JamieR’s report from the game:
A cold, rainy, mid-August day at the Cottage was the setting for Fulham’s final pre-season friendly of 2008 against Serie A side Torino. The Italians brought with them a set of about 300 very lively followers; directed by a (presumably freezing) row of shirtless fanatics at the front, they jumped around, waved flags, swung scarves and generally made a racket. For the first fifteen minutes or so I have to admit to finding this pocket at the end of the Riverside stand a more interesting watch than the game itself.
However, it wasn’t long before proceedings livened up – some neat interplay on the right meant that Seol was able to feed Bobby Zamora, who put us 1-0 up. Soon afterwards Seol repeated the trick, this time from the byline on the left, and this time it was Gera who received his cut-back, finishing with aplomb to increase our lead. In between the goals, an embarrassing mix-up between Hughes and Schwarzer had let Torino’s centre forward clean through on an open goal, only for Brede Hangeland to cut out his goal-bound shot with a heroic sliding stop. So far, so good.
It was in the second half that our creative midfield of Bullard, Murphy and Gera really started to purr and we began to play some excellent passing stuff. Bobby Zamora was all over the place, looking strong, willing to run the channels and with no little pace – the prospect of him an Johnson pairing up together really is something to look forward to. Despite all these good signs, a third goal never came.
Eventually the creator of both our goals was substituted prompting cheers/jeers from a section of the Hammersmith End crowd – such is the nature of football fans. More determination from Zamora led to him wrestling possession from a defender when he had no right to, and Steven Davis was unfortunate not to convert the forward’s cut-back. Then, something really rather annoying happened – Torino scored two goals. The first came from a delicate chip into the area which was emphatically volleyed past Schwarzer, and the second a deflected shot from the edge of the area. A game we were cruising in was now somehow level; a confidence-boosting win had been rudely turned into a draw.
Still, good signs were there. There was a point in the second half we calmly kept possession for a good three or four minutes as the Italians sat back. No-one panicked when a killer ball wasn’t immediately on – instead, twenty to thirty passes were exchanged between the forwards and midfield before the ball was eventually worked to Konchesky in space on the left. His cross was awful and the crowd sighed with regret. But this was the right way to play. Despite the late lapses, there’s no denying this was an encouraging end to our pre-season campaign. Now on to the serious stuff.
Hameur’s gone to Charlton. I think I’ve said everything I have to say about Bouazza, but this surprises me slightly. On the one hand, he wasn’t nearly consistent enough, refined enough, or durable enough to be a regular player on a good Premiership team. On the other he clearly has talent. I guess this is where a loan works well for him: if he gets regular football at Charlton he could improve.
The wide midfield roles will be covered by two of Davies, Gera, Dempsey, Seol and possibly Andy Johnson. Which is fine, I suppose. Something for Roy to upgrade as and when he can find the right player.
Also worth noting is that the Volz to Middlesbrough stories are sounding more concrete. If this happens it’ll be interesting to see how he plays; Volzy’s someone who I think could surprise people if he gets a regular run.
Torino match report from Jamie in the next couple of days… I was at the in-laws, but now my promise of a football-free summer has expired and I shall revert to old ways.
Final note: just watched some highlights from the 2005 Ashes. I realised that this incredible series felt exactly like Fulham’s escape last season, a prolonged period of sporting madness that you keep expecting to go wrong but that, incredibly, doesn’t. Seeing the Aussies there…. I mean, how were we supposed to beat them? But we did, amazingly. Same for Fulham. We had no way to win those games, it shouldn’t have happened. But somehow it did. Sport’s great.
In yesterday’s press conference Roy spoke about having seven forwards. He said that some of them may be disappointed at moving down the pecking order now that we have Zamora and Johnson and, while he wouldn’t be actively looking to sell any of them, he would understand if they wanted to move on.
I thought I’d have a look at the pecking order. But I quickly realised that it’s not that simple: if you lose Andy Johnson to injury there’s a fair chance that you bring in Eddie Johnson to replace him. As you’ll see above, only three of our forwards have roadrunners to their name.
It’s all going to be quite fluid, I suspect. Diomansy’s injured for now, so he’s out. Eddie Johnson’s the only other player with pace, so he might get some games; Nevland seems to have carved himself a role as a late rescuer; David Healy is worth having around for his ability to score at unexpected moment; Collins John might turn back into what he once was. You can see why Roy isn’t in any great hurry to shift any of this group, particularly if A.Johnson and Zamora are not the most durable players in the world.
Something else: never mind the exact scoring system used here – it’s very very arbitrary – but the thing I’ve just noticed is that none of our players got an aeroplane!
As I understand it, Zamora is a good forward who holds the ball up well, but he is not a target man in the old fashioned sense and not great in the air (that’s what I’ve heard – it may be wrong). None of the other players head the ball either. We really had better keep the ball on the deck. Which might not be the end of the world. Spain just won the euros with Villa and Torres up front, neither of whom are famous headerers. But it also suggests that Clint Dempsey’s days as a forward line fill in are not entirely over.
