Fulham FC @ Wigan Athletic

"......and on this form we need fear nobody."

Loved the closing line on today's VFST, Hatter! Bring on Citeh!

 

Since I went to my daughters match this morning and watched Fulham on demand I spent the afternoon talking to myself.

First half thoughts

First 5' - I like the kits but Fulham's passing is poor. Nice shot from distance by Kone. Wigan starting brightly.

Second 5' - Bad play by Wigan leads to Fulham corner and a chance for Berbatov that is blocked. Fulham looking very sloppy in possession.

10'-18' - Wigan the better in most all aspects but the match is evening out. Too many balls back to Schwarzer with poor distribution to this point. Lee Probert must have made a nasty comment about gingers as one from each side put in poor simultaneous tackles against the man. Good humor with the red card !

19-22' - Fulham finally grabbing hold of the match with a period of good pressure. Finally looking the more dangerous squad.

19' - Hugo going close off a neat Duff/Berba maneuver.

20' - Baird connects a header from a corner that looks as if it is cleared off the line.

24' - Berba rips one from distance and Hughes nearly gets on the scorer's sheet from a corner that has been redirected toward his feet. Don't think he knew much about it.

26' - Wigan finally turn the tide and Boyce thankfully heads wide off a rather nice cross.

25'-30' - Fulham passing has been sharper and we continue to look dangerous.

30' - First real Kacaniklic sighting.

31' - GOAL! Berbatov sends a cross toward Hugo and this time he finishes.

32'-38' - Wigan pressing after the Fulham goal and Gomez rattles the Fulham crossbar. Unlucky, luckily!

39' - Beautiful cross on the ground from Duff that Kaca blasts high.

39- to HT - Wigan stayed on the front foot to finish out the half.

Halftime thoughts

Riether and Riise in particular have remained pretty much penned into the defensive half by Wigan's possession and pressure. Hugo is looking bright and active up top. Duff is the only midfielder that seems to be getting the better of the battle in his position. Kaca has been fairly missing from the match and Baird and Sidwell are not performing badly in defense but they are doing little to connect the lines and hold possession. Hughes and Hangeland look fine defensively. Schwarzer's distribution has been woeful. Berbatov has been a cut above everyone else. I just expect something to happen when he touches the ball. Wigan was a bit unlucky not to score but for all their possession Fulham have created the better chances and lead 0-1 at the half.

Second half thoughts

45' to 50' - Second half starts as the first half ended with Wigan looking bright and the more composed of the two squads.

51' - Hughes puts a lump in my throat as he is knocked off the ball by Kone leading to an eventual Wigan corner.

52' - Boyce sends a nice cross to Wigan's #8 who heads wide by two yards.

54' - I hold my breath as Hangeland goes down.

56' - Beautiful through ball to Kone. Fortunately a heavy touch and Schwarzer keep Kone from equalizing.

59' - Ruiz for Kacaniklic - Great substitution. Fulham have been struggling with no one to connect the front line to the defense. Hugo and Berbatov have almost been unheard from in the second half. Kaca had one or two good moments but had little overall impact on the match.

62' - Hugo takes on three as Ruiz is calling for the ball but he does draw a FK. Ruiz's FK is saved for a corner.

65' - A beautiful switch from McCarthy send Wigan forward on a counter that eventually leads to a superb chance that probably should have seen Wigan equalize. Brilliant save or a shout for a PK? I couldn't tell.

68' - GOAL! Duff makes Wigan pay for their futility and puts the White's up 0-2 by netting on an assist from Ruiz who held off a couple of Wigan defenders before delivering the ball to Duff.

70' - Sidwell takes a yellow. At the moment we appear to lack that turn of pace in the midfield to slow down or stop the counter.

70' to 80' - Beginning to look as if Fulham will be content to see this out. Wigan still pressing but are being pressed farther away from the 18 to start the attack since the Ruiz substitution.

81' - Berbatov probably should have made it 0-3 on a well worked counter attack.

81'- 90' Fulham content to remain behind the ball with intermittent bouts of passing out of the back.

84' - Wigan corners are atrocious!

90' - Ruiz works out of trouble nicely only to watch Briggs give the ball back to Wigan.

91' - *groans* A bad clearance on another poor corner gives Wigan a lifeline and me a bout of anxiety.

93' - Baird gives up a poor foul to give Wigan one last gasp and even Al Habsi is coming forward. Ball goes harmlessly wide and the FT whistle blows.

