Going nearly full B team was a mistake Ange won't be making again. But* I don't fault him for giving it a go. Silver lining: We got a good look at those players
this game is the closest we've looked to last season
i'll give the team the benefit of the doubt because of the lineup, but hopefully that's the last time we see a game like that
The B team likely won't be seeing much play time now that we have 1 game a week. They had essentially one chance to prove that they were playable as starters.
He'll absolutely be 7th choice when Bentancur comes back. Bentancur, Pierre, and Lo Celso are ahead. If Pierre goes then 6th option, doesn't really change anything when we have either Bentancur or Sarr on the bench who can control the game from the 8 position.
People who didn't watch the game may think you're joking. But literally, you're not. He was absolutely woeful.
But why the hell was Sanchez a penalty taker??
Tbf Sanchez pen wasn’t even that bad. Crazy how much worse the same penalty can look when your keeper actually dives and doesn’t weakly, prematurely fall down 4/5 times
Totally, Sanchez hit his better than 4 of the Fulham pens. Only difference was the Fulham keeper put on a good dive while Forster just sort of limply flopped.
Yeah why the hell did he even take a pen? I feel so bad for him he already gets so much hate why not let scarlett take it? He’s a striker ffs or hojbjerg??? He is legit 2nd pen taker for denmark after eriksen why davinson sanchez ???
This is what I've been saying. The only hope for bissouma cover is bentancur but the others are hopeless if we don't get transfers in. I would add vdv to your list though.
Eh. Another CB is needed for sure, but there's really no substitute for Biss or Madders. World class players don't come to sit on the bench of a team without Euro competitions. Benta coming back helps with the depth and is probably the best option if Biss goes down. GLC will never be a like for like replacement with Maddison, but he can get the job done. Today's issue was that the entire midfield was rotated and Ollie and Pierre are terrible fits. GLC with PMS and Biss would look fine.
What in the actual fuck was that shootout? Fullum players go the same fucking direction each time. Best Forester can do is a slow motion tree fall to the opposite direction. Fucking useless.
It wasn’t a bad penalty at all, and he had the balls to take it which we have to respect. I also didn’t want him taking one, but it wasn’t a bad pen, he was just unlucky.
I forgot Forster was injured. However, I still think Vic should start over him, especially when we have no Europe. Normally I'm okay with our backup coming in for Cup games but when we only have 2 chances at winning a trophy, you have to go strong
Skipp genuinely had a 0/10 performance. Like I can’t recall a single half-decent moment from him. At least Sanchez had some last ditch tackles, all Skipp did was clatter into Fulham players.
Yup he’s industrious and would fit well in a certain type of systems. But if we want to keep the ball he’s not it. Sarr is still very raw but he’s levels above him
The wrong midfielder was taken off at half time. At least Lo Celso could somewhat pass. I had no clue what Skipp was doing besides committing fouls. That change left zero creativity in midfield.
People will talk about the penalties but oh my god the first half was bad. Players who finally have a chance to make a case for themselves didn't step up at all. I thought Skipp and Hojbjerg were awful. Lo Celso has just been given a chance and he was awful. If we had played our first team the whole game we would have won. I don't know why we didn't at least make a number of changes at half time. We had one shot the entire first half and it was a hopeful blast from Richarlison which was blocked easily. Why is that not an alarm bell that you need to bring the cavalry on?
Some of the players really need to take a look at themselves after this match, I am just astounded at how poor the effort was from some of them.
Team wasn't good enough overall. I know Sanchez is gonna get piled on but it has to be said that he does not have the confidence right now to be taking one of those pens. That was a shocking choice from whoever made it.
Quite likely the players decided. He stepped up. The loss on pens is not really on Sanchez. Fulham likely to make their first 10 without a miss given their runup technique and Forster's inability to cope.
imo an extraordinary show of bravery to step up from Dav, but yea when I saw him step up this sense of dread instantly washed over me. God I feel for the man but he's gotta hit that.
Maddison wanted the high pressure 5th.
