Minority Report 2019-20 -Fulham

Redders' dad must be knocking on now though, you reckon he'd still be up for it?

 

of cause he is!!

 

If you were surprised by the Reds performance yesterday then you are in exalted company because Daniel expressed the same in his post match interview

 

A position that I forgot to mention when I originally wrote Minority Report is that of striker. It is particularly apt because we are about to lose Kieffer Moore, and he plays very differently in the lone role up front to the way that Cauley Woodrow plays it. Moore is far better and far more involved in build-up play. He is much more of a focus. A player who can be relied upon to show for the ball, and in doing so, create space and chances for others. Woodrow is much more of an out and out striker. A player who does not really want to be involved outside the box. A player who see it as his responsibility to convert chances, particularly from inside the penalty box. A player who is more selfish in his attitude towards team play. Ideally, you have one of each in your team, so that they can both take advantage of the other’s strengths. In that case, there is no room for Bahre and the team shape is committed to 4-4-2, with all the connotations that that shape has for its general flexibility and ability to win the ball back when it is lost, or for that matter, retaining possession and passing the ball forward. The message is that there is no right or wrong way to play the game. It is always a compromise that matches the skills of individual players with the demands of effective team play. I have never thought that Woodrow was very effective playing up front on his own. Far less effective than Moore in that same role in fact. But Woodrow can usually be relied upon to take the odd good chance that comes his way. Yesterday, when that chance came, he missed the ball and I was left to rue the imminent departure of Kieffer Moore for Wigan.

 

That made me chuckle.
Thanks Red Rain, a great report on a great game. My only complaint is that I can't find anything to disagree with!

 

I never knew that, brilliant. And I think you're absolutely spot on. Maybe he does it already, who knows. It can't have escaped his or his manager's attention that he's currently ten goals a season away from being a multi million pound player.

Apparently for his entire career Dave McKay used to practice volleying a ball against a wall every day, hence why he was so good at controlling and hitting it on the full.

 

It's a good idea, but is Neil's dad still with us?

 

The thing that particularly pleased me was our game management. We gave away 16 free kicks, and about 90% of them were in or around the centre circle. Just little niggly fouls that weren’t bad enough to warrant a booking but kept Fulham from playing.

As soon as we lost the ball in the middle of the park we immediately pressed them and either won it straight back or gave away a free kick which allowed our attacking players to get behind the ball and for the midfield to recover from the press.

Fulham then took the free kick short, couldn’t break us down and eventually we won the ball back. Despite us pressing their goal keeper and centre backs at times, we rarely found ourselves short at the back because as soon as there was a danger they would beat the press we’d give away a foul.

 

I was also surprised about Bahre been captain. I just assumed it’d be Mowatt or McGeehan.

I think it was said last season that Bahre was covering more distance than any other player at the club so maybe he’s a ‘leads by example’ captain rather than an organiser.

I think with the way we set up the wingers don’t really need to beat their full back in the traditional sense of doing a trick & going round them. With the pressing they just need to anticipate us winning the ball quicker than the full back & they did that numerous times. I noticed Thomas lost the ball a couple of times in the first 5 minutes & I’m thinking he doesn’t look up to much & then he goes & skins the full back & megs the keeper.

I thought Cavare did pretty well. I was nervous about him at left back but I think he only got skinned once by Knockeart. Most of the time he had nowhere to go & had to resort to cutting in quite deep & playing a long ball into the box which was pretty easy for our centre backs & keeper to deal with. I didn’t notice the defensive line much to be fair.

I agree about Moore, I think we’ll see occasions where someone like him is badly missed. For example a side like Cardiff won’t really care that we press high when they lump it long & play the percentages & we’ll more than likely need a plan b.

Shaky spell for 15 minutes after half time but other than that I thought we were really good & deserved the win

 

Bahre needs to start notching more than a centre haif or he is just keeping a goalscorer on the bench, schoolboy stuff not gerrin thi heead over ball when shooitin. Mindst having said that Fulham hed a few of them anall.

 

Re Cavare thought he coped well and didn’t do the daft runs that leave no cover . But also sat in east Stand and thing that worried me most was the amount of room given on the right wing. Oceans of space for their attacking down that flank. Cavare had his work cut out in that respect. But as I say coped well. He could have done with Midfield assisting when not in possession. Allowing him to concentrate covering centrally as he invariably did.

 

No mention of Mowatt? What an allrounder this guys becoming. Fittest I’ve seen the lad and he basically gave Cairney no time on the ball. Excited for this lad this season. Made things tick along side Bahre. Great analysis though!

 

Imo Woodrow does too much outside the box.
There’s many times I’ve seen him run out to the wing near the penalty area for the ball and people screaming for him to be in the middle to receive the ball rather than cross it .
Fair enough didn’t notice it too much yesterday but it was a bugbear with me last season especially when Moore was out .

 

Another change from last season when we played also without Moore, and when Bahre supported Woodrow from deeper is the way that the wide players were deployed. Of course, the wide players are different now. Last season, we had Thiam wide left and Brown wide right. Because Bahre was deeper, the wide players played narrower. Their aim was to get closer to Woodrow in order to act as a more cohesive front three. Thiam in particular, had his stronger foot to the inside, which signaled that his main intention was not to try to beat the full back to the outside and cross the ball from the goal line, but to cut inside towards Woodrow's position and have long distance shots on goal. Neither wide player tried to beat a full back to the outside very often. Already this season, we have seen both wide players take on their full back to the outside repeatedly, as they would do if the system more closely resembled 4-4-2. I have already said that tactics are partly a reflection of the talents of the individual players. Stendel must feel that his new wide players have the potential to beat their full backs, or he would not ask them to try to do so. He would ask the team to play more like we did last season. Neither of our wide players was effective. As I said before, the only time either of them beat their full back was when Thomas's marker fell over for the goal. I will be interested to see if Stendel plays his wingers in the same way for the second home game.

 

I can't agree that neither of our wide players was effective. Thomas was absolutely everywhere, drifting infield quite a lot, which seemed to be pulling Fulham's defence out of position. His run and Bahre's ball for the chance where he rounded the 'keeper was an absolutely outstanding piece of play. Wilks provided a very pacey outlet down the left, which Fulham constantly had to be aware of, even when they were attacking. And his run into the box at the end of the first half would surely have produced a goal had Woodrow been the recipient of the final ball rather than Bahre.

 

I enjoyed the write up and agreed with most of what you said but Wilks beat his man multiple times, It's just a fact.

Did you miss when Wilks beat the full back and put it on a plate for Bahre to hit it wide in the first half? If you missed it then watch the highlights it's on there.

 

I have just looked back at the highlights. I am getting on a bit and my memory does let me down quite a lot. The nearest man to Wilks for the chance was Kamara. Wilks was already ahead of Kamara, but he did beat him for pace, I agree. However, Kamara did not play full back and therefore Kamara was not his marker. You may think that I am being picky here, but in my original statement, I was referring to the wide players beating their full backs to the outside and crossing from the goal line and I honesty cannot remember either wide player doing that when the full back did not fall over, and they both tried to do so often. It is a technical point, but one worth making I believe. It is to do with the way that 4-4-2 works, as opposed to 4-3-3.