Craven Cottage Newsround

Sometimes it feels as if the media just aren’t interested in Fulham.  The newspapers don’t get very excited about us, the regional news always seems to be discussing events elswhere, and we do always seem to be last on Match of the Day.  And to be fair maybe we’re not a particularly interesting club for the neutral.  Reasonably solid in the middle of the pack, winning a few, losing a few more, drawing even more in between.  We haven’t been close to a goal of the month candidate all year, our football can be downright awful, and there are few extrovert media-friendly types with famous wives in our regular eleven.   There’s no relegation battle, no inter-squad affairs (that we know of) and no scandalous behaviour late at night (aside from the miserable collapse in Sheffield the other week).

But perhaps things are changing.   Moritz Volz seems to pop up on television every so often, the media liking the idea of a slightly quirky, self-deprecating young German with an easy manner and an exciting name.  The same player scored the Premiership’s 15,000th goal too, which got a bit of attention, doubly so because it was scored at Stamford Bridge.  15,000 Voltz was plastered all over the press (and Fulham duly issued a commemorative photograph…). 

It’s not just Volzy who’s getting attention though.  Chris Coleman’s reputation is growing in the game.  Those of us watching his team every week either fail to see the woods for the trees or have a better idea of his limitations, but the likes of John Motson are convinced that Coleman’s a wonderful young manager.  It’s a view you hear more and more.

The team itself is starting to be recognised as halfway useful.  No less a figure than Brian Glanville has talked up Wayne Routledge a couple of times this year, and Michael Brown’s stormer on Saturday was noted and lauded by the watching scribes.  Simon Davies’ performances are drawing envy from the north-west, and everybody loves Brian McBride.   McBride, Bocanegra and Dempsey of course add to our international appeal. 

And if MOTD has largely overlooked us, Sky certainly haven’t.  For reasons that are only just becoming apparent, we’ve been on Sky a huge number of times this year.  Again, watching the team every week you wonder how this lovably inconsistent rabble can justify a national audience, but take a step back and realise that we’ve taken part in some scintillating games of football this year, a heady mix of quality play and madcap late scrambles.  Audiences have had good value from us, which according to a TFI poster has not gone unnoticed among the television people in Asia, who rate us third behind Man Utd and Arsenal for pure entertainment.  

So the signs are reasonable I think.  We’ll never be a ‘big club’, but it is nice to sometimes hear the media acknowledging us when we’re doing well.  None of this should matter particularly, but it is nice to note the slowly changing perceptions.   Or have I imagined it?

*Rodney Dangerfield

Phew.  I’ve spent most of today defending Jan Lastuvka on TFI and have vowed to stop as it is well and truly doing my head in.  I have no idea why some of our supporters need to take such a black-or-white view of the world, but that seems to be the way of things. 

Before the game on Saturday some were saying Simon Davies isn’t much special and not worth his place, despite a few games where he’s obviously shown himself to be very adept at manipulating a football, keeping possession and passing at a level few of our team are capable of.   Wayne Routledge was scorned for ages, despite having had little more than a few cameos to come on and attempt to force himself into the game.  Wingers are like that, you have to be patient. All he needed was a few starts to get into the rhythm, and lo’ and behold, he started playing well.  Some people are already questioning Clint Dempsey, who, like Routledge, has had a handful of sub appearances to show what he can do.  Yeah, he should’ve taken Ronaldo out on Saturday, but failing to deal with the best player in the country in full stride is nothing to be ashamed of at this point.  Radzinski’s taken cr@p all season for his reluctance to tackle, despite the fact that he’s picked for his attacking play, is a converted striker and genuinely seems to do his best.  And, in response to the coward jibes we hear so much, does anyone remember the Arsenal match?  Radzinski scored the winning goal and was knocked out by those wonderful metal hoardings for his trouble. 

Why is it so hard to watch these players, consider their strengths and weaknesses, then see how this fits into the team’s needs?  Why is it so hard to see that sometimes players take a little time to adjust to the league?  Sure, some of them *won’t* be all we want them to, but ignoring the very plain evidence of what a player *can* do while constantly harping on about what he can’t seems counterproductive to me.  