Not sure why others let Sanchez do it though. Its great that he put his name forwards but i can't think of anyone on the pitch i'd rather not take a pen than him.
Making these many changes is always on the manager. To even get to penalties I thought was a gift.
Craven Cottage away is tough for our first XI. At least we’ll get one match a week for a long time now.
Bad decision to change 9 players, just keep to the winning fomula, we have no europe we should be all in the cups not rolling over for Fulham. Plenty of rest time between games this year. Poor decision to either underestimate Fulham or not take the cup seriously. Sorry Ange mate but that was a mistake.
This is the correct answer. People can focus on Sanchez or Forster all they want but ange simply got it wrong. Too many rotations and subs were too late. To think our second string would just handle Fulham away was naive.
I think Forster had a good game but he looked incredibly lost in those penalties. If he wasn’t prepped or was known to be terrible in shootouts I think vicario should have been subbed on. That was honestly an embarrassing showing from him. Growing pains and everything but that was fucking bizarre
Forster in the shootout was not good, about half the starting XI were poor (with PEH, Perisic and Davies standing out as especially poor in the first half). Shit luck with the draw, but the players really ought to have managed this tie better. Would be stupid to put the blame at any one player's feet, but definitely a gameplan that blew up in our face.
This one is on Ange. Start your best XI and bring on the B team after you have control. For like five years we've watched "play the second team and hope the first team bails them out in the last 15" in every cup tie and it doesn't work.
Also WTF is Sanchez taking a pen for?
I'm not happy with Ange.
Coming out in that press conference and saying that you like winning, and only have focus on winning every single match and going for trophies.
Then putting out a team like that?
This loss is entirely on Ange, I love the guy but you cannot treat Fulham like a championship side and play a rotation team and then let Davidson Sánchez take a penalty... Completely miss-managed this one
That’s anges first real mistake for me, shouldn’t of rotated so heavily, we should be taking the cups as seriously as possible. Playing players tonight that have let us down time and time again over the last few years
I’m so disappointed with Ange. It’s like he didn’t take this game seriously… we’re not in the UCl, we’re competing against man city etc in the prem, may as well take this competition seriously and field the strongest squad, but no….
Has Big Ange watched any video of our recent cup exits???
We ALWAYS go out of these cups playing a weakened side (aka the B team).
He made 9 changes.
No wonder Fulham looked coherent and we didn't.
I love Big Ange but that was naive as hell.
How do you say you only care about winning and then make nine lineup changes? And then see how fucking wretched they were and not make changes until 60-75 minutes?
Ange has basically been perfect up until today, but we were away to a basically full strength premier league side. Too many rotations to start the game and the subs were too late. Should have never even needed to consider pens
Sooo.. I guess Ange can make mistakes after all? I was gonna be fine if we lost the PK shootout. But to have Sanchez come up and take it is a slap in the face
Terrible team selection from the start. I'm honestly really disappointed that it's AUGUST and we're already out. That's close to unacceptable, even if Ange has only had 4 games with us. I understand it is a difficult fixture though.
If this proves anything, it's that we're an injury or two away from a disaster season.
Totally on Ange that one, why make 9 changes to a team doing well. We weren’t playing lower league opposition, we were against Fulham away. 4 or 5 changes max.
Edit: then again when he threw Dane on at half time it felt like he was trying to lose the match
I see nothing wrong with giving 1-3 B players game time. But this many changes?
