Craven Cottage Newsround

Running through the team with a day’s hindsight:

Keller - as suggested, he’s not going to claw balls out of the top corner like an in-form Niemi, but it seems that he’ll do what he’s supposed to do.   Which is fine for now.   Well done.

Baird - said earlier, but he had a really good game.  Pleased for him.  He was talking and cajoling throughout, and didn’t seem to have retreated into his shell at all.  Good sign.

Konchesky - good, as we expect now.   Nothing much to say, it was his usual performance.   The chance at the end was well saved by Cech, no real blame to Paul for that.  Well done.

Hughes - excellent.  Wherever Drogba went, Hughes was already there.  By hook or by crook, he got it done.   Now we can see why Sanchez was so keen on him.   The epitome of a steady and unspectacular defender.   My man of the match.

Bocanegra - the papers noticed him more than I did, but generally good back there.   He’s the one player you can see Sanchez’s influence on, in that he almost never dallies on the ball now, something he seemed to do a lot last year.   Or I’m imagining it, but he’s playing well.  Now, where are those goals?

Davies - aha!  You could see him really working back and helping Baird.  Really obvious.  Showed more pace when breaking than I’d remembered, and had another decent game.

Davis - ran Hughes close for MOTM.  Absolutely everywhere, put the boot in more than we’ve seen so far, and made a real nuisance of himself.   And he’s really good on the ball, doesn’t waste posession, and looks like he might have a goal or two in him at some point.  He’s getting better every game.

Smertin - a typically busy performance in the heart of the midfield.   You know what you’ll get from Smertin.   I sometimes wish we had a hardman in there, a Bud White to our Ed Exley, but Smertin’s got a role in the team and he’s good at it.

Seol - anonymous for the most part, and Bouazza got more done in his time on the pitch.   Bouazza didn’t really deserve to miss out, although Seol’s cameos so far have been electrifying.   But we know he can’t do that every match, or he’d be playing for Barcelona.   Frustrating, though, when you know a player has it in him to do extraordinary things.

Healy - worked well but looks slightly above fighting weight.   He’s a better team player than people realise, but as with most out and out goalscorers, you need him to be getting the chances and there was nothing out there for Healy yesterday.  He’s a valuable member of the squad, and even if the job-share with Kamara can’t last for ever, it’s terrific that we have these options available to us.

Dempsey - a very McBride like performance actually.  He knew that it’d be a frustrating day and stuck at his task well, basically jumping and jumping and doing what he could when he could.  Hopefully he’ll get through games like that okay, and feast on the likes of Derby and Sunderland in the weeks ahead.

Subs:

Kamara - exciting and unpredictable, I’m starting to appreciate what he brings to the side.   Imagine being a defender, you’ve had your eye on David Healy all game, then on comes Kamara (or vice-versa).  Completely different problem.   Should’ve scored late on but we know that people don’t score every time they get a chance.   He’ll be a good player for the team.   I would expect him to finish third behind Dempsey and Healy in the scoring charts, but as long as he’s happy not being a regular 90 minute focal point he’ll make a valuable contribution.

Bouazza - see above, but like Davis, he seems to be improving by the game.   Apparantly we’ll often see him slicing shots hard, high and wide, but we know that if he gets it right goalkeepers won’t stop ‘em.   Does his defensive work and links up well down the left.   You sense he can improve too, something we tend to overlook at Fulham.   Under Coleman players were static entities, they were what they were.   But Sanchez and his team will, I hope develop players and make them better.   I think Bouazza will be one beneficiary of this, with other candidates all over the pitch too.   But I like this lad and hope we see a lot of him this year.

Murphy - this’ll be his role, I think, a late game steadier.   He can play, we know that, but has he the energy and stamina to do it in this Fulham side?  Can be a very valuable squad player though, and you’d have no fears about him getting a run of games if needed.   Another nice signing.

So there we are.   Quite positive I know.  We’re quietly 4 games unbeaten, having played three very good teams.   The first four games this year were odd, but we’re back to proper football and proper outcomes now.    Portsmouth, Derby and Sunderland offer us the chance to get some wins.   We should be up to the task.

Starting Line Ups

I had some personal duties to attend to so I missed the first ten minutes.