Another match leads to more questions in the central midfield. Discounting that Fulham largely parked the bus after the second goal the play in the center of the pitch and possession were dominated by Wigan. Jol will need to find some answers here as Berbatov and Rodallega were largely left stranded in the second half. I expect to see Ruiz and the 4-2-3-1 return. If not immediately as soon as Berbatov struggles to see time on the ball.

Player thoughts

My man of the match goes to Damien Duff. I thought Berbatov and Duff were the players who showed the most quality on the pitch and were the bane of Wigan defenders whenever the ball reached their feet. Hugo threw himself into the match and caused Wigan no end of problems collecting his opening goal in a Fulham shirt for his trouble. He worked hard, got into good positions and at times his passing was neat and tidy. Schwarzer was terrific between the sticks and woeful in his distribution. Hangeland was his usual solid self. Riether and Riise had good matches defensively but could have had better days. Both were kept penned in the defensive end and offered little going forward. Hughes did not have one of his better matches as he was bullied off a ball by Kone and then caught flat footed as the same Wigan forward cleanly and clearly beat him to a fine through ball. Either mistake could have cost Fulham on the day and the through ball deserved to be finished to be honest. Sidwell and Baird sat in front of the back four and their defending was fine when the bus was parked. However, the center of the pitch was almost constantly under Wigan control and the two Fulham center mids were unable to connect the defense to Berbatov and Rodallega to the point that the Fulham forwards almost never saw the ball unless one of them came back to collect it leading to a complete change in formation when Ruiz was subbed in for Kacaniklic. Speaking of Kacaniklic, which was rarely done on the day, the lad has had and will have better days ahead but was unable to make a real impression on this match.

Subs

Bryan Ruiz took a few minutes to get into the flow of the match but helped Fulham see out the match. His possession and passing were top shelf and he collected another assist in 30 minutes on the pitch. This is a player Fulham needs to get healthy and keep on the pitch as he is the class of the Fulham central midfield at the present even if you have to set two defensive mids behind him.

Matthew Briggs saw limited minutes but did have one poor give away. Not enough time to make any impression on the match.

Of course all the really matters is that Fulham got 3 points on the road! :banana-linedance:

 

Barry, great report- thankyou.
Ruiz is the key inthe middle ina 4-2-1-3ish formation. iPhone typing sucks.
Great win away - sorry for jinxing the goal -
COYW

 

I was digging the third kit today.

 

Good result, and while I think a draw would have been fair, a Fulham win was as well. Both teams wasted chances but Fulham created the better ones, imo.

I'm not usually impressed with Jol's tactics and how he matches up with opposition managers, but he nailed it today. One of the primary trends in the Prem is that the home side will come out aggressively and pressure the ball while the road team tends to be more passive (safe) trying to weather the storm and strike on the counter. The exception to that is when the road team is significantly stronger than the home side, but that doesn't apply to us. Today was no exception, Wigan weren't overly aggressive, but they put Baird and Sidwell under good pressure. That's normally a sound strategy for thwarting our offense and beating us. However, Jol countered that by having the back four play a high line. We'd pass up to Baird or Sidwell who would absorb the pressure and pass back to the defense who were then able to play the ball up to the front 4 (Kaca, Duff, Berbatov & Hugo). While this isn't a recipe for maintaining any type of possession, it did afford us plenty of chances b/c we were able to exploit those holes left by Wigan's cms. Berbatov, in particular, was masterful in dropping back for the ball and driving the offense from there. As said before, he was easily a class above anyone else on the pitch and it's going to be fun to watch him in the white and black this year.

For me, possession is nice, but we've proven just how irrelevant it can be when you can't do anything in the final third. Today, it was Wigan's turn to prove that. They dominated possession, helped in part to our parking the bus at times after taking the lead, but the stat was deceiving b/c we outchanced them, both in quantity (7-5 on target) and quality. The other stat that flattered to deceive was corners. We had seven of them but about 1/2 came off of the previous corner being cleared.

I'm a fan of Roberto Martinez and what he's been able to do with a club that really should have been relegated several times now. However, just as Jol got it right, he got it wrong today. When we parked the bus after the first goal, he never sent his fullbacks forward. As a result, we were able to put all four defenders in the box very compactly and used Duff and Kaca to prevent the crosses. Duff really shined in his efforts there as Beausejour couldn't beat him and sent bad ball after bad ball into (and usually over) the area. I almost expected Schwarzer to call for a few fair catches due to the way he put so much air under those weak lobs. Our compact shape and Wigan's poor passing combined to allow us to thwart most of their possession while only giving up a couple of quality chances in the first half.