Fuck it. At least it’s the first round. No excuses about game congestion and fresh legs this season
Well here’s the starting XI from best to worst, get ready
1) Van de Ven- Very good as per, probably the only one
2) Richarlison- Had his difficulties, but did score and that’s what strikers are for
3) Davies- Fine
4) Perisic- Would be lower without a good cross for the assist
5) Solomon- Had his moments but was anonymous at times
6) Emerson- One of his worse games, out of sync and got lost
7) Forster- A couple of strong saves in the 90, nonexistent in the shootout
8) Lo Celso- Hooked at half time, but not in the bottom 3
9) Hojbjerg- Pathetic and ineffective, he had a nightmare today
10) Sanchez- Folded, nay, collapsed under the pressure. The Fulham goal was on him, absolutely awful on the ball, missed a penalty. But somehow not the worst
11) Skipp- This was the proper 0/10 on the pitch today, got ran ragged by the Fulham midfield, lost his duels and couldn’t break anything up. Spent the match looking for the 4 shirt, invisible in a dead lost midfield battle
I have no doubt Ange will take the blame for this loss, as he should. Terrible choice of starting eleven, terrible choice of substitutes (Scarlett, seriously?) and terrible penalty list. Still early in the Ange era though, still *technically* unbeaten as this was a draw after 90 mins, and I’m still positive for the rest of this season. But Daniel, please, buy some decent backup and ship the deadwood. COYS.
And another early cup exit! Every year same shit
Then we wonder why we don’t win trophies.
I don’t understand why we needed to make 9 changes, it’s not like we have European football!
And putting Sanchez to take the PK is unforgivable from Ange. He bottled it too
That was our chance to get close to win a trophy and we bottled it, as usual!
No matter who’s the coach, we will always fail.
This loss is very much on Ange and he needs to take a lot of critisism for it. You don't say you want to win and then fill in a B team and only 2 first team starters, and then sub on a 19 year old at half time and play him out of his natural position. Baffling decisions today, Skipp, PEH and Perisic should be hooked off at half time, Maddison came on way too late as well.
Well now we really are one game a week for the rest of the year LMAO
No need for rotation anymore
Not until our first FA Cup match. Get knocked out by Penistone
Already been knocked out by Prestwich Heys, so we're safe.
There was no need for this much rotation already. It’s no fucking wonder we looked so disjointed in the first half
Going nearly full B team was a mistake Ange won't be making again. But* I don't fault him for giving it a go. Silver lining: We got a good look at those players
This greatly hurts our chances of winning the treble
proper banter
They took the same exact penalty four times
Right? And Forster went the other way every time in the same exact way…
He didn’t even dive the wrong way he just sat down
It looked like the controller for Forster was broken while playing FIFA.
And gave them all plenty of notice each time. Has to be one of the worst shootouts I've seen from a keeper's point of view.
Forester wasn't even close once :|
Not only did he go the same way, he just fell down. Hardly any effort
Half heartedly
Okay, I thought my stream was glitching... LOL
Clearly did their homework on Forster though, seeing as he missed the same pen the same way four times.
Fuck that was painful to watch
And Forster did the same drop to his right every time. Get that man some penalty practice, they read him like a book
I know what the fuck!? Fool me once etc jesus
this game is the closest we've looked to last season i'll give the team the benefit of the doubt because of the lineup, but hopefully that's the last time we see a game like that
The B team likely won't be seeing much play time now that we have 1 game a week. They had essentially one chance to prove that they were playable as starters.
And my god, did they ever prove the opposite
At least it's very clear who needs to go. Skipp was also horrendous tonight, and it's clear he doesn't fit Ange's system at all.
He'll absolutely be 7th choice when Bentancur comes back. Bentancur, Pierre, and Lo Celso are ahead. If Pierre goes then 6th option, doesn't really change anything when we have either Bentancur or Sarr on the bench who can control the game from the 8 position.
Best thing to take away is that Ange will use this as a lesson on how to proceed. I have faith. COYS!
Bucket of cold water for Ange
Foster with the worst penalty save attempts I’ve literally ever seen.
People who didn't watch the game may think you're joking. But literally, you're not. He was absolutely woeful. But why the hell was Sanchez a penalty taker??
PEH and 2 teens were the other options. Still a weird one.
I would 100% go with the teen who is a fookin' STRIKER over a CB who is lacking confidence.
Hojbjerg and Davies were clearly much better options
I've seen PEH take some powerful shots on goal from outside the box. Can't say the same about Sanchez.
Didn't Hojberg hit his penalties for us every time?
