BFTG Fulham

[marlowuk]

Great result and fully deserved. I sat with my Fulham-supporting-mate amongst the home fans but lost it completely when we scored our first, much to the annoyance of an old (ie about 10 years younger than me!) fart in the row behind me!! Most of the Fulham fans around me were decent enough though and I heard many saying how well we defended and how dangerous we looked when breaking quickly.

Mitrovic is the top scorer in The Championship but I'm not sure he had a single clear-cut scoring chance and he became frustrated and careless as did other Fulham players. Virtually all our players played well (although Meite was kept quiet all game) but MOTM has to be Rafael for some superb saves. We are now actually looking like a team - and a good team at that!

[Wycombe Royal]

Pele 10 - definitely winning most improved player of the year, superb

That's a bold claim to make after 1 match......

[From Despair To Where?]

Pele's been playing very well the last few games. Big change from earlier in the season when a lot of people were saying he was crap.

It'slmost as if something happened around October that prompted everyone to start playing better.

[WestYorksRoyal]

Pele's been playing very well the last few games. Big change from earlier in the season when a lot of people were saying he was crap.

It'slmost as if something happened around October that prompted everyone to start playing better.

Hoping Pele plays 2 blinders against Forest. See if they're still laughing at us for signing him after that. He's clearly found his form/role here. If Monaco pay £8m or so for you, you clearly have some talent.

[Hound]

Always thought Pele was fairly decent tbh, not seen him have a bad game really (though haven’t seen all his games)

[genome]

Mitrovic is the top scorer in The Championship but I'm not sure he had a single clear-cut scoring chance and he became frustrated and careless as did other Fulham players.

On their forum they are claiming their squad is knackered. Which is a poor excuse considering we had played the same amount of games and no squad rotation.

Cracking win

[Nameless]

Pele 10 - definitely winning most improved player of the year, superb

That's a bold claim to make after 1 match......

It’s not been one match, he was excellent against QPR. HE’s the sort of player you don’t notice when he is doing well but errors and off days really show up as he plays in such a pivotal role.
HavingAdam in the team has, Ibelieve, really helped him.

[genome]

QPR was last year

[Sanguine]

oxf*rd me, what a triple save from Cabral. And then at least one more cracker later on as well.

Ejaria with the feet and a final ball too. And more from Blackett. Sweet.

Agreed on all this.

Came here to praise Ejaria, unaware that his loan deal included a permanent transfer in the summer, which is terrific news. This guy will make us a handy profit in a few years with the inevitable move to a bigger club, he is absolutely brilliant, neat first touch, strong on the ball, and terrific feet.

Rafael too. Our best keeper since... <insert a good Reading keeper>? Combines the athleticism of Federici with the command of his goal of Hahnemann.

Must admit I'm not getting the Pele thing. Decent enough I guess at this level, but he reminded me a bit of Fulham's Anguissa last season. Should be brilliant, but the ball seems to bounce off of him, and his only impact seems to be physically.

Rafael 9
Gunter 6 (as above, a very Gunter performance, can't not like the guy though)
Morrison 8 (a rock, and didn't realise he was only 31, wtf were Birmingham doing messing him around?)
Moore 7
Blackett 8 (finally beginning to look like a United product)
Ejaria 9
Swift 8
Adam 8 (my god he's fat and slow, but he knows how to play midfield - Caskey-esque)
Pele 6
Meite 5 (anonymous)
Joao 6 (there's a mix of Roberts and Goater in there somewhere)

Bowen is really doing something here, isn't he? And just one win shy of Gomes' nine already.

[BarryWhiteRFC]

Pele 10 - definitely winning most improved player of the year, superb

That's a bold claim to make after 1 match......

[NewCorkSeth]

Pele 10 - definitely winning most improved player of the year, superb

That's a bold claim to make after 1 match......

It’s not been one match, he was excellent against QPR. HE’s the sort of player you don’t notice when he is doing well but errors and off days really show up as he plays in such a pivotal role.
HavingAdam in the team has, Ibelieve, really helped him.

Think you may have missed something here.

[URZZZZ]

oxf*rd me, what a triple save from Cabral. And then at least one more cracker later on as well.

Ejaria with the feet and a final ball too. And more from Blackett. Sweet.

Must admit I'm not getting the Pele thing. Decent enough I guess at this level, but he reminded me a bit of Fulham's Anguissa last season. Should be brilliant, but the ball seems to bounce off of him, and his only impact seems to be physically.

For me, Pele’s positioning is superb. There have been occasions this season (in particular with the Rino, Swift and Ejaria) trio where the midfield has been completely bypassed because Rino isn’t a natural holding midfielder

Pele sits there, does the simple stuff well, but allows Adam and Swift to play their game more because they know they have more protection

[Hound]

oxf*rd me, what a triple save from Cabral. And then at least one more cracker later on as well.

Ejaria with the feet and a final ball too. And more from Blackett. Sweet.

Must admit I'm not getting the Pele thing. Decent enough I guess at this level, but he reminded me a bit of Fulham's Anguissa last season. Should be brilliant, but the ball seems to bounce off of him, and his only impact seems to be physically.

For me, Pele’s positioning is superb. There have been occasions this season (in particular with the Rino, Swift and Ejaria) trio where the midfield has been completely bypassed because Rino isn’t a natural holding midfielder

Pele sits there, does the simple stuff well, but allows Adam and Swift to play their game more because they know they have more protection

yes, and has got a lot better at bringing the ball out and starting attacks as well

[Victor Meldrew]

ZIP, it's not just me mate , see the posters on the first page re-your man Chris.
Watched on TV and couldn't believe my ears when I heard Bowen yell at Gunter as Cavaleiro attacked him again "Stop the cross and don't turn your oxf*rd back"
It could have been me shouting from y21 over these past few years.
It confirms to me that Bowen has him sussed.

