Old News and Breaking News
First the breaking news-
Most news sources are reporting this morning that Billy Davies, manager for Derby County has been axed. It’s been rumored for a while now that the Chairman Adam Pearson, was not happy with Davies even though he was responsible for bringing the club up to the Premiership this season. Davies had recently said that his team just wasn’t good enough and needed at least six new players in the coming transfer window. Adam Pearson was having nothing of it and told Davies he needed to manage the players he had. Then recently Davies told the press he was concerned because he had not talked to the chairman in three weeks. It will be interesting to see who Derby are able to acquire as their new manager.
The old news-
Fulham pull another draw. I suppose as Rich says, a draw against Blackburn is respectable but at home is disappointing for most. I think the thing that frustrated me the most was that Blackburn possessed the ball 65% of the match.
Three things that frustrated me yesterday.
#1) We give up possession in games like that far too easily. As shown in the amazing team-effort goal we scored, Fulham can posses the ball and have the quality to make those sorts of plays happen from time to time. Perhaps not the full game. But for periods of time far greater then they did yesterday. Fulham, at times, seems to be a team lacking in belief in their ability to pass the ball out of the back and for that matter the center of the field. Most of the balls are rushed and often lost in the process. I harken back to what I have written earlier this season: the best defense is a good offense. Possess the ball and you give the opposition less chances to score. Fulham need to stop dumping the ball in to low probability areas and wait until targets arrive and or make runs. If they don’t present themselves than shuffle the ball around until they do.
#2) Many of Fulham players’ first touch when under pressure, particularly when in and around the box, was awful. Karmara, Dempsey, Davis and Bouazza all had some appalling first touches which prevented them from shooting or passing to someone who was in a good place to get a shot off. It’s not like we didn’t get a chance here and there during the game. A better first touch under pressure may have made a big difference yesterday.
#3) Diomansy Kamara. STOP trying to dribble through three players when you have options left and right of you. Also, stop putting your hand up to your ear on goal celebrations to tell your old team that they were crazy for selling you. You certainly haven’t set the league on fire. Hell, you haven’t even set Fulham on fire. By the way, the goal you scored was a sitter that I could have put in, even with my wobbly knees and ankles. Instead you may have wanted to thank your teammates for their “team-effort” goal that allowed you to score. Am I being to harsh here?
1) totally agree. Murphy and Davies are both skilled passers, Davis can pass too. Between them they must do better. It’s another area we miss McBride in, I think. He and Healy were keeping the ball well at the start of the year.
2) Yeah, I noticed that too.
3) Indeed, he was very frustrating. I always like to give credit to forwards for getting into the position to score sitters, but still, if it hadn’t been for that I think it’d have been about as bad an individual performance as I’ve seen. He just doesn’t look up and has no awareness of what’s around him.
weltmeisterclaude
26 Nov 07 at 6:09 pm
I agree with you on all 3 points, especially #1 and #3. It seems like our players get under pressure and don’t know what to do with the ball, so they launch it down the pitch in vain hope of connecting with one of the forwards. And it works about 5% of the time!
Kamara should not be starting, period. How can he be when you’ve got David Healy? I can’t wait for McBride and Bullard to return. The combination of Mac and Healy up front was excellent.
BC
27 Nov 07 at 1:02 pm
Points well made, everyone.
When watching Fulham, I have the impression that there is no real plan or established pattern of play. That affects ball-possession because players are not sure where they should be at all any given point of a move. There is also sometimes a reluctance to support the man with the ball - until it is too late! Compare that with many other teams (Blackburn, for instance), who when the ball is being moved forwards have several players running into position in anticipation of what they think`s going to happen. It`s a bit like chess: you have to think three, four, five moves ahead.
Wing Half
27 Nov 07 at 5:42 pm
Wing Half-
I too thought about the support issue and have seen it in other games where we’ve struggled with possession. Usually what I’m seeing is either a wide man, (defender or midfielder) is far to quick to sling it up field with no particular idea how the target should receive it, or their technique is so bad that it doesn’t come close to hitting it’s mark.
But what particularly annoys me is the lack of support of middle players from other middle players. You can target to the ball even if it’s running square to the ball. You can also make a diagonal run to so you can receive the ball in a direction away from the defender, increasing your chance of keeping possession. The third item would be players holding the ball to long until the options are closed down. Many a player have complained that they Prem is so fast, the defense on you so quick and the fitness so high (partially because of the cooler weather) that as you say, you need to be making your decisions before you receive the ball.
Think about Fulham’s second goal and the player movement in the sequence. Absolutely brilliant. There was even a player making a run forward who never even got into the action but that is also needed to draw player away from where the ball is. Where capable of it. We just don’t do it very often. Think about a team like Arsenal or Liverpool. You see that sort of movement the whole game long. Total fluidity. I’m pretty sure we don’t have the players to pull that off all the time and yet stay organized for counters, but I think were good enough to be doing it far more often that we are now.
One of the things I like about Murphy that last couple of games is he doesn’t give the ball away to often on low percentage passes. I mean that is going to happen in the attacking third and should happen in the attacking third if your taking your chances as you should. But he makes pretty good choices in the middle third of the field.
bqfootball
27 Nov 07 at 6:23 pm
Murphy’s a class player, no doubt. I’m fairly sure he just needed to blow off a few cobwebs, and that he’ll continue to improve. If he has the fitness I think we could see a big second half of the season from him.
I agree with you on the options, Arsenal work in such precise triangles that they all know exactly what their options are at any moment. It’s thrilling to see. Brian, you ever study Valeriy Lobanovskiy? He was the old Dynamo Kiev coach back in the day, I think he coached USSR too. He had his players know exactly where they should be at any moment on the pitch, literally memorised so that if a player was in grid x78 he knew that player B would be in one place, player C in another, all through the team. Fascinating. He didn’t eschew improvisation at all, more that he just really believed that structure gave players the opportunity to best make use of their talents.
weltmeisterclaude
27 Nov 07 at 7:44 pm