10
Free kick Chelsea. A foul by Baird. Good to see him foul like that. Something I think he needs to do more, as long as it’s in the right place on the field. Shevchenko takes it low and it’s cleared
13
Ball into Dempsey and he can’t quite get up high enough to put power on it and it’s slightly wide.
14
Another Baird foul.  Shevchenko takes it.  Lousy kick by Shevchenko and it’s low right to Fulham again. Clear and goal-kick.
Lively game so far.
16
Television shows a close up of Healy and his shirt is torn down the middle. Someone must have had a handful of his jersey.
17
Drogba battling with Hughes and they get tangled up and Hughes goes down. Ball goes to Keller. Nice defending.
18
Another good possession by Chelsea putting one more ball into Drogba but again good defense by FFC.
19
Sheva with a shot and Keller goes down low and makes the save.
20
CK Fulham goes far post deep and nothing.
A very entertaining game. You would think that Fulham might sit back a bit but they are not. Good defense so far but we always look good first half.
22
Healy gets clear on the right and Davies has cleared his man but Healy hits the ball way to hard, Chelsea clear for a corner. Taken and Fulham are claiming a hand ball but the ref is having none of it.
23
Build up Chelsea ball crossed through the box but no one can get a foot on it. It’s cleared up field by Fulham.
24
Replay shows the it should have been a hand ball penalty against Ben-Haim. He tried to clear the ball with his head and misplayed it as it deflected onto his arm.
25
Healy changes shirts
26
J. Cole with a run, give and go and takes a shot low to the left of Keller who drop saves.
Just the number of entries I have here tells me something about how eventful this game has been so far.
27
Chelsea always seem dangerous on the attack. Just before a cross from our right I saw Baird turn, look at his teammates’ shape and yell something out at them. Seems to be good communication back there today.
28
Corner-kick Chelsea, away. Great header by I think Baird. Good team defending to win the ball back for Fulham.
30
Chelsea dangerous again but again good team defending.
32
Ball from Kalou and burns Baird clean. Puts the ball into the box near goal near post to Shevchenko and he puts the ball low but just a hair wide. I think Keller would have had it but who knows…
34
Baird trips Drogba on a dangerous cross from our left side by J. Cole. The ball slips through and I think he would have scored but Baird takes Drogba down from behind. How Chelsea didn’t receive a penalty on that I have no idea. Baird was skinned alive again desperately seeking Drogba from behind, a step slow, trips him. Drogba is furious and finally he’s given a yellow for dissent. He’s still chattering. This time he has a point.
37
Cole down the line again and good team defense by Fulham.
38
Sanchez going crazy on the sideline because of an incorrect throw in call by the official.
39
Great defending from Bocanegra as he slides and clears to give Chelsea a corner.
41
Ball flying around Fulham box but we hold firm. Goal kick Fulham.
42
Again, the build up comes from our left side from Chelsea. Cross and Baird with a great leaping header to clear the ball. Corner Chelsea which nothing comes of it.
45
3 min of added time.
A mix up on the sideline which fell to Chelsea but Bocanegra hustles over to clear the ball up into the second deck.
Healy came back to help target on a corner-kick for Chelsea. He got fouled as he tried to hold his player off. But it’s been really evident to me today how small Healy is and what a hard time he has when there is a player on his back.
A fantastic strip by Baird. Throw in, and Baird and Davies do a great job of defending and win the ball. For every play Baird has been exposed on he has made 3 or 4 great plays.

-Half Time-

Stats

Doing these journals for the blog has been an education to me in many ways. For instance, I’m learning that possession alone does not mean a whole lot. It’s more where the team has possession that counts. There have been games were Fulham have been behind in possession yet they have controlled things. Looking at the stats in this game we are pretty much even up with possession but Chelsea has been nothing but dangerous the last 20 minutes of the half. We need to control more of the ball if we are going to survive this onslaught.

-First Half Shots-

-Second Half-

Sub. Alex in for J. Terry. Supposedly Dempsey unintentionally elbowed Terry in the cheekbone. Must have done some damage as Terry is a tough one.
46
Cole cross and Hughes misses Kalou’s run and as he strikes the ball point blank in front of Keller it deflects off far post and is cleared away by Fulham. Yikes, we need to stop the bleeding or we will be down a goal here soon.
47
Dempsey in through the middle and is fouled. Nothing from the kick except a quick counter from Chelsea.
49
Boc’s does a great job again and comes up big with his defending.
50
Seol has the ball again on the left and he loses the ball again. Just as I think how often he has lost the ball today the commentator says the same thing, and calls for him to be removed from the game. He just seems very uninventive today. His decision making is slow and is getting stripped. I have noticed that where Bouazza will have a tendency to really stay wide, moving up and down the field, Seol seems to like to start wide then cut the ball cross field.
51
Baird almost gets caught on a counter again. He lunges and from a square position and just nicks the ball wide.
52
Dempsey gets clear on the left and puts a poor looping cross in which Cech gets to.
53
Pizarro on, Shevchenko off.
54
Some good possession by Fulham around the box. Commentator makes a great point. If Fulham can get some more possession in the box like that they have started to do, they may be able to confuse the makeshift defense of Chelsea.
56
Healy goes out of bounds and is holding his wrist after he goes down hard.
Healy with a shot but Makelele with another block. Seems he has blocked several key shots by Fulham today.
57
At the other end, Hughes clears a Drogba ball on the endline to Keller’s right. Corner for Chelsea but again another really poor ball in for Chelsea. Their set plays have been horrible today which is lucky for us.
58
Drogba a shot out of nothing and a one handed reflex dive save for Keller to keep Fulham in the game. May be the stop of the game! Keller has looked great so far. So much for all the talk of him being slow.
59
Smertin with a ball from Seol and he has two players available but chooses to shoot and he shanks the ball wide and weak.
60
At the other end (end to end action) Chelsea with a cross and the header is high.
61
Another poor corner by Chelsea. Nine corners for Chelsea so far. Two for FFC.
62
Free kick by Chelsea taken by Drogba goes far post wide.
64
Bocanegra strips Drogba again at the endline. Bocanegra is having a great game.
A corner for Chelsea. This time Makelele takes it and the Chelsea throng sarcastically cheer as it may be the first corner that has actually made it into the box today.
67
Kamara in for Healy. Great move as his speed will give Chelsea issues at this point in the game.
Chelsea free kick given away by Dempsey which is crossed into far post, Keller’s left. Konchesky misses and the ball is headed just wide. Another lucky miss for us.
69
Now Joe Cole through and he toe pokes just wide of Keller and his goal.
70
Seol loses again, regains possession and loses again.
71
Dempsey was just played a ball a moment ago. He headed the ball back to Davis who then lost the ball. I noticed he just kind shuffles slowly back to a support position. No hustle at all. I can’t tell if he’s tired or frustrated. Maybe both. He is definitely playing the target man again today and it looks like he’s doing a lot of running off the ball but as usual, you never can tell watching the game on the TV.
72
Fulham somehow win possession in their own third after about a dozen really poor touches. The Fulham players look like boxers in the 15th round. Tired and beaten up. Somehow they win the ball and get it together enough to start a counter down the left wing.
Substitution, Bouazza in for Ki-Hyeon.
73
Drogba fouls and gets his second yellow. Replay shows he goes very high with his boot and catches Baird in the face and neck. He deserved the yellow for that even though it wasn’t intentional. It was careless, so Drogba is gone. Chelsea is down to 10 men.
76
Malouda on, Cole off.
A ball played in with too much pace to Dempsey but at the angle of his run he may have had something if they had gotten the ball to him.
78
Fulham under pressure. Konchesky calmly threads a ball back to Keller. I thought Keller was going to strike the ball wide quickly but instead he plays the ball calmly along the end line and Konchesky hustles over to keep the ball and play it up the field. Well done at this point in the game by two experienced players. Getting the ball away from the Fulham end and out of danger. After today I would say that the keeper job might be Kasey Keller’s to lose.
80
Both teams look really tired but the ball keeps going from one end to the other. It seems to be going Fulhams way more with Chelsea a man down. Bouazza with a ball down the left of goal a shot. He shanks way high into the crowd. Ughhh! Dempsey was on the right but was not open so taking the shot was fine but come on, Bouazza.
82
Murphy in for Smertin.
84
Chelsea under pressure by Fulham forwards as they have forced two throw-ins now.
85
Konchesky seems to be getting into the play up field more and more. This time he is through by himself, left of center. He’s one on one with Cech, could shoot early but waits then slots the ball far post but it’s saved by Cech’s extended foot.
86
Now the other way and a dangerous chance for Chelsea. End to end!!!!!
87
If we can hold this it would be only our 1st clean sheet of the year in league play.
COYW!
We can hold on this time. Keep organized and you can do it. Damn! Kalou threads a shot between Hughes and Bocanegra and puts the ball up over Keller. Yikes! Good defending, he just made that out of nothing.
89
Long ball by Murphy from his own end all the way up to Kamara who is onside. But the ball is a bit too long and goes to Cech.
89
Great ball to Kamara, he waits all day to shoot. First touch was poor which put him in a bad position. He dribbles to long to the right, gets a shot off but had Dempsey open on the left. Dempsey stretched and lunged but couldn’t quite read. DAMN Kamara!!!! You could have won it.
90
4 min of added time.
Chelsea attack again, good team defending then the ball goes out to Sidwell who slices well wide to the right.
Bouazza and Kamara hook up. The ball comes to Dempsey from the right. He tries to reach around the defender with his foot to get a shot off but the ball deflects off the defender.
Another scramble and we just can’t get it in the net. Dempsey looks punch-drunk. He worked really hard off the ball today.

