Fulham Focus

Stop Hammer Time!

Last minute hammerIngs for us! And while there's major disappointment there are lots of positives to take to propel us into a busy week of Preston North End and Newcastle United. Join Cottage Tactico, Luke Sergeant and Jmac as we talk about it all.

Duration:: 1h 1m
Broadcast on:: 17 Sep 2024
Audio Format:: mp3

- This is your full and focused podcast. And I really hate West Ham. I know we had a lovely time with them last season and two right but it feels like their jamminess has returned. Being the lesser team, taking advantage of crap moments from us or dodgy decisions if it isn't panankers, handballs, weird throw-ins, penalties not given, bastard club, bastard danyings, deciding to become relevant again. Anyway, I'm J. Matt. What a trap intro. This is Lance, sorry. With me, with me are Cottage Tactical, Kish and Luke Sargent. We'll obviously get into things, good things about the game. Let's start from back to front and talk about all of the above first and work our way into it. So, opening thoughts on that recent sucker punch and I'll go to you first, Kish. We'll do some opening thoughts between us. - I mean, I've tried very hard to think about every part of that game or Saturday apart from the end because it makes me so angry and I'm not a very angry person, but I was angry in the stands just because it felt really undeserved, which I think will all agree, and it just makes no sense. I'm sure we'll break it down in more detail in a minute, but there are sort of about four or five things that Fulham could have done to stop that from happening at various parts and for none of them to happen is sort of unbelievable, but I'm not going to talk too much. We'll come back. - We'll come back. We'll come back after I just get Sargent's thoughts as well. I mean, it just feels like a big loss, doesn't it, Sargent, when it happens that late and especially, it just felt like it was coming. Even though we felt in control, we just lost our heads for like 20 seconds. - It's weird because it's the sort of thing that you used to expect from Fulham. I don't know if I've become immune to it for some strange reason, but I don't feel like we've been that sort of team for a while under Marco Silva. We see games out, we do really well from winning positions and I don't know, I just had this sinking feeling of, oh, we that team again, we haven't been that team. Why are we now, in this moment, then backwards, regressing to a team that we know that we used to be four or five years ago, it was just a bit of a gut punch and a horrible realisation that these things do still happen. - Yeah, I'm trying to think of positives. We will come on to positives later on, but maybe it's a sign that we can afford these draws more than before. I would say this sort of result would make us feel a lot sicker if we were anticipating just to avoid relegation. Now we're a sort of mid-table club, or a higher up and middle table club, whatever you want to call it. I feel like actually we can maybe let stuff like this go a little bit and look at the positives of our performance, but still it is rubbish and I think now of course we'll go on to sort of just what happened here. I've looked at the highlights so many times, it is their throwing, right? It doesn't look like it is and I think that's probably what Robinson was having. - Yeah, I mean, I'll be honest, I've watched fair amount of the game back, I've tried not to watch that back too many times to avoid the sickening feeling we all felt at the time, but I have absolutely no idea what was going on with the throwing, but the thing that I can't help but fixate on is that regardless of whether you get the throwing decision or not, there should never been a throw in because we should never have played a ball into the box in the 94th minute, we have a cheat code at right wing who has the upper body strength of most teams, let alone most players. If you give that board to Adam Troyore in the corner, there is literally no man on earth who can push him over and take it off him, so we had the means to see out that game and it didn't really matter whether the throwing was a good decision or a bad decision, it shouldn't have happened and what happened after the throwing shouldn't have happened either. Do you want to talk about more of the fuck up here, Sarge in terms of Adam Adam Troyore, I feel like before we all met up, we talked in our group and just saying we need a bit of therapy talking about Adam Troyore, he seems a bit of a riddle in terms of, he kind of is really effective but also is useless at the same time. Yeah, I spent the last half hour of the game, like in a monologue argument around whether he should be subbed off or we should be leaving him on, because he would go from misplace in a five yard pass to burst in past three players in the midfield of winning a free kick and relieving any pressure that might have been coming, like he was just flitting between being extremely effective and very useful in the situation to technically deficient and very frustrating, seemingly momentary interlude, it was ridiculous, but I think we're at a point with Adama at the moment where I think he is justifying his place, I do think we're just going to have to accept that there are going to be some, there are going to be some downfalls to having him in the team but at the same time he is providing a lot of the moment and he is giving us something that we don't have, he's very unique within the squad, he's quite unique within the league and it's just, if we can cut out some of those momentary lapses, it's unfortunate because in this game that momentary laps that he had was just at a completely wrong time and I'm hesitant to put all the blame on him, he shouldn't have tried to play that pass but there's so much that happens after and I know you said, you know, was it their throw in, Robinson's looking at the Lionsman, putting the flag in their direction, so whether he agrees with it being their throw in or not, he knows it's their throw in and he's pointing at people ahead of him but he also knows that Jared Bowen is behind him because he's watched him go and retrieve the ball, give it to his mate and then run past him again, so I just don't understand if we, if we, if we really want to lay blame, I don't want to lay blame anti Robinson but I do think he's probably the most culpable in this goal because he just needs to get back goal side of his mat which is what, what Jared Bowen is and he just doesn't do it, he's got all the information that he needs to know that there is a threat there and he doesn't act upon it and that, that is sloppy, that is, there's no other way around it. Kish, do you want to just pull your, your legs up on the therapy software now and talk about Adama and just everything, I'll come, I'll come to my general needs for therapy with, with Adama because it's not so much him, it's more than what he's doing to me because I just don't really know how to make sense of it, there is no chart in the world that makes sense of Adama try away, he's good and he's bad, he's sort of unique and that's why he's a joy and we've spent, you know, the best part of an international break talking about Barclays men and sort of these sort of nostalgic figures from the past who sort of sit outside tactical systems and analysis and just do what they want and it's exciting and Adama try away is that but we're just going to focus on the end just for a little bit longer because he had a role in it but I agree with Sarge, there is not a single player involved in that passage of play from the ball being given away to the throw in to the goal who look back on that and say that was a good, good moment for me, I mean whether it's Robinson at the throw in, I think Bassie could do better at the by-line, I think both Burger and Anderson will be disappointed that they sort of Godend each other's way to stop that ball from going into the box and then I think Leno himself will be pretty disappointed that he got bitten at the near post, there is nobody who is looking particularly wonderful in that last moment, I also think by the way that Fulham and Phil players were too high other than Sander Burger, so you know, there's literally everybody on the pitch from one end to the other had a momentary lapse and Sarge was saying that, you know, maybe we were in a place where we, or no, Jay Maxwell, you were saying that maybe we were in a place where we can tolerate those steps a bit more and that's true, we're not in