?

3. Was this just a one-off where the team played bad or do you feel we will see more of this kind of game as the season goes on?

I really, really, really hope that Fulham rights the ship on Wednesday against Bolton and on Saturday against Sheffield United. If the team does not get at least one win out of those two matches, the knives will be out for Coleman. Until then, I will save all my ammunition on sacking Coleman for another day.

I hope the club realizes what an embarassment yesterday was. Fulham is currently the laughing stock of the Premiership and while I really do not care what others think of Fulham, I expect more from this team week in and week out than what I saw on Sunday.

Who do you lay blame on for Sunday's disaster?

 

I wouldn't say I "blame" Coleman, but I thought he should have started out the game jamming it up on the defensive end with a 4-5-1 or even a 5-4-1... Instead it looked like he was hoping to run-and-gun with a team that's going to outpace us every day of the week. A better tactic would have been to really focus on defense and try to hold them down and keep it tied or within a goal for a majority of the game and hope to find opportunities to spring Collins John, then late in the game add another striker to push for a late goal.

Of course it's always easy to play Monday morning quarterback...

 

Let me also ask this, when players play inconsistently, as is seemingly always the case with Fulham, and as we saw yesterday against Manchester United, who is to blame? Do you expect Fulham to play like crap on the road and great at home again this season?

 

Don, if Fulham looks like crap against Bolton and Sheffield United, do you expect to see any changes?

I can handle losing to Manchester United and I thought we would lose. I just did not expect us to lose in the manner in which we did. Four goals in twenty minutes was the end of the match and it was disheartening.

It is only one game, but because I have never been all that enthralled with Coleman as a manager, I have little faith in his abilities to get this team to forget Sunday's match and get on with things in a positive light. I hope he can, but I am just not sure.

 

When players play inconsistently as Fulham do on a constant basis I blame the manager. We've seen what the players are capable of and its clear that Coleman at this stage of his career is incapable of getting the best out of his players on a regular basis.

 

I am making an assessment not just on this one game, but on Chris Coleman's managerial reign. As Spencer mentioned, this guy never seems to be able to get the players to perform consistently. It was not just yesterday, but it was another example of his inability to get the most out of his players tactically and physically.

These next two matches cannot come soon enough. I have no idea how I am going to make it through work until Wednesday when the Bolton match starts.

 

I think the Man U match was a one off. I'm certain Fulham is better than that. We just got the wind knocked out of us early and then could never recover.

There are so many intangible elements to a sports team that it's hard to discern the reasons why things can go so badly. I think it really comes down to the players though. They can respond to going down 4 goals in 20 minutes by either giving up or rallying and continuing to play hard. No matter what tactics the coach uses, if they players believe they are finished, then they are finished.

I remember a high school football game of mine in which we were down 27-7 at halftime to a team we felt we could beat. Instead of panic, we felt confident that the first half was a fluke and that we would come back. We did and won 56-27. I think it was probably because we had a good team spirit and good leadership on the team. I wonder if maybe Fulham is lacking in that department? It's hard to know unless you are involved with the team but I wonder if team spirit and captiancy are issues that might need addressing.

 

I blame the manager and teams expectations, and the manager generally.

After a fairly good showing in the pre-season, it went to their heads. The team thought they could go out there and play on the pitch with any team (which they can, with the proper motivation).

Which leads me to the manager. Cookie should know better, and that is his weakness. He fell into the false sesne of security the pre-season created. But as a manager, it is your job to know that you team needs to be properly motivated to take on the likes of ManU on opening weekend. The Fulham Team had confidence, but the manager was overly confident. He did not properly motivate and prepare the team for who they were about to face. I don't think we respected ManU enough, and it showed in the first 20 minutes. After that, there was a healthy respect and fear (which is a great motivator), but by then, it was too late.

 

Thankfully we only have to wait until Wednesday for redemption--unlike with the US MNT for which we must smolder for another 4 years.

 

Heather, I am with you on this one. We need to bring in some new players that will help and contribute to the team NOW. We need some center-halves and the board along with Al-Fayed surely must know that now after Sunday's match. Money needs to be given to Coleman to spend on some quality players in a hurry. I doubt seriously any new players are brought in, but it would be nice to see the club with some initiative and ambition to better the squad instead of just settling for mediocrity and a relegation battle yet again this season.