-Full Time-

There’s a nice shot of the Fulham supporters singing praises for their team.

Final Stats

2nd Half Shots

Hard to know what to think. A point at Stamford Bridge is a good thing, a clean sheet is even better, but perhaps we should have won the game. Presumably the Sanchez game plan was carried out to perfection: stifle Chelsea, frustrate them, then hit them on the counter if possible.

It nearly paid off, as two good opportunities were missed late on. First Paul Konchesky won the ball in the midfield, strode forwards and found the Chelsea defence parting before him. Through on goal, his shot was firm and accurate, but blocked by Cech racing out. Then Diomansy Kamara found himself through too. He could have hit it early but hesitated, worked an opening again, then dragged his shot across Cech… the ball rolled agonisingly between the far post and Clint Dempsey’s desperate lunge.

But the story of the day was our defence’s masterful performance. Aaron Hughes was magnificent, and gave Didier Drogba nothing. The Chelsea forward was a handful, but was frustrated by the Northern Irishman’s determination and anticipation. Chris Baird had a stormer as well, and was directly involved with both of Drogba’s yellow cards. The first, for prolonged dissent, came after Drogba felt Baird had pushed him. The second came as the pair met in mid air; Baird went for the ball, Drogba went for Baird. Credit the referee for sending him off. It was the right decision, but too many referees hide under such circumstances.

Aside from this Baird had dealt well with the dangerous Kalou, and made a number of telling tackles. Hopefully he can build on this. Bocanegra and Konchesky both played decisively too, and it was noticeable that the midfield really did make an effort to help out back there. Simon Davies worked hard to get back with Baird, and Steve Davis, having another terrific game, was all over the pitch.

Chelsea offered little. They had one terrific chance just after half-time, but Kasey Keller pulled out a save for the ages to keep the scores level. Other than that his day was fairly uneventful.

So a good point and at last a clean sheet. This was the performance Lawrie must have been waiting for. Let’s hope it is the start of something.

Pics:

Drogba, through on goal but offside:

Drogba, on his way off the pitch:

Lawrie, after the game, sits back and relaxes:

Don’t know that he does, but after listening to his video press conference yesterday afternoon, it sounds as if he might. After all, he talked about all the same things that Rich and me have been saying here this week (not forgetting the intelligent and thoughtful comments from our readers).

Yesterday it sounded as if Lawrie was reading off of my post last week on accuracy of shots and shots taken and the like. Then he talked about the midfield needing tweaking to support the defense. Rich brought up a discussion this week concerning midfield support in the defensive third as being a root cause of our problem. Not Chris Baird as a scapegoat. And a reader commented that the team just needs some tweaking, not an overhaul. Again, Sanchez says something similar.

So do I think Sanchez reads CCN? I would like to think so. But I do believe what this all proves is that we are on the right track here. That were not just reacting but trying to think through the funk that the team is in by analyzing it and bringing you some data, thoughtful insights and great reader comments that are also well thought out.

I’ll be posting a diary again today and hope to get it up as a post sometime this weekend.

I’ve got a cold so am not at work. It should clear up for tomorrow though.

Nothing much to say then, save for the news that Volzy’s injured so we’re likely to see either Chris Baird or Simon Davies on Saturday. Chelsea have a very fine player in Malouda on their left wing so it’s scary whichever way Lawrie goes. Otherwise we have nothing to fear and a surprising win seems possible.

