We may be rooting against them due to a team we support. It's not malicious. I hope for the best for Ream and the legacy of Fulham, but they have been terrible x10 this season.
Right now the worst you can say about Ream is he is someone who has been voted Player of the Year for a Championship team in multiple seasons, including for a top 3 promoted side. It's very possible that's his ceiling and he has no place in the Premier League -- although that's an awfully tight space between a floor and a ceiling to feel 100% confident about. But even assuming that's the case, that strikes me as pretty similar to a number of our players -- like Jay Demerit, or Gregg Berhalter, or Eddie Lewis -- who each played one season for a terrible, relegated top flight team, but otherwise carved out a respectable career as a standout in the Championship or Bundesliga 2. And I just don't remember their threads on this forum being filled with disparaging remarks. The main difference I think is that Ream's career has been defined, in a lot of fans' minds, by a couple of bad USMNT performances -- mainly a Gold Cup from 8 years ago, and 2 bad WC qualifiers recently. I think that's a bit of a shame because Ream's overall professional career (and his presence on a now legendary club in this forum) makes me want to root for him as much as I did Demerit, Berhalter, or Lewis (even if he's never started in a successful World Cup like those other three players have).
Ream has some of the elements of a top notch central defender. He’s pretty fast, he’s pretty agile, and he’s a good passer. His weaknesses are he needs about another 10 pounds of lean body mass, and better concentration. IOW, he’s pretty much the definition of who he is...a player who bounces between the top two levels.
I think it's more that Ream had hype. He was viewed as a potential ball-playing CB of the future. Plus, Ream has a habit of looking really bad when he makes an error. Like comically amateur. Obviously he's not a bad player, but his mistakes often make him look like he snuck into the locker room off the street.
I’m curious if the rant Tim made to his teammates earlier this year really had an effect on chemistry. I remember listening to SiriusXM FC and they mentioned to coach coming to Reams defense in a presser. Well, that coach is long gone now and Ream doesn’t look to have inspired the side.
Went the full 90 in a 3-1 loss. Fulham led 0-1 very early ... Then Cheatcharito evened the score via a handball (uncalled). Quoting the Guardian: "That is absolute pure cheatery, no doubt about it. Hernandez fell over in the process of arming the ball over the line and stayed down long enough that he didn’t have to look anyone in the eye as he got to his feet. "The referee couldn’t really be expected to see that, given his position, and his assistant was on the wrong side of the pitch to do so. I don’t think you can blame anyone for that except Cheatcharito."
Blame England for being miles behind other leagues on implementing VAR. The technology in that country generally is miserable.
Another start, another loss, 2-0 to Southampton. The keeper punched a corner poorly on the first goal, and Ream looked like the only Fulham player vaguely interested in defending on the second. 10 points from safety. See ya.
Ranieri out, Scott Parker in as the interim manager for the rest of the season. Smacks of rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic.
Starts: 🙌 Here is your #FFC team to face @ChelseaFC in this afternoon's SW6 derby. #FULCHE pic.twitter.com/lIgt03epyb— Fulham Football Club (@FulhamFC) March 3, 2019
With Yedlin seemingly losing his starting position, although the replacement was not impressive, Ream is the only us player that is regularly starting in the Prem. I hope he enjoys every minute, because Fulham is going down.
3-1 away loss to Leicester. I didn't watch the match, but just saw the goal highlights: 1-0: Ream left on his own to defend a 2 v 1, dove in to block a Tielemans shot but Tielemans feinted and had a wide open shot 2-1: Nordtveit makes a terrible pass out of the back, intercepted in midfield, then does an awful job of staying with Vardy who slammed it to the far post. Ream not involved; this one's all on Havard. 3-1: Poor header by Seri functions as a flicked-on ball to Barnes, Odoi dives into a tackle and whiffs. Barnes charges towards the area while Ream tracks Vardy. Vardy puts on the brakes about 14 yards out, Ream very much does not, but tries to recover, leaving Vardy with about 2 yards of space to sidefoot home from the penalty spot. In sum: Fulham looked awful, Ream looked like he fit in with them. 8 games left until the Championship calls again.
The few Fulham games that I have watched, it is clear that Fulham defending is dire. Our boy is far from world class, but there is plenty of blame to go around on that back line. Most of the goals conceded and the defending, in general, is last ditch attempt type scrambling around. The shape is lost and then you know what happens. They were not ready for EPL level competition and it shows. So, they go back down and come back next year.