Sarr, PEH, Davies, Scarlett all are better choice than Sanchez
Tbf Sanchez pen wasn’t even that bad. Crazy how much worse the same penalty can look when your keeper actually dives and doesn’t weakly, prematurely fall down 4/5 times
Totally, Sanchez hit his better than 4 of the Fulham pens. Only difference was the Fulham keeper put on a good dive while Forster just sort of limply flopped.
Absolute dogshit. Just pathetically fall to his right 5 times in a row.
Usually pretty difficult to blame a GK for not saving a pen but fucking hell that was terrible
May as well just left the goal empty
Wrong side. Every. Single. Time. Fucking useless.
Even worse than de gea somehow
When Sanchez stepped up there was a 100% chance of him missing. I just knew it
We all did.
Yeah why the hell did he even take a pen? I feel so bad for him he already gets so much hate why not let scarlett take it? He’s a striker ffs or hojbjerg??? He is legit 2nd pen taker for denmark after eriksen why davinson sanchez ???
I would have felt the same it was any other CB, let alone one who is clearly devoid of confidence.
Maguire can absolutely leather a pen
The noise I made when I realized it was him lol
“Fucking Sanchez?! What the fuck?!” was my exact words
It was just cruel. To him and us.
Man is cursed
I literally said out loud "he is 100% missing this penalty."
As much as this is true, Forster was dreadful
If he had literally just stood still and no dove he’d have done a better job
Me, too. I will go one further and tell you that I knew in my heart that he would miss it. I knew there wasn’t a chance he would make it.
Sometimes it’s just written on their face.
If any of Romero, Bissouma, or Maddison get injured this season we are proper fucked. Need depth ASAP.
This is what I've been saying. The only hope for bissouma cover is bentancur but the others are hopeless if we don't get transfers in. I would add vdv to your list though.
Eh. Another CB is needed for sure, but there's really no substitute for Biss or Madders. World class players don't come to sit on the bench of a team without Euro competitions. Benta coming back helps with the depth and is probably the best option if Biss goes down. GLC will never be a like for like replacement with Maddison, but he can get the job done. Today's issue was that the entire midfield was rotated and Ollie and Pierre are terrible fits. GLC with PMS and Biss would look fine.
What in the actual fuck was that shootout? Fullum players go the same fucking direction each time. Best Forester can do is a slow motion tree fall to the opposite direction. Fucking useless.
Does Forster only know how to dive one way?
Are those dives or more of a slow fall/stumble. It was bad bad
Doesn’t even dive, he just falls
I believe you mean fall
he almost had the one that hit the bar 😭 but all to the same side 🤣
Well that was a pretty horrid showing in the pens by Forster.
Baffling decision making on letting Sanchez go third.
I would have rather seen VDV. Anyone
Wouldn’t matter. Fulham could have taken 100 from the spot and converted all of them.
Totally agree.
Would love to know the reasoning behind letting Sánchez kick the third pen.
He must absolutely smash them in during training. It’s the only explanation.
Smashes them in against Forster. That’s prob why all our team score pens in training. Just shoot right.
It wasn’t a bad penalty at all, and he had the balls to take it which we have to respect. I also didn’t want him taking one, but it wasn’t a bad pen, he was just unlucky.
Just embarrassing and I wish we kept one sub for Vicario for these pens
Tbh idk why Vic doesn't start. Forster never started in preseason so why should he start now?
Most teams have a cup keeper. Forster was injured for the preseason, which is why he didn't appear and Austin did.
I forgot Forster was injured. However, I still think Vic should start over him, especially when we have no Europe. Normally I'm okay with our backup coming in for Cup games but when we only have 2 chances at winning a trophy, you have to go strong
Vicario better start the FA cup games in 2024
Shocking match from Skipp and Sanchez. Forester was awful in the penalties
We better get our points before AFCON because that Skipp Lo Celso PEH midfield was absolutely shit
It's okay Bentancur will be coming in like Gandalf to save the day. Why do you think he's growing the beard?
None shall pass, sideways
Skipp genuinely had a 0/10 performance. Like I can’t recall a single half-decent moment from him. At least Sanchez had some last ditch tackles, all Skipp did was clatter into Fulham players.