Right, that’s it. I’m off to have some soup. Alan Titchmarsh is on the TV talking about bananas.

UPDATE: Drogba fit.

UPDATE 2:  Baker and Kelly, featuring Lawrie Sanchez intro! 

Last night was mainly annoying because it weakened us for the Serious Business on Saturday.  As the dust settles I’m less and less worried about the performance and our exclusion from the Carling Cup.   What I’m wondering about is the formation change, which concerns me.

One thing I don’t agree with most people on is the role of chance in football matches.   We don’t like to think that most of our life is determined by luck and coincidence, but I happen to think that’s how most things happen.  You can make your own luck by doing enough good things that sometimes they work out, but that’s another story and one best told by someone who has done something with his life.    But football’s exactly the same.   We’ve played well this year and been unlucky.    If a couple of the random mistakes hadn’t happened, if we’d had the refereeing decisions we were meant to have, why we’d be 8th or something.

Would Sanchez be fiddling with tactics then?   I don’t think so.   I’ve been saying for a while that as long as nobody panics this Fulham team will be fine.  Just play like they have been and things’ll even out.   So it was disappointing to see things change last night, because I think the expansive version of the team could’ve put Bolton away in the first half.  As it was we got a pokey, nervous game, and we stopped our own recent momentum.  Only when we fell behind did we see the Healy, Kamara and Dempsey trio flying around up front.  It was exciting, it was effective.   It was too late.

By all means try something and see how it looks, but it’s too early to panic.

Right, news:

A month in the life of Steve Davis.   Seems like a nice enough fellow, but lacks Volzy’s flair.

The Daily Mail gets sarky about our start, in an article about how Lawrie went too far last night in criticising referees..

“I’m fed up with referees coming to little Fulham and disallowing goals for no reason.

“They are not up to the job and something has to be done about it.

“I don’t know what it is. They appear to be coming here for a nice day out at the seaside.”

He he.

Meanwhile, the bright sparks at the FA will be writing to Lawrie Sanchez, asking for an explanation.      Have they not seen what’s happened to us this year?

To start with we saw Lawrie’s plan B, a sort of 4-2-3-1 formation with Davis and Murphy behind Davies, Seol and Bouazza, behind Dempsey. This produced a first half performance that conjured up memories of last season’s nothingness, so we reverted to the common-or-garden 4-4-2 in the second half.

This was notable because nothing else was. I can’t remember anything from the first half, and the second only came to life when Bolton scored. Chris Baird, who may recently have had an accident featuring a mirror, some ladders and a black cat, didn’t quite catch a left-footed volley on the edge of our box. It fell to a Bolton player who drove the ball home from distance. When it rains, it pours, and Chris may wish to spend some time away from the limelight now. Things are not going his way.

We equalised when Seol, heretofore invisible, produced a moment of skill to thrill even the sleepiest spectators. There seemed no danger when he got the ball on the left, but with a devastating turn of pace and wonderfully nimble feet, he scorched past his man and drove a cross into the box. David Healy was waiting, and smashed home via a defender.

This raised the chilling prospect of extra time. By now Diomansy Kamara was playing too, and he was making things happen. We pressed for a winner, but none was forthcoming. Full-time: detention.

Surprisingly, Fulham then revved up through the gears, and Healy nearly put us ahead with a wonderful 25 yard lob that plopped onto the crossbar. Kamara, Dempsey, Davis, there was an energy about the side now, but no goal could be found.

The teams swapped round and Bolton nicked it with a strange winner. Boca (I’m assuming) was shoved aside in challenging for the ball, the Bolton forward proceeded and scored without fuss. It looked like a blatant push, and the Fulham players protested with some purpose, but the referee (who had been poor throughout) could only look at his linesman for further instruction. Neither of them would make the call so the goal stood.

And that was that. What a way to prepare for Chelsea. The pluses were Keller’s form (he made a number of good 1 on 1 saves), another good Steven Davis showing, and some exciting play by all of our forwards. Against that Danny Murphy struggled to dictate the pace of the game as I’d expected him to, the new formation experiment (which I might have imagined) didn’t work, and our best players will be knackered for Saturday. Bummer.

Last year I spent a bit of time trying to convince people that Liam Rosenior had been involved in more opposition goals than might have been ideal. The trouble was my arguing was based on fuzzy perceptions of a missed header here, a lost marker there… subtle things that it’s hard to properly recall over the course of the long season.

This year Liam’s replacement has received some heavy criticism too (I’ve been trying to defend the lad) so it seems sensible and reasonable to try to evaluate these things while memories are still quite fresh.

One thing is that football is a team game. The team attacks, the team defends. So for each of these goals I’m going to include everyone whose involvement might have been more effective, as best I can remember. There might be some things that I’m overlooking, some cases of mistaken identity, and some citations that are downright harsh, but life is hard, and things should even out in the long run anyway. Here goes then:

