It's the first game of the season for fucks sake. The way some are carrying on, you might as well hand over the League right now to anyone but us. In a 38 game season, no single game wins or costs you the League title. It's a culmination of all 38. And who knows, we may win the League by a point this time round and we'll all be looking back on what a valuable point this turned out to be because we were F***ing dog sh*t today. But at the end of the end, it's still only one game.
As for the performance, it was shocking from start to finish and front to back. But we've still come away with a point. We've got our new centre forward up and running, we've got the most lethal forward in the League scoring goals again, we came from behind twice to show our strength of character and with any luck, we can't play any F***ing worse this season than we did today.
Alisson - didn't have much to do in fairness, despite Fulham clearly being the better team but what he did have to do, he failed at today. First goal was a poor attempt from him. Wasn't the cleanest of headers from Mitrovic and Ali just seemed to collapse. It looked like a batsmen in cricket being deceived by a slower ball. He had his wrist there then because it wasn't that clean a header, he'd fallen backwards before the ball got to him. Went the right way for the penalty but didn't reach it - don't really blame keepers for not saving pens though.
Alexander-Arnold - abysmal performance after a man of the match outing in the Charity Shield. His defensive frailties are well documented and were shown up again for the first goal. And bar the odd decent cross field ball, his attacking play didn't make up for a poor defensive performance this time round.
Matip - maybe I was watching a different game to most, but I thought Joel did alright today. He was the one trying to break into the midfield and beyond, the way he normally does. And felt he was covering for Trent quite well. It was his partner who was shameful today.
Van Dijk - shocking performance. It was a penalty, albeit a soft one. He should have went to the ball a lot earlier than he did rather than letting him carry it into the box. But that's a regular complaint of mine with the way we defend, we always back off rather than sticking the boot in early. It looked like the sort of performance we used to get when the likes of Benteke/Carlton Cole would bully our centre halves.
Robertson - probably getting away with criticism because of the more obvious poor performances from the other defenders but Robbo had a couple of chances to really create clear cut opportunities and wasted them. Needs to improve his decision making in those circumstances.
Henderson - lots of huff and puff but not much else from the skipper until the final moments of the match when he hit that shot onto the bar. Like all the midfield, he struggled with Fulham doing to us what we normally do to the opposition.
Fabinho - largely invisible today. Was nowhere for the first goal and showed no desire to get back, bit like Thiago.
Thiago - basically like for like with Fabinho. Invisible for most of the time he was on the pitch, sloppier than usual in possession and now he's injured again. He didn't go the ball or follow the overlapping run for the first ball, leaving Robbo two on one.
Salah - an assist and a goal and yet it feels like he did nothing during the game. Played better when Elliott came on but overall it wasn't the scintillating performance we expect from Mo. But it's two in two for him, so can't complain about he's performing in front of goal and he won me 20 quid on a bet so there's that as well.
Firmino - well documented I've never been his biggest fan, so this sort of performance doesn't surprise me too much. Didn't do anything, like the Charity Shield, and unsurprisingly we got better when he went off. He fell behind Jota in the pecking order who in turn fell behind Diaz and now with Nunez scoring and looking a threat, poor Bobby will hopefully take the role of Divock now and sit out much of the season.
Diaz - offered little today but what a finish, even if Robbo was initially offside. Took a couple of hefty challenges as well, which I think shows the opposition know now that he's a danger if he gets up and running at them. Unfortunately though, a lot of his running with the ball today was back towards our goal rather than the Fulham one.
Elliott - get a lot of Shaqiri vibes about Harvey. All left foot, small, tries to be clever when doesn't need to. Couple of nice interchanges with Salah but overall I don't think he stood out either.
Nunez - not a fan of fancy dan finishes, especially when we're getting beat but you could see how much better we looked with him in the team. Won a couple of headers as well, giving us a different dimension. Two goals and two assists in two games as well as two game changing performances, can't really ask for more from a centre forward.
Milner - added a bit of stability to the middle and drove us forward. You don't really wanna be relying on a 70 year old all season though but if he continues to be our best central midfielder then he's gonna continue to play.
Carvalho - didn't have a lot of time to impress but he hit a nice volley from a corner, just couldn't keep it down. Put himself about a bit as well, which is always appreciated.
Overall - poor performance but we've come away with a hard earned point. We've come from behind twice and we've got Nunez and Salah firing in front of goal. Couple of Monday night games to follow so plenty of time for the coaching staff to get the boys up to speed. Not the start to the season we wanted (obviously) but it is only the start, a lot more footy to be played before we're crowned champions in May next year.
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