From a Fulham fan on Facebook:
Our opponents played swarming high pressure defense, regardless of where we were dribbling. A pressure man met the ball carrier as early as possible. A moment later, the cover man was there to mop up the effects of the decision-forcing pressure. But then they often added a third defender to cut the lane off, boxing the Fulham man in. It's an Argentinian/Spanish style, but it's very hard to get players to buy into it. All of them have to buy into it, because when you over-commit defenders like that on a single opponent, you know that there are two players on the pitch who are alone with no one marking them. Plus, it is physically exhausting to run that hard, press that hard, for 90 plus minutes. You have to be in phenomenal aerobic condition, words like indefatigable come to mind. And the only way you can play high pressure defense for 90 minutes is to train, train, train, with sprints, endless sprints, where they run you to exhaustion. Where players dread the training ground yet show up fitter every week for it.
Our players made the classic mistake of trying to dribble once high pressure commenced. You don't do that. You pass it quickly, before the noose gets tightened. You ping, ping, ping the ball about, preventing defenders from smothering you. Fulham didn't do that. They dribbled and were stripped of possession over and over again. After a while, they got shell shocked, lost confidence. I would have to say that we played the most in-shape and organised team I've seen in many a year. Looking at the age of this Saints team, it's frightening how good they could be in a couple of years I blame Jol for not making any adjustments at the half to at least try counter this blitzkrieg gang assault. We came out the second half and did more of the same. The other team's confidence kept increasing as we failed to adjust our game to break up the press.
I though Bent's passing was poor. He was picked off again and again. I'm not sure Senderos should be blamed for that second goal. It was a beautifully delivered cross, and the forward's timing on his break was exquisite. It looked like a marking mix-up with a teammate to me, but I'm not sure. Amorebieta played a great game. Look, we shouldn't be a dribbling team. The average age and suspect physical conditioning dictate we should be one-passing or two-passing our way about. But how many times did you see us attempting to dribble through trouble along the sides? Too many times. You could just see the inevitable results as defenders closed in quickly on the carrier.
Jol made no adjustments for high pressure football at the half. No tactical changes in ball movement, spreading players out, looking for the unmarked teammates, etc. My question is, why? If you can't make adjustments, think on the fly, then you lack fundamental qualities necessary to be manager.
