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PL: Fulham h 2009/08/30 Reactions & Ratings


limpid

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Won without really breaking a sweat. Solid all over the pitch. Never gave them any space to play in - overall a satisfactory performance and three valuable points. Thought the young lad Clark did well.

The midfield look much more solid in that formation, although I don't think we can play that way at home all season. It was just important to win today and take the points, after Wigan. Thought we killed the game well after our second goal.

We've now won three on the bounce!! Or are we still counting last season's games? Is is five wins in 21 or whatever??? :-)

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Great result, fantastic team performance, Gabby back to his best, hopefully this will keep the boo boys off his back for a while, no footballing brain indeed.

Reo Coker had another good game, as did Sidwell and Shorey.

Very happy about the players on the pitch today and the ones not selected, great descisions all round.

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A solid and compact performance against decent opposition - we limited Fulham to almost zero chances and I can't recall Friedel making a meaningful save.

The midfield were energetic and disciplined and Gabby gave a great account of himself upfront alone, with a cracking goal.

Special mention to Ciaran Clark - no one would have guessed that was his debut. He was terrific and never put a foot wrong.

Great result!

My ratings:

Friedel: 7. Never had a thing to do. Communicated well with defence.

Beye: 7. One sloppy pass but otherwise solid back and forward.

Cuellar: 8. Another promising performance from the Spanish Beard.

Clark: 8. Terrific debut, an absolute prospect!

Shorey: 8. Great game by Shorey, tackled and passed well.

Milner: 8. he has improved greatly in a year. Brilliant.

Sidwell: 7. Great commitment in the midfield but little else.

Petrov: 7. As Sidwell

NRC: 8. Another dynamic performance

Young: 7. Getting back to best, another solid performance.

Gabby: 8. Corker of a goal and held up the play well.

Subs:

Carew: 7. A handfull upfront and brought the midfield into play.

MON: 8. Tactically spot on today!!!

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Hard to analyse the match as Fulham were really poor.

At the same time it's clear that 4-5-1 suits our players down to the ground. Didn't think our midfielders were particularly good, but with three of them in there they stopped Fulham playing very easily.

Where we were great was at the back. When Cuellar and Davies play together, it often looks like they don't know who should lead and who follow. Today Cuellar walked Clark through the match like a proper veteran. Clark was super on his debut, far more composed than we had any right to expect. But Cuellar did the hard years, stepping out of defence to clear up any danger before it became a problem. That said Fulham didn't pose much danger, so...

Beye and Shorey were fine, both had solid games. Young and Milner average by their standards, which is still pretty decent. Carew looked a full of class when he came on. But possibly the best thing to come of the match is Gabby back on the scoresheet. He wasn't fantastic, but he struck his shot beautifully, and poor defending or not, if you get on the scoresheet you've done your job as a stiker.

So my man of the match for sentimental purposes: Clark.

If it wasn't Clark's debut, Cuellar.

As for how much an easy win tells us about our team, not much I'm afraid. We can chill over the next two weeks though, Villa Talk would be unbearable if we'd lost.

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Great result, also 4 points on our points last year in these fixtures which is great!

Friedel - No rating.

Beye - 7

Clark - 7

Cuellar - 8

Shorey - 8

Milner - 7

Young - 7

Sidwell - 7

Petrov - 7

Reo-Coker - 7

Gabby - 8.

Job done really, nothing spectular, Sidwell's effect on the game is crucial and un-noticed in my opinion, he really gets tight to their midfielders and gives them no-time before releasing the ball quickly and joins up forward.

Reo-Coker actually played some excellent passes today and did his usual breaking up job.

Overall, just grateful to have the 3 points :)

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a cakewalk in the end, they didn't have a shot on (except Pantsil's effort into his own net).

Great harrying in the middle by our three plus Ash and JM also grafted hard defensively.

Ratings -

Friedel had nothing to do so can't rate him

Beye - 6 not sold on him, he didn't do much wrong, but I can't wait till Young's back

Cuellar - 7 solid and assured

Clark - 8 very good debut young man.

Shorey - 7 not as adventurous with his passing today but had nothing to do defensively at all

JM - 7 worked hard

Stan - 7 ditto

Sidders - 7 got stuck in and almost got on the end of a couple of chances

Reo - 7 good harassing and chasing but not much going forward

Ash - 8 some good balls into the box and trickery. Played centrally for quite a bit of the game and wasn't as effective as out wide.

Gabby - 8 Great goal, very few chances today though.

Carew- 6 didn't do anything wrong or right except the shirtfront on Pantsil. Could hear that from here in Australia

excellent defensive team effort today. first clean sheet for donkeys at last!

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and the ones not selected.

You just can't be happy with a Victory. Ah well I'm happy to support everyone wearing Claret and Blue.

Nice selective quoting, if you'd actually quoted all my post, instead of posting for a reaction, it would have been quite apparent how chuffed I am with the win.

I'll re-iterate, it was a fantastic result and the manager got the team selection spot on!

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An effortless 2-0 against Fulham is a great result.

Solid is the keyword here. We were solid and comfortable, though not spectacular. But it makes sense to play it safe in the first matches, choose simple solutions, let the foundation set and the new players to be blooded into the team.

Happy for Clark, he did a good job. Just the right type of match to get your full time debut.

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A good result for us, but we are still lacking that player who can make something from the middle of the park.

Clark, i was impressed with. Looked composed and a natural. Who needs Laursen :D

I still think Luke Young will come back in at right back though. Beye, whist good defensively, just doesn't really offer anything going forward. Too many times today he turned around and passed the ball backwards.

Reo-Coker looked a bit miffed coming off too. Played well again i thought, if anyone should have come off it should have been Sidwell. Anonymous most of the game i felt.

I really did think that Martin was going to change it to a 4-4-2 when Carew came on though. I was ready to hurl abuse at the screen.

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For all the doom and gloom after the Wigan game we've actually made a decent start to the season. All is forgiven as far as I'm concerned, 6 points from 9 and increasingly impressive performances.

Just need to get Dunne signed up now I suppose.

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