Anyway, Lastuvka. I’ve nothing to say that I haven’t said before, but I seriously can’t see how on earth he could have saved either goal on Saturday.  Yes, we concede a lot of goals, and he’s let in more than his fair share, but he’s also had some good moments and seems to be improving all the time.  Let’s not forget that Warner let in four against Leicester, and Niemi’s been a mixture of excellent and ordinary for most of the year too.  If Lastuvka isn’t perfect (and he isn’t), the defence in front of him has hardly helped.   Perhaps if our defence got a bit tighter to forwards the shots would be less cleanly struck?  I believe this is half the reason people rate Petr Cech so highly; every forward shooting against Chelsea is doing so under heavy pressure from a defender, so the shots are more hurried and less truly struck, and therefore easier to save.   Perhaps our ‘keepers are facing much harder efforts.

Enough.  We can’t all agree all the time, but it seems to me that people are being harsher than they need to be here. Let’s keep cheering him (and everyone else) on, and hopefully our faith will be rewarded against Villa.

It’s not a massive exaggeration to suggest that Christiano Ronaldo’s feet are faster than the human eye.  Near the end of a pulsating match the young Portuguese winger found himself on the left wing.  Clint Dempsey, covering back, seemed poised to make a comfortable hooked sliding tackle, and snuff out the danger.  Dempsey slid, but Ronaldo was gone, and with him the game. 

It was excruciatingly harsh on Fulham, who had had the better of things.  Playing with heart and skill the midfield five of Davies, Brown, Smertin, Diop and Radzinski had completely overshadowed their more celebrated opponents, and if a few chances had been taken we’d have seen a reverse of this result.

Fulham attacked early and were rewarded when Simon Davies threw himself into that no-man’s land between ‘keeper and centre-backs.  The ball fell kindly for McBride, whose shot rolled in via the post.  A great and deserved start.  United had created nothing.  And so it continued until Volz miscontrolled on halfway, returning possession to United.  The ball was switched to Rooney on the left flank, whose cross to the far post was volleyed back across goal and into the net by an unmarked Giggs. 

There were niggles along the way, Brown making spectacular if light contact with Scholes in midfield and Diop flying into tackles like a National Express coach on an ice-rink.  Radzinski and Ferdinand tangled behind the referee’s back, Ferdinand raised his hands, but both saw yellow.  This angered Radzinski, who played his best game for the Whites after this, hurtling around the pitch and earning himself a standing ovation when he was eventually substituted.

The second half carried on as the first had finished, with an expert Brown cross finding Radzinski, whose header banged into the bar from close range.  McBride shot accurately and often, and Simon Davies skillfully carved out the chance of the match: the Welshman cut inside the defence as it slid across the pitch and found himself with only Van der Sar to beat.  He shot hard but straight, and the big ‘keeper repelled his effort.

Coleman gambled, throwing on three forward players to move into a 4-3-3, Dempsey, Helguson and John all bristling with menace.  But this seemed to affect the team’s shape, and coupled with the expected United resurgence our threat seemed to diminish slightly.  Lastuvka dealt well with the high balls and stopped what he could, but was powerless to stop Ronaldo’s late winner.

It was a superb effort by the team, led by Brown, who was certainly back to his mid-season peak.  Smertin’s performance was immense in that tidying midfield role, and Diop showed committment and skill as the three of them bossed the middle of the park.  Davies was a bundle of energy and used the ball well, and we should again praise Coleman for such a wise signing.  The defence was as good as it has been for some time, with all four having good games in the face of gifted opponents.  A gut-wrenching defeat for sure, but a performance that will win the team friends in the media and ought to lead to more points in the coming weeks.  Hard luck, lads, but we’re proud of you.

Now then.  (Narrows eyes).  Yep, this is going to be tricky.   Manchester United are, as they say, on fire.   They’re winning at home and away, and doing so with pace, verve and style.  They have a rock solid defence, quick and tidy, and adept at dealing with long balls.  Their midfield is combative and razor sharp, and they employ a group of dazzling forward players.   Their goalkeeper is sufficiently well thought of that England’s Ben Foster is not needed at the club (for now). How on earth will we cope?

