As always, in a system that relies on a rapid interchange of players in key positions during a game to cover the defensive spaces, and one key player missing undermines the system - that is a given. It's the 101 of a high press /basic weakness of this type of play
The real problem was Dragu who has never ever played in a high line high press system until now, just wasn't good enough, all three goals you could say were in part his fault.
Romero, as we already know, looks muted on his own, that said, he did his part well and looked solid and was probably the one player on the pitch who maintained his composure and standard when others failed to play to their normal level.
You could almost feel Ange's dilemma as Dragu showed his football intelligence of this system to be wanting - should he undermine his confidence and hook him off, leave him on and hope he played his way into the game, play more defensively and try and limit the damage?
Dragu has a less that spectacular start, and so I don't want to be too hard on him, as it's early days, but he really did have a baptism of fire. Fulham knew exactly what to do with him and it worked.
He'll learn from this and if VDV is now going to be out longer than first expected, he'll need to learn fast as he will be targetted by all opposing coaches target from now on.
I don't see the result or what led to this poor performance as being an excuse to beat up on Ange, as I said, to me in this case, he was damned if he did and damned if he didn't - this is all and was another step in his and the teams learning curve.
A deeper squad (which is coming) and these surprise results will be less and less surprising as the squad progresses.