a renegation battle we hope, we might yet be but we don't think we are at the moment, but it is a reminder of sort of the Fulham of old, I mean something I pointed out online is that last year in terms of seeing out wins we were basically as good as anyone in the league, so only Arsenal, Liverpool, City and Villa got more points per game once going ahead than Fulham, we were really good at them, we had momentary blips at the end of games but that usually involved getting done when we were drawing and losing the match to Man United and stuff like that, but you know, it was a reminder of momentary fragility and dropping of standards and how silver is such an intense character, he demands players be on it all the time and when they collectively all drop one like that it can be really, really devastating and I think that's what we all felt there. Yeah maybe it's the lack of fear of being relegated that silver has, maybe sort of thinks now with the acquisitions we've made and maybe more secure places are primarily exciting, he feels that we don't need to take the sort of antics that we took in the first two seasons and protecting a lead and scraping that one nil result, I just remember us being so good at it with Mitro just holding it up in the corner, or for instance just Robinson just kicking it out of a player so we got a throw in straight away in all the crowd with cheer, we really did master the dark arts quite well a couple of seasons ago, even last season it's a shame it's still not happening now, but maybe that will come, but I mean maybe we don't have the sort of players to do it still, I'm not sure. I think they were set up to do that though, I think the way, if you look at where everyone was positioned when we had the ball before Adama tried to click past through, Harrison Reed was over there with him, Tom Kehney wasn't far away, like they were set up to keep the ball in that area of the pitch, it was just a player made a decision that didn't really fit with what needed to be done in that moment and exposed us a little bit, and then further decisions were made down the line that meant that we conceded the goal. I think Marco Silva the manager, I think that's probably one of the most infuriating things that he's going to experience this season because he cannot legislate for the number of individual errors that result in us conceding the goal in the fifth minute of added time when we were one nil up and really if you think, I remember how I felt in the stadium when West Ham had a corner, they headed it wide and high. We got a goal kick and everyone around me in the atmosphere and we all cheered and started to sing because as far as we were concerned with a minute 15 left on the clock and a goal kick, it was game done, that was their chance, they had two corners back to back, they didn't make use of either of them and so you're like, okay, there's a minute left, by the time we take this goal kick, there's going to be less than a minute left, we'll get the ball up the pitch and we can kill time for 30 seconds and then they're not going to have time to do anything with the ball and it just, it was just frustrating and I think we did so much so well in that game, it almost, Adam almost encapsulates the entire performance because he did so much so well in that game but he had his moments where it just didn't quite click and ultimately a moment where it didn't click, you know, played a part in them scoring and as a team, we did so much so well in that game but somehow at the end of it, we've contrived to turn three points into one, it's really frustrating, it's important not to lose sight of the positives from the end because there were a lot but it's just, I don't know, I know we're in a position where we're not in a relegation battle but I just think in this league, you've got to take the wins when they're there and it was there. Yeah and as Chris said, we're not in a relegation battle yet, you just don't know what can happen, it all seems like we're playing well but if you don't take these wins, I mean there's a lot to be said still about actually our goal scoring and just getting more goals so match all the chances that we have, we'll come on to that and I was going to move on to the positives but maybe we should just fine, let's just get all the negatives out of us as the therapy that I was talking about and just talk about, it also links with Adam as well I believe, because we'll talk about the penalty decision, I mean how do we feel about that, do you agree, I think a lot of people now, the vibe seems to be that it wasn't actually a penalty but some people actually are still freaking livid about it, I just want to know your thoughts. Yeah to be honest, refereeing decisions is never something I'm particularly good at but for me, it goes in the category of seeing them given, seeing them not given and would you ever hate it goes, if it goes against you as a side, I'd be a bit annoyed about it, so we didn't get it and I was a bit annoyed and if it was given against us, I'd be annoyed as well so I don't, I can't really quibble with it too much but I know some people feel very strongly otherwise, what did you guys make of it? I think a lot of the times basically it gets given and I can understand why it actually hasn't and it's in a way quite a relief that VAR hasn't, hello, what's your cat's name again? No that's chewy, this is chewy, which means leopard in Swahili, because he looks like a leopard he's a bengal and he's going to have to leave the room, he's going to have to leave the room otherwise you're going to get this all done now, oh you missed my due back impression as well, it's alright so I just got a cat, what's your cat's name by the way Sarge? My cat is called Binny Jean, not Swahili for anything, oh my god that's too funny, she's just a girl, oh man that's so funny, oh man what happened, we were trying to talk about a Dharma's penalty, I didn't even say it was a Dharma's penalty, I just banged in some general penalty shot, what a mess, okay, I just bust a little chest muscle there doing that, that's really funny, my cat's called Pingoo, so there you go, we've all got a cat, that's brilliant, I covered what I was going to say, yeah I'm quite pleased in the way that VAR didn't intervene, it's like a good sign for football but at the same time, I don't know, maybe a Dharma should actually, I mean he's quite a big guy, maybe he shouldn't actually just be going over like that, I think if he was strong enough he wouldn't think about maybe going down, I wasn't convinced it was a penalty on second viewing, when it happened I was absolutely screaming for it but I was you know 100 feet, 100 yards away at the other end of the pitch, but yeah watching it back, I just think it's quite good defending, it's quite clever defending, he's just kind of lent on him a bit, he hasn't really pushed him, he's just kind of giving him a little bit of a nudge and it's enough to send him over but without being anything, I don't know, if it was given against us, I'd be human so I'm just going to say that yeah it's not a penalty on that sense. I do think though that like people will be like oh by the letter of the law he's you know he's put his hands on him, he's pushed him, like I think a lot of what pundits will refer to as good defending is technically fouls, like if we if we start unpicking that and we start being like well actually you probably shouldn't do that and we start treating defenders in the same way we treat attackers going the other way, football will look very very different very quickly so is it technically a foul, probably, do defenders get away with that every single football game, yeah they do and that's sort of we just it's an unspoken thing that they're allowed to do things that attackers aren't and we just sort of get on with it. Alright well let's move on from fouls and blunders to sort of good looking men and wonders and we'll talk about Yokem Anderson being back, I was not going to do this but I was told you need to talk about how much you like this guy but to see this guy back with the Premier League bad John and doing the things he did it's just like I feel like I'm in a bit of a sort of a dream, I think a lot of us were sort of really wanting Yokem Anderson to come back to full aim but for him to be back with these long locks looking far more mature at a prime age of a centre back, I'm so in love with the guy, he's sort of like a tennis player playing at centre back he's just so like eloquent looking, is