Arsenal - Midfield let Toure run too far, Boca took the charge
Arsenal - Baird played onside, gave Hleb room
Bolton - Warner dropped ball
Boro - Warner let ball through him
Boro - Bocanegra lost runner
Villa - Baird lost Young, cross in off Knight
Villa - midfield gave Reo-Coker time to thread pass through, Volz (?) lost runner, Keller down too quickly
Spurs - Niemi dropped corner
Spurs - Midfield gave Keane room, Stefanovic caught out, Niemi beaten easily
Spurs - Midfield gave Keane room, Baird caught out, Niemi beaten at near post
Wigan - Konchesky didn’t track bursting runner (bit harsh), Bouazza gave away pen
City - Baird backed off, beaten too easily inside, no cover (Hughes), Niemi unsighted but might have stopped it
City - Midfield gave City an eternity on the ball. Petrov not closed down well enough (Hughes?), Niemi’s parry back into danger area, Baird beaten to rebound
City - Midfield not closing down, excellent one two, Baird cut out, Niemi beaten at near post
Bolton - Baird poor clearance thrashed back in for long range goal
Bolton - Boca poor clearance, Konchesky pushed, goal
Chelsea - nobody!
Portsmouth - midfield permeated too easily; Boca rolled without any bother
Portsmouth - Baird muscled off the ball, didn’t recover when he might have.  Midfield offered no cover.  Could Aaron Hughes have come over to help?
Sunderland - Stefanovic was backing off Jones a bit; free cross from wide on the right, Omosuzi or (more likely) Davies should have closed down.   This is a harsh feature so they all get a point.
Reading - Hughes and Stefanovic lost Doyle between them.  Niemi let a corner almost drop into his far post.
Liverpool - Stefanovic misjudged header, Hughes allowed Torres to get too near the goal, Niemi didn’t react.
Liverpool - Babel ran through the midfield, Bocanegra brought him down.

Midfield 10
Baird 7
Hughes 5
Boca 5
Konchesky 2
Warner 2
Niemi 8
Stefanovic 4
Volz 1
Knight 1
Bouazza 1
Keller 1
Omosuzi 1

So there we have it. I think that about sums up the early season form: Konchesky only included for the Wigan goal that really wasn’t his fault (that was one of my harsh ones), Chris Baird and Antti Niemi seeing more attention than perhaps we’d like, and the “Midfield” perhaps not being all it should be.

This latter thing is interesting, as I’m developing a theory that the defence isn’t being all that well shielded in the Fulham defensive third. I see Smertin and Davis winning balls in the middle third, but not so much in defence. Something for me to watch out for.

Again, some of this seems harsh, but there we are; it’s a lot of goals to concede. And while we might say “well, the midfield couldn’t have got closer to Robbie Keane”, think about how teams like Man Utd are able to keep six clean sheets in a row. Of course they have more of the ball than us, but equally, players aren’t given the freedom to pick us apart like Keane did. So that’s a ‘team’ issue. There are also lots of individual issues.

I’ll add to this as the year goes on. I’m not a big one for blaming, finger pointing, etc, preferring always to dwell on the good that people do out there. But equally we ought to be able to think about Fulham from a half-empty perspective too. We’ll see what happens.

Not intimidated at all… Clint got some pretty rough treatment on Saturday, every header he went up for he seemed to go down having been smashed in the back of the head.   Good to see him fighting (almost literally) to the end.

Have you see the Sanchez press conference on the Official?   First time I’ve thought he might be a bit shellshocked.  Spent a while waffling about the league’s point structure being wrong.   It felt strange, he’s normally so composed.   I think, to an extent, that he’s finding this a bit harder than he expected to.    Which is not to underestimate what he *has* achieved - we’re on the verge of being a cracking team - but I don’t think he expected his team to be playing quite like this.   Stay cool, Lawrie, we’ll get there.

We had a fun day on Saturday, but more of that later.

Something I do want to talk about is goals.   You might remember last year that a few of the messageboards had goal of the season threads.   People came up with Jimmy Bullard’s free-kick against Sheffield Utd, and after that… Heidar’s goal against Newcastle, perhaps, which was nothing out of the ordinary.  After that the cupboard was bare.

Back to the present day and the story is very different.  The goals against Arsenal, Bolton and Boro were nothing special, but since then we’ve seen some corkers.  Clint’s strike against Villa was ordinary but put away with thrilling vitality, and the same man’s header against Spurs was an absolute belter, a perfect study of movement, timing and technique.   Diomansy Kamara took things to a new level with his overhead kick in the same game.  What a goal that was, doubly so when you consider the circumstances (what was he doing even attempting that in the last minute of a game we were losing in?  he he).

And then Saturday.  The press have largely ignored the first goal, but the team swept from one end of the field without breaking stride.  I don’t usually go in for the “if that was Man Utd they’d be showing it everywhere”, but this time I do think that if that had been Ronaldo instead of Bouazza and Rooney instead of Dempsey and Scholes instead of Davies… well you’re looking at goal of the month aren’t you?  Will it even make the shortlist?  It certainly should.  Then Hameur crashed in a shot of pure power, a classic “have it” moment.  There’s something primal about a player just belting the thing as hard as he can; Roy Race would’ve said “Stop that!” as he hit it.   Kaspar Schmeichel flailed wildly, beaten.  It was like a tailender being yorked by Waqar Younis.

All of which suggests that we have far more skilled workmen up the field this year.  And it’s a joy to watch.

Well, I had an interesting story of my own develop before the game started. See my previous entry for the details.

Also, Rich checks in below with his excellent game review.

Line Ups

Bocanegra is wearing the captain’s armband. There was talk a few weeks ago that some folks didn’t think Boc’s was in Sanchez’s plans for the starting line-up. But he has named Bocenagra captain several times now and have claimed that last week, for the first time he was able to play his starting back four together. So it is Baird, Hughes, Bocanegra and Konchesky.

1
Diagonal ball into Dempsey in the box and - he tries a cute move but goes through his legs and is clear to the keeper.

4
Great ball from outside into the box to Healy who gets pushed in the back by Dunne. I think if he had gone down he might have gotten a penalty. But he stayed on his feet and lost the ball.

11
First shot on goal by City.

12
Great feeling about this build up. I like the way it’s developing and……
Davies scores. 1-0 Fulham
Bouazza dispossesses in our “D” third, out to middle, then to Dempsey back out to Davis wider who feeds an overlapping Bouazza who has made a run all the way down the field from the corner flag after the steal. Great near post cross and Davies is there and somehow squeezes a header into the near post with a defender on him and the goalkeeper watching the near post. Excellent quality from Fulham and Bouazza was outstanding.

