Fulham 0-2 Liverpool
It was a massive game and the occasion seemed to get to the players. For Fulham to have a chance we needed to see fluency like we saw at Reading, and luck like… well, no, there has been no luck. Everyone had to play well, but unfortunately the usually reliable Kasey Keller chose today to make his first mistakes of the season and two of Liverpool’s three shots got past him. Sometimes goalkeeping can be very unforgiving.
The first was a stunner. In the first quarter of an hour Fulham, particularly the impressive Dempsey, had taken the game by the scruff of the neck and were positive, vibrant and determined. But a simple ball through the defence allowed Pennant to get the wrong side of Hangeland (whose anticipation and recovery might be questioned if we’re being harsh). From the edge of the area the winger let fly and the net bulged at Keller’s near post. The ‘keeper had not moved, seemingly sure that the ball was going wide. Keller brings a lot to the team and has been an asset in recent weeks, but he should have stopped that.
This killed the game, and therefore the season. From here Fulham huffed and puffed but the crowd was downhearted and the red defence was everywhere. The situation almost cried out for some chaos, some hustle and bustle, but instead Fulham persisted on trying to pass their way through this most impressive of teams, and predictably got nowhere. Javier Mascherano, like Owen Hargreaves a few weeks ago, saw everything, stopped it, then recycled the ball well. It was a joyous performance from this strange but brilliant footballer.
Fulham had chances but scuffed them all. McBride mishit a volley from a few yards out, Healy did the same. The pair linked up quite well but were not dangerous. McBride really could not make an impression on the game and his substitution came later than his performance deserved. Equally disappointing was Simon Davies, so devastating against Reading, but now completely nullified by Liverpool. He switched flanks, he roamed, but everywhere he went someone in a red shirt was there and able to stop him. This led to a lot of possession being recycled between Hangeland, Hughes, Stalteri and Konchesky. It went back, forth, then long and wayward. Benitez, even for a minor game such as this, presumably set his side up to make this happen. On the occasions where Bullard and Murphy could get the ball they were harried into the easy out ball, which was usually back to Hangeland or Konchesky, and the futility went on.
Clint Dempsey stood out. As usual he had the dirtiest jersey at full time, and was the Fulham player most likely to make something happen. Early on he ran fast and direct and panicked the Liverpool defence. Later he won good headers in difficult positions, but was unable to find the target. He also hit an early left footed shot that deflected agonisingly wide with Reina beaten. The Liverpool goalkeeper’s only other scare came when Murphy was put through, but the former Liverpool player’s shot was diverted wide by Reina’s shin. It came with 15 minutes to go and was probably our only good chance to retrieve the situation.
Liverpool were good enough. They benefitted from a soft opener that meant they could coast and defend, then scored a soft second (Keller seemed to be surprised by Crouch’s less than deadly finish) and will be very pleased at picking up three points so easily.
The season is still saveable, but three wins will probably be required from three games.
It’s easy to talk with hindsight but I did also say on TIFF before the game that we needed Andreasen back in the team for this game – an attacking but lightweight midfield of Murphy, Bullard, Clint and Dempsey may have been ok against an equally weak Reading, but surely they were always going to be outmuscled and ineffective against Liverpool. As the commentator on MOTD said, ‘Mascherano has this game in the palm of his hand.’
Yet again we see a manager falling in to the trap of automatically playing exactly the same team and tactics the next week after a win, despite the fact we’ve got a completely different opponents. It’s an indictment against Roy that we’ve now failed to turn up in each of the three games after our three wins – Boro, Newcastle and yesterday were all worryingly lifeless performances.
Ah well, I’m looking forward to next season – should all be very interesting. I think everyone knows we’re down now so hopefully the Man City and Pompey away-days will be a laugh, with the pressure off. From Roy’s point of view though, it may be that we need three good performances for him to stay in the job.
Yeah, it does seem as though the season was saveable, but I’m more positive about Roy than most. But then this seems to be a judgemental failing of mine…
I can’t stand to read TiFF today. The negativity, the need to point fingers, to blame, blame, blame. I can understand that people are upset but this just makes it worse for me.
There was a fellow right by the pitch by the tunnel yesterday and he was giving everyone an earful. Hodgson got it and looked over at him as he walked off, them smiled ruefully and disappeared down the tunnel. Dempsey was next, fixed the fellow with a glare, then grinned and waved.
As you say, next year’ll be good fun, and so should the last few games. We went to Reading in a good frame of mind because we thought thes eason was over, and hopefully these will be the same.
And now on the radio they’re talking about Sunderland and Wigan and Bolton and Birmingham and none of those teams are really any better… oh well. What’s done is done.
I’ll say this here rather than on TIFF but I’m becoming seriously pissed off by people who seem to think that “appoint the right manager” is profound advice that had never occurred to MacNally and MAF.
Or think that the words “Paul Ince” solve our problems.
I don’t have easy solutions and its possible that Hodgson is too old to be a manager but I do trust him to know where we’ve gone wrong and to have a damn good go at putting things right.
Whether he stays or not though we won’t get anywhere changing managers every 6 months and expecting instant results.
I agree with Tony. Roy needs to stay on the entire next season at the very least. Let him bring in some players in the summer, firmly establish his methods and tactics and get the side shaped the way he wants it come the first match of the season. I understand the consequences of relegation are enormous but I think we’d be going down no matter who replaced Lawrie Sanchez. If we give Roy time and resources, I believe he will bring us back up.