his hair gonna get any longer, I mean like is it gonna go to like David Genoa length because that's just ridiculous I mean he's just gonna look like an absolute beautiful sort of musketeer at centre back with all these passes diagonally and over, he's just brilliant, I need to relax now so we need to talk about just a bit more met like his performance this game because everyone is just running right talking about how good he was, one of you please tell me. I thought he was brilliant, I thought it was the assured performance that we expected from him, I think he just changes the way that we can build up play, he's just he's confident and comfortable on the ball, he's not ever sort of hesitant with what he's doing, he's got a clear picture in his mind of what's gonna happen on the pitch and you know Diox were brilliant defensively, like it's really hard for him to lose his play team, he hadn't done anything wrong, he's just not great at the thing he's been asked to do, all the thing that we ask our centre backs to do and so you know Anderson isn't upgrading that sense and he just oozed class didn't he at the weekend, those diagonal passes, it wasn't just the diagonal passes, it's just the ability to take the ball on the half turn, turn out to the right, give it to Tete, or just pop it back into Leno, without you know putting Leno in loads of danger because he's taken that little bit too long to give the ball back to him, it's just an air of calm and clear leadership, he was giving a lot of instructions out, he was keeping the line, it was all just what you expect having seen and played for us a few years ago when he wore the armband a couple of times and he's just a good level of centre back for us to have and it's impressive that we've gotten back to be honest because I thought when he went to Palace I didn't think he'd be at Palace very long before he got snapped up by a bigger team, for whatever reason that hasn't happened and he's found his way back to us which is you know which is a win. Yeah I mean I think it's interesting you mentioned sort of him previously wearing the armband because we got a lot of, we got a good look at Anderson first half sitting in the Hammersmith end he was sort of conducting play in front of us and he looks like a captain on the pitch the way he sort of orders players around and already you can see him coordinating the way full and play out from the back and gesturing us to where exactly Calvin Bassie and Kenny Tete need to be standing for him to get us out of the opposition press. I mean a lot has been made of those diagonal passes and like they are beautiful and like there are a couple of them that just sort of I know that other players can hit diagonals like it's not like a completely unique thing but the quantity of some of that passing was unbelievable. I find anything else. One of them to Nelson was incredible. Sorry to interrupt you. I mean the absolute perfect one you mentioned yeah. Yeah the what is that he talking about the one sort of second half where Nelson takes him on his chest directly behind a defender and he pings it in such a way that the defender can't get it and it drops just at the right moment to get on to Reese Nelson. By the way I thought Alex and Wavy did a very good job bringing the ball down and starting to conduct play from Anderson in the first half but those diagonals sort of capture the attention because they're massive and impressive and look incredible but like Sandra saying I think it's everything else that he does that impresses me even more and I think it's no coincidence that you know Kenny Tete was getting the ball perfectly on his right foot in stride so that he had the maximum possible time to try and get the ball down the line to Adama or to Raul who was coming across that side. I think it helped him massively and then also I've been doing a lot of stuff online with the rather beautiful thing that was Anderson's pass map from that game and what you see very clearly from it is I can't see an obvious example of a pass from Anderson to Bassie in that entire pass map. There's a bit that goes back to Leno but there's almost nothing from Anderson across to Bassie. He once the ball went right to him it was his responsibility to deal with it and he took on that responsibility he didn't just check and play it back and put pressure on his mate had left center half who we know is less good on the ball and that's sort of the leadership that he brings in that plays of play. Fulham have had real troubles building out the back in the first few games and just by putting in one player who's massively, massively talented exactly that the whole team looked transformed particularly in that first half although there were some signs that West Ham worked out a bit on the second. We need to sort of move on to now actually is the good patterns of play in this game. There was lots of joy from this game as you mentioned so I should kick or join in this as well because he's got all the info. But what would you say was working well leading up to our goal? We just kept finding space in areas of the pitch where we could then go straight on the attack so it was either diagonal from Anderson to a Wobi which meant that he was, the diagonal is great it looks really good but the other thing that it does that you cannot take for granted is it completely changes the situation of the play because it takes the ball from being in your half near your goal to completely the other end of the pitch where in most cases there are less players in the other half. So the ball goes from being in a fairly crowded condensed area of the pitch near our goal to a very open space a lot closer to their goal which completely changes the outlook of the game. It gets defenders running back towards their own goal which none of them like to do and it gets our players running towards the opposition goal which they of course all love doing. So all of that happening meant that we could even get the ball over to the left to a Wobi in aches of space or if we worked it a bit shorter what you then found was if the ball was over on the left with the likes of a Wobi and Smith road we linked up quite nicely in tight spaces it drew players over to them and left a load of space on the right hand side where Adama then has loads of space which is how we ended up running through a nearly win in the penalty because we played the ball around in triangles on the left suddenly switched over to him on the right he's now off and running he's in behind and he's running a cross goal defenders that haven't come across him and then we can debate whether or not he was fouled or not but ultimately it was just a case of being able to hit space in their half quickly and it sounds really simple but that is what all is and the player net round at the back I always say when when I'm working with the lads that I do a bit of coaching with you can only afford two sideways or backwards passes before the ball has to go forward because if you make more than two you just invite pressure and it becomes very difficult to get out then your next move if you play a third one your next one is just to either get rid of the ball or you're losing the ball you can't afford to play sideways and backwards twice in your own half and get away with it generally speaking unless you are me so maybe if you've got a prime mousse d'enbellé who your third pass goes to and he somehow dribbles you out of danger you're probably going to come under too much pressure you're probably going to turn the ball over in your own half but what we did was we avoided doing that so the ball wasn't going from Anderson to Bazzi it was going from Anderson diag or it was going Anderson and then out to Tete who's ahead of him and to the right so that in his own just created the opportunity to get the ball into space early and turn not defence because we're in possession of the ball but turn possession in our own half into attacking possession in their half yeah and look you can see all that in the sort of patterns of play and in the data as well like that plan and you know Marco has been working on playing the ball in sort of close possession and patterns of play on one side of the pitch and then getting it across to the other side very quickly for more direct attacks on both sides he's been working on that for a very long time and I felt like this was the first time we were doing it reliably and we're able to get to that position reliably and Anderson made a big difference in one