17
Run of play is good but nothing special. Good possession by Fulham and a ball off to the left of field and Bouazza decides with no angle to take a shot and with his left foot yet. Bad choice as there are two fulham players in front of goal.

20
Nice ball in by Healy into the box but Dempsey gets the ball knocked away from him.

22
Great long shot upper right from Davis, but Schmeichel has it. Possession is close as is shots at goal but Fulham have definitely had a better quality of possession. Meaning more decent possession close to City’s goal.

25
Ball comes free to from Man City, Niemi comes out to cut down the angle to his right and Petrov shoots high and wide.

30
Great build up between Dempsey, Bouazza and Healy. Bouazza cross and …….nothing.

31
City gets the ball down the right flank quickly and places a deadly cutback cross but Baird is there to collect and distribute.

35
Petrov scores for City 1-1
A quick counter attack ball from City, playing out of their defending third out to Petrov on the left, who has looked dangerous all day. He picks it dribbles the flank then cuts Baird dribbling square across the box, shoots through Hughes’ legs which I think screened Niemi. He gets a paw on the ball but it squeezes under him and into goal. Disappointing after Fulham’s quality so far.

36
Petrov again and crosses to Hamann into the top of the box and the ball is shot wickedly just wide of the upper left corner. Replays show it was just the smallest of margins from going in. Fulham seem to be falling apart defensively and City has them on the ropes.

39
Run of play has certainly turned City’s way. 54 to 46 City.

42
Bouazza wins a corner which he takes with the ball being played out, another corner for Fulham.  Up to this point there’s only been one corner apiece which may explain some of the frenetic pace of the game. Corner taken and…nothing.

42
Ball back to City after a shot comes off of poor Micah Richards face. On another counter the ball comes down quickly to the left of goal. It’s a two on two break but Konchesky is there on the right side of the defense and somehow I feel more confident with Konchesky one on one than Baird. Sure enough, Konchesky slows the play down for cover well enough for everyone to recover and get shape.

Half-time
Stats

-Second half begins-

Kamara in - Davies out
Later reports claim that Davies had a migraine and I know he scored the first goal but sort of glad to see him replaced. Dempsey has moved into his spot with Kamara going up top with Healy.

46
Fulham 2- City 1
Kamara has an immediate impact as he draws a foul right in front of the Pen area. just to the left. Three are lined up, Konchesky, Kamara and Bouazza. Who will take it? My bets on Konchesky, no Kamara fakes and -GOAL- Bouazza strikes a wicked outswinger far center upper left that Schmeichel could reach but can do nothing about. The ball just had far too much pace and I believe they may have to repair the net after that thunderbolt. The type of goal that makes the hair on the back of your neck stand up and gives you the chills. The crowd at The Cottage erupt and those 5 or 6 gathered around the TV here at The Local erupt. QUALITY! Bouazza has been a force in this game.

49
Fulham 2 - City 2
City scores. Not sure how that goal even happened. A missed header by Fulham which was won by Mpenza to Petrov. He’s one on one with Bocs now but Boc’s had little time to react and is facing towards his own goal and not a lot he can do. He screws him into the ground with cuts, he fires wickedly but Niemi gets a hand on it as a reflex save, the ball deflects out to Mpenza again. Hughes does not mark his man and Mpenza puts it into goal.

56
Scramble in front of goal Bocs with a great short hop shot and the ball goes just wide of goal.

58
Wide ball to Bouazza, Healy open far post but Bouazza puts the ball right to keeper on his cross. Too bad as Healy had broken his mark and was clean through.

60
Fulham 2- City 3
Give and go from Petrov to Elano and back to Petrov. Baird gets burned again and Petrov scores City’s 3rd goal. Really ugly defending. Twice in this game now that Baird has been burned by Petrov and both have ended up goals for Manchester City. I know there are those of the mind to give his some time but I sure would like to see what Volzy could do back there.

65
Just looking at the possession at the moment and it’s up to 59%-41% in City’s favor. And the half looked so promising when we came right out and scored on the tremendous free kick by Bouazza. City in total control right now.

66
Seol Ki-Hyeon in for Bouazza, Murphy for Healy
Healy seemed to be getting out a bit wide on the right today. I guess I’ve seen him do this before but it certainly seemed we needed him to stay joined with Dempsey more.
I think Dempsey went back up top and Murphy is into the middle. Hi-Hyeon out wide left where Bouazza was.
Corner for City bad clear by Seol near post and Mpenza gets his head on it but puts it wide.

69
Dempsey and Richards go high for a ball as it looks like Dempsey wins it. They both get up hot and both shove, Dempsey stands his ground but doesn’t move. He reminds me of a boxer saying, “Come on then if you want this!”. Both players lean their heads in until they are in deadlock like a couple of big horn sheep. Sort of funny really. Yellow for both.

72
Ball to Dempsey who gets nailed going high to win the ball. No foul and the ball is played to Kamara who is offside but it was close.

74
Fulham 3 - City 3
Danny Murphy fist goal for Fulham and it’s quality. Kamara great back behind his back flick as the ball went by him to redirect to Murphy who is clear and he finishes calmly low and to the right of Schmeichel. COME ON YOU WHITES! Do you have it in you?

76, Kamara dribbles, zigs and zags but holds for too long and is dispossessed. But we have City on the ropes right now. Were all around the Man City goal, a ball is deflected back out of the box and Murphy shoots hard but high. That was a great chance to go a head as Murphy had a lot of space with no defenders to block his shot.