Not very well in all likelihood, but then we thought that before Arsenal didn’t we?  And look what happened there.  We also matched Chelsea for most of the game before things slipped away, so a third good performance against one of the big clubs is far from impossible.   And Michael Brown’s had a rest too, so that’ll be like having two extra players in the midfield, in a way.

Another thing we will need is Antti Niemi.  One way or another United will get a few shots off, and without Niemi many recent shots have been soaring unmolested into our goal.  Whichever side of the Lastuvka fence we decide to settle on, we have to agree that if we want someone to stop a barrage of piledrivers Niemi’s very much The Man.  I hope Coleman can persuade him to return, otherwise I fear that something hideous may be in store for us.

What else might help?  Keeping the ball.  If we get too defensive we’ll just keep giving the ball back to Utd, who’ll eventually crush us like a nut under a hammer.  No, we need to pass the ball, maintain possession, which means Simon Davies (our best (only?) passer) is vital.  I hope he’s accompanied by some of the other lads who don’t mind using the ball, but concede that for a game like this we’re unlikely to see too fancy a Fulham side put out.  All depends if Coleman wakes up and feels like a gamble.   He could go Davies-Smertin-Diop-Brown-Routledge, but I’d love to see Claus or Dempsey in there. 

I haven’t mentioned the defence, but that’s obvious isn’t it?  If they play like clowns again we’ll get murdered.

Prediction:  optimistic version says 1-1, realistic says 0-4.

Our leader has explained that Liam Rosenior was given a well-earned break against Spurs, which makes every sense given the latter’s recent performances.   I think most people agree that Liam has potential, but equally that his passing can be awful and his defending erratic.  He’s great on the wing in one-on-one situations, wingers rarely get much out of him there, and he’s exciting charging forward in attack, but those are good building blocks towards developing into a good player, not evidence of being one now.   In slotted Moritz Volz, and as expected, he was terrific.   It creates a mild selection issue for Man Utd, but I can’t see that Volzy deserves to lose his place. 

Interesting comment under the last post about the latest half-time entertainment.  In all honesty I don’t know what to make of this.  In America they have cheerleaders to provide some glamour and to keep things ticking over during the long breaks in play.  But American Football is much more of an ‘event’ than our game, and it does seem strange watching all these gimmicky things invading us.   It was worse at Southend when I was there earlier in the year, we had fishnet clad Essex lasses (nothing against Essex lasses, but the stereotype is there and makes for an easy descriptor (is that a word?) at times like this - you know what I mean don’t you?) giving away… what were they giving away?  I can’t remember.  But they were all around the ground and you couldn’t miss them.  I’m not sure what any of this adds to proceedings.   Do we need to be entertained any further?  Isn’t the football enough? 

And it’s not like there’s nothing to do at half-time anyway.   Here’s my usual routine (no, I can see that this won’t be interesting):  stand up, clap if situation demands, wander to gents.  Fight past people standing in a group by the entrance to the gents, wait for chance to ‘go’, take chance, tilt head back, close eyes, sigh with relief as the pressure eases.   Wash hands, wander back.  Stop at refreshments if possible, occasionally buy pie.  See what’s on screen, decide can’t be arsed, wander back to seat.  Watch the half-time shoot-out thing, admire confidence of little imps (the nine year old me would’ve been absolutely terrified, would’ve shot straight at keeper, and would’ve replayed the miss in his mind for a long time. Forever probably).  Find programme, question self for spending £3 on it when yet again there’s really little of interest in there, find newspaper in bag, read a bit of that.  Look up to see that Clint Dempsey + 1 is warming up for second half.  Note that the team is now on the pitch, waiting for opposition to follow (Think “does Coleman run out of things to say in there?” for the umpteenth time).   If I’ve gone to the game with someone then I’ll just talk to them during the break.