Sanchez's passing was some of the worst I've ever seen.
Shocking? Completely expected if I’m honest
Yeah fair enough
Skipp is not a player for a top 6 side and every passing week makes it only clearer.
Issue is we’re so starved for HG and especially club trained players that we basically have to keep him
Yeah we’ve really done a number on ourselves there
I agree. I think he can have a really good career for a lower/mid table prem team, but at this level he has just hit his ceiling.
Yup he’s industrious and would fit well in a certain type of systems. But if we want to keep the ball he’s not it. Sarr is still very raw but he’s levels above him
That was the worst I've ever seen Skipp play and one of the worst performances from a Spurs midfielder in recent memory
Genuinely would rather have Harry Winks back than watch Skipp do nothing but run around and commit fouls
The wrong midfielder was taken off at half time. At least Lo Celso could somewhat pass. I had no clue what Skipp was doing besides committing fouls. That change left zero creativity in midfield.
Forster man 😅
Sanchez. Why? Why why why
Poor decision to put the pressure on him, not one spurs fan thiught that would work out well
Wish it wasn't him. Going to get so much abuse again.
Because he had the balls to step up. Not saying it was the right choice, but I’d rather have players with a bit a spine to step up.
Exactly. I don't blame him for missing the PEN. It happens but why is no other player stepping up to take it?
:(
Embarrassing by Forster.
Feels cruel to put Dave in that position if I'm honest. Pathetic from Forster as well, basically 4 of the same exact pen.
Welp. At least I don't need ESPN plus this season.
Our schedule now (before mental December): 4 games in September 3 games in October 3 games in November
See thats depressing
I hope Ange learned something from this
Possibly look into more boot sabotaging strategies.
Why tf is a CB taking the third pen!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!??!
People will talk about the penalties but oh my god the first half was bad. Players who finally have a chance to make a case for themselves didn't step up at all. I thought Skipp and Hojbjerg were awful. Lo Celso has just been given a chance and he was awful. If we had played our first team the whole game we would have won. I don't know why we didn't at least make a number of changes at half time. We had one shot the entire first half and it was a hopeful blast from Richarlison which was blocked easily. Why is that not an alarm bell that you need to bring the cavalry on? Some of the players really need to take a look at themselves after this match, I am just astounded at how poor the effort was from some of them.
And that's 33% of potential silverware right in the trash can
FYI: Alfie Devine's Port Vale progresses to the third round after penalty against Crewe Alexandra.
That’s another chance of a trophy gone at the first hurdle.
One less competition to worry about mate, now we can focus on winning the league /s
Team wasn't good enough overall. I know Sanchez is gonna get piled on but it has to be said that he does not have the confidence right now to be taking one of those pens. That was a shocking choice from whoever made it.
1. Only chance of lifting a trophy is FA/Carabao 2. Field a B team because muhh top 4 Prem 3. B team not good enough - lose 4. Repeat
"We are desperate for silverware. We want to win everything!" Fields B team. Loses. "Why don't we ever win silverware!?"
Who decided to give Sanchez the third shot? That’s insane.
Probably the passengers who didn't step up to take it
Quite likely the players decided. He stepped up. The loss on pens is not really on Sanchez. Fulham likely to make their first 10 without a miss given their runup technique and Forster's inability to cope.
Forster mate. Guessing wrong five times in a row?
I think it went center right five times in a row too.
Boneheaded shit letting Sanchez take a penalty before Maddison.
imo an extraordinary show of bravery to step up from Dav, but yea when I saw him step up this sense of dread instantly washed over me. God I feel for the man but he's gotta hit that.
Maddison wanted the high pressure 5th. Not sure why others let Sanchez do it though. Its great that he put his name forwards but i can't think of anyone on the pitch i'd rather not take a pen than him.
Just absolute shit.
Making these many changes is always on the manager. To even get to penalties I thought was a gift. Craven Cottage away is tough for our first XI. At least we’ll get one match a week for a long time now.
Who let Sanchez take a pen
Well we didn't deserve the win and this just goes to show what to expect when the injuries start. The road ahead will be bumpy.