79
Seol seems like a smart player and he’s damn quick also for a big guy. Making a couple of cuts and accelerating moves to lose his mark.  Not holding the ball too long and lays off some great passes. He puts a long cross to far post and somehow Dempsey gets his head on it but wide.
81
Kamara is gone down the middle with a throughball. But Dunne’s excellent defending stops this dead.

83
SunJihi in for City

87
Long free kick after a foul on Seol and a yellow for Hamann for the lunging tackle from behind. He argues after fouling Seol who has been a force so far. Free kick goes high, a big crowd of players. Schmeichel misses the punch and somehow Dempsey goes high and gets the ball deflected off of his head. The ball goes wide-out of play.

90
4 min. of added time.
Another set free kick and Schmeichel misses again. Nothing comes of it as Schmeichel eventually collects. But it’s crazy out there right now.

92
Gionini snakes his way in and out and take a shot and thats high.

93
Murphy takes a free-kick and it’s to the right no Fulham player there and Dunne heads it over for a corner. Corner…nothing!

95
Konchesky screws up and he is booked for dissent. Watching the reply he is not guilty of the foul that they claimed he was. It was a clean 50-50 challenge just outside our own penalty box along the end line. This is quite worrisome. Ball struck over the goal for a goal kick.

Full Time

Another tie and at home again. We certainly know how to score goals and we certainly don’t know how to defend collectively for 90 minutes.

Final stats.

“We are in Transylvania, and Transylvania is not England. Our ways are not your ways, and there shall be to you many strange things.”

Indeed. Six more goals at Craven Cottage and more excitement than this correspondent could bear. It was like watching two drunk and exhausted fighters slugging away: take that! And that! And that! When will we quietly win a game 2-0?

Part of the beauty of watching sport every week is the ups and downs we see in the games’ main players. Last week Hameur Bouaza’s late and clumsy lunge cost us a couple of points; this week his skill was central to us earning a point from a very good City team.

First, tracking back well, he managed to win possession by our corner flag. Tackle won, he switched play to Clint Dempsey, who ranged in and out and slipped the ball to the excellent Steve Davis. Davis strode on and moved the ball back to the rapidly overlapping Bouazza, whose firm cross was met by Simon Davies at the near post for a simply wonderful counter-attacking strike. One end to the other: goal!

Not for long though. City broke and found Martin Petrov, who sensed Baird retreating, accelerated, turned him inside out and slopped a shot under Niemi for a bitterly disappointing equaliser. Leads are not being kept very well.

At half time 1-1 was fair. Soon after we took the lead. Diomansy Kamara, who had a scintillating second half, earned a free-kick by confusing Richard Dunne. Just outside the box, *someone* should’ve felt confident from there. Bouazza did, striding forward and then blasting the thing goalwards. “Stop this” he seemed to be saying to Kaspar Schmeichel. The young keeper didn’t see it. Thunderbolt.

To which City added another, Petrov again proving too hot to handle, wiggling inside and out of Aaron Hughes, forcing a save from Niemi, and celebrating as Mpenza stooped to head home the rebound. Petrov added another, slamming home after a delicious 1-2 with Elano. This goal followed 10 minutes of wonderful City football in which Fulham were frequently left chasing shadows.

But this Fulham team has guts, and clawed back into the game with the help of two new players. Seol Ki-Hyeon’s header from the left flank fell into the path of Danny Murphy, who coolly slotted home with only Schmeichel to beat. Murphy could’ve had another, firing high and wide from the edge of the box, while Seol thrilled all with a series of snaking runs, each more audacious than the last. If he keeps it up we have one hell of a player on our hands. If.

So another point. A good one too; City are better than I had expected. Now to take down Stamford Bridge…

Sorry, I told you I would post my game journal within an hour after the game. But some work things came up and that is not going to happen. I did journal the game and hopefully I will have our 3-3 tie to City up on the boards by tonight or tomorrow. How many draws will we have this season? Ughhh!

One interesting note: I treked back down to The Local (downtown Mpls) to watch the game. The Local is a high quality bar here in Minneapolis that serves up lots of import beers and is the world’s largest seller of Jameson whiskey. It’s certainly one of THE places to watch football besides Brits, another quality pub in Mpls. So I am setting up my computer to follow the game and type my journal. This nice chap comes up to me and asks (I’m wearing my Fulham warmup trainer) if I’m a Fulham supporter. I tell him yes and introduce myself as Brian. He’s excited that there’s another Fulham fan in the pub and introduces himself as Tom, as in Tom from Chicago. He asks, are you Brian? I answer yes, are you Tom Wille from Chicago? He answers yes also. So I hang out with the guy who just did the interview with Rich this past week for Soccernet and for FulhamUSA.com. Yes, it was Chicago Tom, editor of Fulham USA and Fulham correspondent for ESPN’s soccernet. Tom’s wife is from Poland and his wife has relatives here in Mpls. and was here on a visit. So how weird is that?

Spencer, a young man who I know as a MN Thunder supporter and I’ve seen post at FulhamUSA.com, also showed up.  We took a photo on Tom’s camera phone with the three of us in front of The Local, and I hope to have it up soon.

Very disappointing result today. But for now, keep your head up. Maybe we will be there soon.

Brian

Yesterday, I reported that Fulham Football Club is tied third in the league for goals scored. I also denoted that we’re sitting near the bottom of the table for goals against. White Noise brought to my attention that the team was #1 in the league if we were to only play the first half of a football game. Deduction would tell us that means we must be one of the worst teams in the second half of games.

So from that information we can logically form an opinion that Fulham need to clean up their act in the second half of their football games, particularly late in the game where 45% of the goals have been scored against us.

So today let’s look at one more team statistic and then look at some individual statistics.

