Quickie
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.
“Apparently 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.”
I agree with most everything you had to say here. Your right, players like Bouazza and even Dempsey still have much to learn and can only get better. But when you commented on the sliced shots I thought of C. Rhonaldo the first year and half in the league. His shots were everywhere. Not that we can compare those two in any other way. But like any youngster, if he starts hitting his mark on one or two, his confidence will grow and he’ll learn what he needs to do to get better at shot selection, making those shots count and calming down before taking the shot.
bqfootball
30 Sep 07 at 7:00 pm
All in all, it was good performance. I’m really happy that we were able to keep a clean sheet. Keller did what he had to do and the back four played well.
We really could have taken all three points today. Kamara’s chance was our best opportunity. His first touch was good, but the second one was wasted and gave Makelele a chance to get back into the play. One thing that I noticed on the replay was how much of a forearm Makelele put into Kamara just before his shot. He really extended it into him and I was surprised that he didn’t go down because of it.
Now this has been said over a couple of recent postings, but when I was watching the game, I was thinking “Davies is doing a good job defending today.” And since Barid seemed to play much better, there had to be some correlation between the two.
I’m encouraged by our performance. True, that we’re only 2 pts above the drop, but one or two wins and we’re in the top half of the table
George H.
30 Sep 07 at 7:37 pm
George, the nice thing is, not only with a couple of wins are at mid table or above, but were midtable and above and playing really decent football.
bqfootball
30 Sep 07 at 7:42 pm
Baird was alright, for his standard… but how can you really give him that much credit when he got totally skinned by Kalou for the chance that Shevchenko almost put away early on, and got away with a pretty blatant penalty that wasn’t called when he got Drogba from behind? This is a good performance for him, but that hasn’t been saying much… and I think I gave him a major benefit of the doubt early on.
I agree though that Davis had a wonderful match… I thought that was the best that I’d seen out of him in the midfield all season… Chelsea played with too many men up top, and Davis was able to put in a very good performance where they lacked.
El Steve
30 Sep 07 at 10:11 pm
1) I just hope Sanchez instills the “we can win” mentality as opposed to the “we can always get a point” mentality, the latter being something Avram Grant is incidentally known (and sometimes scorned) in Israel for. I am not drawing a conclusion on the basis of this game alone (or even the season so far).
2) Dempsey has not nearly reached his ceiling - nobody in the United States, let alone in Europe, has heard of the guy five years ago. The fact that he can now look the likes of John Terry in the eye (or connect with their cheekbone) and not blink is something to be heartened by.
3) We really got a bargain with Konchesky: for three million pounds less a we got a comparable player to Baines and made a significant upgrade over Queudrue in the process.
4) I had trouble deciding how to rate the players in this last game so I would just note that (i) Seol did nothing (as every one else here has noted), (ii) Keller is solid and confidence-inspiring (as every one here seems to agree) and (iii) Kamara may have the most quality on the team but he really should have either passed or shot on at least a couple of occasions instead of dallying on the ball (I’m specifically thinking of the late pass to Dempsey to allow Alex to recover and the shot/pass on which Kamara took at least one touch too many and the sliding Dempsey nearly reached).
Ilya
30 Sep 07 at 10:34 pm
I was really surprised by how Seol performed…I’d been boring everyone senseless with what a fantastic prospect he was - based on his performance against Man City - and then he plays like that against Chelsea.
Maybe it’s just lack of match fitness. Let’s hope so anyway. He reminded me of an old pro who has lost his pace but has still got a few nice touches left in him - but that’s not exactly what we should be expecting!!!
I think we need to go for Bouazza against Pompey and bring Seol on for a late cameo. That role seems to suit him best.
r33g
1 Oct 07 at 8:04 am
my gf’s Reading mate says that Seol turns up for the first three games of each season and that’s it… as I mentioned, if he was world class every week he wouldn’t be here.
weltmeisterclaude
1 Oct 07 at 8:36 am
Last season we used to comfort ourselves with thoughts like “well at least least we got a point and nearly got 3″. In the end, it was the points we might have had but didn`t get that nearly sent us topplng into the Championship.
It`s easy to think “It was Chelsea, after all, so a point`s not too bad”. Whereas, in truth, we ought to have won at the end. I don`t blame Konchesky. After all, he is a full-back and he did as much as you could reasonably expect of someone who is not used to being in a scoring position. But Kamara . . . ! Is this man a striker or not? Why didn`t he just for go straight for goal and shoot? He seemed to lose his nerve. Not good for a man who`s employed to take advantage of that kind of situation.
Wing Half
1 Oct 07 at 1:25 pm
Much better.
Good pressure on the ball. I loved the many step-up steals - you have to mark close and read well to do that regularly. Well done.
Some good, hard-nosed tackling. Clint making his mark on the Chelsea defense. A bit more service, please.
Keller is an old fox. His positioning is reliably impeccable. The MF covering back swiftly. Many cross field passes by Chelsea means theres no room at the inn. Just what the doctor ordered - I mean, LS, no doubt.
Seol did seem substandard but Bouazza lit them up when he came on. Nice to have that option.
On the whole, a good outing. I’ll have more of that, boss.
numi
1 Oct 07 at 11:39 pm
Good Analysis. I agree with virtually everything and am generally pleased with our performance under a new regime. As things settle down i think we’ll finish this season “normal” position (11-15ish) and that will be a platform for top half next season. Overall, I’m pleased.
Beardyoldgit
2 Oct 07 at 9:11 am
I wish y’all had seen Keller earlier in his career, the guy produced a catalog of great performances with the national team and was key to some of our best games. He’s lost some of his quickness and reflexes, but as has been said, he’ll be very smart, solid, and confident.
I saw a lot of Seol last year when he played with American-heavy Reading. I don’t know what to make of him, he along with Sidwell were their best players when they opened strong and the ‘Reading for Europe’ talk was floating around. I don’t remember when he went to rot, I don’t know if it was a slow process or he got hurt, but he wasn’t the same as before.
Also, looking at his career, he seems to have a troubling trend of bailing on a situation instead of working through it. Ask Dempsey about fighting and working to win your spot (can’t possibly talk Fulham without mentioning Clint!)
eric
4 Oct 07 at 5:43 am