Then on with the game.  Half-time is a welcome break, but that’s all it is.  We don’t really need dancing girls.  But nor is it the end of the world.  That’s about the size of it really from my perspective; it’s the world today, we can fight it all we want but they’ll continue to thrust ENTERTAINMENT! at us until there’s not a second where we’re not bombarded with something.  I’d like to see four horsemen in black robes and hoods gallop slowly but menacingly around the pitch without comment or introduction, then disappear from whence they came.  That’d give people something to think about.  Can someone make this happen?

One of the big issues facing Fulham this year is the steady stream of opposing shots that keep flying into our net. It makes points hard to come by, and means that we’ve been overly reliant on kitchen-sink attacks in the last few minutes of matches.  That we’ve been quite good at these isn’t something to be too pleased with: it’s great for morale and exciting for supporters, but like Britney’s current ability to make sensible judgements, you wouldn’t want to rely on it.   

But finding defenders is not easy.  Even if you’re special:

Boulahrouz £7m
A Cole £15m
Del Horno £8m
Carvalho £19.85m
Johnson £6m
Bridge £7m
Ferreira £13.2m

That’s a lot of money (somewhere north of £75 million), and a lot of players to go through before you decide that Geremi’s your right back after all.   If one of the world’s most renowned coaches needs to fritter away tens of millions of Russian money to get a halfway acceptable defence (and without the free gift of John Terry who’s to say he’d have got it right now?), what chance do we have with a budget that would be exciting if it was a tenth of that amount?  It makes things harder, that’s for sure.  But equally, players are out there to be found.  You could make a pretty commanding team based on players who didn’t cost much money, our own Phillippe Christanval being the proof of that pudding. 

This is the great unknowable of football, as presumably Fulham spend a lot of time identifying and chasing these players.  You can’t win them all, but I wonder if everyone’s as diligent as they could be?   There’s a saying in America (I think) that the wisdom of a group of informed and interested people is usually better/more reliable than that of one ‘expert’.  As an example, consider Luis Boa Morte:  Alan Curbishley or whoever made the call, decided he was worth £5 million.  Several thousand Fulham fans could’ve told him otherwise.  That’s not me being smart from the comfort of my armchair, it’s fairly close to fact.  

What if every club’s fans were to rate all their players?  There would be disagreements of course, but over the course of several hundred evaluations you’d get a fair assessment of who’s good and who isn’t.  It would be a lot easier for managers to find players because they’d already have a fair idea of where to look.   And it wouldn’t cost much.   I’m in the market research industry, and I think such a project could be undertaken for somewhere between £50-75k, which is about three weeks wages for a top player and the sort of cash you spend on a half-prospect. 

Clubs would say ‘no need! we have scouts for this!’ but how many times can a scout watch teams?   Suppose Fulham send a scout to a game a week all season, and have 20 scouts doing this.  This doesn’t give you the coverage you want, and certainly not the same coverage that a few hundred season-ticket holders would come up with.

Hmmmm.  There might be an idea in there somewhere.

Woops.  We’re not going to Wembley.  As Jan Lastuvka may have said several times yesterday, I didn’t see that one coming.

In a fairly even game we were undone by two Robbie Keane thunderbolts and a pair of soft and late Dimitar Berbatov strikes.  In between this Paul Robinson made a number of very good saves, repelling the Whites at important moments and maintaining Spurs’ lead.   It could have been so different.

A rocking atmosphere suggested we were in for a fine afternoon, but Spurs took the early initiative, a long punt seeing the totem-polic Mido outjump Christanval while the much taller Zat Knight looked on.  Keane met the flick with a slingshot volley from 18 yards that sped past Lastuvka.  Great technique, poor defending. 

Fulham recovered somewhat, with full-debutant Smertin battling away, Davies looking busy and the midfield generally having the better of things.  Robinson made two good saves from close in, and it felt as though an equaliser was near.  In the second half Colemen threw on Montella, Dempsey and Collins John, and between them they made life difficult for Spurs:  Dempsey shimmered along the right wing, stepped over repeatedly and laid off to Volz, whose screaming drive was nudged over the bar by an acrobatic Robinson; John, showing pace and determination for the first time this year, fired just too high in another chance, and Montella seemed to be making space up there.  But the chances came and went.  

