Sunderland v. Fulham [R]

yeah, honestly, would everyone just relax. and this is coming from someone whose frisbee team (stop laughing) nicknamed "Negative Ned".

although we played like CRAP in the second half, we were a Jones' opportunity away from getting a point. lets not act like we got spanked out there, because we didnt. we just didnt take the game on our own.

and one other HUGE factor that no one is mentioning is the absolute shocking job Mark Halsey did officiating. It wasnt a Howard Webb yellow-card-a-thon, but look at the stats: a 10 to 3 foul ratio. At one point it was 7 to 0. last time I checked, we're not a dirty team. But just guess who 'fouled' more...

Halsey kept making crap (and not making correct) calls that threw everyone off their game (look at Davies before he got subbed, Leadbitter's challenge on AJ), everyone got frustrated and made crap offensive decisions, and Roy's gamble (lets face it -- a 4-3-3 under him is unheard of) didnt pay off. hence, we lost.

I just had a terrible day at work, so coming home to this shitshow made me quite angry.

But I know we'll recover and tonk Portsmouth on the weekend.

 

I second timmyg's take on the poor officiating. GJ commented as much - I won't watch the match and deleted it already. And FFC still sucked.

I would've liked to see the 4-3-3 for more than 10 minutes though.

 

That was pretty awful. The passing was abysmal pretty much all around, Murphy and Etuhu got dominated by Sunderland's mediocre central midfielders, and the team rarely looked like threatening.

And what did Sunderland have to do to get called for a foul? Presumably something involving a knife or a firearm, because nothing else they did seemed to qualify. Jeez, that challenge by Leadbitter on AJ late in the match, sliding in from behind, not getting the ball, getting AJ's ankle, is a red card in a strictly officiated match, and it wasn't even a FOUL? You've got to be flipping kidding me.

Edit: And I hope Roy has something up his sleeve in the transfer window as far as a player with some creativity, because without Bullard it's been sorely lacking.

Edit again: I should add, in the interest of not being wholly negative, that credit should be given to those who did show up for the match: Scwarzer, and the traveling supporters who gave a good account of themselves and were audible throughout the match.

 

Our problems were in the center of midfield. Davies and Dempsey had pretty typical performances that looked worse than they were because of the poor central midfield play (Davies tried to do too much and Dempsey tried to overcompensate for lack of creativity).

Murphy had a poor game, but we at least know that he can play well.

Etuhu was simply a black hole - our offensive momentum stopped as soon as he got the ball; he would either pass it backwards or pass it to the other team. While he did well defensively, we can't score in buildup play with him on the pitch. Andreason is a much better choice.

Yeah, the reffing was very poor too.

I will also make the observation that Fulham FC doesn't do as well against teams that play "full court press."

 

I think we all knew the eventual rough patch would be coming sooner or later. I was hoping we would have preferred a few more wins to draws in the run of 9 undefeated matches, but Fulham have done well for themselves. The tricky part to this season is the parity in the table. Quite literally any club has a chance to knock off another. It makes for exciting football, but hopefully not to another ulcer for me as the season progresses.

Without question Fulham needs an edge in attack. IMO Fulham should be in the market for an out and out winger, attacking midfielder (Delph) and possibly some depth to the striking options. Zamora, please please net us a goal soon. Love the work rate, but they don't put that up on the scoreboard for some reason.

Here's to hoping we get back on track soon.

 

A win here would have been really great for the table race, but we all know there are still plenty of games left to play. At least we are not on a negative GD.

 

I'm not adding anything new here, and I don't mean to be any sort of panic monger, but I am disappointed and quite concerned.

I watched the game with the mindset of, "here's the opportunity to take 3 on the road, to show that Bullard won't be missed, to delineate ourselves from the bottom..." And thud.

Murphy had possibly his worst game as a Cottager. Etuhu looked like he was on the take. I don't know how Davies managed to lift a ball over the goal from 2 yards out. Roy, please give Andreason some consistent playing time - there is a reason why alot of other clubs are interested in him.

Anyways, I appreciate folks here putting things in perspective and urging calm (which I will try to do), but I am strapping myself in for another relegation battle.