Roy’s up

Here.

GAM starting tomorrow, says Tesco shopper

Someone on TiFF met Eddie Johnson outside Tesco in Wimbledon Village.  Eddie came across as a very nice person, and suggested that he is starting against Man Utd tomorrow.  Take that with a pinch of salt, of course, but it would make sense.

Consider the following thought experiment: hypothetical player A might average 6/10 in three games, but do so by getting marked at 5/10, 9/10, 4/10.  Player B might average 6/10 by getting 6/10, 7/10, 5/10.   Is one better than the other?  For the purposes of surviving a difficult situation, I think you’re almost bound to take the high risk high reward approach.   So while you might be guaranteed a safer game from the reliable Nevland, Johnson is more likely to make life impossibly difficult for the United defence.  Not likely, more likely.

All of which is based on scant evidence, but this is my working hypothesis for now.

A waffle about things.

(this is one of my naval gazing meditations on life and the role of football therein. Walk on by if this isn’t your bag!)

Linkin’

Brede Hangeland has played Man Utd before.

“We’re playing reasonably well and we can win every game,” he said. “It’s just that we haven’t had the luck in our last few games.

“It’s a tough game to swallow [the West Ham result] because you feel like you should have won it. I felt it was a free kick when they scored the goal and it makes you feel a bit sorry for yourself after a game like that but what can you do? You have to focus on the coming games and hopefully we can do some magic on Saturday.”

Do some magic. Why not? I have money on there being more than six goals. Just in case.

Meanwhile, more Roy. Also a picture of him pointing again.

“There is an element of luck and sometimes you can play well and lose, or play badly and win. I am very much aware that wins are the order of the day for us and if we don’t get some soon then our predicament will worsen.

Indeed.

“If we work on the basis that 40 points is a minimum then it’s pretty easy to work out how many wins we’ll need but I don’t know how many points will be sufficient for safety this year. If the top teams keep disposing of the bottom teams then the points total will be lower. I don’t like thinking of it in those terms. I like to concentrate on the game ahead and make certain that I as a coach, and the players as players, are ready for the game.”

Finally, here’s an update on the fans’ forum discussion the other night. I’ve steered clear of the subject here because it’s been more than adequately covered in the other forums, and because it has never really affected me. As such any tubthumping on my part would seem somewhat inauthentic. I do, however, hear some of the stories, and there’s no doubt that something is not quite right with the way that (the generally well behaved) Fulham fans are treated, home and away.

So it’s nice to see the club taking steps to engage with supporters. I think we all saw an improvement in general attitude before the West Ham game, and David McNally has suggested that we should see more improvements at each of the remaining home games.

I sit in the Johnny Haynes Stand, which is not the main area of concern. We do get the ridiculous bottle top checks, but by and large we are left alone. Also helping here is the fact that I have the cheapest seats available, which attract a lot of day-trippers and so are fairly quiet. The back of the Hammersmith End is hardly intimidating, but as far as Fulham goes this is the area where stewards are most inclined to flex their muscles (I’m ignoring the away end because they do too. Sorry, cheap shot). There’s always a fine line with these things: the club must be seen to do the right thing by all the authorities, but must also remember that, however much money is coming from Sky, supporters do ultimately make football clubs what they are.

There was something on TiFF with Richard “Game 39″ Scudamore talking about future plans possibly picking up new fans and losing old ones, something he thinks is acceptable but which to many of us is symptomatic of the game’s long march up its own backside. Football could keep on self-improving, trying to get rid of these nasty people who stand and shout and who don’t respect safety officers’ authority, and this would doubtlessly make a lot of people silently happy. But it’s not the way things should go.

Fulham seem committed to sorting things out. Which is a good start.

Nice piece from Mart

Read this.  On whether relegation is possibly a good thing.  It’s not a Fulham article, but Martin knows Fulham well and mentions the team a fair bit.  Good read.

Team America

Dempsey on Soccernet.