At the other end Keane executed a better version of his first goal for 2-0, out of the blue but somehow unsurprising.  Berbatov nabbed a messy third, hitting the post and then having too much time to roll the ball past Lastuvka, and by then the wheels were off.  I saw the fourth on tv on the way out of the ground, and only learned that Montella had been sent off this morning.   I never leave early, but this was a crushing defeat, wrenched from a promising situation and silly dreams of going to Wembley.  Half of me thinks at least it wasn’t the league, but half of me really wanted that cup.

So to the players.  Lastuvka again couldn’t be blamed for all the goals, but again let a lot of goals in.  Perhaps I was wrong, perhaps his reactions and positioning are poor and he makes shots look harder than they are.  Or perhaps our defence is playing so badly that teams are getting time to shoot well against us.  Volz was back at right back, a sensible move, but while he played well it didn’t help us.  Christanval and Knight didn’t have the best of days; it’s starting to look as though we need five at the back with Christanval sweeping.  Franck continues to be our best player in my view.    The midfield did pretty well, Diop and Smertin both looked a little rusty but were decent more often than not, and while Radz didn’t have a great game he still gave their full-backs a bit to think about. Davies passed well, got around, and continues to look like a good signing.  And Helguson and McBride did pretty well up the pitch, feeding off long balls too much, but what’s new there?   Dempsey looks like he’ll be a good player on the wing (perhaps he’ll start against Utd?), Montella, now facing a ban, did his bit, and Collins John was all over the pitch.   All alright really, but we got tonked.   It’s tempting to put this down to ‘one of those things’, forget about it and move on, but there lingers a suspicion that something’s very wrong at the back.  

Man Utd visit next week and we can only hope that the early kick-off levels things somehow.

Right.  It’s been a while since we’ve had some live action to cheer along, but the FA Cup 5th round is almost upon us.  We welcome Spurs to the Cottage and all being equal *should* be well able to beat them.   I suspect a draw is the most likely result, but a home win isn’t far behind.  We played really well against them earlier this year, only losing our mojo when Helguson was dismissed, and even then Spurs had nothing on us until that late, late equaliser which followed a nothing hand ball, a half-dodgy offside decision and a squirmed shot that Jan Lastuvka was probably replaying in his mind for days after it slipped past him.

And so much for that.  It’s a new game and it’s the Cup, surely Spurs will show some spirit on Sunday?  So what if they do?  They’re a side that’s rapidly becoming less than the sum of its parts, and they’re terrible away from home. We should win.  Then all it needs is a home draw in the quarters and we’re into a neutral semi-final, and I’d pick us to do well under those circumstances.

So with one hand seemingly already on the cup, what can stop us?  For one thing we’re missing Michael Brown, out through suspension.  This will probably see us use a Diop-Smertin partnership for the first time, and who knows how that’ll play out.  Otherwise the team’s pretty much at as full a strength as it can be at this point, less Wayne Routledge who, as we cannot forget, is still a Spurs player.  Tsk.  This means the midfield could get a bit narrow, with Volzy and Davies likely to round things out.  There’s not a lot of width there and things could get a bit jumbled.  I’d bring Radzinski back in and give long thought to letting Clint Dempsey have a good run.   I doubt both will play, but we do need to take the initiative in this game: a scrumble rumble hoof-fest doesn’t really do us any favours if we want to avoid a replay. 

Prediction: 2-1 Fulham, with 1-1 and 0-0 also highly probable. 

One of the things I like about this Fulham team is that even though the football isn’t always first rate, there are a handful of players who are really enjoyable to watch. 

