Sigh. Different blokes picking the team but same issues.

Go down to 10 men so why FFS take off Santos who has been playing well and just made a good block? Enzo stayed on again and bar a couple of decent corners was miss placing passes all over the place and looked like a passenger.

Then, just as we're getting back in the game and Palmer was looking better, we take Palmer off and bring on Pedro who was absolute w**k. And Estevao get's zero minutes whilst Neto stayed on for 90 and was bang average yet again.

So frustrating. WHAT are these guys watching FFS?

5 hours ago, Jezz said:

Down to 8th. We were lucky to stay in 5th for as long as we did.

Overall, it's just depressing watching us these days.

2 points from 12th

Im generalising but

our best players are off form or injury prone or unavailable (injured, suspended, etc)

our squad players are probably only just good enough on a good day but are overall under performing

weve got reinforcements to bring in during the summer and we are going to struggle to shift the outgoing ones.

The reinforcements look about as interesting potentially as the squad players who are average.

we could do with some new players now but cant buy until we sell.

Is there anybody there in the sporting directors department ?

surely these matters are on somebody's agenda somewhere in that illustrious department.

please tell me all of them are not still looking at spreadsheets of potentially decent young players to buy from far flung corners of the globe* that nobody else has spotted yet, that are likely to under perform if we could afford to buy them.

*sorry brighton monaco and manchester.

Are these morons just gonna rock up at Eghbalis door on July 1st with a list as long as your arm of players to buy.

And then for the grand finale .... are they going to take the same list of players purchased and 12 months down the road and present them as candidates for sale or loan because they dont fit with the squad?

Edited January 8Jan 8 by OTL

41 minutes ago, WhiteWall said:

2 points from 12th

Absolutely disgraceful!

To say the very least!!

8 hours ago, petre ispirescu said:

Chalobah had plenty of time to catch up had he not just watched Cucurella fight Wilson for the ball. Had Chalobah had any football IQ and knew for a second what was going on around him and that Wilson was basically left for dead there, he'd have rushed to help Cucurella and saved us from a silly red card.

Not saying Cucurella is not at fault, he is, but had he seen Chalobah come to help him or heard Chalobah say anything, I bet Cucurella would have just slowed things down. Watch the highlights and see how Chalobah simply runs and watches the game develop in front of him like he had to take care of somebody near him or had to mark anybody, when nobody was around him.

Honestly, the fact you handwave off Cucurella and try and lay loads of blame on Chalobah is just ridiculous, Wilson was cucurellas man, he lost him, he fouled him, he got sent off. Literally none of that is Chalobahs fault. Still images show nothing, he was well behind the 2 players because he had his own man to pick up, then had to chase down two players quicker than him.

13 minutes ago, dkw said:

Honestly, the fact you handwave off Cucurella and try and lay loads of blame on Chalobah is just ridiculous, Wilson was cucurellas man, he lost him, he fouled him, he got sent off. Literally none of that is Chalobahs fault. Still images show nothing, he was well behind the 2 players because he had his own man to pick up, then had to chase down two players quicker than him.

Can't blame Chalobah for the card, even the still images show he was correctly positioned to handle any cutback or attempt a clearance off the line. Him running over needlessly to help is what made us concede the goal at Brentford. I doubt he expected Cucurella to f**k it up so badly.

He was badly outfoxed for the second goal, however. Which is unsurprising as none of our CBs are capable in the air.

6 minutes ago, dkw said:

Honestly, the fact you handwave off Cucurella and try and lay loads of blame on Chalobah is just ridiculous, Wilson was cucurellas man, he lost him, he fouled him, he got sent off. Literally none of that is Chalobahs fault. Still images show nothing, he was well behind the 2 players because he had his own man to pick up, then had to chase down two players quicker than him.

On the replay I did think to myself why Chalobah is just jogging but that doesnt excuse Cucu. 70% of the game left and you decide to do that.

2 minutes ago, SydneyChelsea said:

Can't blame Chalobah for the card, even the still images show he was correctly positioned to handle any cutback or attempt a clearance off the line. Him running over needlessly to help is what made us concede the goal at Brentford. I doubt he expected Cucurella to f**k it up so badly.

