Fulham 0-2 Leicester City - Wednesday 3rd February, 2021

[Stan]

Kick-off 18.00

Live on BT Sport

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Fulham - DDLLL
Leicester - LDWWW

Last 3 Meetings
30/11/2020 - Leicester 1-2 Fulham
09/03/2019 - Leicester 3-1 Fulham
05/12/2018 - Fulham 1-1 Leicester

[Dan+]

We account for one of their only two wins this season. We've got quite a few out as well, I'm not as confident as I ought to be. It's the particular bodies out that concern me. We've got nothing up front beyond Vardy and we badly miss Ndidi too.

I'll say a draw.

[Stan]

We've decided to include Choudhury tonight despite nearly selling him, shifted Perez to the right side and gone with Iheanacho up front. 

It's good to have a proper striker up front but thought he and Perez would play together. Shame Under isn't getting much of a chance. 

[N U F C]

Have a feeling Fulham might win this, they've looked decent the last few weeks and probably been a bit unfortunate that they haven't picked up more points than what they have done.

[Stan]

1 minute ago, N U F C said:

Have a feeling Fulham might win this, they've looked decent the last few weeks and probably been a bit unfortunate that they haven't picked up more points than what they have done.

Last win was against us and have probably been unfortunate to win in some games since then indeed. Wouldn't surprise me either if they won tonight. Mitrovic to score. 

[N U F C]

1 minute ago, Stan said:

Last win was against us and have probably been unfortunate to win in some games since then indeed. Wouldn't surprise me either if they won tonight. Mitrovic to score. 

Didn't think you looked that good at the weekend either, as you say some key players missing.

[Stan]

Solid half. Iheanacho, Maddison and Justin doing very well. 

[Stan]

Comfortable win. Game was done in the first half with 2 decent goals. Too good in seeing the game out over a side that lacks of lot of quality.

James Justin should be in the England squad ahead of Chilwell. 

[Dan+]

Happy with that. Iheanacho's best game probably this season and played a good part in both goals. Had no doubts about us from going 2 ahead. Professional job done given the personnel missing.

[Dan+]

2 minutes ago, Stan said:

Comfortable win. Game was done in the first half with 2 decent goals. Too good in seeing the game out over a side that lacks of lot of quality.

James Justin should be in the England squad ahead of Chilwell. 

James Justin should be an easy call up. Proven competence on both sides which is an asset in itself. I'd go as far as saying it's a silly error to not take him.

[Cicero]

Luke Shaw should be ahead of Chilwell

[Stan]

4 minutes ago, Cicero said:

Luke Shaw should be ahead of Chilwell

Fine.

Justin > Shaw > Chilwell.

[Dan+]

2 hours ago, Cicero said:

Luke Shaw should be ahead of Chilwell

not a fan? I knew it. I KNEW IT.

[Cicero]

19 minutes ago, Dan said:

not a fan? I knew it. I KNEW IT.

No, I like Chilwell. Just think Shaw and James have just been better this season. Which is pretty much a fact really. 

[Danny]

Shaw has had a massive turnaround cos at times previously he was shit and wouldn't touch the oppositions box, let alone byline

[Happy Blue]

Leicester looking good right now

[Danny]

You look at the two goals Fulham conceded and you can see why they're in the relegation zone, there's a lot of ball watching and lethargic play.

The first goal is a fairly simple one for Leicester, they press Fulham forcing Robinson to misplace a pass to Reed and it's picked up by Chowdhury, Leicester push the ball out wide to Maddison for a cross into the box. Instantly Leicester have Iheanacho and Barnes in the box, Iheanacho is between both centre backs, the man who should be marking him is Johansen to his right, as Maddison takes the ball out right and winds a cross in, Johansen doesn't turn back once to see where Iheanacho is, the ball flies over Johansen's head because he's positioned poorly to head the ball and hasn't followed the intended target in the box and Iheanacho has a free header. Both centre backs are ball watching, neither centre back tries to get close to him, it's an easy goal.

If you look at the second goal they concede, it begins with them attempting to press the ball with Harrison Reed pressing Tielemans who is on the ball between the centre backs, Tielemans plays it to Chowdhury on his left, Reed slows off his pressing and Fulham's press slows down before their right back pushes up and presses with their midfield against Chowdhury and James, the press in itself is slow and not really cohesive, Chowdhury is pressed by one midfielder so passes to James on his left who instantly has an opportunity to play a clear pass because Fulham's right back did not press him in time and is actually off balance trying to block a passing lane and press James at the same time. It's import to realise that the Fulham defender is pressing James, playing at left back, he has positioned himself correctly to block an inward pass from James' left foot, and created space for James to run into on the left in which you would expect to be a trap for the defender to close him down. The problem with this is James is right footed and the defender left him more than enough space to play a pass with his right foot.