First, and we’ve mentioned this before, Phillippe Christanval.   He’s effective - there’s no doubting that - but also really good to see in action.  I remember earlier in the season he charged down three shots in three seconds, so he can do the dirty work.  But more often he plays the games on his own terms.  While Franck Queudrue, probably my favourite whites player, seems to spend most of his time on the field living on the edge of reason (throwing himself into tackles, headers, and come to think of it, passes), Christanval’s not like that.  He ghosts into interceptions, plays comfortable easy passes, nicks the ball from dangerous forwards, and does it with an air of calm that’s quite rare in this team.  He sometimes looks like he should be carrying a can of Lilt with him on the pitch.

At the other extreme is Queudrue, the elegant Frenchman who brings some rough and tumble to our left flank.  His supple volleys are great fun, his full blooded passes usually fly off at not quite the right angle, but they’re great to watch too.  When they work, as happened against Spurs (and twice!), they’re fantastic.  Added to this he leaps enthusiastically into headers (and usually wins them), genuinely flies into tackles (see the yellow card count) and plays the game with a wonderful balance of comic aggression.  With Queudreu you’ll get the wonderful curling passes into the box and monster tackles all over the field, but you’ll also see him left on his arse by Dennis Rommedahl and hacking at thin air against Wigan, and that’s the man in a nutshell.  You get everything from Franck, most of it’s good, and it’s always fun to watch.

Moving forward we have a load of good, solid midfielders.  But one player who the crowd took time to warm to was Wayne Routledge.  He got a lot of stick early on, and I can understand this.  His attempts at heading the ball are generally abysmal, and his tackling is fairly light-hearted.  But as I’ve argued before (about him and Radzinski), that’s not what he’s there for.  As it happens Routledge tracks back really well, but his play going forward is what I love.   He introduced himself to his teammates in Newcastle, running at their left-back, leaving him for dead, then smoking a wonderful ball to the back post that McBride converted.  Routledge’s corner soon after led to Bocanegra’s winner, our only away win this season.  Since then his contributions have been fitful, and occasionally his runs remind me of one of those radio controlled monster trucks people used to have.  “Forward” you’d press, and the little thing would skid off in the direction you pressed at great speed but with little discretion… “ah! table leg!”, and the thing would crash and you’d have to start again.  And so on.  Routledge’s runs are a bit like this, he whoops off in a direction (sometimes forwards, sometimes sideways) and usually runs into trouble, but it’s amusing to see.  Wayne Routledge is a genuine winger.  We don’t have many of them in English football, and I love watching him do his thing.  He’s good on the ball, has the ability to beat people, and is our best dead-ball taker.   If tangible rewards were rare, he at least worried defenders, made sure our players had options that weren’t high balls to McBride, and generally made a nuisance of himself.  The winner against Leicester was reward for weeks of pretty good form. 

Simon Davies was signed late in the window, and it’s fair to say that we weren’t all overjoyed.  We felt a new centre-back was required, or better yet an exotic sounding forward with pace and unknowable potential.  So the straggly Welshman was half up against it from the start.  I think he’s already gone some way towards silencing the doubters, with a series of quietly effective displays that emphasise passing and moving.  Davies, you see, rarely gives the ball away.  And if that sounds like a minimum requirement for a midfielder, look at his teammates and the trouble they have keeping the ball.  His accurate, rhythmical passing stands out like a lion in an aquarium.  There’s a fluidity about his play that’s pleasing on the eye too, he moves well, he makes the sensible pass, he doesn’t waste things like others.  I like watching him.

Finally, and this’ll be the shortest, Clint Dempsey.  The man’s clearly an athlete.  He strolls around the field with loping ease, is secure enough in possession that he can lay a ball off to a teammate with his heel (as seen five minutes into his debut), and moves with the football with his head up and his options open.   We haven’t seen a lot of Dempsey yet, but in the time he’s been on the field he’s already made a number of clattering tackles along the touchline, surged forwards into space and shown glimpses of the trickery that we’re either going to love or hate.  The verdict’s open on Dempsey, we simply haven’t had time to judge him either way, but every time our no.23 is on the field the game suddenly gets more interesting.

What day is it? Tuesday?  Long time until the weekend.

It’s Spurs in the cup, and I’ll write more about that nearer the time.  But while we build up to that, there are some half interesting nuggets on the official site.

