Drossball

[hal9thou]

The lack of creativity has been a worry for us for a very long time and frankly we have not managed to unearth a half decent attacking mf - it hasn't been a priority evidently, and no one has come through the ranks. Maybe that's just the way it goes, but you can still at least threaten even if all you have is a solid base: you have to have the right set up and game plan to do that. When he arrived, JFH had a point to prove for me re tactics / coaching skills. I still see no sign of joined up thinking.

[dogsrrs]

We'll find out in just over a fortnight if its going to be another season of hoof dross , surely LF TF and co must know that it isn't going to wash ! the wage bill has been slashed considerably , we've had 18 months of dross which has been taken quite liberally by the majority of fans understanding that things needed to be carried out due to the clubs prior mismanagement but there comes a time when enough is enough , there is a saying that TF LF and and co need to heed YOU CAN FOOL SOME OF THE PEOPLE SOME OF THE TIME BUT YOU CANT FOOL ALL OF THE PEOPLE ALL OF THE TIME , time to give a bit back before long term damage is done to support and the clubs already poor reputation

[guy.dunstan]

Seriously back to Faurlin. Yeah he was good at times passing wise but he didn't have the energy of cousins and he wanted to play every game and Jimmy couldn't offer that. It's already been discussed. Luongo and Cousins will be our two cm along with Henry at times too. That's just fine.

Energy won't win us games. Surely we need a bit of both. Luongo seems to have half decent skills, but no presence in the middle of the park, and I don't remember seeing him pick out any killer passes.

[Pinkie]

Agree with you both! its the first season for a while where im not looking forward to it one bit,the way we`re playing is soo boring and unimaginative its unreal,even though cherys our seemingly best player,he even looks average for me and you can see he always needs to be getting the ball on his left foot otherwise hes struggling abit! but we need to start having a go at teams,even last season we werent when we was only going to be landing midtable! if we carry on like this and dont get the quality wingers midfield or strikers can see us dicing with the lower half for sure,as we havnt got goals in us hardly at all,& we`re very static the way we play,and once any defeats happen the players heads could go down abit! tf & co need to get the balance right of spending when needed,non of this hardly spending nothing,they had that sterling money aswell as the transfers & seems theyve kept abit to put back in their pockets now,even though it was their doing blowing that money in the first place! we will not get many more promotions if they think they can do it by hardly spending anything,theyll be a huge gap if that carries on with the teams at the top that do spend!

[Pinkie]

Energy won't win us games. Surely we need a bit of both. Luongo seems to have half decent skills, but no presence in the middle of the park, and I don't remember seeing him pick out any killer passes.

Was just about to say about louongo & forgot in my last post liked him when he first came but he seems to of gone downhill with no pressence in midfield for me & looks very average,almost looks abit overweight even unless its his kit making him look that way or hes doing too much gym work

[nanocopic]

I wouldn't say it has been past 18 months. We have simply struggled for goals without Austin. Had Austin been in the team last season, we would have finished higher, but there were some good performances last season. Brentford, Boro, Derby, Burnley away, These are just from last few games. We had turned a corner and as much as this pre season hasnt gone great , we haven't played a competitive game yet. H
JFH got us playing better and we had some good results. I don't really get why people are always complaining and still watching. Yeah there were some bad games like against Fulham and Brighton away but really we were doing ok. We are currently a mid table side because there are teams better than us. The sooner people stop living in fantasy land and thinking we can go buy anyone who will make us better. Or we have the players to play a great brand of attacking football, the better. We won those games last season thru great defensive play and taking chances when they came our way. That will be this season as well. Suck it up

[nanocopic]

No wonder the players heads are down. I bet anyone on here some mike Bassett wannabe morons boo on the first day.

[Pinkie]

People are probably moaning nano cos footballs supposed to be an entertaining game and just being afraid to have ago cos we might lose,but also all this defensive rubbish and thats almost the way wer`ve got to plays rubbish,the amount of money footballers are getting,& we can play with more flair and attacking style,its just the boring managers being scared to lose and lose their jobs! if they cant find players who are skilful and attacking minded then alot of these professionals shouldnt be playing football and getting paid loads to do so!

[nanocopic]

It's not being afraid, it is called tactics. Atletico, Milan and Juventus in the 90s. All do fantastically well with drossball as everyone calls it. Waiting for the one or two chances a game and taking them and not conceding. We have a fantastic back four and goalkeeper, so we play to our strengths. Plenty of people state they wouldn't watch Atletico every game and that's fine but they are successful. Playing football is about winning at any costs. It's not a pub side or in the playground, it is about being professional and doing your job. That's what I go to see. Polter bullying defenders, last gasp blocks, great saves. This is similar to the west ham situation and a lot of clubs where playing beautiful football is becoming more important than the result. They are expectant that every team can play taht way and they can't. We have had few flair players over the history but in general we have had average players working hard. From when we sold Ferdinand to when we bought Austin, I would say we had no good strikers, just average ones. That's the norm for a small club.