When Kaca came off and Ruiz came on we switched to more of a 4-5-1 and with the way Berbatov dropped back to receive the ball at times, a 4-6-0. Our possession improved as a result (and b/c we were content to hold it in the midfield and not push forward), but our chances dropped off considerably. Ironically, we did pull the 2nd goal from that formation fairly early into the change, but I'm concerned if this is going to be the first choice offense if everyone's healthy as I suspect it will be. There are a number of problems with that, but I'll have to start a new thread to discuss them instead of highjacking this one. Wigan got more aggressive late but were unlucky a couple of times (like Boselli missing an open net). While it made for a nervy ending, they ultimately couldn't unlock our defense enough to capitalize and we pulled out the three points.

Due to our tactics, the forwards and wings were going to be the players to shine, and with the exception of Kacanicklic, who looked like a player of his age and experience today, they did. As I said, Berbatov was a class apart, but for me MotM was the Duffer. He was critical in attack, but it was his work on the defensive end (and the goal of course) that cinch it for me. You can pretty much give it to Berbatov every match he's in for us and even Hugo would deserve a shout. I was happy for him that he opened his account today as he looked absolutely desperate to do so against his old mates. Schwarzer was the other notable player for the saves he made, particularly coming out aggressively and halting Kone on that 1v1 chance.

Just as the forwards and wings were going to shine, the cm's were going to be average at best with our strategy today. Aided by some poor Wigan passing, for the most part they were. I thought Baird had a couple of egregious giveaways including the one that resulted in Kone going 1v1 with Schwarzer. The back four were solid with the exception of Hughes who looked like he left his brain at home today. His anticipation of the game is usually his strong suit but today it betrayed him and he was poor. I'm starting to grow a little concerned with him back there, so hopefully he'll get it turned around. Riether was probably the best of that bunch, but I'm beginning to think that Duff makes our rb's look better than they might otherwise be. Not that he would be poor w/o Duff, just that DD makes them that much better.

Good reports from Barry and Don. Aside from Ruiz "nearly scoring from a free kick" (it was on target but a very comfortable save) and the rating of our cms, my only real critique of the VFST would be the last line (the one jump liked). If we're talking about our form as it pertains to results, I'd agree. If we're talking about our form on the pitch, I disagree. Better teams will expose our weaknesses and there are plenty of them there to be exploited. Regardless, we've got an early road win and pretty much a maximum return from the matches played so far as compared to expectation. Our schedule toughens up significantly in several weeks, so the more pts we can put in the bank now, the better off we'll be. Contrary to some things I've read, I don't think we're pushing for Europe yet, but we're likely better than my initial prediction of 14th. Next week should be interesting, but for now, I'm content to savor the moment.

 

:clap: Hard to add anything w/the amount of exceptional post match reports contributed here, but one thing that was talked about in the chat besides his obvious class as a player, is how hungry and hard working Berba appears to be. This guy has missed playing and it shows. When your most skilled player is hustling like that, it lifts everyone around him.

 

Another suBerba performance from Fulham's biggest signing ever in the premier league. No I understand the meaning of "WITNESS". Sublime skill

 

If you are asking me if I enjoyed Matt's views on the match, his writing or if the piece was page 1 material the answer is yes. If you are asking me to forgo my weekly Hatter fix I would prefer not to. Besides, there is room for you both I would bet.

 

Do you realize Matt is an Aggie? Just sayin'. (okay that is in prep for Rice's 100th anniversary and my 25th, Come on you Owls, oh I forgot it's the FIGHTING OWLS)

 

I prefer hitting the trifecta and reading all 3 insights :handgestures-thumbupleft:

 

I would love to pick some of the fine writing like Don's and Matt's to post on the Fulhamusa facebook page and Google+ webpage and link back to the threads here to add another source of readers for this website. I have learned an awful lot of football and Fulham from the fine folks that post here. No reason it couldn't reach out and touch a few others.

 

+1

So nice to see a very solid effort on the road! Keep the points comin' boys!

 

I have no problem with that. If I post something you deem worthy of that, go ahead.

Thanks for the compliments.