A freezing Saturday in the Midlands. At times it felt as if Villa were playing battleships against Mark Schwarzer. Miss. Miss. Miss. Miss. Miss. Miss. Miss. Miss. Ooooh… miss. And so on. But in the final analysis Fulham had two shots on target to Villa’s one, so nobody can complain about us taking a point.
The two Fulham shots were from Clint Dempsey, who once again gave 130% but occasionally risked a red card in so doing. Having been booked in the third minute he proceeded to launch himself into a series of daring but dangerous flying tackles, most of which he won, thank goodness. He needed medical treatment at least twice, but fought on regardless. It was some performance.
His and our first worthwhile attempt came just before half time, a bouncing ball on the edge of the Villa box that Dempsey sent spiralling towards goal with a left footed volley. Friedel’s save was better than it looked: Dempsey and the defender were 50/50 to reach the ball; the shot came half out of nowhere. Then in the second half some over-elaboration by the tidy but not particularly dangerous Zamora and Johnson resulted in Dempsey bearing down on goal ten yards out. He connected with some power, but Friedel’s positioning was impeccable and he parried the shot easily enough. Good ‘keeper.
At the other end Mark Schwarzer had a strange game. Villa missed several clear chances, particularly a Sidwell header that went over from close range, and a far post Barry header that hit the stanchion. Barry had another header in the second half that seemed almost certain to go in, but from four yards out he planted his effort just too near to Schwarzer and our goalkeeper scooped the ball up and onto the bar. It was hard to know if he’d pulled off an astonishing reflex save or narrowly avoided a terrible mistake. Both perhaps. Other than this his work dealing with crosses was terrific. Villa seemed to be roughing him up a bit, but our man stood his ground. How good it is to have a goalkeeper taking charge of his area.
Villa played a 4-5-1/4-3-3 that gave them a numerical advantage in the middle of the pitch. This was noticeable for much of the game. Fulham’s passing was stifled, the passing lanes just didn’t seem to be there, the Villa players were closing our players down well, and frequently our attacks petered out and were recycled through the back four. It was frustrating, but better to see the side taking care of the ball than panicking into aimlessness. There is a control about our play even when things are not going perfectly, and this is encouraging to see. The other effect of Villa’s packed midfield was that Agbonlahor was somewhat isolated up front, which helped Hughes and Hangeland no end (Carew may have been hard to stop). The Villa forward players are rightly considered among the most exciting in the division, but today was a midfield battle, and we just about held our own.
Two clean sheets away at two of the country’s better sides. We don’t look like scoring away from home at the moment, but you have to consider the quality of the opposition. We’re doing very well.
Meanwhile:
I’m not going to get all tactical, but here you see much of why we struggled. Bullard harried away from the goal we’re attacking, no pass on, nothing to do but pass it back..