[Pinkie]

Sorry but i enjoy being entertained,even if we have to play that way we should still have a go which we hardly seem to,anytime we have done we look ok,but resort back to negative boring football,for all the money there getting now and the way youre explaining,the money should be going the other way not up! lets go the way youre on about and leave the little talented players in this country and just go for the athletes with no talent skill wise! its not the way football should be for me and the reason why once england get knocked out of euros or the world cup i dont bother watching any more as its cack to watch! same as our friendlies,hopefully we wont carry that on onto our league games like last season!

[knocker]

It's not being afraid, it is called tactics. Atletico, Milan and Juventus in the 90s. All do fantastically well with drossball as everyone calls it. Waiting for the one or two chances a game and taking them and not conceding. We have a fantastic back four and goalkeeper, so we play to our strengths. Plenty of people state they wouldn't watch Atletico every game and that's fine but they are successful. Playing football is about winning at any costs. It's not a pub side or in the playground, it is about being professional and doing your job. That's what I go to see. Polter bullying defenders, last gasp blocks, great saves. This is similar to the west ham situation and a lot of clubs where playing beautiful football is becoming more important than the result. They are expectant that every team can play taht way and they can't. We have had few flair players over the history but in general we have had average players working hard. From when we sold Ferdinand to when we bought Austin, I would say we had no good strikers, just average ones. That's the norm for a small club.

People might go along with that if we are challenging but if as seems likely we are at the other end think atmosphere will be toxic.

[dogsrrs]

I wouldn't say it has been past 18 months. We have simply struggled for goals without Austin. Had Austin been in the team last season, we would have finished higher, but there were some good performances last season. Brentford, Boro, Derby, Burnley away, These are just from last few games. We had turned a corner and as much as this pre season hasnt gone great , we haven't played a competitive game yet. H
JFH got us playing better and we had some good results. I don't really get why people are always complaining and still watching. Yeah there were some bad games like against Fulham and Brighton away but really we were doing ok. We are currently a mid table side because there are teams better than us. The sooner people stop living in fantasy land and thinking we can go buy anyone who will make us better. Or we have the players to play a great brand of attacking football, the better. We won those games last season thru great defensive play and taking chances when they came our way. That will be this season as well. Suck it up

24 months ago the club tried to buy players the manager thought would play football 18 months ago that stopped , last season can't be judged by a hand full of games we played better , yes JFH got the them playing better without playing much more than average but it has to be said he had a hell of a task with what he inherited , my point is fans accepted the dross due to the clubs need to make cuts this summer the club has made cuts and the fans deserve their loyalty to get some small reward in the way of entertainment Fulham spent a lifetime in the wilderness with gates of 3,00 due to lack of investment and that could happen to any club that forgets what fans go to football for

[Brian Wilson]

Not really on topic but I still think back to when Harry left (deserted) and we gave Ramsey the job. Why did we give up so easily on staying up? A big sam or someone of that ilk would have given us a real chance...though we spent about 20 mil and got harry in for the previous relegation scrap and it made no difference so maybe the board thought there was no hope.

[dogsrrs]

Not really on topic but I still think back to when Harry left (deserted) and we gave Ramsey the job. Why did we give up so easily on staying up? A big sam or someone of that ilk would have given us a real chance...though we spent about 20 mil and got harry in for the previous relegation scrap and it made no difference so maybe the board thought there was no hope.

Yeah but that doesn't answer why we gave up trying to play football 18 months ago

[nanocopic]

24 months ago the club tried to buy players the manager thought would play football 18 months ago that stopped , last season can't be judged by a hand full of games we played better , yes JFH got the them playing better without playing much more than average but it has to be said he had a hell of a task with what he inherited , my point is fans accepted the dross due to the clubs need to make cuts this summer the club has made cuts and the fans deserve their loyalty to get some small reward in the way of entertainment Fulham spent a lifetime in the wilderness with gates of 3,00 due to lack of investment and that could happen to any club that forgets what fans go to football for

Those players all failed really, and they quickly realised it was a mistake. We have made cuts this summer and they have made it clear they are still trying to.b ring the players in that we all think they should, a striker and two wingers. They couldn't be anymore on the same page. Football won't go back to.wntertaining very quickly, we have just got rid of lots of players and it will take time to gel. They won't play well every game, no club does, but with the tougher pre season focused on fitness they will able to challenge more often . The amount of goals we let in late In games last year cost us big time. We would have been 6th or 7th with better fitness and better concentration.