Fulham v the Scousers

At the Cottage. Bottom line is get the 3 points. In recent seasons we wouldn't be worried about playing the 7th place team in our house. Hopefully Clint is good to go. Time to start Ruiz, time to kick start our season.

 

X2! COYW!

 

Finally, a match where I'll both be home and not busy and hence, can actually watch live (the DVR's been getting a work out this season).

The bad news: Liverpool haven't lost since Spurs crushed them 4-0 way back on September 18th (i.e. 11 unbeaten in all competitions).

The good news: They haven't exactly been lighting up the score sheet and our defense has looked very solid the last couple matches. Neither have we, but if our defense can prevent Robin Van Persie from finding net, we should be able to hold Andy Carroll and Luis Suarez at bay, neither of whom have been in great form. We've been dreadfully unlucky in our last two at the Cottage (or dreadfully poor in the waning minutes, take your pick) and deserved at least a point from both the losses to Everton and Spurs. Three points is a tough ask, as always, but in spite of their unbeaten streak, the Scousers have had their troubles scoring and share of injury problems, so we're getting them at the right time.

The optimist in me says 1-0 to Fulham, the more practical part of me says 1-1.

And I'll be in the chat room for the match as well.

~Steve

 

We have got to start getting results, beginning today. Any side that can draw against Man City at home and Arsenal on the road is capable of much, much more.

It starts TODAY!

3-NIL, GOOD GUYS!!!

C.O.Y.W.!!!!!!

 

My line-up

-------------Aussie

Kelly---Hughes---Hangeland---Riise

Duff--Murph--Etuhu--Dembele

-------Zamora--Demps

Bring Ruiz on at the half for Duff, Davies(if he's finally fit) on for Murphy at 70 min. Ruiz is starting to really look comfortable but I still dont think he's ready for the full 90. I would rather bring his talents into the match when he's fresher than everyone else.

I'm not looking forward to watching Suarez.

 

COYW!!!

Fulham can turn over Liverpool at the Cottage - look at the recent past. 3 points would be manna from heaven.

 

Rarely do we get the calls, but the red card was harsh against Liverpool and Clint was skating on thin ice w/his bust up w/Bellamy. Moose was class, Ruiz was bright, Mark w/a wonder safe on Downey's shot, Clint worked his @ss off, and Bobby looks like he belongs on that show Walking Dead. It wasn't pretty, but the result was BEAUTIFUL :!: :!: :!: :!: :!: :!:

 

Great match... all's well that ends well as the cliche goes. They spent about the last 15 minutes giving me a heart attack... but it's worth it for 3 points. And I got to watch it live and have a nice chat with AggieMatt.

Some thoughts

EDIT: SoCalJoe summed up most of what I say below pretty well in only a couple sentences, also like the Zamora/zombie comparison. When you play back to the goal, you blow hot and cold, and he's definitely ice cold right now.

- Liverpool probably deserved a point in an overall, very evenly played match (Liverpool had better pace and possession and some good chances, but our backline and the Aussie were unbreakable and we had our good chances as well) and the sending off of Spearing was too harsh, he caught Dembele in a bad place, but it should've been a yellow if anything.
- All four defenders played well- Senderos and Hangeland used their size to disrupt any attack that didn't start on the wings and while some of the clearances were dodgy, Riise and Kelly did their jobs. Etuhu also did yeoman work coming back to defend.
- Murphy gave away possession too cheaply at times and should've been subbed after we took the lead (hindsight 20-20, but he looks more and more tired towards the end of matches), but he did have his moment of brilliance by setting up Dempsey's goal even it was merely stinging Reina's hands enough for him to cough up the ball.
- Dempsey fully deserved his goal even if it was a rebound of Reina, his earlier chance off the crossbar was a brilliant strike that had Reina beaten. As usual, his work rate was excellent.
- Dembele needs to work on his finishing and certainly could've put away at least one of the chances he struck directly at Reina, but other than that- he had an excellent game, passed well, created chances and basically caused chaos for Liverpool's defense.
- Schwarzer, not enough hyperbole can be said about his late save of Downing's great strike... it looked good in real time, in instant replay he caught it on his fingertips and pushed it off the post. Absolutely brilliant.

We had some luck, but with all the chances we created, we certainly deserved at least a point and either team could've had all three, so I'm glad it was us. We're up to 13th and only 1 point behind with better Goal Difference than teams 9-12, so 3 points against Swansea and we can establish ourselves in the top half where we belong. COYW.

~ Steve

 

3 Points!!!!!!!!!

COYW!!!!

13th and staring at the top half. Come on Fulham!