either directly delivering that ball or two drawing the attention of defenders in a way that meant when it came to Calvin Bazzi or it came to Anthony Robinson who are less good under pressure they had a little bit more time in space and they have done recently to get that ball into into a wobie um the tip to help us get out the pitch and I just wanted to sort of take a moment to appreciate Alex a wobie's first half I know a couple of people have been grumbling about his m product at times I thought everything that was good about Fulham in that first half and I thought we were better in the first half than the second a wobie was at the heart of and that relationship with Emile Smith-Roe and Anthony Robinson down the left side is starting to really build and I presume at some point we're going to talk about Reese Nelson and we're going to go back to the Adama therapy couch and we're going to think about all these attacking players and how Marcus is going to fit them all in before we even mention Andreas Pereira but I'd be very reluctant to do anything in terms of moving Alex a wobie currently because I feel like there's a bit of chemistry starting to build there and it would be sort of a bit harsh to start messing with that when it looks often like among the best things Fulham had on the pitch. Well something about Alex a wobie that I never really thought about um because I know I don't really know what I'm talking about 98% of the time is that Alex a wobie actually could kind of actually feel that Willy Ann Roll quite well I mean in terms of that he's he's going to speak he's an attacking midfielder he's got a right foot so on the left and doing that sort of creative midfielder sort of things in that position it kind of does actually make sense and and then if Smith-Roe is next to him they can swap it around it's actually a very good dynamic and a really good chemistry not only just because they of the roles that they share but also because of the clubs they've been at in the past but yeah I'm fascinated by that because I think a wobie has been class and I'm hoping some more you know some more assists in the goals will happen for him because he deserves them but I mean ESR we'll talk about that's another well that's an assist now in the Premier League and a goal so that's a goal and assist in four games that's not too bad I thought what did we think of that that goal and how it was worked so I just almost looked too easy yeah I think West Ham sort of just stopped playing I think they thought Smith-Roe was off side but he clearly wasn't again it was that it was that build up a play create a bit of an overload in an area draw the defenders over to it and then all of a sudden quick release of the ball into space in their half of the pitch and and that's what we did again because a really good really good spot by Andreas because I think you know the the part itself isn't anything too spectacular it is it's a well-hit pass into space and he's put enough backspin on it that you know Smith-Roe has been able to keep him going out for a goal kick but it's more the the vision to see the pass and then execute it before Smith-Roe is off side because Smith-Roe is making that run it's only a split second between when Andreas sees the pass and when Smith-Roe is going to be beyond the last defender and it's going to amount to nothing because the flag is going to go up so you've got to credit Andreas for that and then execute in the pass and I think yeah West Ham sort of stopped and then Smith-Roe you know he is I think what marks top players out from you know the players that are generally good but don't really make it pass or mid-table level is that they are decisive and clinical in those moments so Smith-Roe gets the ball to be really easy in that moment he's kept the ball in on the by-line defenders are coming towards him he's very high up the pitch he's the highest player up the pitch he's very easy in that situation to be like okay I've got the ball I need to make something happen I need to try and score a goal and I think there's a fair few players probably that played for Fulham that would have tried to work that ball back onto their right foot and get a shot across goal but he has the where with all two things okay I'm not in the best position to score Jimenez has made a good movement I'm going to not only look for him but I'm going to pick him out he does it by not making the defender as well he's put it through the defender's legs into the path of Jimenez and it's a kind of finish from Jimenez and I just I just think Smith-Roe is is that player that when he gets into those areas of the pitch we will feel confident that he's going to make something happen he will either find the teammate or he will hit the net because that's what makes him the player that was at Arsenal that came through the ranks Arsenal that performed well for Arsenal that has got England caps obviously it's not gone well from the last couple of years with injuries and everything else but that talent is still there and that ability is still there and I think that's why we'll find that this season he's very decisive in that final third I still don't think he's quite up to speed in his in terms of how he links in with the build-up he's still not overly involved in our game and I still think as good as his link up with the Wobi is on the left I still think moving Smith-Roe to the left will get him on the ball more and would actually cater to what he can do and build up for us a bit more I'm I'm already saying that actually a lot of Smith-Roe's goals and goal involvements in Cup and League have actually been from that left side it almost is like screaming out that he favors just being slightly in that position to make yeah and his goal against Leicester his goal against Leicester came from him switching positions with a Wobi and ending up wide and it was a Wobi's running to the middle that kind of drew defenders it and gave gave him some space on the left and then even you know the the goal that he assisted the weekend he runs into that left half-space into that channel so I do think that might be where he ends up I kind of have this theory that he's not playing wide at the moment because Marco Silva likes his wingers to get through a lot of work and it's why you often see them subbed off after about an hour because they have to do a lot of running they have to get out they have to get down and I think Marco Silva said a few times now you know he needs more fitness he needs more game time and I just wonder if we're just building him up to the point where he's able to cover enough ground that he can play that wide area without leaving us you know shorter the back in which case I don't know what that does to the rest of the team it's a bit of a conundrum because I sort of think that Wobi's best position is centrally I think his best position as a footballer is in the middle but I also accept that he's probably one of our best players in wide areas so that's why he gets put there because there's not another player or there aren't many players in our squad that can be as effective as him from those positions I still think Wobi's best sport would have been played in the middle and when he was at Everton and he played Senonage Field to them I thought that was when he looked his absolute best but I think we've got an abundance of quality in the middle so he's going to play wide. We talk about obviously what this does if Emil Smith or I'll go to the left and where that puts all our other pieces of the of the board I will say that I'm not trying like you're both big big Andreas Pereira fans I'm not saying apologies because like I actually know that he is quality on his day all right but I'm just going to this is a message I got from Bony in the group just to wind up both of you but I'll go and kiss you but it just said like be sure to mention ESR somehow making something of that incredibly shit Andrea Pereira through ball now I remember everyone everyone saying how good that through ball was on WhatsApp saying that was a that was an amazing assist assist from him and then I said yeah ESR made something out of a bucket of shit with that that's what Bony said I don't know if that's particularly fair I mean I think it maybe it was slightly over here but still that was that was still really nice from Andreas Pereira but what are your thoughts on Pereira at the moment I have this theory that maybe because we didn't get Andre that Marcus Silver is trying to turn him into that