Anyway I don't want to detract from the pleasure of yet another win- 4 out of 4 over the holiday period has been a fabulous return and ALL of the players deserve praise, some more than others .
It is now so clear that we need Ejaria and Swift playing every game and a fitter Adam plus a consistent Pele has made our midfield 4 a solid and creative unit.

I don't think the first team is good enough to get into the play-offs as we are not strong enough at full-back, even with others starting there, and the front players are inconsistent BUT the same goes for a lot of teams in this division apart from the current top two and we saw with Fulham last night without Cairney they lacked creativity and looked ordinary.

I always thought that we had enough not to be involved in a relegation battle this season and put my money where my mouth is (inspired by the Cardiff game) with bets on a top half finish, exceeding 52 points and a bit more based on top 6.

A great start to the New Year and long may it last.

[Hound]

Watched on TV and couldn't believe my ears when I heard Bowen yell at Gunter as Cavaleiro attacked him again "Stop the cross and don't turn your oxf*rd back"
It could have been me shouting from y21 over these past few years.
It confirms to me that Bowen has him sussed.
.

Was interesting hearing a lot from the sidelines - and yeah did hear the bit about Stop the cross. Also a quite comical 'What the f*ck was he doing' when Joao and Meite both went for the same ball

Gunts has been a lot more aggressive under Bowen and therefore a lot better. The goal we let in was the one real black mark on an otherwise good display - suspect Bowen will be having a word to him about that

[Victor Meldrew]

Watched on TV and couldn't believe my ears when I heard Bowen yell at Gunter as Cavaleiro attacked him again "Stop the cross and don't turn your oxf*rd back"
It could have been me shouting from y21 over these past few years.
It confirms to me that Bowen has him sussed.
.

Was interesting hearing a lot from the sidelines - and yeah did hear the bit about Stop the cross. Also a quite comical 'What the f*ck was he doing' when Joao and Meite both went for the same ball

Gunts has been a lot more aggressive under Bowen and therefore a lot better. The goal we let in was the one real black mark on an otherwise good display - suspect Bowen will be having a word to him about that

The other thing was Parker shouting again and again "tempo".

[Chameleon]

oxf*rd me, what a triple save from Cabral. And then at least one more cracker later on as well.

Ejaria with the feet and a final ball too. And more from Blackett. Sweet.

Agreed on all this.

Came here to praise Ejaria, unaware that his loan deal included a permanent transfer in the summer, which is terrific news. This guy will make us a handy profit in a few years with the inevitable move to a bigger club, he is absolutely brilliant, neat first touch, strong on the ball, and terrific feet.

Rafael too. Our best keeper since... <insert a good Reading keeper>? Combines the athleticism of Federici with the command of his goal of Hahnemann.

Morrison 8 (a rock, and didn't realise he was only 31, wtf were Birmingham doing messing him around?)

Adam 8 (my god he's fat and slow, but he knows how to play midfield - Caskey-esque)

Bowen is really doing something here, isn't he? And just one win shy of Gomes' nine already.

On Ejaria, if we manage to get promoted in the next couple of seasons then we could have him play for us for a decent while. What I will also say is that up until he came to us he very much looked like a player whose huge potential was not going to be unlocked (see: Kuhl, Tshibola, Hector, McCarthy etc), for whatever reason it wasn't near to clicking at Rangers, Liverpool, or Sunderland. And he's still at an age where if he leaves for somewhere and it doesn't work out that could very easily be the end of the career.

Rafael is on a ridiculously good run of form, should take significant credit for us conceding the 4th fewest goals in the league.

Birmingham's operation makes me feel far far better about ours, can't believe that they weren't going to give him a multi year contract. It's not like he's a winger or someone whose game is built on speed.

Adam is worth it purely for how much he winds up opposition fans. Now he's starting to pick up on where our players will be his passing is becoming lethal.

[Wycombe Royal]

Pele 10 - definitely winning most improved player of the year, superb

That's a bold claim to make after 1 match......

It’s not been one match, he was excellent against QPR. HE’s the sort of player you don’t notice when he is doing well but errors and off days really show up as he plays in such a pivotal role.
HavingAdam in the team has, Ibelieve, really helped him.

There's always one, two days into the new year. I'm going to retreat back to my hole now.

[OLLIE KEARNS]

What a great Xmas period and a fantastic atmosphere at Fulham yesterday. The work rate of the Swift, Ejaria and Pele was incredible as they tracked run after run from Fulham players. Ejaria then ran Christie back the other way time after time which ultimately made the difference. With that combination of work rate, talent and organization we are going to have a chance in any game in the coming months. Long may it continue.
On the flip side we have rode our luck to a degree quite significantly in recent weeks and the simple law of averages means that it won't last. Two concerning factors would be the sheer number of dangerous crosses that teams are able to get in against us and that we're not great at keeping the ball when we do get possession higher up the pitch.
I think Meite on the right is a bit of a dilemma against better teams in that sense. He is a threat when we play lesser sides and so justifies inclusion but it did feel that we may have got a bit more quality possession if we had a more technical player in that area yesterday.
All that aside though, hats off to the team for recent performances !

[exileinleeds]

Only seen us play on TV for too long, but my take from what I've seen is that Raphael will be the Death of Reading FC.