“The other guys on the team will go, ‘There’s Team America,’ and it’s good fun,” Dempsey said. “It’s good having guys you played with. The big thing for me is having Brian around because he’s just a class act, a veteran, a good person, a great player. He’s kind of a role model, a guy you look to emulate.”

Nice to see McBride getting some praise.  And I’m glad the players are confident…

(Mrs Dempsey the educational psychologist, eh?  Cool)

Is Jimmy Bullard trying too hard?

I was sharing some statistics with Rich the other day which led us to an email discussion. The stats came from Saturday’s game against West Ham and they were published on the Telegraph website.

What caught my attention was that Clint Dempsey was given the Man of the Match award. They said that Dempsey had attempted five shots, set up three chances, and made two flick-ons.  This surprised me because I didn’t think Clint had had that great a game. However, comparing the statistics of Dempsey and Bullard I started to understand why Clint was named over Jimmy.

So here’s how the stats laid out.

JB CD
5/1 5/1 Attempts on target
2 2 Key passes
4 3 Crosses
0 4 Ball recoveries
1 6 Clearances
37 27 Good passes
12 4 Bad passes
75% 85% Passing percentage
1 1 Tackles

In some areas the two were very close. But it looks like Clint did more defensive duties than Jimmy and Clint actually had a higher passing percentage. Now I think we need to think of Jimmy as more of a withdrawn forward, so he wouldn’t be expected to win as many balls and make as many clearances. But if that is true, why is it that we saw Jimmy pulling back into the defensive third of the field so often? We’ve been lamenting the fact that Brian McBride seems to be left alone too often.

So is Bullard trying to make too much happen himself?

The reason I ask this is Rich and I have both noticed several times during recent games that he has been tracking back so much that he has sometimes ended up taking the ball off his own teammates’ feet. Once on Saturday it was actually a bit embarrassing as Danny Murphy had recovered, or was about to recover a ball in our own defensive third, and Bully comes screaming back, pulls the ball off his foot and dribbles back towards his own goal, almost getting himself into trouble. A rule of thumb is if the ball falls between two teammates, the player facing forward always takes the ball. He can see the field better. It reminded me a bit of school ball, where the kid with the quite inflated ego comes and grabs every ball from his teammates because he thinks he’s the star.

Now I’m not saying that Jimmy Bullard is that sort of player. But there’s a suggestion that perhaps he doesn’t trust his own players, and that’s not good. He is a creator and the more he touches the ball in advanced areas, the more good things seem to happen. But I think he just needs to relax and stay forward a bit more, trusting his teammates to work things out behind him.

Serious reserves in action

2-0 win over Derby.

Look at this team:

Fulham: Keller; Omozusi, Baird, Bocanegra, Kallio; Seol, Timlin, Elliott, Bouazza; Smertin, Healy

Nice to see the reserve games being used properly, something that never seemed to happen in the past. I’m not sure that’s right about Smertin up front, but the rest looks pretty good. Baird getting more time at CB is important; he may have a future there and needs to get used to the positional adjustments of being in the middle again.

For about the 90th reserve game in a row, I really was going to go, but yet again, I sort of just didn’t.

GAM update

Eddie Johnson on being here.

Nothing earth shattering, but worth a read. As we said before, Johnson was very keen to move to Fulham. Obviously we wish him well.

Look North

Daniel Cousin is still in limbo.

“The matter is still pending,” said a Fifa spokesman. “There is no time frame yet.”

Just how complicated is this decision? If he’s not allowed to move say so. If he is, well, say that instead and let him come to London. I assume we need more than Daniel Cousin to save the season at this point, but as they say, every little helps. Fifa couldn’t make this decision earlier because the key people were on jollies in Ghana, and now they’re back…. catching up on emails?

He did score the other day though.

Cousin broke the offside trap to gather Barry Ferguson’s pass and held off his man well before rounding goalkeeper Greg Fleming to score a good goal from a tight angle.