but from a deep line position is just sort of turn him into this sort of like this that sort of player if you can't play him at 10 with ESR ahead but it all seems like we've got a bit of a problem here with a chemistry or balance in the field doesn't it Kish I'm not sure yeah I mean look I I am a I'm a big fan of Andreas and I spent the best part of a year telling everybody that he's really good and not just because the numbers are so because statistics can lie I think there's there's there's a lot more to his game than assist from corners and the rest of it but look the thing with Andreas is that Marco had an international break and he had players to work with and time to work out what he wanted to do and he made a couple of really big calls so he brought Anderson in and he wanted to change how he built up from the back he brought Raoul Jimenez who we've barely talked about in and dropped Rodrigo Munis he did not change the midfield balance and I think that tells you something about the way Marco is currently seeing things he seems very wedded to the idea of playing with one holding midfield player and two freer central midfield players and I mean I'm not sure whether that's the best way to go but he clearly thinks that's the best way to go and the the interplay between Smithrow and Andreas is pretty fluid at times emo Smithrow is coming all the way back to his own goal to try and assist a little bit and build up and Andreas is going higher and vice versa like personally I given his fitness issues and the fact that Sarge has explained very well why he's such a difference maker in the final third I'd like to see him or Smithrow stay pretty high a lot of the time and I'd like to see us play a more conventional pivot to get the ball out to him that's that's my personal preference but I think it's quite clear from the the team the manager put out and from the substitutions that he made taking Luca Chof will be a yellow card for Sander Berger that he wants to see two players have the ability to get forward and make a difference and if that's the system we're playing Andreas Pereira of all the options makes a lot of sense as one of those two midfield players because as much as I love sassalucation I think he can play as an 8 in 2 in a 2 he's not somebody you're going to want in the opposing box doing lots of stuff really because that's not his game so you know Andreas exists within a system Marco clearly likes the fact that he passes the ball forwards when a lot of full and players don't want to do that and look we laugh about the pass which I think I agree I must have voted a very good job to keep it in and Andreas players that pass three four five times a game and a lot of the time it doesn't work but he tries to do it and Marco clearly really values that but I do think at times we look a bit lightweight in the middle of the park and actually what bailed us out in this game from the fact that we did look a bit lightweight well one west towns midfield were useless and tall nukas pakata came on and looked a bit better but still not brilliant and two Adama Troiore led the team in chus Adama Troiore was bodying people and putting himself about and getting stuck in in the middle of the park to help us keep hold of the ball in a gap which was normally be where your midfield are so it's all a bit of a jigsaw puzzle but I think we've got a fairly strong indication from his preferences in terms of he likes Andreas as a player and his tactical choices so far that I don't see Marco changing this massively and I think if we are going to see Sam the burger come in I'm increasingly of the view that it will be force Asalucic even though that's going to cause an absolute online shitstorm because everybody loves him and I love him but I think he sees there being one holding midfield player in this team currently. Well it speaks it's almost an admittance I think from Marco that our striking options aren't great like I think he's looking at and he's thinking I can't play two defense midfielders and in fairness to Marco Silva I know Harrison Reed played with Pali in you a few times but when Harrison replayed Pali in he wasn't holding midfielder he was joining in on the right the same way that Pereira was joining in on the left with William if you remember back to the you know the fateful day at Old Trafford when everyone lost their shit Mitchovich attacked the referee and should have been sent to jail um Harrison Reed was unbelievable in that game because he was joining with the attack he was getting out wide he was supporting the play in wide spaces he was then coming inside and offering another option in the final third not as a holding midfielder so this isn't a new thing it's not new that we're playing with just one holder it's just that that holding player used to be Jaapalina and did it in a different way but I also think that the insistence on playing Andreas Pereira as opposed to maybe a slightly more reserved or more all-winning focus player like a Harrison Reed or potentially a Sander Burger is because we're not going to get the same output from our strikers that we have had in the years of Mitchovich and I think that was apparent last season I think it's been apparent again at the start of this season the strikers that we have in the team need bodies around them Mitchovich was a very special player in the sense that he could occupy two defenders on his own he didn't need a load of bodies around him to make things happen he could be the only fallen player in the penalty area and still create a goalscore and opportunity I don't think the strikers that we have are disposal at the moment have that capability and you know maybe Rodrigo Muniz in his continued development will get there but I think it's apparent that Marco Silva is thinking I need to get players in central spaces high up the pitch close to the striker to be able to create goalscore opportunities because again the goal came from Emil Smith-Roe making a run in behind the last defender not the striker making a run in behind the last defender so it's it's a bit of an admit that we probably just need a bit more going forward and it it may leave us vulnerable but I mean Sasha Lucas is on such a good job in screening the back line that he has you know it's it's working at the moment and again the wingers get through a lot of work they get up and down Troyore leading the team in Jules is unexpected but having watched the game I'm not surprised to hear that because sometimes he was taken on four or five players in a duel at once and winning I think we need to just quickly talk really quickly about substitutions someone said there's been a few comments of how the substitutions actually might have been are down for a bit you know you're bringing on tongue care knee harris and read but I don't think that was the problem really I don't think it was just a lax in concentration for the goal and we'll learn from it I want to talk about Reese Nelson everyone is talking like this is prime Eden Hazard who just came onto the pitch it was it was it looked he looked really really good yeah really exciting it's easy to get sort of overexcited by somebody who looks that good on the ball and that quick and that sharp and that flashy but you know the the early signs are really good I like that he clearly has the ability to plant both sides of the pitch which I think given Fulham's continued question marks as to what their best attacking combinations really are I think it's going to help him a lot get into the team early and often I also think it was quite clear that there are moments in the game where he had absolutely no clue where any of his teammates were going to be at any given moment like he was sort of like beating three people and they're being like where is Anthony Robinson and it makes you realize like how drilled Marcus over's teams are in the way that they play because it's like Alex the way he knows around Anthony Robinson is at all times and he knows where he's about to be and he knows what he's going to have for dinner like he's like that's they know each other that well and Reese Nelson when he gets that level of familiarity with the players around him is going to look even better the question that I think is really interesting is that if we think Nelson's going to make a big contribution to the team which wide man gets moved dropped shunted somewhere to make way for him because my unpopular opinion is the answer is actually a Dharma trial rate and he's been one of our most exciting