Ratings & Reactions: FAC3 Fulham v Villa

[AVTuco]

21 minutes ago, DCJonah said:

We also won't be playing the 11 we had out as our main team next season if we were relegated so struggling to see the point. 

Who/what level of players do you think we'll be playing then? I think the level is pretty much this if we go down.

[Spoony]

Genuinely pleased with the result. Couldn’t give less of a toss. League cup is our only chance of silverware anyway and we need to focus on staying in the league on top of that. 

[jim]

50 minutes ago, DCJonah said:

We also won't be playing the 11 we had out as our main team next season if we were relegated so struggling to see the point. 

I bet it won’t be far off and he’ll still be preserving with his wonderball formation of 4 -3- **** 3

[LakotaDakota]

3 hours ago, JAMAICAN-VILLAN said:

You realise we were already in the Championship with him, and "life" didn't look like this right?

It did for quite a large part of it

[LondonVillian]

4 hours ago, PieFacE said:

You saw the team we put out, right? 

We clearly wasn't bothered about that game, and rightly so.

Yea a team that should of performed much better than that

[southcoastvillan]

Best off out of it but wouldn’t it be great for the individuals in the 2nd string to put up more of an argument for their inclusion in the first 11. Lansbury is such a disappointment, a 5 or 6 out of 10 every time he plays, not awful enough to ever be really singled out as a scapegoat but he never delivers in any meaningful way, it comes across like he’s happy to deliver mediocre performance and pick up his money 

[danceoftheshamen]

Agree it was a case of needing to lose this today sadly. Couple of good strikes from Fulham which may be a blessing in disguise.

Now for the Semi's against Leicester which could get embarrassing over the two legs but we prevented the scousers from getting a domestic treble so that was something positive from the competition & i am not bothered one iota if we lose that either so long as we stay up!

[flashingqwerty]

4 hours ago, The Fun Factory said:

No one from the manager down cared about the result today and it showed. To try and draw meaningful conclusions from it would be as pointless as two bald men fighting over a comb.

Our biggest matches this month by far at Watford at home in the league and the league cup semi final. This was the least important by a country mile.

Its not just about today though is it?

1 or 2 games aside, what we saw today mirrors the last 10 games.  Out thought, out fought, and nobody seems to give a ****!

I'm sorry, but, barring a massive influx of quality in Jan, there isn't a hope in hell that this manager keeps this team up.  He's completely clueless or alarmingly arrogant - not sure which is worse...

[TRO]

18 hours ago, OutByEaster? said:

Hmmm. It ain't that we've been embarrassed by a team from a lower division in the FA Cup again that worries me, there's not really a lot of surprise in that. (Are Liverpool at Wembley the last team we beat in the FA Cup?) What worries me is how bad this collection of players is.

None of that back four look like they're proper Premier league players to me - Engels is a reasonable back up and Elmo is worth keeping around until the end of the season, but Taylor and Chester just don't have it anymore. Nakamba is a Premier league back up, Lansbury is lower Championship, Hourihane is Championship, Jota is barely a Championship player - he's here because he's teachers pet. El Ghazi is a Championship player and Kodjia used to be an upper Championship player and is now lower Championship at best. They just shouldn't be in a squad in the Premier league - these players wouldn't be at Palace or Everton or West Ham - they need to be shipped out. 

What's worrying is that this group are the backups to a very small first team group and we've got injuries - if we stay up and we want to go forward in the summer - we'll need ten players - we'll need to spend more than we spent this summer - we've got half a squad and this collection of misfits isn't going to cut it.

Individually they were poor, collectively worse. There wasn't a leader amongst them or even a grafter, we were weak and disinterested, El Ghazi perks up when you give him the ball, Kodjia perks up when you give him a mirror and the rest of them had all the enthusiasm of the queue at a bus stop.

The concern I have for the manager is that he doesn't seem able to compromise his desire to dominate games with good football to take into account that he doesn't have good footballers - he needs to find a more pragmatic approach to take into account some of the rubbish he has at his disposal.

Ultimately, I'm not embarrassed by the result, I'm embarrassed by the team - that this is the best we have for this occasion.

Rubbish. Onward to Wednesday, I'm not full of hope.

Personally, I think that is one of the most accurate pictures you have painted.

We all want to talk the thing up......but we have to face reality at times and that post was spot on IMO.

[Herman22]

For me this was a nothing game. People will say we should take the FA cup seriously but meh. 

We played a decent championship team in Fulham and we put out a decent championship team of our own. They won the game with two wonderful strikes. We move on. 

For me the main concern is the lack of firepower. A front 3 of Jota, Kodija and ElGhazi is mid table championship level. 

[sne]

Hindsight in 2020 

But looking at it now we could have played the kids more because the likes of Lansbury and Jota are too slow to play anyway.

As always the wide player who is subbed on looks better than the one who starts. Neither is good enough.

The interesting thing will be if we are to continue with the 4-3-3, and if not why didn't we play the formation (not selection obviously) that worked against Burnley.

At least Grealish and Mings didn't play or get injured.

Should probably be thankful that we don't have a "Sacks" stat like in the NFL because I lost count on how many times Nakamba, Jota and Lansbury where closed down and lost possession.

Edited January 5, 2020 by sne

[Zatman]

On 04/01/2020 at 18:13, OutByEaster? said:

Hmmm. It ain't that we've been embarrassed by a team from a lower division in the FA Cup again that worries me, there's not really a lot of surprise in that. (Are Liverpool at Wembley the last team we beat in the FA Cup?) What worries me is how bad this collection of players is.

We beat Wycombe the season we went down

[Raver50032]

6 hours ago, Zatman said:

We beat Wycombe the season we went down

The famous Micah Richards 'we're trying our best' moment?

[Hornso]

The draw for the 4th round has just made me even happier we didn't get through (yes, I know our ball number would have been different to Fulham's but still...). League Cup SF & the Premier League is enough for us to concentrate on in our current state.