He was badly outfoxed for the second goal, however. Which is unsurprising as none of our CBs are capable in the air.

He was definitely to blame for the second, let his man get ahead of him far too easily, he was positioned so badly to begin with. But to try and put any blame at all on hm for the 1st is ridiculous, he did the right thing in trying to get back while also keeping an eye on the Fulham players trying to catch up with play, that red was entirely on Cucurella, was massive f**k up all the way by him.

5 minutes ago, KonaKai Blue said:

On the replay I did think to myself why Chalobah is just jogging but that doesnt excuse Cucu. 70% of the game left and you decide to do that.

He did the right thing, you try and get to the play but also need to be aware of fulham players trying to get there too, he had players to cover.

29 minutes ago, dkw said:

He was definitely to blame for the second, let his man get ahead of him far too easily, he was positioned so badly to begin with.

Problem is all our CBs get done by the same move. Striker fakes to drop deep, then sprints towards the near post for the wrap-around cross from the pocket.aa If Sanchez wasn't as solid in the air as he has been this season, we'd concede even more from this move.

Only real positives from last night were Delap looking a lot better and some of our corners were very decent.

What really bugs me is the minutes the "senior" players are getting compared to the others.

By senior I mean players like Neto, Fernandez, Tosin & Gusto. No way Santos should have been the one sacrificed yesterday - really poor decision. No minutes at all for Estevao when Neto stunk the place out again. And okay, Acheampong did get on but he should be starting ahead of Tosin.

1 hour ago, dkw said:

Honestly, the fact you handwave off Cucurella and try and lay loads of blame on Chalobah is just ridiculous, Wilson was cucurellas man, he lost him, he fouled him, he got sent off. Literally none of that is Chalobahs fault. Still images show nothing, he was well behind the 2 players because he had his own man to pick up, then had to chase down two players quicker than him.

Mate I am not saying Cucurella is not at fault, he totally is, all I am saying is Chalobah should have helped him as he should have read the game better the moment Leno kicked that ball. He had plenty of time to go help Cucurella.

Apart from James and Cucurella, our options at the back are shocking for the standards of a big club.

Trev lost his man for the 1st goal no question but we also need to talk about the lack of pressure from Enzo Fernandez on the player making the cross.

He does absolutely nothing to try and prevent the cross despite being the closest man ...

Edited January 8Jan 8 by Sexyfootball

2 hours ago, SydneyChelsea said:

Problem is all our CBs get done by the same move. Striker fakes to drop deep, then sprints towards the near post for the wrap-around cross from the pocket.aa If Sanchez wasn't as solid in the air as he has been this season, we'd concede even more from this move.

Yep, and its such a basic move that all top flight CB`s should be able to handle, the issue is always the starting position, they get moved so easily and seem to be surprised every time it happens. Its so odd.

When Neto was running on the break, saw that the defender coming in to tackle him and stopped and took a hopeless potshot rather than take him on, that just about summed up why our attack is so toothless and why we simply can't play convincingly against these teams that we "should" beat. It's one of the reasons we just play the ball endlessly around the edge of the box, everyone hoping they'll get the ball with no one around them so they won't have to deal with any physicality.

This match made me depressed for more than just the result. Is the new manager really going to fix this attitude? Especially a young one.

21 hours ago, Scott said:

Ginger guy out.

See he's gone already.

1 hour ago, Scott said:

See he's gone already.

NEXT!

13 hours ago, petre ispirescu said:

Mate I am not saying Cucurella is not at fault, he totally is, all I am saying is Chalobah should have helped him as he should have read the game better the moment Leno kicked that ball. He had plenty of time to go help Cucurella.

Apart from James and Cucurella, our options at the back are shocking for the standards of a big club.

Sure you can criticize Chalobah positioning however there is a ball over the top against Wilson, not some physical freak, so you expect Cucu to be able to handle him.

Edited January 9Jan 9 by Bob stark