Fulham 0 Chelsea 2

[paulw66]

12 minutes ago, Sleeping Dave said:

 

For me he is a future top player, no doubt about that at all. He has all the fundamentals in place. He just needs time on the pitch and a confidence boost and I think he’ll be flying. Opponents are scared shit of him, that much is very easy to pick up on. 

 

It's funny, because his replacement was a more defensive minded player, in Maatsen, but rather than secure that side, it actually made it worse, as their full back knew he was unlikely to be done if he was caught up field. Just having a player with that blistering pace on the wing pings teams back.

[Guest Alex]

Ooooh a win!!! It was the middle of the night in my part of the world when the game was on, so a very pleasant surprise when I checked the result today!

[chara]

Lot of thoughts about the game...most repeated by others to some degree.

Delightful..no..exquisite little chip ..doesn't do it justice..by Colwill...replay shows it was exactly what he meant to do...looks up and laser like accuracy...football magic for the aficionados. Add the whole move in total and some great football.

Mudryk...the FEAR factor...regardless of anything else he is so F'ing fast it is frightening..all defenders by now understand that he will beat them for pace even when a yard behind to start so leave him unattended at your peril which restrains..of course..the going forward of the defender and the knock on from that...and is he S*** fast!

Long way to go but with such a young ..and injury riddled ... squad the potential as they mature as a squad is more than tantalising.

Banged on a lot in the past and probably will again but the opposition..whoever they are..also want to win...apart from late season "roll over" dead rubber games when players are already holding their boarding passes for exotic holiday vacations, every game at this end of the season is a battle..see Citeh getting caught out this week!

Repeat..the hope kills you...(unrealistic) expectations blinker you!

[Dwmh]

3 hours ago, Ham said:

No but we're getting there IMO. 

No.  The Fulham game was only good in the context of last season or the first few games.
in the context of previous top 4 seasons it was quite poor and involve a certain amount of good fortune.

2 hours ago, Sleeping Dave said:

Yet. 

we can agree there is still a whole lot of development required first.

[thevelourfog]

2 hours ago, Sleeping Dave said:

This is a point that I fee is missed all too often. Personally I do not understand the criticism Mudryk has been getting. Not even a little bit. Sure he hasn’t pulled up trees, but under the circumstances when he signed he was always going to need time. Some of the criticism of him has been completely unfounded and well over the top. 

For me he is a future top player, no doubt about that at all. He has all the fundamentals in place. He just needs time on the pitch and a confidence boost and I think he’ll be flying. Opponents are scared shit of him, that much is very easy to pick up on. 

I've been a very harsh critic. But then he has been abysmally poor, so I don't feel especially bad about it. And I really mean abysmal, like he hasn't seemed at all a professional footballer, not just that he hasn't "pulled up trees". But I've found it fascinating, because plenty of clubs wanted him, and plenty of clubs who buy a lot smarter than we do, and I couldn't work our just how he could look so crap. Well beyond the usual youngster-abroad, pressure-of-a-huge-fee stuff.

Maybe he really has just been in his head and we'll see something very different from now on. I hope so. 

[paulw66]

36 minutes ago, Dwmh said:

in the context of previous top 4 seasons it was quite poor and involve a certain amount of good fortune.

 

2nd goal was a touch fortunate.

They had one meaningful chance in 90 minutes. 

[Ham]

13 minutes ago, thevelourfog said:

I've been a very harsh critic. But then he has been abysmally poor, so I don't feel especially bad about it. And I really mean abysmal, like he hasn't seemed at all a professional footballer, not just that he hasn't "pulled up trees". But I've found it fascinating, because plenty of clubs wanted him, and plenty of clubs who buy a lot smarter than we do, and I couldn't work our just how he could look so crap. Well beyond the usual youngster-abroad, pressure-of-a-huge-fee stuff.

Maybe he really has just been in his head and we'll see something very different from now on. I hope so. 

There was a glimpse of what he was capable of in the Newcastle game in pre-season where he was ridiculously good but then there was absolutely no pressure on. 

I genuinely believe there is an absolute superstar in there and that his issues are all in his head. 

[ROTG]

19 minutes ago, paulw66 said:

2nd goal was a touch fortunate.

They had one meaningful chance in 90 minutes. 

Maybe it because the have a worst striking problem than us. 
 

how does one explain 8-1 corners in there favour along with 26 clearances vs Fulham’s 5 during the match. 