For one, Coleman has talked about his goalkeepers.  He says he’s pleased with the way Lastuvka’s coming along, although stresses that he’s only on a season long loan and that his current dilemma is whether he should be signing a replacement for Niemi or keeping with the Finn as first choice.  It all depends on Niemi’s health. 

We were linked with Hearts’ Craig Gordon in the window.  I asked a Hearts supporter I know what he thought of the lad, having seen both Gordon and Niemi at close hand.   He said that he thought Gordon to be the better of the two, even though he had a lot of time for Niemi.  Make of that what you will, but goalkeeper is such a vital position, if you can get a good young one in, who’s likely to improve with age, well, you’re set for years aren’t you?  Lots of ifs there of course, but Niemi won’t last forever, he might never be back regularly, so it’d be nice to see us on the Gordon trail over the summer.

Otherwise, we’ll be without Brown and Routledge on Sunday, so something along the lines of Radzinski-Davies-Diop-Volz seems likely, although I’d like to see what Clint Dempsey can do given a few more minutes to work in.

Right, that’ll do for now.  Happy Tuesday.

Having watched MOTD and slept on things perhaps I was a bit harsh on the team yesterday.  I mean, if we won all these games we’d be a top six side, and I don’t think any of us really expect that.  What was grating was the manner of defeat, but I guess that’s what happens when you play better teams away from home - they make you look bad.

I’m just annoyed, we went on a halfway exciting run around christmas where we were effectively going 4-2-4, with Radz (who played well yesterday, which I didn’t mention) and Routledge getting a lot of the ball, getting it on the deck, and worrying defenders.  With those two out we had nothing but The Famous Zat Knight Skyscraper Pass as a weapon, launching balls towards Heidar’s head on the left flank.  The trouble with this is that about half of our long balls don’t go anywhere near our players, so that’s possession given away.  If we say that we win half of the balls that *are* at our players that’s a quarter of balls we’re getting too overall… but these flick-ons go to the opposition anyway so we’re effectively giving the ball away every time we try a long ball.  Unless Christanval plays the pass.  It’s not this black or white, of course, but it does sometimes seem like we’re trying *not* to keep the ball.  Why I can not know.

A 2-1 defeat in Bolton isn’t the end of the world, but it sometimes feels that Coleman is deliberately handicapping us.  Today saw the return of the much hated 4-5-1, with McBride inviting hopeful punts towards him and Helguson stationed wide on the left.  It reminds me of when England used to do the same with Emile Heskey; bad in principle, bad in execution, and an insult to the genuine wide men who could’ve played.

That the performance was eventually okay isn’t really the point.  If we were knocking on the door it was a gentle tapping, and nobody had thought to fetch a battering ram.  Sometimes this team can drive you mad.

We started off fairly well, passing to each other on occasion and having more of possession.Then Diop lost the ball in midfield, Bolton switched from one flank to the other, crossed over Liam’s head (funny, that’s happened before), bundled it back into the danger area and won a penalty when Zat missed the ball and Browny ran into the man.  Speed sent Lastuvka the wrong way.

And so on.  A far post cross after half-time (a half-time break in which nothing was changed) saw Rosenior beaten to a header, the post saved us but Nolan smashed the rebound home past an exposed Lastuvka.  2-0, goodnight.  Fulham pretended to get back into it when Zat Knight thumped an excellent header home following a corner, but 2-1 it stayed.  There were signs of life in the second half, but not enough to say anything positive about.

Heroes and villains?  Rosenior was partially culpable for both goals, passed like a blind man and generally showed every sign of not being the right back he thinks he is.   He has to have a hard look at himself, his culpability for a lot of our goals this season, and his absolutely shocking passing.  It’s happened all year, it’s not getting better, someone, somewhere, has to do something.  England my foot.

Knight scored a belting header but still played at least 5 long balls to nobody, which is probably five more than Christanval has all season.  Not good enough, there are nine other Fulham players, give it to one of them instead.  He’s a good defender, particularly with Christanval there to help, but the passing is terrible.