I too agree. Just for the record, when I wrote “it may be that we need three good performances for him to stay in the job” I was merely saying what I think might happen, rather than what I think *should* happen, necessarily.
I have reservations about our performance under Roy so far – he’s tried to trust the players and keep some continuity with tactics/team selection, but sometimes (like yesterday) that’s manifested itself as simply being too slow and not ruthless enough – Murphy, for instance, should have been off at half time. In fact, ‘too slow and not ruthless enough’ could also describe our style of play under Hodgson. I also worry about his ability to really motivate a team when it matters, having seen a number of incredibly flat performances from our players now, especially considering the magnitude of some of the games. Yesterday was a prime example, as was the no-show up at Newcastle.
Having said all that, there are lots of things to like about Hodgson. And I certainly agree with the whole continuity point. To be honest, I think even if we got someone like Ince in, they really got the players fighting and got us promoted next year – it’d only the same old story again in the Premiership. I think I’d almost rather spend a few years in the Championship with Roy using all his know-how and experience to oversee a proper re-structure of the club, including the academy and scouting systems which haven’t produced anything in the last five years with the possible exceptions of Rosenior and Diop respectively.
As Tony says, it’s pretty obvious there’s no quick-fix, and if we want to become the next Blackburn (which I suppose is the limit of our ambitions for a club our size in the current football climate?) it’s not going to happen overnight. The good thing is that – if you ask me – it makes for interesting times ahead.
I agree, Jamie, but I don’t see that Roy could’ve changed the team that was so good at Reading. Had he done so and we’d lost to Liverpool (I still can’t get my head around a world where people are furious that we’ve lost to Liverpool) he’d have been ripped for that.
He looked devastated yesterday, and, as suggested in the comments here a while ago, it wouldn’t surprise me a bit if he resigned at the end of the season. I hope he doesn’t, but this must be an awful lot of stress for a man who has made a good life for himself in football.
I hope he stays, trims the squad to something sensible, and rebuilds how he wants to. I can see us walking the championship if we keep our players.
Well, I agree that after every defeat there’s an inevitable over-reaction – but I don’t think it’s just the fact that we lost, more the ease with which we allowed Liverpool to brush us aside that people are upset about. We should have been so up for it and in their faces – there should have been tackles flying in etc etc… but it never happened.
I think Andreasen could have helped with that side of things. He should have been played and instructed to basically irritate a few people. Or Volzy, whoever – someone with a bit of bite about them. I do think there’s a case for changing a winning team if the opponents the next week are a different proposition, which Liverpool clearly are. That four in midfield worked well against Reading (who are crap) but were always going to be too lightweight against Mascherano et al. It’s not that I’m saying Andreasen would have made all the difference and we would have won if he’d played… but I just don’t think Roy even went about it the right way yesterday.
Anyway I too hope Roy doesn’t resign, or even worse get sacked. He’s a good guy who took on a pretty difficult task, and if only for the way he’s conducted himself and has been a credit to the club during this tough time, I think he deserves more than six months to try and get things right.
I also agree about Andreasan but I must admit that it is in hindsight as I thought Roy was right in picking the same team in order to stabelise a squad that had suddenly found form.
I also thought the Liverpool back four and midfield were on a different planet and bar Man u were the best team to visit the Cottage.
The areas which will need fixing before we start next season are a decent centre back to replace Hughes (there is only so much Hangeland can do by himself)and a replacement for McBride.
Bad day but maybe we over-rated ourselves, at the end of the day Liverpool have just dumped Arsenal out of the CL and could win the competition.
Only so much Hangeland can do by himself? He might start by doing his share of defending. Pennant slipped by him without too much bother, and the second Liverpool goal, like most of those we’ve conceded lately, was in the inside right channel that Hangeland’s supposed to be patrolling.
(sorry, Bruno, not meant to be so confrontational, but I hate how Hughes and the other Sanchez signings seem to get singled out despite generally doing alright. Hangeland started alright for Fulham, but his recent performances show that he’s a work in progress. Hodgson should be able to make him better, but there is work to be done!)
I’m at a loss to decide where we go from here. I like Roy and agree we need to look long term if we’re to reclaim top flight status. However, we have failed to win games that were within our reach, and at times have tried to play ourselves out of trouble when we really needed to just scrap. I’d love it if we could retain the best of our squad, and let Roy rebuild the way he wants, but even then I’m not convinced we’d have an easy ride back.
If Sanchez has signed Brendan O’Hangeland the boyo would be receiving serious grief on the message boards.
I agree that Hangeland has made his share of mistakes but i think he is under more pressure than normal centre backs because of the lack of height from Hughes, we suffered from this before he arrived but seem to lose the cross the ball in goals (Arsenal) almost straight away. Its no coincedence that Crouch targetted Hughes yesterday. By the way I am not criticising him because he was a Sanchez signing, i just dont think he is physical enough for that role.
I actually thought Hughes had a decent game yesterday. While I would prefer to see Boca in this role the Irishman does go about his task quietly and pretty efficiently. Hangeland is currently having one decent game followed by one nightmare. Zat all over again?
Anyone seen my near post?
Yes. It’s just beyong that round thing you didn’t notice going over your left shoulder.