I think Szob has said he enjoys being deeper as he is more involved
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Well that’s good news. He and Jones looked ok together.
Possibly unpopular opinion, but I didn’t think the first half did that much either. There were obvious signs of improvement - we played with more energy, we moved the ball quicker and so the possession we had in their half wasn’t as tepid and pointless as it’s been for much of the season. But we didn’t create great chances with it. Our 100m pound man was peripheral and neither of the goals were really the direct consequence of such quality possession but more more isolated moments of inspiration Slot might say one follows the other - you sustain good possession and eventually good players will do something remarkable with it but I don’t think is is sustainable at the level required to be title contenders.
And out of possession we were still a mess with a high press doing neither one thing nor the other.
The points were much needed. There were things about the performance that willl hopefully being encouragement but that level of performance is unlikely to be enough to get us through this pretty difficult run of fixtures with the points we need
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Was thinking the same. The goals were a 1/10 or 1/20 type goals. The goal chance that Rowe-Smith missed was a much better chance and created from an attacking move, i.e. it came at the culmination of a sequence of play rather than a moment of brilliance within a broadly toothless period of ball possession.
The result is obviously welcome and if we can take confidence from it and go on a good run for the next 5 games, then we will be in a pretty good place come the final few weeks.
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Really disagree with that. I thought it was a really good first half, and Fulham were penned back for the majority of it.
I was concerned that if we didn’t make our superiority count we would find a way to shoot ourselves in the foot again, but we got the two goals very quickly, and it was nice to see us get the second quickly after the first.
Second half we took our foot off the gas, and we should fave been looking to make it three, but I think we tired.
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Both the players and Slot always have an eye on Tuesdays game, none of them want an injury even though we still got somebody injured as slot was bemoaning our bad luck for losing Jones.
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They may have been pinned back but weren’t under any real pressure. Its 2 bits of quality from nowhere which changed the half not any sustained pressure.
Seems I watched a different game.
Though maybe last Wednesday was so embarrassing that the 60 minutes yesterday was refreshing.
We also counter attacked with some purpose something that’s been missing completely. Defensively we played well that’s why though Fulham huffed and puffed their only real chance I. The second half was the smith rowe one.
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I just had an opportunity to watch this in full.
I think that was one of the best first halves I’ve seen from the team all season. A 9/10. The offense was fluid and dynamic; they were pressing intelligently; they seemed to get to the second balls consistently; and I thought that the effort all around was commendable. Fulham never really threatened offensively, as we did a great job closing down spaces and stepping into passing lanes.
That we played so well after a week of absolute misery was very notable. Good job by the lads to keep their heads up and keep fighting, which is also a credit to Slot as the manager.
Fulham threatened more during the opening stages of the second half, which was concerning coming out of the break. But there also has to be a recognition that they are a good side. We’ve won once and drawn twice against them in our last 4 matches. You have to anticipate that they’ll have periods of success in any match, especially when they are desperate to do so coming out of halftime down 0-2. That we still preventing them from scoring is a victory in its own right, and hopefully gives our boys confidence not to melt down in moments of discomfort.
I thought Slot made the right substitutions at that point, and we shut them down otherwise.
A few other thoughts:
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Rio is a special talent, and I thought he was absolutely devastating. He tied the defense into pretzels. Everyone will talk about his goal - justifiably - but I thought his performance on the second goal was even better. At one point, I think I counted six defenders that had tried to encircle him before he passed it off to Gakpo to Salah to goal. That was just brilliant. He’s also getting more physical, which portends well for his development. A lot of younger, slighter players will focus on their dribbling and speed and neglect the physical components of the game because it’s where they struggle the most. Why physically challenge your opponent if you can just try to run past them? But that’s to their detriment. You need to be able to take contact and push past players and physically compete to thrive. Rio isn’t afraid. And as he grows and adds muscle, I think he’s going to be a menace. In any event, I’d start him against PSG because we need wingers who can bother their back line.
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Really happy with performance of Ibou in that first half. Loved how aggressive he was in closing down opponents in our half.
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Jones was having a very impactful performance before he got hurt. Hope it’s not a long-term injury.
Overall, I’ll give us an 8/10 for this one.
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When all is said and done, it’s great to get back to winning. Long may it continue.
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