West Brom 1-0 Fulham
That’s four defeats in a row. Three of them close games away from home, one odd game at home, but nothing to show for any of them. And now two weeks to stew on it all.
I think we’d all hoped for a better season, and while the night is still young, the points are not yet on the board. As we know only too well, if you start a season badly it can be hard to make up ground later on. Put another way, we need to start winning soon.
Which we may well do. Andy Johnson was missing here, and is expected to be one of our more influential players this season. When he returns and hits his stride things could be different. Let’s hope so.
Today the whites replayed previous frustrations, solid enough at the back, neat in the middle, slightly ragged up front. At times it made us look the better team, particularly in the first half, but again we have finished a game without unduly troubling the opposing goalkeeper. This lack of spark up front is worrying, a team built as we are built ought to be able to fashion chances.
There were some opportunities today: Dempsey hit three or four 20 yard drives that could have been dangerous; the same player headed over when well placed in the second half; Gera had a half-chance that he narrowly missed; Bullard had a couple of free-kicks. All chances from which goals could come, but nothing clear, nothing dangerous. I expect more from this midfield.
The defence was again reasonable. The goal, coming in the second half when Albion were rampant, was a messy concession, a corner not cleared, bodies everywhere, stabbed finish. But they all count don’t they? West Brom’s greater purpose in the second half, their greater passion, it all added up and they probably deserved to sneak the points.
So another day, another away defeat. There is a fine line between pragmatic adherence to sound principles and stubborn clinging to methods that aren’t quite working; Roy will doubtlessly be having a good think about this over the next two weeks.
(Jamie’s at the ground and will be checking in at some point over the weekend. He suggested “so far, so Blackburn” at one point, and was proved correct)
After a good first half, we struggled after the Baggies upped the tempo and pressed us. They made it difficult for us to play in the middle of the park. When teams take away the easy pass to Bullard or Murphy, we have to work it up the wings and we seem so much less effective when our outside midfielders receive the ball with their back to goal.
Zamora was clearly under the weather and probably should have been subbed earlier. I thought that Gera was shockingly poor and was surprised to see him finish the match. Not only did he flubb his clear chance, he wasted another good opportunity in the first half when he was between two minds and hit a half-chip/cross that went harmlessly over the endline. Not a good return to the Hawthornes for him.
Murphy’s reaction to being subbed was really bad. If you’re the captain, you can’t act like that. Roy was right to pull him off as he was clearly struggling so for him to not pass off the armband to Hughes showed a lack of professionalism that is unacceptable.
I thought Dempsey was probably our best player today. He showed initiative and generally made the correct choices when in attack. Would have liked to see him hit the target with that header, but I think that chance was more difficult than it looked.
Warren Barton who has resurfaced here in the States as a studio commentator made an interesting point about Fulham. He thinks that while Hodgson’s slow build-up passing game is very pleasing to watch, it will have trouble succeeding in the high tempo style of the Prem. It’s an intriguing point when you think of all of the matches where when the other side has pressed us, we tend to struggle in regaining control of the match.
It is an interesting point. At the moment it does seem as though teams are happy for us to play in front of them, close us down, and restrict our shots.
I think that’s why we were so positive after Bolton, because Johnson really stretched the game and made it quite hard for the opponents to just block us out. Without him, and without a set piece headerer (McBride, Bocanegra type) it does sometimes seem as if goals are going to be hard to find.
Roy’s game is all about moving players around, but he seems to want his full-backs to provide the team’s width. Paintsil can do this, even if he seems to have gone off the boil a little lately. Konchesky, on the other hand, is really not a good attacking full-back. This seems to undermine the whole premise of our attacks.
It’s hard to know if we’re a few tweaks off or whether we’re really missing something. It was a run like this that saw Sanchez lose the plot, so one would hope that Roy’s evenness will help, but against that, we do perhaps need to work on being more unpredictable. For all the half-bright criticism Dempsey’s getting on TiFF, he does create opportunities. He did today, he did last year, he will next year. In a team that’s struggling to make openings, this is vital.
Especially with Simon Davies really struggling to recapture last season’s form. I’m not sure what’s happening, but his displays have been average this year, and that’s disappointing given how good he was last season. Bullard was again erratic, and Murphy had one of those games where he was neither fish nor fowl, not attacking much, not defending, not really contributing as much as you might hope. Gera is a worry, although like Dempsey, he does seem to have a habit of finding himself in goalscoring positions, so I feel patience is right where he’s concerned.
The defence is reasonable, a fit Zamora with an eligible Johnson pretty much sorts out the attack, so it’s probably all about the midfield now. Interesting to see where Roy goes with it.
I should have known not to check the message boards after the game. You’d think that we have Ruud Van Nistelrooy rotting on the bench or something.
Gera and Davies were both pretty poor. Perhaps we’ll see Mr. Dempsey getting a shot in midfield soon?
In the second half, Murphy continually gave the ball away in our half of the field — usually just at the moment we gained possession. Given that, and given Bullard’s erratic passing, it was obvious what was going to happen when they also started getting bossed around by Greening and Valero.
I didnt think there was anything wrong with our back four. Given someone to break up opponents attacks and to put a little bite in the tackle, we might do well this year.
The big loser today was the neutral fan. What with the weather and some seriously erratic passing from both sides, two attractive sides produced some very poor football.
Yes, AJ’s pace definitely opens things up for us. With him in the side, we’re a different team.
It’s weird how Konchesky’s form has dropped this year. He should be thriving in this style, but he just seems very unsure of himself. Even though it seems like he’s been around forever, he’s only 26 so it’s all very puzzling.
Davies seems to be very frustrated. He’s usually very composed on the pitch, but I’ve noticed him having more negative displays of emotions, especially towards teammates.
There seems to be friction between him and Bullard, especially over free kicks. Davies had a chance against West Ham last week which he flubbed and after it, you could see him responding in Bullard’s direction with a frustrated “shut up, I know what I’m doing” reaction. It appeared to me that Bullard was complaining that he didn’t get to take the chance. Who knows, maybe I’m reading too much into things…it’s hard to tell on TV.
Colin – I agree. I keep replying to posts and then giving up and closing the window halfway through my response! I should just leave it.
George – agree. Davies was very much “the man” while Bullard was out wasn’t he? He took the corners and free kicks (very well) and now seems slightly marginalised now Bullard’s doing everything. Hard to know from the outside though, and Bullard’s earned the right to take them, but it does seem as though there’s a little edge gone from Simon’s game.
Konch has it in him to be excellent, we’ve all seen that, but at present I’d be tempted to play Kallio, who impressed me both times he played. I like the look of Stoor too, who, while not quite showing form yet, has that *something* about him that makes him look like a good player. I’m half confident about him.
I was there and really have little to say. We were competent, one paced and toothless. I don’t feel like singling out individual players and Johnson will help but right now it’s not working because there’s no urgency or bite.
We play OK. It’s pretty and organised but it doesn’t threaten and if it continues for much longer we will certainly get the relegation we deserved the last 2 seasons.
especially as our ‘rivals’ are finding ways to win games. It’s still early, but there are no pushovers this season (not that we took advantage last season) and it’s going to be a tough old battle.
Rich – “he seems to want his full-backs to provide the team’s width. Paintsil can do this, even if he seems to have gone off the boil a little lately.”
That reminds me – something I forgot to mention in my report. I’m pretty sure Roy, or someone, has told Paintsil to stop overlapping, because he wasn’t doing it yesterday whilst it was 0-0. A number of time in the first half I noticed him pass the ball inside to Davies, shape to run down the line but then apparently change his mind, or realise something, and jog backwards instead. A shame, if true.