It just wouldn't be Fulham if it was simple. Today's game was just really strange in a lot of ways- but we've come out of the game with a point, and heading into the game with team we were I definitely would have taken that heading into it. Am I happy with the point coming off the back of game? No, but I suppose the best way to describe my feelings toward the game is content. I think it's reasonably safe to say that Cardiff are a tricky away fixture, so to go away to them on the first day of the season with an incomplete team pretty much and get a point is a pretty good result all things considered.
The goals today were weird in different ways. I'm not entirely sure what happened with the Smith goal to be honest, I suppose the only things to really say on the Smith goal front is credit to Smith for following up on the Pringle "thing" and if I were Cardiff I'd be looking to sign a Keeper ASAP (assuming Marshall goes). Firstly, nobody was stopping the Noone goal- sometimes you just have to acknowledge a proper top draw goal as it is and move on. That said I suppose you could say Pringle was involved in both goals in a weird way. It was unfortunate that his slip let Noone cut-in in the first place, but these sort of things do happen sometimes and we just have to deal with them.
I thought Andy Lonergan was quality today (distribution aside). As already said nobody was stopping the Craig Noone goal- and he dealt with everything else really well and made some top quality saves along the way. I'm not reading anything into Bettinelli being on the Bench today, as I said in the Preview I'm taking his injury at face value- and as such I don't think there was any chance he was fully fit heading into the game today. That said the Lonergan performance was really encouraging on the Bettinelli front in multiple ways. Either Lonergan's proven he's capable of being the #1 or Bettinelli knows he's got to really fight to keep/regain his place in the first team and in turn meaning he'll up his game. Win/Win.
Much was said about the Defence heading into the game by me and pretty much every other Fulham fan- however it was far from as bad as I was fearing it would be. Credit where credit is due, Shaun Hutchinson had a quality game today, apart from one moment in the first half where he nearly gave away a goal he was by far our best defender today. Dan Burn is a necessary evil at the moment, he was a mistake waiting to happen today but his height and general physical stature is needed somewhere in the back-line. The Burn/Hutchinson pairing still scares the life out of me, even though they coped reasonably well today between them- but I still won't be at all happy until we sign a Centre-Back whether that's Lewis Dunk or someone else. Kay Voser is by no means a good player, he was clearly scouted as such given the number of times Cardiff came down our Left-Hand side- but grading on the Kay Voser curve I thought he did pretty well today. Jazz Richards was fine, I did find it funny that we've got him as an option for MOTM on the Website- he wasn't Top 3 performances today (at least for me) but he was fine.
I said in my Transfers post a few weeks back that Jamie O'Hara won't be everyone's favourite player. After seeing O'Hara today and against Palace combined with that interview he did I think Yesterday he's definitely on his way to being mine. Without a doubt he controlled the Midfield today and for me was the best player on the pitch- he may well turn into our best bit of business this Summer and by quite a long way at the rate we're going. Cairney's wasted on the Right, I said it before, I was thinking it during and now I'm saying it after. He at least grew into the game- or at least he did from where I'm concerned, but he was pretty ineffective all things considered and it annoys me to no end that we're playing our (at this stage) "marquee" signing out of position for a second season in a row. Pringle was strange in that he didn't really have a notable game one way or the other- yet his name is attached to both of the goals in some way. I thought Christensen was fine, there's no doubting he's got ability and he definitely had moments today where he showed it. He hasn't gotten to the level he was at before Christmas at any stage in 2015, but it's the first game of the season so I wasn't expecting miracles out of people yet.
I think McCormack will have nightmares about that chance in the last few minutes. It was without a doubt McCormack's fault, I won't hear anyone blame Dembele- he simply didn't need a second touch. McCormack's a really strange one, I don't know if it's him dropping deep- or him being instructed to drop deep either way he shouldn't. If we're desperate for a #10 why not play our #10 as a #10? I'm desperate to see McCormack playing on the Last-Man and Cairney to move Central, but I just can't see it happening under Kit. All things considered I thought Matt Smith was good today, he played the role he was expected to and he played it well- the goal was a bit of a gift but on balance I'd say he deserved one today between hitting the post and a couple of the other chances.
I'm not sure about Dembele's long-term future in a Fulham shirt, the "Sky Sources" thing about Dembele made me laugh seeing as it had come out in France about a week before but at least for this post that's a moot point. For me we looked much better driving forward when Dembele came on- we were threatening in a different way with Smith on, but when Dembele came on we I don't know if you can we say we looked "better" but we definitely looked good with him on.
We're moving onto Wycombe now- and as I'll go into more detail with in the Preview on Monday it's a game that I simply don't care about. I obviously want us to win every game, but going out of the Carling Cup isn't the end of the world with the state we're in at the minute. But anyway that's for Monday and for the time being we can enjoy being at least content with the point. Simply put if you'd have told me heading into the game we'd get a point and should have won I'd have taken it.
Thanks for reading as always, as always thoughts/opinions are welcome. The game on the whole was a pretty standard one, apart from the Goals and the McCormack thing in Injury Time there were very few things of note- but I suppose that goes with the territory with the opening few games of the season. In these early stages of the season I'm pretty happy with an Away Point, and hopefully by the time we're playing Brighton there'll have been some more incomings especially on the Defensive front- although I get the feeling that if Dunk is going to sign for us it won't be until after next Saturday. Stay tuned for the Wycombe posts next week and beyond, thanks again for reading and let's just enjoy Football being back. We're still Unbeaten guys!
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