Edited October 3, 2023 by ROTG

[paulw66]

6 minutes ago, ROTG said:

Maybe it because the have a worst striking problem than us. 
 

how does one explain 8-1 corners in there favour along with 26 clearances vs Fulham’s 5 during the match. 

Maybe, but I am not agreeing with the idea that last night's win was fortunate. 

[ROTG]

3 minutes ago, paulw66 said:

Maybe, but I am not agreeing with the idea that last night's win was fortunate. 

A win n is a win, however you do have to look at the opposition, who IMO will be full on in a relegation fight this season. 
 

you only have to look at who they have beaten this season. 

[Dwmh]

25 minutes ago, paulw66 said:

2nd goal was a touch fortunate.

They had one meaningful chance in 90 minutes. 

like Forest

 

5 minutes ago, paulw66 said:

Maybe, but I am not agreeing with the idea that last night's win was fortunate. 

I think you have to say that the difference between that game and others was largely a mixture of luck and timing of goals scored.  And maybe throw in fan support which largely depends on luck and timing.
It certainly wasn't a better xg score.

1 minute ago, ROTG said:

A win n is a win, however you do have to look at the opposition, who IMO will be full on in a relegation fight this season. 
 

you only have to look at who they have beaten this season. 

Yes and we are back to the "look who we have played so far, and who we have to face too".

[ROTG]

44 minutes ago, thevelourfog said:

Maybe he really has just been in his head and we'll see something very different from now on. I hope so. 

It will be interesting to see if starts against  the likes of the arse or spuds where they are going to be pushing high and wide and defensive support will be required. 

[Max Fowler]

46 minutes ago, ROTG said:

Maybe it because the have a worst striking problem than us. 
 

how does one explain 8-1 corners in there favour along with 26 clearances vs Fulham’s 5 during the match. 

Je-sus there are some stats men coming out of the woodwork.

It's simple - we pulled Fulham's pants down last night.

Forest sucker punched us and deserved the three points. Football common sense.

I saw the book "xG for Dummies" sold out in the CFCnet shop and I am starting to understand why.

[Dwmh]

3 minutes ago, Max Fowler said:

It's simple - we pulled Fulham's pants down last night.

 

Boy everything is extreme with you, isn't it.
Nothing like that.

[Mark Kelly]

55 minutes ago, ROTG said:

It will be interesting to see if starts against  the likes of the arse or spuds where they are going to be pushing high and wide and defensive support will be required. 

He offered miles more defensive support than Maatsen did yesterday, certainly didn't shirk his responsibility 

[martin1905]

I thought there was some nice individual performances out there last night but overall, as a team,  we were pretty rubbish.

Still, individuals getting better game by game, 3 wins and 3 clean sheets in a week and a couple of goals in one game is certainly an improvement statistically. Baby steps, which is fine.

I've long said, well as long as he has been here, that Mudryk will become a superstar. The biggest compliment you can give him is every time he gets taken off we lose all control and our performance level drops considerably. Could be coincidence but it's happened the last few games now. If he clicks, if he gets confident, if his decision making improves he will be absolutely unplayable. It's refreshing see a player want to take on his man, seems a rarity in the modern player. I love the fact that doesn't matter how many times he fucka it up he just keeps going. Fair play to him.

 

[martin1905]

Oh and forgot to say, Broja looks a much, much better player than I thought he was. 

Would love to seem him and Jackson together they would be a serious handful for anyone. Both very different to most forwards out there in today's game 

[martin1905]

59 minutes ago, ROTG said:

It will be interesting to see if starts against  the likes of the arse or spuds where they are going to be pushing high and wide and defensive support will be required. 

Those are exactly the sort of games he's nailed on to start.

[blueandproud]

Finally.... Finally.  A good performance and an away result to match it,  Delighted for Mudryk, and though Broja's goal was a bit of a fluke, we were long overdue a bit of good fortune.  Burnley away next, and we have a great record at Turf Moor.  Onwards and upwards.......  I hope.

[Sleeping Dave]

3 hours ago, Dwmh said:

we can agree there is still a whole lot of development required first.

Yes we certainly can. 

5 hours ago, paulw66 said:

It's funny, because his replacement was a more defensive minded player, in Maatsen, but rather than secure that side, it actually made it worse, as their full back knew he was unlikely to be done if he was caught up field. Just having a player with that blistering pace on the wing pings teams back.

My point exactly and I believe Marks as well. Having Mudryk on automatically puts the defending fullback on the back foot. For that reason alone I think he deserves to start. 