Early on as a trainer I was taught that you must encourage youth players to take shots and lots of them. In training sessions we would always be harping on the players, “You can’t score if you don’t shoot”. So how is Fulham doing in regards to shots taken this year compared to the other teams in the Premiership.

Chelsea weights in at #1 with 85 but their accuracy rate is only 33%
Man. Utd. 87 accuracy is 39%
Liverpool 74 accuracy is 42%
Tottenham 74 accuracy is 34%
Wigan 73 accuracy is 33%
Fulham 65 accuracy is 48%

So Fulham is 6th in the league for taking shots but we have the highest percentage of goals for shots taken. So as much as I’ve heard much whining about missed shots this season, we still have the highest percentage of shots to goals in the league and we have taken the 6th highest amount of shots of any team. It would be really interesting to compare that to last year at this time. I’m guessing we’d be nowhere near that same statistic.

As to individuals, lets looks at this chart of field players that have had some significant playing time.

The key here is:

GS=Games Started / SB=Subed / G=Goals / SH=Shots / SG=Shots on Goal / A=Assists

I think as you can see, the key here is Dempsey. With only 3 games started, one less played then David Healy, has 4 more shots and his shots on goal rate is at a 70%. Dempsey is putting the ball into the back of the net with 23% of his shots taken. Maybe that’s not the highest rate of any striker. But the fact is, he’s getting himself into positions to take shots more than the others on the team. 13, three more than anyone else on the team. “You can’t score if you don’t take shots”!

Kamara as you can see has played 3 games and been subed 3 times with 1 assist and has struck the ball 9 times with 5 on target. Of those he has scored 1 goal. That’s a 10% rate, and Healy is finding the back of the net with a 23% rate but has taken more games to to do so.

If we are to look at games started, we would find the following statistics.

Dempsey = 1 goal per game
Healy = .5 goals per game
Kamara = .33 goals per game
McBride = .33 goals per game
Smertin = .33 goals per game

So is it any wonder that Clint Dempsey is sitting 3rd in the league for goals and checking in on the Actim chart, Dempsey is sitting #7 in the Prem. Alexy Smertin is 47th and David Healy sits 64th.

There is no doubt, until Dempsey streak cools off, and let’s hope it doesn’t, we will continue to see him in the line-up. And looking at these statistics, it would be hard to argue that Healy should not get the start over Kamara. But Kamara may be some of the reason that Dempsey has had success lately. But that is why Lawrie Sanchez gets paid what he does. To make tough decisions week in and week out, while we sit back in our chairs and watch the whole thing unfold before us, offering up our glad pieces of wisdom. As if somehow our thoughts, efforts, writings and wishes will make a difference to the outcome of our team, Fulham Football Club.

If you would like, check back in with us this weekend. The game is televised again here in the States on Fox Soccer Channel and will be on at 11:00 a.m. central time. I will again be doing a game journal which I will try to have posted within an hour after the game. Hopefully it will jog your memory to some of the key moments in the game. I’d love to hear your comments concerning the game and what you thought.

I’m sure Rich will be checking in later on Saturday or perhaps Sunday with his excellent reviews of the game and his match day experience. The type of stuff that drew so many of our CCN readers (and myself) to this blog in the first place.

Lastly, best wishes to Rich on the sale of the Fulham Review which you can pick up for only £5.00 at Craven Cottage tomorrow. Of course if you can’t get to the game for one reason or another, (like you have an ocean between you and the stadium), you can pick it up from the Fulham Review web site.

Come On You Whites!

First things first, tomorrow is not just Manchester City at home, but the first day of Fulham Review live sales. 

This is one of those things that seems like a terrific idea when viewed from the safety of a couple of months’ distance, but as the time arrives the realities crash into very sharp focus.   We will have to stand there, possibly in the rain, holding what will look like dark argos catalogues.   People will rightly ignore us or wonder what the devil we think we’re doing.   Few will be sufficiently interested to wander over.  We can only hope that the site of lots of shrink-wrapped books excites them enough to hand over a fiver, from where (we hope) the quality of the thing takes over.

We shall see.  It is, though, a terrifying thought.  We have the combined presence of Simon Davies defending a corner.  Never mind, Doing Things should have its own reward.  

And so to the real business of beating Man City.  City, as we have discussed, are the opposite of us this year: while we have been generously donating points to all and sundry, City have been thieving them like teenage Fulham fans at a motorway service station.   So, as with most things in life, they’re not as good as they look and we’re not as bad.   It should be a close game.

Frighteningly, City have a terrific defensive pairing in Richard Dunne and Micah Richards (if there’s a Micah Dunne out there the triangle could be completed).  Richards is my favourite non-Fulham player these days.  Aside from being insanely good, he’s a lot of fun to watch.  Keep an eye on him.

Fulham will be confident of getting something too.  Aaron Hughes seemed to bring some calm to the defence in Wigan, so should keep his place tomorrow.  Brian’s been speculating that Seol could come in for Bouazza, and he might be right, but I quite like what Bouazza’s been doing and suspect that a tangible reward is not far away.

I’d like to see David Healy get some minutes too.  Kamara got a knock against Wigan so this could give Lawrie the excuse he needs to give him a breather.  Against that, City’s defence is fast, strong, and very able in the air, so we may need Joe’s unpredictability to get through them.   It’s an exciting matchup and I really can’t wait.

And one more important note:  my co-author on the Fulham Review is writing on football more often now.  You can see his first offering here.

Mart’s work on the Review was excellent and his new stuff seems to continue that.  He’s wearing a more serious hat for this one, but the analysis is spot on, in my opinion.  Make sure you check back every so often to see what he’s writing.  There’s bound to be a Fulham piece before too long!    Anyway, head over.  

http://www.footballfancast.com/blog/england/new-headache-mcclaren