What’s the point anymore.
Why even bother going three at the back when you’re down 2-0? Why even bother putting Denis Odoi at fullback when we all know he wasn’t good enough in that position at Championship level? Especially after he turned Ashley Young into Roberto Carlos back at Old Trafford. And he’s 30 years old, so he ain’t getting better anytime soon. Why even bother sitting out Tom Cairney when everyone knows Luciano Vietto has no business in a starting XI for a top five league European team? Why not even try to give Ryan Sessegnon a go when we all know Manchester United’s weakness is in their defense?
To keep it simple, you know you should be sacked immediately when everyone living in a basement can pick a squad better than you. That’s where Claudio Ranieri is at the moment and has been ever since the FA Cup defeat to Oldham. But even that doesn’t cure all of Fulham’s ills.
Everyone at the club swore by never wanting three managers in a season ever again, regardless of how said season turns out. Fulham essentially have no choice but to do it now if they ever want to maintain sanity. They either should get relegated while trying their best and build the senior team from there or get relegated on a complete whimper and become a consistent mid-table Championship team for years to come. The latter is easily where they are now and all of the blame falls onto the Khans for ever allowing this to happen.
I don’t think the players aren’t trying though, as individuals. Fulham really could have had the lead if Vietto was able to make the better decision by blasting his right footed shot home instead of placing it. This came from some fantastic buildup play by Ryan Babel and André Schürrle that set up his cross from inside the penalty area. Then again, Vietto’s only had one goal in almost 10 months so what should we expect.
Later, Joe Bryan put in a ball that towards Aleksander Mitrovic who out-muscled the living tar out of Chris Smalling to try to head it home but instead went way wide. From there, Schürrle gathered the scraps only for him to lean back and shoot it over the bar. Then again, we all know Schürrle doesn’t generate quality chances at all so of course his stuff doesn’t work all the time.
Those two attacking sequences all happened within the first three minutes of the game. Generally, the home crowd would be making that special noise that demands everyone at the football ground to be louder throughout the remainder of the contest. Instead, there was only a light-hearted amount of encouragement because we all know the inevitable was to come. We just didn’t know how it was to come.
First, Paul Pogba reached double digits in league goals for the first time in his career because Bryan kept him onside and Sergio Rico has struggled mightily to shake off what made him so bad at Sevilla in 2017/18 thanks to his lack of cover of the near post. Romelu Lukaku was making a hard run into the six yard box, but Rico still needed saving the ball to be his first priority. Next, Anthony Martial turned into 2007 Lionel Messi because that left half space that is occupied by Odoi and Maxime Le Marchand was doomed to fail as soon as the starting XI was announced. Surely enough, none of them put in a good tackle and the Frenchman was able to put it past Rico from the penalty area with ease.
United really could have made it 3-0 earlier if Phil Jones’ attempt was just a foot or two below the crossbar. Calum Chambers gave it a go before half time only for David De Gea to save it comfortably in the end. That certainly didn’t stop the Fulham supporters from booing their side off the field at halftime once again.
Surely enough, the third goal did come thanks to a Lukaku burst that led to a pass to Juan Mata inside the penalty area. Because the defense wasn’t settled at all, Mata was fouled by Le Marchand and referee Paul Tierney had no choice but to give a penalty. Surely enough, Pogba converted as all world class players do and the rest was history.
And with Fulham being down 3-0, Claudio Ranieri couldn’t help being himself and play five at the back by bringing on Cyrus Christie. Surely enough, Le Marchand had another mistake in a very bad afternoon where he headed the ball towards Alexis Sanchez that put him one-on-one with Rico. Thank goodness the Spaniard was able to save his teammates’ face with his save on Sanchez. Along with that, Babel did his best to put himself in prime goal scoring range only for him to hit the post from inches away and then put it out of play.
And that was that. I don’t even know how the support can even get excited again after this upcoming two week break. It’s so obvious a managerial change has to happen, but that will lead us to having Scott Parker in charge because who on Earth wants to be the third manager of a football club that is about to get relegated. Please do your best to force the club to sack Tony Khan peacefully. I just don’t have any positivity to give out anymore until next season. Everything about this club is miserable and dyer and it is shocking how it ever even got to this point.