Slade's fault

I've stuck up for Slade from the beginning and tactically, he's been very good the past few games, putting on extra defensive players when we was leading, changing the system and enabling us to see out those games.

Firstly, I 100% support Slade's decision in going for the win, it's just the decisions he made to try to get the win which left me bemused and confused. Slade's tactical decisions cost us yesterday.

We were starting to take control and get on top again in the second half, we were gradually putting the pressure back on and creating more chances, but then Slade made the one change to leave us completely wide open and then the game switched to being an open, end to end lottery.

Putting on an extra striker to try to win the game is usually fine, but to take off our only ball winning midfielder left us completely wide open. We ended the game with only Joe Ralls in the centre with Immers dropping back to help, but Immers was still pushing forwards an awful lot and with Whittingham and Noone on the wings, Ralls was left completely exposed as they started cutting through the middle of us.

You can't play a 3 man midfield with 2 of the 3 midfielders being out wide, it's got to be 3 centre midfielders, O'Keefe should have come on, we had nobody left on the pitch capable of winning the ball back. Slade's tactical changes left us wide open and we finished the game defending trying to hold on. It was no surprise when Fulham scored their winner.

Slade said he rested O'Keefe, if O'Keefe's form was dipping because of fatigue, that would be understandable, but O'Keefe has been in form, we're running out of games and you've got to keep playing your in form players, no matter how tired they are. O'Keefe should have started, I'm certain we would have won that game yesterday if O'Keefe played. It's not the time to be rotating, it's the crucial point of the season.

I still support Slade and I still think he's done a remarkable job to get us where we are. Hopefully we can get back to winning next Saturday, but I'm worried the damage was done yesterday and we now have too much ground to make up.

Even though it didn't come I credit Slade for going for it instead of just settling for a draw.

I've stuck up for Slade from the beginning and tactically, he's been very good the past few games, putting on extra defensive players when we was leading, changing the system and enabling us to see out those games.

Firstly, I 100% support Slade's decision in going for the win, it's just the decisions he made to try to get the win which left me bemused and confused. Slade's tactical decisions cost us yesterday.

We were starting to take control and get on top again in the second half, we were gradually putting the pressure back on and creating more chances, but then Slade made the one change to leave us completely wide open and then the game switched to being an open, end to end lottery.

Putting on an extra striker to try to win the game is usually fine, but to take off our only ball winning midfielder left us completely wide open. We ended the game with only Joe Ralls in the centre with Immers dropping back to help, but Immers was still pushing forwards an awful lot and with Whittingham and Noone on the wings, Ralls was left completely exposed as they started cutting through the middle of us.

You can't play a 3 man midfield with 2 of the 3 midfielders being out wide, it's got to be 3 centre midfielders, O'Keefe should have come on, we had nobody left on the pitch capable of winning the ball back. Slade's tactical changes left us wide open and we finished the game defending trying to hold on. It was no surprise when Fulham scored their winner.

Slade said he rested O'Keefe, if O'Keefe's form was dipping because of fatigue, that would be understandable, but O'Keefe has been in form, we're running out of games and you've got to keep playing your in form players, no matter how tired they are. O'Keefe should have started, I'm certain we would have won that game yesterday if O'Keefe played. It's not the time to be rotating, it's the crucial point of the season.

I still support Slade and I still think he's done a remarkable job to get us where we are. Hopefully we can get back to winning next Saturday, but I'm worried the damage was done yesterday and we now have too much ground to make up.

Good post although I didn't see the game.
However, Slades tactics and substitutions have cost us from the time he's been here and it only seems that he's learnt to tighten games up when needed in recent games. The same goes for the team being 'fired up'. He's proved consistently since he's been here that he's tactically lacking in my opinion.
I know you are a big fan of him but, personally, I would thank him at the end of the season and let him go. This would apply even if we would have got promotion.