I think it's worth noting that Fulham didnt play last weekend so they had a 2 week break on spurs for this game who had matches against Liverpool and a hard away game to Inter.
Played a big part in that result I feel.
Maybe, overall it was a dreadfully turgid match, neither team really created anything from open play. It was a rusty defensive team versus a tired attacking team, they put their one chance away with a cultured finish and Defoe spunked away two similar chances with a panicked strike at the keeper.
I think we will bounce back, we have too many good players not to, but we need to clear our heads. It's been a really bad week. I wonder how things would have gone if Walker hadn't done that backpass at Anfield.
What annoys me about Bale through the middle is that when it doesn't work we don't put him on the wing, a lot of our play came from crosses today, the best crosser in the team kept staying central and dropping deep today. Fair enough against teams who pack the wings, then chuck him in the middle but today Fulham really didn't do anything special or park the bus they just set up and played around us. Dembele had an absolute shocker.
Bale crossed the ball plenty today, most of them were gash. He did his ankle during the game and it showed, very strange game from him where he never really got into the groove. Fulham were very disciplined though, they didn't give us any free kicks within shooting range. As you say, Dembele was horrendous so Bale basically had to do his job until Carroll came on. Once he did he stuck to the right and tried to create, and to be fair he did create the chance for Defoe at the end, but it was never going to be enough. You can't break down such stubborn teams with such a tired, one paced team.
Come on Parma, you can do it today!
