Jekyll and Hyde; Chalk and Cheese: Positive or Negative: All or Nothing. There's many such sayings that could describe our performance on Saturday. If we play against Fulham at the same level we did in the first half then we're in with a chance of getting something from the game. Replicate most of our second half shambles then we're going down 0-3....... or worse!
If we allow Fulham to dictate to us then they will keep coming again and again and again. Fulham are full of players who can hurt us....... if we let them. And I'm going to mark Cooper's card NOW. Allow Cairney the time and space to play, he will destroy us - much as we always seemed to give Eriksson a licence to do what he pleased whenever we played Spurs (Eriksson was known to disappear when he got a kicking but we never did it for some reason ). We need to get in his face and stay there, not giving him room to breathe and settle on the ball. Have we got anyone capable of doing this? Not sure but Ducks would have done it. BIG time!!
Then there's Mitrovic, an ever present dangerous threat. If our CBs can stop him scoring then we will know they really are making progress. But there are others who can damage us as well such as the likes of De Cordova-Reid (Bobby Reid as I always knew him) and Anthony Knockaert who can turn FBs inside out and supply a constant stream of dangerous passes and crosses.
Yes, Fulham have the weapons to well and truly do us. IF WE LET THEM. We need to take the game to them and force them to defend because the less time they have to attack us the better. Can we do it? On our first half form against Terriers, possibly. On our second half performance, not a hope in Hell. We can but hope that Cooper and his players remember that football is played over 90 minutes and not 45 minutes as some of them seem to think.
If we allow Fulham to dictate to us then they will keep coming again and again and again. Fulham are full of players who can hurt us....... if we let them. And I'm going to mark Cooper's card NOW. Allow Cairney the time and space to play, he will destroy us - much as we always seemed to give Eriksson a licence to do what he pleased whenever we played Spurs (Eriksson was known to disappear when he got a kicking but we never did it for some reason ). We need to get in his face and stay there, not giving him room to breathe and settle on the ball. Have we got anyone capable of doing this? Not sure but Ducks would have done it. BIG time!!
Then there's Mitrovic, an ever present dangerous threat. If our CBs can stop him scoring then we will know they really are making progress. But there are others who can damage us as well such as the likes of De Cordova-Reid (Bobby Reid as I always knew him) and Anthony Knockaert who can turn FBs inside out and supply a constant stream of dangerous passes and crosses.
Yes, Fulham have the weapons to well and truly do us. IF WE LET THEM. We need to take the game to them and force them to defend because the less time they have to attack us the better. Can we do it? On our first half form against Terriers, possibly. On our second half performance, not a hope in Hell. We can but hope that Cooper and his players remember that football is played over 90 minutes and not 45 minutes as some of them seem to think.