We are not a team

[swjf50 0]

There doesn''t seem to be any cohesion, there isn''t enough movement off the ball and no plan B if things aren''t going well.

The defence was very poor last night against a weak strike force, so heaven knows what would have happened if we had played Liverpool or Man City or any side with a decent striker come to that. The goals were as soft as they come with gaping holes in our so called defence. Players were caught out of position against one of the weakest attacks in the Premiership.

The game was crying out for Hoolahan or someone who could make some chances, but it never happened. We had a reasonable amount of possession but couldn''t create any decent chances.

If we continue to play as we have been, I can not see us surviving the Premiership. I don''t have any confidence in Hughton and his coaching staff in their ability to turn this around. If they are still in charge for the Hull game, they should definitely be sacked if we don''t win. Hughton is a decent bloke but doesn''t seem to have the ability to get the best out of our players, his tactics are not good enough and his selection policy is suspect, so I can''t see him lasting.

I would question whether some of the players he has brought to the club are good enough for the Premiership. Becchio hasn''t been given any chances, but would he be able to step up to this standard. Elmander offers very little other than a physical presence and is less of a goal threat than Holt in his last season here. The Wolf would be much better if he had decent service but up to now we haven''t given him that. Fer probably has the most potential out of all the signings, but we don''t seem to be playing him to his strengths and his form has slipped - he is probably pissed off with our results and performances.

We miss having Tettey in our team and Howson in the squad. Hopefully Guttierez will make a difference but I can''t see it making enough difference to get us away from the drop zone.

[Shaun Tilly Lace 0]

Most sides - even non-league teams - would have made more of a fight of it against a poor Fulham side last night. We were just dreadful.

[Shaun Tilly Lace 0]

Ditch the clown or we are going down.

[Salopian 1]

I have a suspicion that part of the lack of cohesion is due to the absence of Howson. He seemed to be here, there and everywhere, and ready to receive the ball. Other players less able to pass, like Bradley, were restricting themselves to short passes to Howson.

There was almost a principle "If you are not good at passing, or you don''t know what to do, give it to Howson." Now there is no focal point in the midfield, especially as Fer seems to have gone into his shell. There seems to be a reluctance to try to release strikers with through passes. Instead we pass out to the wings and make slow progress.

I think that it was probably right for Holt to go, but I have to say that he helped to bond the team on and off the pitch in a way that Bassong finds difficult to do.

The one game when Hughton got them going was that against Stoke, where they came out of the blocks like greyhounds, were into the tackle and in their face. It helped when we scored first, but there was relief when we managed to hang on. Nowadays we seem to have a passive "keep them out" policy, with backs to wall desperation which does not encourage passing progress. Why can he not do this again? At Craven Cottage we started well, but it petered out very quickly, and we were back to the old negative stuff.