Our old adversary Alan Smith gave the TV Man of the Match award to Brad Friedel yesterday and it was hard to argue with that assessment. Sky’s award was announced even before Brad’s injury time heroics kept the score down to 2-1 and it recognised a solid performance throughout the game.
But were there other contenders? Much has been made in the press of the suggestion that Spurs were ‘lucky’ yesterday and while we were under siege for much of the second half, those reports conveniently forget that we bossed the first period and deserved our two goal advantage.
With that in mind, is Aaron Lennon in with a shout for his goal and his contribution to Gareth Bale’s opener? Does Bale himself deserve the champagne?
In front of Friedel, the back four stayed solid, aside from the comedy own goal, while Modric showed that he wasn’t afraid to battle for a hard earned victory.
It may be hard to look beyond Brad Friedel for this one, but who was your Man of the Match from the Fulham game?
I’m not sure I agree we ‘bossed’ the first half – we scored against the run of play after being pinned-back pretty much since kick-off… We put some moves together afterwards at times but we were mainly very clinical. How many on target did Fulham have? I’m ok with Friedel getting it but Parker, King, Kaboul and Ade all pushed him close. Unlucky Fulham, played really well, both sides put in a proper team performance but the difference in quality showed.
Why were they unlucky?
Best team won.
Without doubt the team with the quality shone through – the best team, but look at the chances Fulham had, AND got on target. Without Friedel playing like he did we would have lost the two-goal lead we had built up against the run of play. The game wasn’t that pretty, Fulham certainly aren’t, but they were effective enough to pin back a side that have been playing fantastic football. If we’d hammered Man U like that at WHL but lost 3-1 we’d be mighty miffed. Take nothing away from Spurs, winning games you shouldn’t win takes grit, determination and effort, of which we showed enough to create the luck needed to survive an onslaught like that. My biggest nark is that despite having King and Parker out there, nobody sorted it out like a good captain does, so we suffered that onslaught ’till the last whistle.
Parker got knobbled. King tires. They needed a bit more protection.
VDV should not be starting…………..
Sandro…………..push Bale, Modric & AL up
Jerkin.. Ade? Come on he was poor. Lots of poor performances. Parker was dreadful but he gets my man of the match because he took a massive knock, he was deliberately knobbled, and yet still managed to throw himself at strikes. If he hadn’t have been twatted or sandro had been put in for Ade or Van earlier we would have been a lot steadier.
Jordon and bond, I love you but you should have made the right call at 60 mins.
Danny murphy or dembele. none of our players, that’s for sure
Yah, my first comment is really superceeded by my second which really declares Friedel as the difference. They didn’t push him that close really. For one of the outfield players to grab motm from him, they’d have to return the game to Tottenham outfield. No one did. Fair points re King and Parker. The experience of Friedel, our £100m super-stars, one of whom in the engine-room. No one took control, led us out of it. Ade still works hard, looks for the ball on the wings, came deep a lot in the 2nd half to help out. Good defending corners. We weren’t like the QPR game, admittedly, but how much of that was us, and how much was Fulham? In the few moments we got underway we scored 3 good goals, one quite fancy, close to show-boating in other very rare moments, but Fulham played really well. We played poor and won. Did we play poor? As backs to the wall performances go we were brilliant. We’re not used to that. But if a team wins a league, they have to have that in their locker.
i would give it to Friedel because of his shot stopping ,cant remember how many shots on target like the free kick which
he pushed out well but the majority of prem keepers would have as well ,
My main concern is quite a few second half games now we have a tendacy to back off ,drop to deep and cause our own problems ,we dominate the first half, then Wigan,QPR,Wolves,Blackburn,Newcastle all been like it
Yeah, you need two or three to stay up. Stretch it a bit. Especially when you’re better, player for player. Take the risk. Especially at two up. With quick forwards. That’s when you start gaining control. But we still play like we’re one up. My one gripe with Harry is that he doesn’t offer much guidance from the side. I know he wasn’t there, but you mention the other games… Newcastle, we needed defensive reassurance there… When your squad is young, more guidance is needed. But then,we won all but one of those games, no? Are we dealing with this better then? Teams will get in our faces to stop us. If a team presses high, both teams end up having to do it. I’m loving it. Fulham was a scary end, though.
Friedel………..MOTH
Bale right behind him w/ that goal and a lovely assist to set AL free
They always say a good team can win a game they dont play well in. Well we played bloody awfully on Sunday, so we must be bloody great… hahah
On a more serious note, Luka Modric was the most ineffective player at Craven Cottage. Whether that was because of Fulham’s game plan & tactics, or maybe Luka had a bad day in the office. The point im trying to make here, is that Luka was second to every tackle, was never in an open space, and in the end wasnt even grafting for the cause. Maybe he felt that grafting is now a job for Scott Parker, but the performance was UNACCEPTABLE. When we were 2-1 up, playing against a team that had ALL of the ball, and we looked like a joke. Lennon, Bale, VdV, Ade, and Modric made are team far to attacking for the way we were playing. At the 60 minute mark, when we were showing no signs of improvement, i would have ripped Ade, Modric, and VdV of the pitch, all of whom useless on the day, and put Sandro, Defoe and Townsend on the pitch. Sure up midfield, and if we were left to counter attack football – which we were. Having Lennon, Bale, Townsend, Walker, and Defoe’s pace on the field could have been a more heart-safety option. None the less we won. didnt deserve to, but we wont always be so lucky.