players he's been getting into the box and getting on the end of things that our strikers can't at the moment and that's really important but I think his level of technical ability and his comfort on the ball and a couple of other things mean that when push comes to shove Marco might well see him as being 30 minutes of a Dharma at the end to change the game is more valuable than him from the start and I think a lot of people are going to find that very difficult because they've enjoyed watching her at the start of the season but I do wonder if that's where we're headed I can see that I could see him Alex or we'll be going back on the right maybe but you know we'll have to it's so hard we all have to reappear because it starts to think that you know a web is better centrally and and I said a point that I think a web is actually almost like could be the new willy end for us at the left and then Reese Nelson comes on and fucks everything up and makes us all confused again it's really annoying it starts at your thoughts of Reese Nelson I just think I'm just so happy that my prayers have been answered and we have a maverick wide player that's going to do crazy stuff and just make something happen out of nothing I've been screaming for it since Manus Solomon left and it's now here yeah I don't I don't know how is this really weird I don't know how this team is going to shape up come January a lot may depend on injuries and suspensions and just general fitness I just don't know exactly what this team is going to look like in his final form as you know like I said I think a wobies best position is central and I actually think if he plays as one of the three eights he would be brilliant at that because he also provides a bit of physical presence he's not a small man Alex a wobie but I also accept that he's really effective in the positions that Marcos played him in this in his time at the club which has mostly been wide he played centrally maybe a couple of times when he first joined at the start of last season but it's generally been in wide areas and it's it's been effective he's been one of our better players over the time that he's been hit um so I don't know where Nelson fits in I kind of agree with Kish like Adama Triore has been fantastic he's been exciting he's he's can swashbuckle in and everything that you want to see as a fan because what we want to see as fans is players trying their bets and trying to make things happen and Adama Triore already does that you know god bless his soul he always tries to make something happen to the fault of the team in the end because he tried to play in resnelson in the 94th minute and we lost the ball but I just had two points yeah answer two points and he just doesn't quite fit he doesn't he doesn't if you were to play a game of which one of these is not like the other when it comes to our attacking players it's Adama Triore all of our attacking players regardless of their level are technical clever can play in tight spaces all of that stuff Harry Wilson can do it not to the same standard some of the others I would argue you know a wobi can definitely do it resnelson is showing that he can do it smithrove he played out wide can do it um Adama Triore is not the same he tried a couple of lots of one-touch layoffs given goes in the game and they just went off for a throwing or just to the wrong person and it's that trade off at the moment with him I don't know how long he's going to be in the team I do think strongly that you keep playing him at the moment until this whatever is happening at the moment stops happening so until he's no longer causing all these problems for opposition until someone works out what to do with Adama Triore on the opposition we just keep playing him because he's causing havoc um but I do see a future where he maybe isn't in the starting lineup because some of those technical deficiencies start to come to the floor a bit more I don't know if we're going to continue to see Andreas and smithrove centrally it's going to go wide if a wobi is going to go to the right I have no idea what's going to happen but what I do know is that we have for the first time in a long time an abundance of options in attacking areas not necessarily the strikers but in those attacking areas and we have players that can change games again we haven't we didn't have that last season I thought I was sorely missing from us last season we didn't have game changes off the bench and I thought our substitutions were spot on at the weekend I thought market got it absolutely right just as west hand looked like they were starting to get a foothold in the game he made a couple of changes I didn't think wobi should have gone off at the time because I thought he had a really good first half but actually bringing recently I was done with a bit more dynamism gave us a bit of impetus back made west hand drop off a little bit sander burger looked good when he came on sashalucic looked like he was on the way to a red card so that was a smart move I thought the subs were spot on I thought Harrison Reed did a really good job when he came on of just being busy and again filling those half spaces and giving us an option to get the ball out the pitch so the squad the squad looks really strong the only area it looks like is up front but I think we've got enough behind them to push us on I just think it's going to be really fun to watch how this team evolves over the course of the season very briefly j-bag I had a load of questions in from Dazza FFC who follows the part and follows me online Dazza is best known for being sashalucic is super fun so he might be worried about our suggestion that sander burger is going to take us place on the team eventually perhaps undeservedly but his questions were first choice wing options a wobi on the right or left is Andres destined to be axed Nelson earned a start basically the answer to all of that is none of us have a clue so yeah if anybody else has a clue let us know because it's pretty unclear at the moment it is but it is exciting and after this break we will talk about what options we might use for our press and north end adventure in the caravo cup tomorrow night or tonight if you're listening right now see ya all right guys we're going to talk about press the north end pretty briefly and then new castle I mean press the north end I mean I think I saw a really good tweet from someone should I just read out ways like he thinks the lineup's going to be and then you can just decide whether or not if you think that's that's accurate this is from Dave Lovell thank you Dave you didn't tweet us but I just I just nabbed it um he was just starting lineup but tomorrow night bender and goal assessing your left back quenca and diapas center backs kestania right back Harrison Reed and sander burgers uh the pivot uh Nelson as the left winger can he as the 10 Wilson as the right winger and moon is as the striker can you see something like that happening any of you yeah the only pedantic point I'd make is I think we need to start lining up our our 11s in a 4 3 3 not a 4 2 3 1 because Marcus made it clear how he wants the teams play but other than that all the personnel yes don't know about candy starting in the 10 but actually it is pressing north end I'm not trying to be too disrespectful I mean I think they're 13th in the championship or something at the moment but I just that everything we have such a good B team so I was actually that we can pretty much fill everyone and and still have a nice team fresh enough for Newcastle and Saturday yeah I think it's quite important that we stay in the cup because otherwise there's a lot of players aren't going to get any minutes I think we'll see the same sort of team that we saw against Birmingham I think that is you know Stan's field is obviously left now but Reece Nelson has arrived so I imagine Reece Nelson just flies into that position Burger needs minutes so he'll play I would imagine Cuenka needs to play Deop deserves to play Sessin your needs minutes Castania is you know probably one of the most unfortunate players in the squad to not be starting at the moment because he literally did nothing wrong to lose this starting position this season apart from maybe go to the Euros have less of a preseason than Kenny Tete yeah it makes it makes sense I think the key in this game is going to be how some of these players perform and you know I'm not really talking about the likes of Tom Kenny here I think it's pretty it's pretty obvious