Just seen the Fulham match - couple of lines on it from me

I'm not writing a report because I wasn't there but, having just watched it all on iFollow, I thought it was worth mentioning a couple of things.

Thiam - good grief!! I liked what I saw of him in his early cameo appearances but this one was just beyond belief. From the high viewpoint of the camera gantry you could see the "effort" he was putting in. In other words, NO effort at all. Ok - he fouled one of theirs in our half soon after arriving but that was about as good as it got. Remember the old school days where you all got together in the middle of the pitch and two captains picked their players one by one. The fat lad was always the last one to be chosen - he shouldn't really have been there but he didn't bring his note excusing him. Well, on Saturday, Thiam was that Fat Lad! He might be fourteen stone of solid muscle for all I know, and if he is, well.....all I can say is "Je suis desolée, Monsieur Thiam". The fact is though that he ambled around like a twenty stone mountain of blubber. In other words, the school playing field archetypal fat lad.

Just after they scored their farcical second goal Yiadom broke down the wing and he looked dangerous. Andy put in a fantastic low cross for our centre forward who was lurking on the six yard line. Oh, wait a minute......where was Mamadou? He was shuffling across the near corner of the penalty box, perhaps waiting for a short pass from Yiadom which was never going to come.

In short it was the performance - a short one, I admit - of a player who knows he is in the wrong place. He probably misses the comforts of the French league every day and is wondering what he has done. He was clearly not good enough to nail down a starting place earlier in the season and now, at the end of January, he has gone backwards. Those early cameos with crisp shooting and fancy flicks are a distant memory. On Saturday, as others have said, he was a disgrace to the shirt. I agree with all who said it - he should probably never play for us again and, hopefully, his agent is lining something else up for him tonight. Sorry Mamadou - you looked good but it was all "un grand mirage".

Davies - as an ex-keeper myself I hate criticising him but it has to be done. His confidence seems to have been shot to pieces. How he failed to deal with that second goal was the most comical performance I have ever seen from a professional goalkeeper. He was not solely to blame of course but the six yard box is his, and his alone. He has the gloves on and has licence to throw his arms in the air to deal with high balls. He failed dismally and I had to watch it in slow motion a few times to confirm just how bad it was. His kicking is appalling, of course, although on Saturday he did launch a couple of decent balls that could have been better used. In fact one was headed behind for the corner that led to our goal so he could claim half an assist for that (maybe). Oh for the days of Heinz Müller! Even at the age he is now he might do a better job (he is only 39 by the way).

As others have said it was a very good first half performance and some of the second half wasn't bad either. But for that bit of stupidity by our other Frenchman we might well have won that game. They are decent outfit, no doubt, but we more than matched them for a good deal of the game. There was clearly some bad feeling at the end as the camera zoomed in on our dug out area showing Hecky having a brief go at one fan and then Hammill doing the same (to the same fan - not sure?). We can do without unsavoury scenes like that.

 

I agree on Davies however I’m pretty certain Thiam injured himself in that tackle you speak about, he came out of it holding his thigh & his face, I honestly don’t think that he just came on & couldn’t be arsed

 

agreed re thiam - injury seemingly confirmed by others also. People being far too harsh considering how well he played on his last start at Sunderland. Doubt he just suddenly decided he couldnt be arsed, like many are suggesting.

 

From one of our better performances in a while, couldn’t you have included a little more of the positives. I know you said you’re only mentioning a couple of things but you have gone into quite a bit of detail on Thiam who wasn’t on the pitch very long. Indeed, The majority of your post focuses on the negatives but there was also quite a lot of positives to take from this disapointing result. Would Hamill have got the same level of condemnation as Cavaré had he been given a Red instead of a yellow for his ludicrous challenge? There were some good performances on Saturday if we can get past the disappointment of the result

 

Ok then, as I said, apology due to Mamadou

 

Either he is utterly unprofessional and lazy or he is utterly unprofessional and stupid.

Why the hell would a professional footballer amble round the pitch for 15 minutes injured without seeking he attention of the army of physios sat just a few yards away? Sorry I just don't believe it.

 

Yes, I could have accentuated the positive a bit more but, to be fair, I did do so to some degree. It was a very quick, off the cuff review, only focusing on a couple of things that stood out for me. In my defence I do write very quickly - sometimes quicker than I think The above probably took me fifteen minutes maximum. (Thank you RAF for teaching me to touch type rapidly many years ago!)
If you've ever read any of my match reports - not many this season admittedly - you would know that I am one of the more positive posters on here. I think the club and the team get far too much criticism sometimes, and I don't like adding to it. On this occasion I did a bit of it though but I will acknowledge that it was a cracking first half performance. There were a couple of moves of sublime quality and had Mallan's shot gone in early on we could have gone on to win it.

 

For what it's worth, my impression was also that Thiam got clobbered soon after he came on and may have been less mobile because of that. But to be right about it, it was probably never intended to play him that way before Cavare's little adventure. Tom had to be scarificed at HT for another full back. Moore was blowing like Red Rum by the 80 minute mark having towed his tripe out alone up front, and had to be replaced. Mamadou was never going to be suited to trying to play alone up top - even for 10 minutes. It might have been better to send on the less-talented but probably quicker Brown for that spell. But it's tricky to bring on a 19 year old ahead of a forward the club has paid £1M for.

I remain convinced that Thiam is a talented footballer with an excellent first touch, and in the right setup would bag plenty of goals. But I don't think we have a team that he currently fits into. Rumours elsewhere on here suggest that he may be gone today, which may be for the best both for Mamadou and the club. I expect him to have a good career. But while we're on, does Tom Bradshaw really fit us? So often asked to play up front alone, he lacks the pace and the physical presence to really succeed - even though he could never be faulted for his excellent workrate. We've addressed the height issue to an extent with Moore - now we need some pace to the attack. Let's hope we can resolve this today.