Craven Cottage Newsround

Great bit by Volzy in the Times.

And whatever your job, if you are having a bad time at work, you take it home. It affects your whole life and never leaves your thoughts and this is no different. Our situation isn’t something you can just leave at the training ground. It’s always there in the back of your mind and you take it with you everywhere you go.

I can’t remember the last time I went out with friends because I just don’t feel particularly up for being chirpy and sociable right now. My mind is on other things. You keep looking to the next game and thinking that you are going to turn a corner and it doesn’t happen, so you are constantly feeling disappointed and aware that what you are doing isn’t good enough. It’s exhausting.

The man’s clearly feeling it, doubly so because he’s not getting to be a part of things.

Personally it’s a terrible day for me.  I have a cold and a buggered back.  This has never happened to me before, but it’s really really sore.   I have deadlines at work (I can’t get to work) and I have things to do.  But I feel like shit from two angles and it’s really not happening.   Anyway.

Here is a message from Brian McBride.

Before training yesterday, all of the guys commented on how great our supporters were and I hope that the fans were able to acknowledge our sincere appreciation by the way we celebrated this win with them at the final whistle.

You know, for a while there we got messages every week from players saying much the same as this.  But it’s got to the point where it’s legit I think.  The players were obviously delighted on Saturday, and obviously enjoyed the support we gave them.  And, let’s face it, Fulham fans haven’t always been the loudest.  But now, I’d say that we make good noise (particurly away from home) and in the right way.  Some of the chants on Saturday were hilarious.   You’d like to think that the players, when weighing up their options for the future, might think “well, I love London, I love the ground, and the fans love me… yeah, let’s stay at Fulham”.

Football legend Ian Rush on Saturday’s game:

LIVERPOOL should expect a tough game at Fulham at the weekend because they are fighting for Premier League survival.

Teams who are facing the drop are always dangerous opponents and the fact that Fulham recorded their first away win of the season at Reading on Saturday will have given their confidence a boost.

But Liverpool have enough quality to go to Craven Cottage and win even if Rafa Benitez decides to rest a few players with the Chelsea game on the horizon.

Hmm.  Rush was never seen to be the sharpest knife in the drawer.  I’m not sure what he’s telling us here.   Still, the point holds:  Liverpool should beat us at the weekend.  They might not because sometimes in football unexpected things happen, but all being equal they should win without too much bother.   I’m not getting into this “will he field a proper team?” lark because to me it doesn’t matter massively: whatever team plays will be made up of people he’s bought because he feels they can contribute to Liverpool FC.  Sure it’ll be harder to win if Gerrard and Torres are playing, but they have a squad of good players there and I would assume that their third team could give us a good game.   So we’ll just have to see.