Diop was alright, Volz got bypassed again and should be back at right back by now, Franck lacked his usual adventure, Lastuvka made a great save but kicked badly, McBride needs a jetpack if he’s going to get on the end of our attacking ‘moves’.

Whatever.  It’s almost as if continued failure away from home makes failure away from home okay.  Bolton were a very ordinary side today but we didn’t have the skill to beat them.

Incidentally, if you’re finding the current climate at T-F-I a little bewildering (I think I’m about done over there for a while), feel free to use the comments on this blog more (click on “no comments” and write something).  We get quite a few readers now so it might be that a few discussions can sprout out.  I dunno.  Or if you want to submit a longer post just drop me an email at the address on the right. 

Anyway, have a good weekend, and here’s to a decent game in Bolton.  Peace.

Friday again.  The snow’s gone but surely it will be extremely grim up north on Sunday.  We’ve played up that way a few times this year:

Manchester Utd to start the season - lost 5-1
Liverpool - lost 4-0
Manchester City - lost 3-1
Blackburn - lost 2-0

There aren’t many positives from that lot are there?  The Man City game featured Collins John: The Revival, or at least it seemed that way at the time.  Nothing much else.  So geographically we’re up against in on Sunday.

Also, we’ve played Bolton at the Cottage this year.  It was a nothingy matched and we looked set for a defeat until their defender swatted away a harmless ball with his hand, after which Jimmy Bullard slotted home the first of his two Fulham goals.  This was a vital point, two defeats to start the year could easily have seen things spiral out of control, but this draw was the equivalent of grabbing a handy tree branch after falling off a cliff (Manchester Utd away)… the win over Sheffield Utd was us climbing back up the cliff, since when we’ve messed around near the edge while Alan Curbishley throws himself into the abyss, accidentally taking our old left winger with him.   Les Reed is somewhere down there too I think.

Where was I?  On a cliff?  No, no, get a grip.  Sunday.  It’s all well and good being optimistic about these games, but as we learned in Sheffield, optimism is for idiots.  I think we’ll lose and lose well.  This is not to underestimate the pleasing state of the team, but you’ll always lose some games and this will surely be one of them.

Last night was halfway interesting for Fulham fans.  For one, South Korea beat Greece 1-0 in our stadium, for another Aston Villa reserves beat our reserves 7-1 in Birmingham.  Ouch.

Ouch indeed.  Funnily enough I’ve seen Aston Villa win 7-1 before.  A friend of mine was at university at Aston so we went to watch them play Wimbledon.  This would’ve been 1996 or so.  Anyway, we were high in the Holt End and enjoyed what was a highly unusual experience, not least because ginger frontman Tommy Johnson nabbed a hat-trick.  The Wimbledon supporters, I seem to remember, started to do a conga at the other end.

Back in the present day and the reserves.  This terrible result isn’t as damning as it might sound, the result seemingly due to Villa putting out a strong side (Angel, Berger, Moore) and us putting out a weak one (Runstrom, Zakuani, Batista and Timlin all out on loan; Chris James and Elliot Omosuzi not playing). 

Here was the team: Etheridge; Trialist (Cumber ht), Anderson, Moncur (Wilson 88), Watts; Brown, Hudson-Odoi, Saunders (Gowland 80), Briggs; Goncalves, Ehui

Billy McKinlay said:

“We know the players are better than that. They know they’ve let themselves down. We were well beaten on the night and the players all know that it’s not an acceptable situation.”

Indeed.

Our goal came from a Lino Gocalves free-kick.  I watched Goncalves in the last reserve match, and he did slightly remind me of his countryman Christiano Ronaldo.   Don’t get excited, I just mean that he played in a similar way.  Very slight of build and wearing black gloves, he danced up and down the left flank that night, showing all sorts of jinks and tricks, and had a couple of decent runs.  But he was subbed at half-time and we didn’t get to see him on the nearside of the pitch (Motspur Park views aren’t always great).  

Anyway, next in line for the first team is Bolton away, a match which will almost certainly be lost.  Or will it?  We’ll have a think about that over the next couple of days.