We attacked brilliantly in the first half and defended superbly in the second half. It was agony for the fans who could at least relish the after match including an excellent right up by a bang on form Owen. Thank you Owen for your excellent write up.
Glad you liked it! It was definitely a game of two halves, one being far more watchable than the other, but one that showcased what's possible when the team concentrates and takes advantage of their in-game situations. Hopefully we can do similar against Man City in a few days, because they will also hog most of the ball and have even better players than Tottenham do...
Thanks very much for your fulsome reply, Owen. Like you, I have left The Guardian board for the insult-free air of Fulmanish. You are right about Raul--he is amazing for his age; I saw his recent games for Mexico on USA TV and he is almost literally carrying that mediocre team. You also certainly answer my Q's about Frank and Spurs. I hope that the latter don't decide that Marco is the answer to their problems--and he might be. I'm curious as to what he will do vs. Man City.
Excellent analysis by Owen//ZZTopFulham. I thought that Jiminez had an outstanding game--his stop on the line saved us from a draw. But how can he possibly start and play as long and as strongly against Man City on Tuesday--and they will definitely try to rough him up.
One Q for Owen : I felt that Spurs were incoherent in the first half and that Frank's subs in the second just made them more incoherent. They don't have a recognizable system and the players don't seem to fit together. But Frank had great systems at Brentford. What has happened to him? Or the players can't move on from Ange ball? But they brought in new players during the summer.
In contrast today, Marco made the right substitutions at the right time, and the players fit perfectly and picked up the game as he planed. Maybe the King of Wrestling Khan had a plan and it's working (that's a bad joke).
Jimenez was brilliant, again, and whilst he might not have the legs to play at full speed for 90 minutes his continued resilience is proving vital in the absence of Muniz. It's frustrating that JKA isn't trusted/fit/competent enough to share some of the minutes with Raul, because as you say Man City will not waste any time exploiting any weariness at the front of our team.
To answer your question, I was wondering the same sorts of things myself! They started with two strikers in Richarlison and Muani, but Muani kept drifting wide to try and get the ball. Kudus was good at RM but Bergvall clearly didn't want to be on the left, and was much better in the second half when he got to move to the centre. Poor Archie Gray had a tough time in midfield next to Palhinha - he needs more time before he matches the physical effectiveness of our former man (who also wasn't amazing and got hauled off at the same time).
Bentancur behind Simons and Bergvall, with Odobert-Muani-Kudus as a front three (and Udogie/Porro very advanced) might have worked if a few of the margins were closer for Tottenham, because they did have the ball in the box a fair few times, but it ran out of steam, and when we brought our own subs on - particularly Lukic - they couldn't do anything beyond giving the ball to Porro and Kudus and hoping their crosses reached someone. Silva should be pleased with himself - once again, he demonstrated that he has coached these players very well, and has us consistently performing against the bigger sides.
I think Thomas Frank is a good manager and as you say demonstrated so many times at Brentford what his tactics could achieve. He's entered a club in a strange place in Tottenham - they had the high of winning the Europa League in the midst of a truly wretched league campaign and multi-season injury crisis, and they sacked the manager that put the team together. I'd argue they've been in a long-term malaise since the 2019 Champions League final and Pochettino - they had an incredible run with his team, Kane, Son, Dele, Eriksen etc all in their pomp, but the expectation of greatness not quite translating to trophies, combined with a steady decline in form, performance, the loss of key men and the decrease in star-power at the club has led to this moment, where the team have in all likelihood been overtaken by several other teams and can't rely on a comfortable top 7/8 finish to get European football. And Frank has to try and fix all this on the fly! There's no easy solution, and you wonder what will happen if they have a particularly rough Christmas period.
Thanks for such a kind comment! I think Iwobi has done a good job in midfield - he makes our attack more dynamic because he gets into such useful positions around the left, supporting Sessegnon's overlaps by holding the space nicely and feeding clever balls into him, Chuk/Kevin and across the pitch in general. Lukic has the stronger presence in terms of defensive responsibilities and physical stature, but it's a healthy dynamic to have two players of international quality competing for a similar position, and gives us different options for different scenarios. The team looks good at the moment though!
On Chukwueze, he's played more at RW over his career (certainly for Milan) but he's skillful enough with his feet to switch wings though. That first goal is getting closer!
Delighted with the result, it feels like we are in the process of turning a significant corner.
I really like the balance of the team at the moment, I think Iwobi gives us extra control in attack, but think Lukic is really unlucky to miss out, he’s a heck of a player.
Thanks! I feel like this was a big win for the same reasons - we needed to show that the Sunderland game wasn't a one-off, and whilst no one would be despondent at the prospect of losing to Tottenham, winning successive games is a massive moment for Fulham at this moment in time.
The team looked really slick in the first half with Iwobi dotting passes into the right areas, but obviously the trade-off is you lose Lukic's physicality, which when Tottenham stepped the game up a bit made life trickier (resolved, of course, when he came on). Man City are a class above Spurs, meaning if we start Iwobi everyone has to be absolutely on form (and we'll probably have to score those chances we missed out on in the first half today to even get a point!) Lukic is quite the option to bring off the bench though, and if we did somehow take a lead against them, who knows...