what Tom Kenny's rolling this squad is now he's going to be a player that comes in when others need a rest and he's going to be a player that comes on last 20 minutes to help us see out again he's not he's not going to be a regular starter unless there are injuries and it's going to take a few injuries I think because if Smith Road goes down with an injury I think you just move it woe be more central we've got options out wide I don't necessarily think he comes straight in like for liking those sorts of areas of pitch but I think he still has plenty to offer and certainly in a game like this I think it's important for the likes of Castania who I thought looked brilliant I thought he was our best player against Birmingham I thought he was a man of the match and I think he needs to have another good showing because he just needs to keep that pressure on Kenny Tete because you know that competition is good I think Kenny Tete is a sort of player that when he's playing and he has the manager's favor he's he's really good I think that's what we're seeing at the moment he's got the confidence of the manager he's got confidence in himself but he has been susceptible to a niggle here in there and so Castania will probably get an opportunity at some point so we need to keep him sharp I think it's a great opportunity for Reese Nelson to show what he can do again and really bang on the door and be like look you know a dime as fast but I can do this and I think it's going to be a really important game for Harry Wilson because he has fallen down the peck in order since the transfer window closed as I don't think there's any two ways about it he didn't have a great showing against Birmingham and there's a lot of question marks I think about Harry Wilson's place in this squad and I think the squad is kind of moving forward at the moment and it might be moving forward without him because he doesn't really seem to have kicked on from the player that we had that was so effective in the championship I know last season there was some talk about numbers and I think he had he had the most gold contributions in the squad last season in terms of goals and assists I think I saw that somewhere I might be wrong but it's quite it's quite startling to me that he did that because I don't think anyone would have him in their sort of team of the season like for Fulham he wouldn't be in anyone's Fulham 11 of the season I don't think anyone would have had him on their shortlist for player of the season so he is a player that I have accused of only impacting games when there's not a lot of impact to be had so the game's either already won or it's already away from us and I think he really needs to in these next six months or so show his value of worth to the squad otherwise he's probably going to find himself in a position where he doesn't get a lot of game time and is looking for a new home if I may be really facetious I imagine that Harry Wilson will be brilliant in this game because he's playing a championship team I find Harry Wilson is just always I'm sorry to annoy you I agree he's probably true but it's me I think he I think he plays brilliantly against teams that are due for relegation or teams are in the championship I feel like if Harry Wilson had made a loan move or a permanent transfer to Leeds for instance he would be absolutely phenomenal for them right now and they'd be doing a lot better than they are I don't want him to go to Leeds obviously I love Harry Wilson as well I think he's a really nice guy and looks really hard but a lot of people love him so much so I'm not trying to piss off any listeners right now worldies don't count for double right if they did he'd be in business because he only scores absolutely worldies and by the way real life fact real-time fact check that is true Harry Wilson with ten goals and assists was our equal top goal and assist provider last season anyway there were two others who joined him any idea who else got nine goals because he got moon has got nine goals so I'm guessing he got an assist somewhere yeah moon is and there's one of us um willian andres parera three goals services this is just this is just in the league and by the way we spread goals and assists around in our season like no like I don't know if it's sustainable for everyone to chip into that extent but I think we're gonna have to do I think that's that's what Marco's looking for with the with the way that he set them in field up I think he wants to get as many players into attacking positions possible because the goals have to come from somewhere yes by the way the other reason very quickly that I think we we might be seeing more attackers on the pitch than usual including Andreas we seem to be pressing more this season don't know if it's just the odd positions that we've played but we seem to be showing with an initial five-man press which is pretty aggressive and Andreas is part of that um on on um the carobell cup player i'm looking forward to seeing Jorge Cuenca um the last question in Daza FFC's list of questions that we answered in the last part was will Cuenca get a chance in the league I think that question is going to be asked a bit this season just because um I think teams will work out quite quicker they need to find a way to make sure we get the ball to Bassy not Anderson and he's going to still be under a bit of pressure playing out from the back and Cuenca's clear comfort on the ball is going to look appealing I think Bassy and Anderson make a lot of sense of partnership I think they're our first choice partnership but Cuenca can knock on the door at different points I think this season I was actually going to ask you this um earlier on in the podkish um it what happens if you put Cuenca and Anderson together in terms of stat because then you've just got these amazing just options on either side for four backs and wingers I like it is that too crazy it need a bit of you need a bit of sandpaper in there like Bassy alongside someone like Anderson it's good like are they too similar would you say Anderson and Cuenca put together I'll throw his ass in a sec because I know he wants to come in but I mean on paper in terms of building out for the back sounds wonderful right we all remember that passed into ESR from Cuenca in pre-season I just think the pace of Bassy on the cover is a huge way of making sure that Anderson's strengths don't get outweighed by his weakness in mind so I think that there's a there's a logic to that partnership but Cuenca's very good and does a lot of things Marcus over likes his center horse to do so if Bassy isn't on his game I think Cuenca needs to make sure he's he's there ready yeah I think Bassy is it's just he's just really good like Bassy was Bassy is a really good player he has been asked to do something at the start of this season that he's maybe not the best at doing and so it's made it look maybe worse than it really is but Bassy's Bassy's so dominant he just I haven't seen enough of Cuenca to to be able to say Bassy's better than Cuenca at this time the other anxiety enough of him out of possession so but the Bassy on the recovery is an absolute beast he wins headers he is good on the ball as well like he can't take the ball he just isn't great when he's being pressed and he has to find a pass that isn't completely obvious the thing that I was going to say actually which is a bit off topic is the idea is that Kenny would play in midfield tomorrow I'd be really interested to see if there's a chance that Josh King gets a start I'd be really interested to see that because he's been in and around the squad he's come on for a minute he I watched him play in the um in the trophy game a couple of weeks ago and he just he looks too good for that level of football now like I don't think there's a lot of benefit to him now playing with the under's teams I don't think he's getting much out of that anymore and I think this is a really good opportunity for him to come into a team of players that is fairly established at the top level because you know we're expecting Sanderberger to play we're expecting Reese Nelson to play we're expecting Harry Wilson to play um you know I think this could be a real opportunity for for Josh King to to get in there and and make something happen I don't know who would be at the expense of it would be interesting to see if he goes in there with a Tom Kenny or would he be better off going in there with a Harrison Reed um it'll be interesting I'd like to see how many minutes