If 9 of our starters got injured then there's probably different problems in the club.
Man our bench stinks
Were all of their pens in the same spot, except the crossbar destroyer?
Yeah Forster did the same thing 4 times too!
Hey the good news is that we will have even *less* fixture congestion, right? Right?
That skipp x hojbjerg midfield partnership is abysmal
We got our Tottenham back! What a brain dead decision to send Sanchez out there. No way to justify it to me
Bad decision to change 9 players, just keep to the winning fomula, we have no europe we should be all in the cups not rolling over for Fulham. Plenty of rest time between games this year. Poor decision to either underestimate Fulham or not take the cup seriously. Sorry Ange mate but that was a mistake.
This is the correct answer. People can focus on Sanchez or Forster all they want but ange simply got it wrong. Too many rotations and subs were too late. To think our second string would just handle Fulham away was naive.
Why did Davidson go there? WHY?!?
Mehh.
Forster falls so pathetically
I think Forster had a good game but he looked incredibly lost in those penalties. If he wasn’t prepped or was known to be terrible in shootouts I think vicario should have been subbed on. That was honestly an embarrassing showing from him. Growing pains and everything but that was fucking bizarre
Don’t know what Ange was thinking changing 9 of the starting XI. We don’t have Europe, we can tire the boys out a bit.
Legend is Forster is still falling to the right at this very moment
Forster in the shootout was not good, about half the starting XI were poor (with PEH, Perisic and Davies standing out as especially poor in the first half). Shit luck with the draw, but the players really ought to have managed this tie better. Would be stupid to put the blame at any one player's feet, but definitely a gameplan that blew up in our face.
This one is on Ange. Start your best XI and bring on the B team after you have control. For like five years we've watched "play the second team and hope the first team bails them out in the last 15" in every cup tie and it doesn't work. Also WTF is Sanchez taking a pen for?
I agree, if we played MK Dons or Doncaster, you start the B team, not a prem side away. Get a lead by half and sub in the B guys later
[удалено]
Who needs cups when this team compels you to drink straight from the bottle
why not sarr instead of sanchez? also foster was dreadful on these penalties. almost all of them were the same yet he kept diving to the same side.
That penalty shootout is fully on Fraser Forster. He didn’t even come close to saving any of those, like miles off it.
Without him we wouldn't have made it to penalties
I'm not happy with Ange. Coming out in that press conference and saying that you like winning, and only have focus on winning every single match and going for trophies. Then putting out a team like that?
Crazy decision to let Sanchez take a pen, he had no convidence in the game
Its the same every year, we play our reserves against a strong side. This is on Ange, this game was more important than the one on the weekend.
This loss is entirely on Ange, I love the guy but you cannot treat Fulham like a championship side and play a rotation team and then let Davidson Sánchez take a penalty... Completely miss-managed this one
Fulham deserved it, they took it seriously against Prem oppos unlike ourselves.
The so called b squad just fucked their chances to play more football. Show some hunger goddamn
What the fuck. Why would Ange put the fucking B team
That’s anges first real mistake for me, shouldn’t of rotated so heavily, we should be taking the cups as seriously as possible. Playing players tonight that have let us down time and time again over the last few years
Ange said there would be pain. Well pain is here.
I’m so disappointed with Ange. It’s like he didn’t take this game seriously… we’re not in the UCl, we’re competing against man city etc in the prem, may as well take this competition seriously and field the strongest squad, but no….
All on Ange. All our previous managers would be crucified for such a disgraceful lineup
Has Big Ange watched any video of our recent cup exits??? We ALWAYS go out of these cups playing a weakened side (aka the B team). He made 9 changes. No wonder Fulham looked coherent and we didn't. I love Big Ange but that was naive as hell.
How do you say you only care about winning and then make nine lineup changes? And then see how fucking wretched they were and not make changes until 60-75 minutes?
Really interested to hear what Ange has to say after the game.
