Ratings & Reactions: Fulham v Villa

[zab6359]

Two wins and two clean sheets life is good.

Cash, Konsa, Mings and SJM were excellent.

[DJ_Villain]

McGinn MOTM for me...

Referee had a right mare... Was doing a "Dowd" by not sticking to the letter of the law and trying to keep as many Fulham players on the pitch as possible, regardless of how many fouls they committed...

How they finished the game with 11 men on the pitch I will never know...

[KenjiOgiwara]

What I was surprised by yesterday is that we won 3-0 and it didn't really look like we got out of the first gear for the entire match. It was solid and organised, but something pedestrian and sloppy about it at the same time. 

[magnkarl]

Happy with the result, but I fear that we're not clinical enough when we're going to come up against better sides. Watkins will get goals and he works his behind off, however he'll need better service from Jack and Trez. This is the first game I've seen of Jack since like 2018 where he can be accused of wandering with the ball and not playing or finishing quickly enough.

 

Motm for me McGinn.

[villalad21]

Mitrovic had about 8 attempts. On a different day he could have scored a couple.

Can we please just buy a proper left fullback? I can't handle watching Targett for another season.

[VillaAlex]

Just now, villalad21 said:

Mitrovic had about 8 attempts. On a different day he could have scored a couple.

Can we please just buy a proper left fullback? I can't handle watching Targett for another season.

How many of those attempts came remotely near to troubling us though. Konsa handled him superbly. I agree we let so much space out wide for them to cross but I am not sure whether that was a deliberate tactic or not. 

[villalad21]

2 minutes ago, VillaAlex said:

How many of those attempts came remotely near to troubling us though. Konsa handled him superbly. I agree we let so much space out wide for them to cross but I am not sure whether that was a deliberate tactic or not. 

They tried on the other side but they quickly realized Cash unlike Targett wouldn't allow them to cross at will and they focused back on Targett all game.

Expect more of this as the season goes on.

[newhavenhibby]

Great result and fully deserved. Fulham could not have complained if you had scored five or six.

Another plus was SJM looking much better and getting back his fitness and form.

Keep it up 

[rubberman]

A couple of thoughts.

First, we look like we are coming out of the blocks and starting really fast in games.  We did this to an extent last season, but then weren't able to close out games and protect leads.  Think we gave away the most points from winning positions. The inclination to sit deep is still there a bit, but with Watkins and a better bench we are able to keep the ball in better positions for longer into a game.  If we can continue this we'll have a good season.

Second, we are a work in progress team.  Not everyone will be on their game every match - inconsistency is a given with the payers we can mostly afford.  If/when we get a game where everyone clicks we'll beat anyone on the day, but realistically most of the time we'll have the odd mistake/below par game and that's when we'll struggle.  In some ways the shorter break might have helped keep the improvements post-lockdown going and the fewer off days we have the better this season will be.

[JAMAICAN-VILLAN]

13 hours ago, Hev said:

Talking of Sky BBC etc did anyone hear Alan Smith on the Sky comm say abt Fulham "its embarrassing to be losing 3-0 at home to Aston Villa'

Let's hope he says that about 10 more times this season at different grounds.

[DevonVilla]

Thought it was a professional display to beat a poor side.

Great to see Ramsay make his PL bow and some of the link up between Watkins, Jack and McGinn was a joy to watch.

Would have liked to have seen Traore on a bit earlier but can't have everything!

[PieFacE]

We were poor with the ball when we had it and weren't clinical enough but I don't understand all the cries about our possession stats. To me it was pretty clear that we were setup to let them have the ball and break on the counter and be a bit more direct. That style of play tends to lead to losing the ball a lot but it's effective away from home. Thought we did fine, need to work on it more as we could have done better and it was by no means perfect. 

[jonjon]

Well done Villa, not the best of games but a good three points, it was strange seeing Ollie playing out wide again, but he put in a decent shift, mind you Fulham were rubbish and got what they deserved, hopefully we can get revenge on Thursday for our Play off defeat when we play them at home in the League Cup (Live on Sky).

[Pelle]

That was a well controlled win. We got the start we wanted and then we could just sit back and let them run around. Yes, they put in about a million crosses and Mitrovic won loads of them, but none of his headers were really dangerous. Konsa and Mings had him under control. They stayed close to him and never let him have a free header. Excellent defending and I don't think they'd scored by now if the game was still going.

Great to see McGinn back at his best. He got a good start with the assist and never looked back.

Douglas Luiz was a bit off, but it wasn't really his game. They went for the wings all the time and the game almost just passed him by. He'll be back at his best against liverpool.

I can't complain about much after this. aybe we tried a few too hard and silly things like an unnecessary back heel here and there, but in the end we won 3-0 without breaking sweat.

Watkins will get his goal sooner or later and you can tell from his body language that he really wants one.

The real test comes on Sunday and that will of course be a whole different affair. But at least we can go into it with a lot of confidence and hopefully feeling that we can win.

[tomav84]

gave smith an 'average' because i'd have liked to have seen some subs earlier. the game got stale 2nd half and i thought traore sparked a bit of life into it when he came on and i think we could have gotten another 1 or 2 had he had a bit more time to influence the game, especially with fulham's tiring legs

but i'm being way over critical here...to a man, everyone was brilliant. martinez even redeemed his blunder with a worldie. exciting times ahead

[Eligius]

It's been a great sart to the season, Konsa is improving rapidly and at such a young age for a centre half he could turn out to be one of our best signings in recent history. 

[The Rosk]

A great performance, and I have to say I love what Watkins brings to this team.  Endless running and strength, was impressed by his hold up play, and he's got goals in him.  Once one goes in, the rest will flow.  Love his attitude.

[Mantis]

We didn't play amazingly but we've still come on leaps and bounds. 9 months ago we would've drawn or lost a game like this.

[limpid]

12 hours ago, ozvillafan said:

I'm not sure what to make of this game.

• An away win!

but then

• little possession

It's almost like possession is irrelevant in assessing a game

And this season home/away is likely to be irrelevant. In fact playing in front of an empty Old Trafford might be a disadvantage compared to a smaller ground.

[MrBlack]

Good performances all round. Despite being an extremely comfortable away win, there wasn't really anyone who stood out as exceptional for me and I think the scoreline was exaggerated thanks to a genuine lack of any form of defence by Fulham. McGinn MOTM as the best of a very good bunch, but only marginally.  As a team performance I thought we were brilliant, but felt it could have been even better if we'd had a killer instinct.  Nitpicking here though so UTV.

Dean could have made more changes or made the ones he did sooner,  but understand why he didn't (Trez offered more stability and shape than Traore and Watkins had a real chance to open his PL account). Good performance rating for Dean from me. 

Thought the ref was poor, bizarre to see so many good ratings for him.  He was trigger happy with the yellow cards but then Fulham should have been down to 10 for at least one of a few possible decisions. Seemed like he tried to control the game with bookings, failed to do so, and then bottled a bigger decision to give a second yellow.

The disallowed goal was a good call from him ... although I'd be amazed if he'd have made the same call in a full stadium. I do feel it was the right one by the letter of the law, if a little harsh given the foul almost certainly had no impact on the goal. 

Edited September 29, 2020 by MrBlack