Blackburn 1-0 Fulham
A game we could have won. For one thing we had several good chances to do so; for another Blackburn were fortunate to have eleven men on the field after several brutal assaults on Fulham players in the first half.
Good start: Simon Davies’ cross was diverted towards goal by Andy Johnson, only for Paul Robinson to save well. There followed a series of Blackburn attempts that weren’t dangerous in themselves, but perhaps hinted at a problem in front of our back four.
This is going to be referred to as “Hodgson’s Choice” from now on. Does he go with his four passers, hoping that by keeping the ball and attacking as a group, we can get by without a ball winner? Or does he sacrifice some fluidity by plugging the hole that is usually found between our defence and midfield?
So far we have seen four lots of option A, and in the two games we have won this has served us well. But in the two games we have lost it has been a noticeable weakness. Against Hull we conceded when Geovanni walzed towards the edge of our box and smashed his shot beyond Schwarzer. Today we conceded late when a delightful Villanueva chip – from the defensive midfielder patrol area – dropped behind our back four, onto Santa Cruz’s head, and from there into the path of Matt Derbyshire, who did the rest. It’s a big problem, and one that seems more acute away from home.
It was a very open game. In the first half both sides had chances, Brett Emerton hit the angle of bar and post, Bobby Zamora retorting with two headers from close in: he might have converted either. We played quite good football but always looked vulnerable. Blackburn were clearly interested in making a point: Bullard was clobbered twice, Johnson got a battering too, and surely somewhere a red card should have been shown to stop this. Injuries happen this way.
Blackburn, perhaps sensing that a line had been crossed, got more legal in the second half, and Fulham began to take control. Zamora had another headed opportunity, Johnson was put clean through but was thwarted by Robinson again, and there was a sense that we were now the better team.
Not so. Blackburn picked our pocket in the 81st minute, with one substitute setting up another.
Very disappointing result, considering the chances that we had.
I’ve always had a bugaboo with Roy’s reluctance to bring on subs, but really felt he should have used 1 or 2 of his players on the bench. In using his three subs, Ince had pretty much announced his side’s intentions for the remainder of the match. Knowing that Blackburn was desperate for three points after some pretty poor performances lately, Roy had to know that they would be facing a more attacking side in the last quarter of the match. To me, it was a perfect time to inject Andreasson in for Murphy and perhaps Nevland for Zamora.
Murphy was clearly laboring and showing signs of fatigue (poor touch, clumsy fouling, etc). Andreasson could have helped bolster midfield as well as taken some of the defensive responsibilities to a hobbled Bullard. Since we would have been happy to take a draw here, this switch would have given us a better opportunity to achieve this.
(BTW, it’s criminal that no one stepped up to defend Bullard’s honor after those blatant takedowns. I hate to take out the hatchet on another player, but sometimes you have to let the other team know that there will be consequences if they continue to take runs at one of your best players. Yet another reason to have an enforcer in your midfield).
We really had no attack down the wings all day and seemingly preferred to try to play the ball through the middle. As hard as he tried, Zamora struggled to hold the ball up against Samba and Nelson which is a tall order for anyone.
With Blackburn pushing further up, I felt that Nevland would have interjected more pace into our side. The combination of him and Andy Johnson perhaps could have troubled the Blackburn back four at a crucial time in the match. Johnson had shown throughout the day how his pace could cause problems. While his finishing could have been better on some of the chances that he got, he should have had even more opportunities but poor balls by Davies and Murphy let him down.
A frustrating result.