2 hours ago, Ham said:

There was a glimpse of what he was capable of in the Newcastle game in pre-season where he was ridiculously good but then there was absolutely no pressure on. 

I genuinely believe there is an absolute superstar in there and that his issues are all in his head. 

For once we agree 😀

[Bones]

I loved how in about 75th+ minute young Cole Palmer who started the game was showing Raheem Sterling who just came on how to press the opposition defence by example 🙂

[Dwmh]

4 hours ago, martin1905 said:

I've long said, well as long as he has been here, that Mudryk will become a superstar. The biggest compliment you can give him is every time he gets taken off we lose all control and our performance level drops considerably. Could be coincidence but it's happened the last few games now.

2 hours ago, Sleeping Dave said:

My point exactly and I believe Marks as well. Having Mudryk on automatically puts the defending fullback on the back foot. For that reason alone I think he deserves to start. 

Yes football is about reacting to what the opponents do and for Mudryk making opponents do things they'd prefer not to.  Opponents move to different parts of the pitch when Mudryk is there.  Same was true with Gronkjaer.

 

[Gurj SS]

I missed the first half, was driving home but was loving the scoreline, nice to see Mudryk get off the mark, nice to see Broja back too and did what strikers are meant to do by following up on every chance which is how he got lucky.

A part of me wishes I'd also missed the second half, it's strange but the injuries/illnesses are working in our favour as the team is picking itself, our changes in the second half and the drop off in our game might back that point up. We got very lucky that Fulham are worse than us in front of goal, otherwise it would have been squeeky bum time in the last quarter of the game.

Plus points are the 3 points, winning is what we need to be doing, and from the highlights we had some good moments of play, Mudryk is the key weapon in making teams worried about playing us, he's like bringing a rocket to a gun fight; no matter how many guns the opposition have they're still scared of the rocket.

What I didn't like is how we lost control of the game in the second half, if that's against a better team we would have probably lost the game, I understand changes are part of the game but I think finishing a game strongly is important at the moment. Oh and the last subs Poch made, not sure what the thinking behind them was but I don't think it's a good thing.

Edited October 3, 2023 by Gurj SS

[Max Fowler]

1 hour ago, Gurj SS said:

I missed the first half, was driving home but was loving the scoreline, nice to see Mudryk get off the mark, nice to see Broja back too and did what strikers are meant to do by following up on every chance which is how he got lucky.

A part of me wishes I'd also missed the second half, it's strange but the injuries/illnesses are working in our favour as the team is picking itself, our changes in the second half and the drop off in our game might back that point up. We got very lucky that Fulham are worse than us in front of goal, otherwise it would have been squeeky bum time in the last quarter of the game.

Plus points are the 3 points, winning is what we need to be doing, and from the highlights we had some good moments of play, Mudryk is the key weapon in making teams worried about playing us, he's like bringing a rocket to a gun fight; no matter how many guns the opposition have they're still scared of the rocket.

What I didn't like is how we lost control of the game in the second half, if that's against a better team we would have probably lost the game, I understand changes are part of the game but I think finishing a game strongly is important at the moment. Oh and the last subs Poch made, not sure what the thinking behind them was but I don't think it's a good thing.

I disagree we lost control of the game, Gurj.

Fulham had to do better and show more energy. Yes they were toothless, but we also defended really well and continued to fight hard. Considering our injuries and suspensions, which I have not used as an excuse when we have lost, I nonetheless think the lads deserve a lot of credit for a battling second half. 

We weren't incredibly fluid but went toe to toe and that was all that was needed to get the result.

[kev61]

5 hours ago, martin1905 said:

I thought there was some nice individual performances out there last night but overall, as a team,  we were pretty rubbish.

Still, individuals getting better game by game, 3 wins and 3 clean sheets in a week and a couple of goals in one game is certainly an improvement statistically. Baby steps, which is fine.

I've long said, well as long as he has been here, that Mudryk will become a superstar. The biggest compliment you can give him is every time he gets taken off we lose all control and our performance level drops considerably. Could be coincidence but it's happened the last few games now. If he clicks, if he gets confident, if his decision making improves he will be absolutely unplayable. It's refreshing see a player want to take on his man, seems a rarity in the modern player. I love the fact that doesn't matter how many times he fucka it up he just keeps going. Fair play to him.

 

Nice bit of realism there Martin.One swallow doesn't make a summer and all that.

In truth I haven't watched the last few games.I will wait until there is a consensus among the posters that I trust who say we are improving.