Later, this happened:

But Boyd wasn’t to be denied and he latched on to a tremendous defence-splitting pass by Steven Davis to round Fleming and tap in.

Nice to see Steve Davis continuing to play well.

Also, Wayne Brown has gone on a short loan to Brentford.

I await news that the entire Man Utd squad has been hit by a mystery flu bug. Hasn’t happened yet, but we must have hope.

UPDATE:  Colin’s passing stats are up.  Interesting as ever.

Former Fulham players in MLS

Last week I wrote the former Fulham player Steve Marlet was training with the Chicago Fire and trying out for a roster spot.  As promised, I’ve been keeping on eye on Marlet and Luis Arroyave of the Chicago Tribune’s Red Card Blog is saying that Marlet is still with the team and made the trip from Florida to Mexico to finish their preseason training. Marlet featured in a friendly last week against Toronto FC but did not score.

In another story of a former Fulham player, well a youth academy player, does anyone remember the name Dan Stratford? MLSNET.com has an interesting story on the young man and how he ended up on trail with DC United.

Last year another player from the Fulham youth system made their way to the States and tried out with DC. His name was Yinka Casal. He was the leading scorer for the Fulham reserves in the 05-06 season. Casal did make the reserve team and then was released in July of last year.

Royisms

“All I can say is that in the games I’ve seen us play, we’re not getting the points. I’m not seeing us outplayed; I’m seeing the boys work very hard and create goal chances. If I were to take any positives it would have to be that but, of course, if you asked whether I would swap that for bad performances and wins, of course I would.”

From the official.

That’s the season really isn’t it? In the final analysis we’re perhaps 5% short of something or other in several areas, and when you add up these small deficits they become larger deficits. No need to go on about the same things we’ve been going on about for months, but it’s been quite dispiriting.

On a happier note, we made some excellent gravy tonight.

Sharing my misery with Times readers

Here

Balls.

Dangerous play?

Everyone’s been on about the handball.  What about the ABH?

Five questions

What do you think?

1 – Roy Hodgson has undoubtedly made it harder for opponents to score against us. This has had a side-effect though: we’re not looking very threatening going forwards. In your opinion, do we:

a) keep it tight and try to grind out some results
b) open up a bit. The Australians sometimes say “he’s not going to die wondering” about an aggressive batsman. With so few games remaining we should look to take the initiative.

2 – Brian McBride looked isolated and ineffective against West Ham. To make more happen going forwards, do we:

a) give him a partner up front to work with
b) give someone else the starting centre-forward role and use McBride as a sub if required.

3 – Danny Murphy has struggled with his passing in recent matches, and has also shown himself to be a fairly average defender. However, Roy Hodgson has said that he likes having two players behind Bullard to give Jimmy more freedom, and we don’t have too many options. In addition, Leon Andreasen will be suspended for Man Utd. Do we:

a) simply replace Andreasen with Smertin or Volz for the next game
b) as a), but also drop Murphy

4 – Simon Davies will return from his suspension on Saturday. Do we:

a) bring him back as a straight replacement for Diomansy Kamara
b) something else

5 – We were all miserable after Saturday, but other teams are struggling too. Do we:

a) still expect to survive
b) assume that we’re in deep trouble now, and that relegation is likely.

Hodgson speaks his mind

This week’s post game interview on the Official is short. Hodgson is clearly agitated with the turn of events and the officiating of the game. And he damn well should be.

I was just today trying to piece together the many times this season that we have been robbed of a win or a draw because of poor officiating. Of course we’ve not helped ourselves too many times as well. But bad officiating in itself has cost us at least 5 points. Am I missing some? I’ve got a very poor memory when it comes to this sort of thing. Maybe someone can remember the specifics. But if it was 5 points, that would bring us two spots out of relegation.

London, giddy London, home of the brash outrageous and free

Observed this morning when walking from Tooting to Balham.

Back to football tomorrow.