 

Who was the only Fulham fan in a pub full of Scousers?
<--- this girl

Yes...and I made sure I was very loud and made a very big loud deal about our very big win !

 

Great job Terri! I listened to GJ in the office and was late to a meeting to hear the end! Totally worth it.

 

What a performance!!!!

So glad I was able to sneak this one at work today (while I worked on a report of course!) Was so impressed by the defense and Schwarzer. Dembele looked dangerous and of course Dempsey was a man on a mission. It's never a good idea to tick Deuce off! Just wish Zamora could have been a little more involved though.

Liverpool were very unlucky to get the red card but with all the bad luck we've had this season, we finally caught a break. 3 pts never felt so good!!!

COYW!!

 

Funny how these things go. We didn't particularly play any better than in any of the recent poor results. But we seemed to get the right bounces when we needed them defensively and we took all 3 points which does wonders for one's outlook on the match. It was nice to get a bad call go our way for a change with Spearing's red.

Hopefully Murph's injury isn't too severe. We've got what should be a likely 3 pts coming up and our shoddy distribution will be that much poorer in his absence. Great result and it was fun to share it with Steve in the chatroom.

Don, I don't know about Ruiz's weight, but he does get knocked off the ball very easily.

 

Murphy's injury worries me as well. Hopeful it's not serious

 

Had to rely on the DVR for this one, so finally started watching after a long day. I was honestly worried for my possessions (in that they may have ended up airborn out my window) had we not gotten a result out of this match.

I had a whole long rant planned about how playing desperate football won't get you anywhere. But tonight, the right mix of desperation, effort, a couple class moments, and (let's be honest) a couple fortunate calls got the job done. Hopefully this generates the confidence that's been sorely lacking. Hopefully enough to put us over the edge and start earning some W's.

 

A couple additional notes, courtesy of ESPN.

-With his 37th Premier League goal, Dempsey moves ahead of Brian McBride to top the list of American goal scorers in the top flight.

-Americans have totaled 128 goals in the Premier League overall. Fulham players account for 77 of those.

 

He looked out of it today, gave up a lot of sloppy turnovers in bad situations (when we had a lot of guys going forward and out of position to defend a counter).

At the end of the day, it was three points and an entertaining game.

 

Just read Don's report and enjoyed it as usual, certainly better than this one:
http://soccernet.espn.go.com/report/_/id/317985?cc=5901

which reads like it was written by a bitter Liverpool fan. I seriously got back on the DVR and watched Suarez's near goal over and over and it still seemed a relatively inconclusive judgment call. I listened to McManaman and Darke and all they said was that it was very close and Macca even admitted that Hangeland stepping forward probably made it offside (with Darke noting close calls should go the attacking teams way). And that's Macca who barely pretends to be objective when it comes to Liverpool (which is fine, I wouldn't expect anything less), yet, this report acts as though everybody knew it was onside. Ridiculous. I think we can all agree we lucked out on Spearing getting sent off, but only the most ardent Liverpool supporter would say Suarez was clearly onside. (We'll call it karma for Suarez behaving like a petulant child every time a call didn't go his way). Also, it went on and on about how that Senderos tackle should've been a penalty- when again, even Macca and Darke said that the initial contact was outside the box and the ref got it right. Oh yeah and completely avoided mentioning Schwarzer's brilliant save (his best this season, I would say).

Sorry that just got me steamed.

The Danny Murphy debate is interesting, Don thought he had a great match and everyone else seems to disagree. I think he lost the ball too cheaply and ran out of pace towards the end, but he also showed his value with his passing and build-up play towards the end, setting up chances. It's been all and nothing with him for a while now.

He actually was key to two of the best attacking moves of the game. There was the chance around the 80th minute when Dempsey hit the crossbar. Wonderful build up that I could watch all day had that ball gone just 6 inches lower. Nice run by Johnson on the wing, pass to Murphy to Ruiz, back to Murphy to Dembele, brilliant back heel to Ruiz who finds Dempsey in the box and creates a brilliant chance that just misses. More of that, please. A minute later, Captain Danny found a wide open Riise who found Dembele who put it right at Reina. And of course, stung Reina's hands just enough to make him spill (OK, it was an error by him- but still) and Dempsey to poach it in.

I thought Ruiz looked awkward out there at times and also gave it away a few times when he shouldn't have, but I also thought he showed flashes of creativity and pace. It'd be interesting to try him up top. Dembele did absolutely everything right except for put it in the back of the net (which he should have on at least one of those chances).

I agree with most that the attacking play is for the most part too slow and deliberate. But, the important thing is we beat a team on an 11 game unbeaten run. This match also showed, that if we can can find a way to score, our defense will keep us in the top half where we belong.

~ Steve