Fulham best and clear chance until final of quarter of 30 minute is the first half corner sequence which led to one vs one against Lammens.
The main tactic difference is what I described in my last post. We were so comfortable with the lead which was not the case in the previous two games, so going in second half pressing is optional.
The Fulham chance around 80th, our defense communicated to the front line to drop instead of pressing, this led to us making the pitch large by our own choice thus made us easy to play through. It’s not a depth issue. that is personnel preference from the like of Maguire aka personnel issue. Starter CBs at former high pressing teams don’t get subbed unless for injuries or disastrous performance. The whole CB for CB sub nonsense is an Amorim special. You don’t need CB depth so to sub them to play full 90 minute of high press if you have the right personnel. The last second decision to switch from pressing high from a goal kick to drop and leave big space between the lines in a well drilled team is rare. Here our issue is the defenders prefer a difference approach which creates issue with the plan seeing game out. You can have prime Kante, but when the defenders decide to switch things up this way, you still can’t stop Fulham to progress the ball.
Bruno asked the back line to push up, but they refused. This was before the actually goal kick occurred. The ball was being returned to Leno.
Couple seconds before Leno made the short goal kick, Bruno was now talking to Sesko to instruct him to drop.
Few seconds later, Fulham progresses up the pitch unchallenged due to the big space created from our deep defensive line.
Classic Maguire moment to prefer to drop deeper and deeper to create one man defensive line because he’s too worried about the space behind rather than trusting the execution of offside trap. This sequence should have been a non story, but the change due to the on field decision of the back line creates an issue.
Now compare to 5 minute earlier, for the Sesko hitting the post chance: we pressed high and forced a turn over. we can see Maguire on Fulham half of the pitch when the ball was headed toward Mainoo. Saying we didn’t press it’s merely a structural issue, tactical instruction from Carrick is wrong.
We were trying to be more positive to get the third goal at 2-0, but were caught between two mind at times. In previous games, a draw could have been good result. We were in one mind in staying compact less adventurous in our high pressing.
Edit: Now for the chance leading to the penalty:
Fulham tried to break away but their attackers were man maked. Sessegnon was being chased down Ugarte. our defensive line had already dropped too deep and created acres of space.
Ugarte managed to press Sessegnon into slow down, thus allowed Sesko, Mainoo arguably Amad to get back and regroup.
The midfielders and right sided attackers trapped and pressed Fulham players. Bruno Mbeumo and Amad ran out of gas and was slacking in tracking back. This gives Fulham number advantage in midfield and good passing option, even after we successfully stopped a quick break.
Sander Berge gets lot of space and time to find and make a good pass in behind for Jimenez targeting Maguire. By the time the pass was played, another same old problem was on display: we’re terrible at organizing offside trap. Shaw all these years has still been very poor at it. Martinez to a lesser extent.
This time, we tried to press in the midblock, but the deep defensive line betrayed the effort. You can’t ask for more from Mainoo. He ran non stop during this part of the sequence. the problem is not tactical instruction either as the example of Sesko chances showed. The problem lies with the defenders’ choice to drop deep out of sync with team. It’s a theme going back to Ole’s last season, Rangnick, ETH first season when playing the high line.
