Pre-season optimism ruined in a day. This Fulham team has weaknesses and they were exposed at the first time of asking. That the team to do the exposing was Hull City is something we must try to ignore if we are to retain any sanity for the long slog ahead.
The game started well: Seol tricked down the left and crossed for Gera, but the Hungary player’s left footed volley was unconvincing. The ball was behind his run but it was a chance. Hull went up the other end and nearly scored themselves, Mark Schwarzer, blameless today, made a fantastic save at full strength to deny a Giovanni header. The ball dropped just the right side of the line, and John Paintsil cleared the resulting trouble.
Then we did score. Bullard stood the ball into the box from the right and Seol’s glancing header slipped into the far corner. 1-0! You’re in the big time now, Hull!
So we set about compiling our thrashing. Several near chances came and went, that man Gera missing another decent opportunity, again on his left foot. The pressure was all ours; the goals were presumably coming.
But here it went wrong. Using the Murphy and Bullard combination is a calculated risk; by keeping the ball they don’t have to tackle, the theory seems to go. That’s the idea, and it’s an important one, because nobody in our cultured midfield *can* tackle. And the downside to this is that teams will always get room around our box. Exhibit A: Geovanni, cuts inside Gera, nobody there to close him down, Hangeland can’t get out in time, screaming left footed shot beats Schwarzer.
We didn’t recover our composure. The midfield and the forwards couldn’t relate to one another, variously too far apart or not on the same wavelength. It got very scrappy. Bobby Zamora, on his debut, worked hard, but nothing went for him. There were no nice combinations around the box, no real chances; very disappointing. Part of the problem was George Boateng, whose disruptive presence for Hull mimicked exactly what he did to us last year for Middlesbrough. Gera showed flashes, so did Davies, but Bullard and Murphy in the middle could not control the game at all.
Gera had another chance in the second half, again on his left foot, again fluffed. This bears watching: if he’s a right footed player being used on the left then we may see more of this. The assumption has always been that he is capable of using both feet and doing damage either way, but three decent left footed chances came and went today, which cost us.
It came to Paul Konchesky to deliver the knockout blow. Deep in his own area, his usual stepover then clearance move failed him, he was dispossessed and Hull scored. It was a terrible error from one of our more reliable players.
Roy summoned Clint Dempsey, Erik Nevland and Leon Andreasen, but with the benefit of hindsight these moves came far too late. Andreasen in particular was required far sooner. It’s easy to be wise after the event, but the Murphy and Bullard pairing needed reinforcing from about the 30th minute onwards.
Not quite back to the drawing board – one of Roy’s strengths is to keep an even keel rain or shine, especially this early in the year – but that was a very disappointing start to the season.