he gets up I have a feeling he won't just get sort of cost the merry 15 minutes at the end of the game I think we might see some minutes for Josh King in this cup game I think King would be actually a better option for Kenny when Kenny was mentioned in that lineup as much as Kenny is a legend and we all love him I I'd be more I would be more inspired and more interested to see a midfield three of King Burger and Reed I'd be very surprised if the if the club captain doesn't get a run out in the last thing yeah but maybe maybe we'll see half an hour half an hour of Josh King I mean TC doesn't tend to play 90 minutes regardless of how often he's playing these days so I think there's there's minutes there for him but I'd like to see him too exciting very exciting and by the way talking of young players very very quickly talking of young players um a little peek behind the curtain for listeners of full of focus as we are recording Jay Stanzfield has bagged his second goal uh for Birmingham tonight in the money bags fixture against Rex and he's actually just missed quite a good chance to score a hat trick so yeah fingers crossed he's he's not the one that got away we're getting that extra few hundred grams of the promotion to the chapters is any wonderful love that clause let me bring it oh man I um I know we need to talk about Newcastle but I mean to be honest I have nothing to say really other than Newcastle are a team that I'm really hoping we get a bit of come up and swim I felt like last season we had it with like we we had our just desserts with Man United and West Ham I feel like this year is Newcastle for us they're undefeated and it's going to be really bloody hard we always do terribly against Newcastle the one thing I'm looking out for is that if there's any suggestion that Joachim Anderson is a bit dodgy and behind with some pace um that front three for Newcastle of Esak Gordon and Harvey Barnes is probably a decent test of that that new defensive partnership for for Fulham I think we can gather them the other end they they're you know Dan Burns still knocking about for for Newcastle um and look I assume unless he does something absolutely outstanding and the the cup that we'll be seeing around him and his up top against against nice you mentioned earlier you said that we haven't talked about around him and as a tour and I think we'll just close on that I'd like to know you imagine him and his will probably be starting again in that Premier League game because of obviously scoring the last goal I did see this good tweet from Dean Jones um it says I like him and his I like moon ears but it baffles me that Fulham expects either to be reliable enough to provide a good number of goals this season the team generally is really well built the striker position has been a huge oversight um it just feels like we're going to be toing and throwing between both of them doesn't it Kish and Sarge I I feel like but it will it seems like it's him and his turn now after scoring the last league goal yeah I think it's going to be a case of whoever sort of shows enough in their last game so you know him and his has to shirt for now and it will be his shirt until he loses it that tends to be how Marco plays it it tends to be you play until you know you're not really giving us anything so if him and his scores I expect to see him play the next week if he scores again against Newcastle I expect to see him play again the following week um it is it you know it comes back to what we're saying earlier I think Marco knows that the striking position is probably not what it needs to be I think he's kind of hoping that moon ears can capture some of the form that he showed at points last season um him and his showed former points as well I think the problem we've got is is that they both kind of had a really good six weeks um and not much more um it'll be interesting what happens the problem we have and I've seen a few people sort of saying oh well let's see how we go to a January January is an awful market to go and try and get a top striker like it is the worst time to try and buy a striker because it's going to cost so much money and you're buying a player that you need to come in and hit the ground running they're not going to have the preseason with their teams and the same way that Reece Nelson was running around not knowing where he was maybe meant to be and where his teammates were meant to be um if you bring a striker in in January it's a little bit easier for a striker because they have a smaller area the pitch they need to work in but they're still going to have to bed in um and if you find one that is going to bed in easily it's probably because they've cost you north of 50 million quid so I think this is what we've got for the season I don't think we're buying a striker I think we were going to buy a striker we would have done it in the summer we're not going to buy a striker in January for for what I can tell if we do get someone in it's probably going to be on loan and you're looking at a sort of another broger situation where again you know his bro was improving when we got him in we were kind of getting him and hoping that he would be better than what we already had and in the end it turned out we didn't need him um so yeah the striker thing is is what it is I think this these are our striker options for the season um and the hope is is that the lights of smith roe it will be nelson adama can all chip in if they can all hit sort of between five and ten goals then we should be fine I think we said last season you know we lost mitch of it she was effectively a 15 to 20 goal striker if you count the games that he was suspended for and is sort of strike right there um what him and has got five and moon has got nine and venice has got two which I think that's about right or maybe venice only got one well that gave us 15 goals from our striker so yeah if we can share this credit actually yeah we're doing it this credit we forgot venice is still with us we should actually be mentioning we got we know he can do something I think everyone's over seeing the obvious that it's you it'll be rachaleson doing the pigeon celebration um at the cottage at the second half of the season I guarantee it just it screams for charlinson on loan the dark arts will be back we'll have someone pretending they've got cramp in the 94th minute and we make sure that that west ham equaler as a never happened that's exactly what we need um it's not i'm but on the on the striker thing like i know i know we we sort of equate them as the same as each other because they're sort of at a similar level um roe all and and moon is they are quite different right so like roe you you go into feet with him a bit more you go into his chest a bit more he's not going to win loads of stuff in the air like there is like a stylistic difference to how they play even though they're both sort of big and not wonderfully convincing all the time um the only reason you might think moon is over um him and as if we decide we don't fancy being pressed by new castle or day and we want to go along um which i think moon is is better out but i think it's rau's place for now and just i'm just going to throw it out there at the end because why not go on and i'm going to try right up top anyone like probably as good back to go and as good in the air as rau him and s like is it completely out of the question that we might see at some point i'll be up for it just for the fun of it and it's probably what i do on fifa so why not i like that i like that and then it gives us the option of actually putting in a winger we actually want to be there and that'd be great guys this has been lovely would you like to add anything else or just uh to say goodbye the one thing i would like to add is the last time rau him and his scored against west ham and then went into a new castle game he got himself sent off so let's just hope that he's not going to do that again i'd purge that from my memory i'd purge that from my memory altogether that's what he dropped except one that was so bad that was so bad anyway all right we're at home we're at home it's different it's a whole different thing i'll be fine that's a really good step yet terrified to end on so sorry so thank you thank you very much so thank you very much kish thank you to my cars thank you for your listening if you like we're here tell your friends about us we're on all the things you listen on thank you very much we'll see you soon bye (upbeat music)