A quick break

from all the Fulham misery.  Our friend Shefki Kuqi is on his way out of Crystal Palace.   After being substituted yesterday the crowd jeered and Shefki made ‘a crude gesture’.

Fans’ reactions (13 pages and counting!)

Story

Poor fellow.  He wasn’t great but he had his uses and I’m sure a Championship side ought to be able to use him somehow.

Collapse: Fulham 0-1 West Ham

Did somebody say something about dreams fading and dying?

A kick in the teeth, in more ways than one. Angled cross into the box, Luis Boa Morte in a position of no danger, but, unpredictable as ever, the old bugger chested the ball forwards towards the six yard box. Niemi was alert to the danger but Solano had seen possibilities too, the two collided and the ball trickled into the Fulham net.

Had Niemi claimed the ball before contact? Had Solano fouled him? Had Solano handled the ball into the net? These questions could not be resolved and the goal was awarded.

The game had been absorbing rather than entertaining. Chances were created, but not necessarily good ones. Perhaps the best fell to debutant Eddie Johnson, ghosting in at the far post, but his half volley flew high into the stand. Difficult chance, but in such moments are reputations made, seasons saved. Before that Dempsey had made half a dozen attempts to get past Robert Green, but had not found the power or the accuracy to do so. Bullard prodded and prompted throughout but also found that West Ham’s underrated defence was not in a generous mood. West Ham had little outright threat going forwards but showed considerable ability all over the pitch. In particular Fulham never fully shackled Mark Noble, and West Ham’s midfielder was influential in much of what his team did.

For Fulham, deprived of Simon Davies through suspension, much went according to plan. Hangeland, though unusually nervous on the ball, was again commanding, and Paul Stalteri showed the reliability that good full-backs are known for. Particularly impressive was Leon Andreasen. The young Dane had some terrible touches with the ball, but made a number of very important defensive contributions. He curbed his natural excitability after an early yellow and got on with playing spoiler. He also attacked when able, and surely has a good future ahead of him.

Sadly he chose to dispute the legitimacy of the winning goal and earned himself a second yellow card. This will bring a suspension for the Manchester United game, an absence we can ill afford. This team is showing some signs of promise but four or five players are not replaceable. Andreasen is one of them.

My walk back through Bishop’s Park was a miserable one. I pulled my hood up and sunk my chin into my chest. I closed my eyes, I tried not to think about what’s about to happen. But I know that it’s going to take a miracle to save this season now.

Gallery.  Hade bought me a camera for my birthday, so here’s what we came up with today: 

Leon Andreasen breaks, with Clint outside him

Mixed emotions:  Johnson about to make his debut, while Dempsey realises he is to be sacrificed

The new man in action.  He would switch flanks soon after.  Why on the wings though?  McBride accomplished little up the middle, I was surprised that Johnson was not given the centre-forward role.

Andreasen raiding again.  He’s becoming one of my favourite players.

The end of the world.  Late concession, Andreasen sent off.

It’s all gone so wrong – Fulham 0-1 West Ham

Well, we played well enough. Well enough to draw – at home – against another London Club. We had our chances all right. But the ball didn’t drop quite right and Dempsey didn’t pop it over the keeper and Johnson winged it high and…we could just keep going couldn’t we?

So as I wrote, we played well enough for a draw. In fact that is how the game should have ended. Salano is not marked well by Murphy and breaks free. He gets to the ball at the same time as Niemi. The ball falls, Niemi gets kicked in the face and the ball goes off the arm of Salano. Howard Webb, who wouldn’t let either team play all day as he called foul after foul for good hard play, didn’t call the hand ball. Just as he didn’t call handballs for two other Fulham shots that went off of West Ham players in their box. Such is life at Fulham.

It was hard for me to enjoy todays game. I watched on Fox Soccer Channel and knowing how important this game was, my stomach was in knots the whole 90 min. I think it’s fair to say, we are wading in deeper and deeper and there may be no coming back. At least for this year.

Feel free to post your thoughts until Rich comes in with his match report.