This then leads to the ball finding Iheanacho, as the ball comes to him Fulham have a back four lined up with two midfielders sat in front of them, but between the defence and midfield are 3 Leicester players, a man on each centre back and a third playing centrally too. Fulham have just tried to play a high pressing game, so they cannot afford to drop a centre mid deeper as the press doesn't work, but the press was shit, Iheanacho gets the ball and the centre back rather than try and hold him off charges to the outside of Iheanacho and then is turned easily, which creates a chance for Maddison to push forward, Fulham recover and prevent a shot on goal but both the right back who initially pressed Justin James and the right sided centre back who is now man for man with James just both jog back leisurely, Tete is watching the ball a head of him whilst jogging back, as is the centre back #16, there's no urgency to cover James, he's free in front of goal to take Maddison's pass. Even Maddison's pass involves a calamity as he has two defenders on him, the centre back Johansen and the left back Robinson, Maddison fakes a shot on his right foot which the left back should attempt to block as he is the man who should defend the outside, but does nothing, as he fakes it the centre back who should be ready to cover Maddison turning back on the inside gets fooled by the fake and sticks a leg out, Maddison then has an easy pass to James who takes it past the keeper and scores.

Fulham's issue with the second goal is broken down into a poor press with no intensity or cohesion from their midfield, poor decision making from Tete pressing James, Aina getting turned by Iheanacho and not holding him off, Robinson and Johansen pressing Maddison & both allowing him onto the inside and absolutely no urgency to track a runner back from Tete and Adarabioyo.

I've only watched the highlights so no idea how the game as a whole flowed, but Leicester haven't had to do a lot to score either of those goals.

[Stan]

1 hour ago, Danny said:

You look at the two goals Fulham conceded and you can see why they're in the relegation zone, there's a lot of ball watching and lethargic play.

The first goal is a fairly simple one for Leicester, they press Fulham forcing Robinson to misplace a pass to Reed and it's picked up by Chowdhury, Leicester push the ball out wide to Maddison for a cross into the box. Instantly Leicester have Iheanacho and Barnes in the box, Iheanacho is between both centre backs, the man who should be marking him is Johansen to his right, as Maddison takes the ball out right and winds a cross in, Johansen doesn't turn back once to see where Iheanacho is, the ball flies over Johansen's head because he's positioned poorly to head the ball and hasn't followed the intended target in the box and Iheanacho has a free header. Both centre backs are ball watching, neither centre back tries to get close to him, it's an easy goal.

If you look at the second goal they concede, it begins with them attempting to press the ball with Harrison Reed pressing Tielemans who is on the ball between the centre backs, Tielemans plays it to Chowdhury on his left, Reed slows off his pressing and Fulham's press slows down before their right back pushes up and presses with their midfield against Chowdhury and James, the press in itself is slow and not really cohesive, Chowdhury is pressed by one midfielder so passes to James on his left who instantly has an opportunity to play a clear pass because Fulham's right back did not press him in time and is actually off balance trying to block a passing lane and press James at the same time. It's import to realise that the Fulham defender is pressing James, playing at left back, he has positioned himself correctly to block an inward pass from James' left foot, and created space for James to run into on the left in which you would expect to be a trap for the defender to close him down. The problem with this is James is right footed and the defender left him more than enough space to play a pass with his right foot.

This then leads to the ball finding Iheanacho, as the ball comes to him Fulham have a back four lined up with two midfielders sat in front of them, but between the defence and midfield are 3 Leicester players, a man on each centre back and a third playing centrally too. Fulham have just tried to play a high pressing game, so they cannot afford to drop a centre mid deeper as the press doesn't work, but the press was shit, Iheanacho gets the ball and the centre back rather than try and hold him off charges to the outside of Iheanacho and then is turned easily, which creates a chance for Maddison to push forward, Fulham recover and prevent a shot on goal but both the right back who initially pressed Justin James and the right sided centre back who is now man for man with James just both jog back leisurely, Tete is watching the ball a head of him whilst jogging back, as is the centre back #16, there's no urgency to cover James, he's free in front of goal to take Maddison's pass. Even Maddison's pass involves a calamity as he has two defenders on him, the centre back Johansen and the left back Robinson, Maddison fakes a shot on his right foot which the left back should attempt to block as he is the man who should defend the outside, but does nothing, as he fakes it the centre back who should be ready to cover Maddison turning back on the inside gets fooled by the fake and sticks a leg out, Maddison then has an easy pass to James who takes it past the keeper and scores.