We attacked brilliantly in the first half and defended superbly in the second half. It was agony for the fans who could at least relish the after match including an excellent right up by a bang on form Owen. Thank you Owen for your excellent write up.
Glad you liked it! It was definitely a game of two halves, one being far more watchable than the other, but one that showcased what's possible when the team concentrates and takes advantage of their in-game situations. Hopefully we can do similar against Man City in a few days, because they will also hog most of the ball and have even better players than Tottenham do...
Thanks very much for your fulsome reply, Owen. Like you, I have left The Guardian board for the insult-free air of Fulmanish. You are right about Raul--he is amazing for his age; I saw his recent games for Mexico on USA TV and he is almost literally carrying that mediocre team. You also certainly answer my Q's about Frank and Spurs. I hope that the latter don't decide that Marco is the answer to their problems--and he might be. I'm curious as to what he will do vs. Man City.
Excellent analysis by Owen//ZZTopFulham. I thought that Jiminez had an outstanding game--his stop on the line saved us from a draw. But how can he possibly start and play as long and as strongly against Man City on Tuesday--and they will definitely try to rough him up.
One Q for Owen : I felt that Spurs were incoherent in the first half and that Frank's subs in the second just made them more incoherent. They don't have a recognizable system and the players don't seem to fit together. But Frank had great systems at Brentford. What has happened to him? Or the players can't move on from Ange ball? But they brought in new players during the summer.
In contrast today, Marco made the right substitutions at the right time, and the players fit perfectly and picked up the game as he planed. Maybe the King of Wrestling Khan had a plan and it's working (that's a bad joke).
Thanks!
Jimenez was brilliant, again, and whilst he might not have the legs to play at full speed for 90 minutes his continued resilience is proving vital in the absence of Muniz. It's frustrating that JKA isn't trusted/fit/competent enough to share some of the minutes with Raul, because as you say Man City will not waste any time exploiting any weariness at the front of our team.
To answer your question, I was wondering the same sorts of things myself! They started with two strikers in Richarlison and Muani, but Muani kept drifting wide to try and get the ball. Kudus was good at RM but Bergvall clearly didn't want to be on the left, and was much better in the second half when he got to move to the centre. Poor Archie Gray had a tough time in midfield next to Palhinha - he needs more time before he matches the physical effectiveness of our former man (who also wasn't amazing and got hauled off at the same time).
Bentancur behind Simons and Bergvall, with Odobert-Muani-Kudus as a front three (and Udogie/Porro very advanced) might have worked if a few of the margins were closer for Tottenham, because they did have the ball in the box a fair few times, but it ran out of steam, and when we brought our own subs on - particularly Lukic - they couldn't do anything beyond giving the ball to Porro and Kudus and hoping their crosses reached someone. Silva should be pleased with himself - once again, he demonstrated that he has coached these players very well, and has us consistently performing against the bigger sides.
I think Thomas Frank is a good manager and as you say demonstrated so many times at Brentford what his tactics could achieve. He's entered a club in a strange place in Tottenham - they had the high of winning the Europa League in the midst of a truly wretched league campaign and multi-season injury crisis, and they sacked the manager that put the team together. I'd argue they've been in a long-term malaise since the 2019 Champions League final and Pochettino - they had an incredible run with his team, Kane, Son, Dele, Eriksen etc all in their pomp, but the expectation of greatness not quite translating to trophies, combined with a steady decline in form, performance, the loss of key men and the decrease in star-power at the club has led to this moment, where the team have in all likelihood been overtaken by several other teams and can't rely on a comfortable top 7/8 finish to get European football. And Frank has to try and fix all this on the fly! There's no easy solution, and you wonder what will happen if they have a particularly rough Christmas period.
Thank you for such a great write up! I hope we keep starting with Iwobi in the center over Lukic. Is LW Chukwueze's preferred position?
Thanks for such a kind comment! I think Iwobi has done a good job in midfield - he makes our attack more dynamic because he gets into such useful positions around the left, supporting Sessegnon's overlaps by holding the space nicely and feeding clever balls into him, Chuk/Kevin and across the pitch in general. Lukic has the stronger presence in terms of defensive responsibilities and physical stature, but it's a healthy dynamic to have two players of international quality competing for a similar position, and gives us different options for different scenarios. The team looks good at the moment though!
On Chukwueze, he's played more at RW over his career (certainly for Milan) but he's skillful enough with his feet to switch wings though. That first goal is getting closer!
Great review as ever!
Delighted with the result, it feels like we are in the process of turning a significant corner.
I really like the balance of the team at the moment, I think Iwobi gives us extra control in attack, but think Lukic is really unlucky to miss out, he’s a heck of a player.
Thanks! I feel like this was a big win for the same reasons - we needed to show that the Sunderland game wasn't a one-off, and whilst no one would be despondent at the prospect of losing to Tottenham, winning successive games is a massive moment for Fulham at this moment in time.
The team looked really slick in the first half with Iwobi dotting passes into the right areas, but obviously the trade-off is you lose Lukic's physicality, which when Tottenham stepped the game up a bit made life trickier (resolved, of course, when he came on). Man City are a class above Spurs, meaning if we start Iwobi everyone has to be absolutely on form (and we'll probably have to score those chances we missed out on in the first half today to even get a point!) Lukic is quite the option to bring off the bench though, and if we did somehow take a lead against them, who knows...