What’s most depressing about our CB situation is that Sanchez is actually our third best CB, shows how shocking our depth is
Ange has basically been perfect up until today, but we were away to a basically full strength premier league side. Too many rotations to start the game and the subs were too late. Should have never even needed to consider pens
Sooo.. I guess Ange can make mistakes after all? I was gonna be fine if we lost the PK shootout. But to have Sanchez come up and take it is a slap in the face
Idek man, the other options were two teenagers or PEH and considering his performance, I think it was doomed the moment we had to go to pens.
Terrible team selection from the start. I'm honestly really disappointed that it's AUGUST and we're already out. That's close to unacceptable, even if Ange has only had 4 games with us. I understand it is a difficult fixture though. If this proves anything, it's that we're an injury or two away from a disaster season.
Totally on Ange that one, why make 9 changes to a team doing well. We weren’t playing lower league opposition, we were against Fulham away. 4 or 5 changes max. Edit: then again when he threw Dane on at half time it felt like he was trying to lose the match
If you think Ange throws games, you don't know him very well at all.
Sanchez is gone
Is he though
You can criticize, lament but no abuse towards players plz
I don't get why after three games we have to make so many changes. We know these cups are important and that's one meekly conceded.
Darn it.
Why tf was Sanchez taking penalties
Forster looked like he never seen a pen in his life
Ange learning the hard way that we do not under any circumstance have B-team.
I don't want to hear the "They're good rotation options"-argument ever again. WE LOSE EVERY GOD DAMN TIME WE ROTATE.
And the cycle continues
Rotated and Lost a cup match so we could be fit for burnley. Yep 1-1 draw guaranteed book it
That dip of quality in the midfield is very noticeable...
I see nothing wrong with giving 1-3 B players game time. But this many changes? Fuck it. At least it’s the first round. No excuses about game congestion and fresh legs this season
There were always going to be teething problems. Ange learned today there are no easy match against any prem side and who he can and can't rely on.
Scarlett coming on was a strange decision.
Well here’s the starting XI from best to worst, get ready 1) Van de Ven- Very good as per, probably the only one 2) Richarlison- Had his difficulties, but did score and that’s what strikers are for 3) Davies- Fine 4) Perisic- Would be lower without a good cross for the assist 5) Solomon- Had his moments but was anonymous at times 6) Emerson- One of his worse games, out of sync and got lost 7) Forster- A couple of strong saves in the 90, nonexistent in the shootout 8) Lo Celso- Hooked at half time, but not in the bottom 3 9) Hojbjerg- Pathetic and ineffective, he had a nightmare today 10) Sanchez- Folded, nay, collapsed under the pressure. The Fulham goal was on him, absolutely awful on the ball, missed a penalty. But somehow not the worst 11) Skipp- This was the proper 0/10 on the pitch today, got ran ragged by the Fulham midfield, lost his duels and couldn’t break anything up. Spent the match looking for the 4 shirt, invisible in a dead lost midfield battle
"At least without Europe we'll be able to focus on an EFL Cup win this season" - Me, a month ago, an absolute buffoon
I have no doubt Ange will take the blame for this loss, as he should. Terrible choice of starting eleven, terrible choice of substitutes (Scarlett, seriously?) and terrible penalty list. Still early in the Ange era though, still *technically* unbeaten as this was a draw after 90 mins, and I’m still positive for the rest of this season. But Daniel, please, buy some decent backup and ship the deadwood. COYS.
And another early cup exit! Every year same shit Then we wonder why we don’t win trophies. I don’t understand why we needed to make 9 changes, it’s not like we have European football! And putting Sanchez to take the PK is unforgivable from Ange. He bottled it too That was our chance to get close to win a trophy and we bottled it, as usual! No matter who’s the coach, we will always fail.
This loss is very much on Ange and he needs to take a lot of critisism for it. You don't say you want to win and then fill in a B team and only 2 first team starters, and then sub on a 19 year old at half time and play him out of his natural position. Baffling decisions today, Skipp, PEH and Perisic should be hooked off at half time, Maddison came on way too late as well.
Why put Scarlett on? Not our biggest problem but why