Fulham's issue with the second goal is broken down into a poor press with no intensity or cohesion from their midfield, poor decision making from Tete pressing James, Aina getting turned by Iheanacho and not holding him off, Robinson and Johansen pressing Maddison & both allowing him onto the inside and absolutely no urgency to track a runner back from Tete and Adarabioyo.

I've only watched the highlights so no idea how the game as a whole flowed, but Leicester haven't had to do a lot to score either of those goals.

I pretty much agree with all of this from a Fulham perspective, but it heavily downplays what we do as a team under Rodgers. Very patient play in our own half, knock the ball around and pull opposition players out of their position. Our key players - Youri, Maddison, strikers, Barnes etc - are primed to capitalise on this and ramp up the gears within seconds. We like to control the games and we're happy with passing it around and taking risks further up the pitch. If you press us high, in a pack, like Leeds did, we suffer. Against a team like Fulham it's easy to do because the quality isn't there to overcome it and the second goal as you describe is indicative of that. 

In terms of the game as a whole, Fulham do some things well, but a lot of things quite poorly. Whether that's down to Parker being a relatively inexperienced coach or lack of good quality players (or both), who knows but it is why they suffer. Agree with the bit about not pressing as one. A press at any part of the game in any part of the pitch is pretty futile when only one or two are doing it in a group correctly. 

 

Oh and for god's sake it's James Justin, not Justin James  

[Danny]

2 minutes ago, Stan said:

I pretty much agree with all of this from a Fulham perspective, but it heavily downplays what we do as a team under Rodgers. Very patient play in our own half, knock the ball around and pull opposition players out of their position. Our key players - Youri, Maddison, strikers, Barnes etc - are primed to capitalise on this and ramp up the gears within seconds. We like to control the games and we're happy with passing it around and taking risks further up the pitch. If you press us high, in a pack, like Leeds did, we suffer. Against a team like Fulham it's easy to do because the quality isn't there to overcome it and the second goal as you describe is indicative of that. 

In terms of the game as a whole, Fulham do some things well, but a lot of things quite poorly. Whether that's down to Parker being a relatively inexperienced coach or lack of good quality players (or both), who knows but it is why they suffer. Agree with the bit about not pressing as one. A press at any part of the game in any part of the pitch is pretty futile when only one or two are doing it in a group correctly. 

 

Oh and for god's sake it's James Justin, not Justin James  

Haha my bad on the name thing, I had a lot to think about writing that out, specifically am I spelling Tielemans and Iheanacho correctly 

Definitely wasn't trying to downplay your efforts, one thing I forgot to mention as part of the you didn't have to do a lot to score comment was that you didn't have to do a lot, but you still done it with a lot of skill and quality. The pressing to win the ball back for the first goal, in sync with each other, perfectly timed, traps set. A peach of a ball from Maddison and a good header in. The second goal, Justin's pass to Iheanacho and his turn from on the half way line is class, Maddison turning two defenders inside out and Justin's follow up run and composure to take the ball round the keeper, great moments from you, big moments, but it was just that they were also littered with defensive errors from Fulham and tbh a lesser team might not have won this game 2-0, which would explain all their draws, but it shows how you have to work hard and smart against the better sides and Fulham didn't in those goal scoring moments.

[Dan+]

Fulham were so much better away here than yesterday, they fully deserved it when they came here, but I do remember us setting up particularly negatively in that game for some reason whereas yesterday we were far more balanced. The Choudhury inclusion worked a treat, for somebody who was on his way to Newcastle a couple of days ago I didn't think he'd be in starting, and playing pretty well. I've made the point a few times about Mendy that I think while he's done OK, the drop off from Ndidi to him is enormous and it's reflected in the results, we've won pretty much every game Ndidi's played.

Iheanacho is a very hit and miss player. Absolutely awful at Palace and I'd argue cost us 2 points. Big reason we won yesterday though. I do tend to agree with Danny's overriding feeling that we weren't really made to work that hard for the goals yesterday. We set up well and Fulham fell into traps. Both goals were good but neither felt particularly challenging to score.