The Mighty Fulham @ Sunderland

thanks sfm for posting the link, but w/the game delayed on FSC I did a moratorium on the computer.

All things considered (especially since I thought the lads would come away with no points), a good result.

 

Pretty boring match, but we got a road point.

It seems like Zamora was playing by himself up top. We would play some long ball to him and he would have to fight off three guys while waiting for anyone to get into the offense, but no one would.

 

Average performance by The Good Guys, I can't think of anyone who excelled or had an off day. Maybe Murphy, whose first touch was poor all day and looked tired to me -- he ain't as young as he used to be. I was glad to see him subbed off, come back and fight another day. I guess 0-0 was the goal.

I was somewhat impressed by Cattermole and Cana, if the injury situation is straightened out there, they will be back in the division for another go next year.

Zamora and Mensah, their CB, had some pretty good physical battles, I rather enjoyed that.

I really would have liked to have seen us go for it, especially as we had frustrated Sunderland's possession so many times. I think Gorgon didn't even have to get his shirt dirty.

Onward and upward.

 

SO reading what I wrote and your reply Don, you think that Zamora is England International Class Mmmmmmmmm Interesting you sure you dont need a shrink rather than a doctor?

 

Don, Why is it you have to twist everything around that I say? I simply said based on what I saw in the first half Zamora is NOT fit for England. He missed a good oppotunity with only the GK to beat with a header missed the goal by at least 10 feet and then had a Offside oppotunity of putting the ball in the net and again missed by 10 feet, I guess you would say he knew what he was doing and ment to miss yeah right!!!That's real International standard.

 

Sorry to insert myself in this little spat between you and Martin, but I cant stay quiet on this one. With 18 goals in 35 appearances for England, Crouch is the obvious choice. Faggio is a fool if he chooses otherwise.

Of course, here's hopin' he makes the foolish decision and chooses Heskey or Zamora.

 

I have to agree with Mo - now is not the time for England to "try out" another striker. Crouch and Heskey cover the target role, Cole is a big choice for Hybrid and Defoe is in great form. As good as Bobby has played this year, I wouldn't place him over any of those five, in a World Cup year.

 

I don't get why Zamora wasn't included considering:

a) it's a scrimmage (lets call it what it is)
b) it's a midweek scrimmage
c) it's a midweek scrimmage against a team that isn't in the World Cup (ie Egypt has nothing to play for)
d) it's at Wembley, about 10 miles away from Fulham

So, uhm, yeah. Doesn't make too much sense.

Oh, and back to the thread, good result yesterday. ANOTHER clean sheet!

 

timmyg. I think the core issue is timing. This is the last callup before the pre-cup warmups. It's not the time to try someone for the first time, unless its a position that you NEED to look at new blood. You want to use this time as another time to get your team together and, where needed, look at new individuals in key positions and how they work with the regulars.

Capello already has to look at new fullbacks and center halfs; it doesn't make sense to ALSO look at another player in a position in which he has proven depth, unless the arguments for it are too strong to ignore. If Bobby was on 18 league goals, there would be serious questions asked, but there are FIVE English strikers who have scored more Premier League goals than Bobby.

There's also the open question of whether he is eligible. During WC qualifying, he submitted papers to FIFA to change his eligibility to T&T. He didn't PLAY for them, but to FIFA, that may not matter.

 

First off:
EVERYTHING posted on here is an OPINION. Even that article which gave FulhamUSA its fifteen minutes of fame. Some may be closer to correct than others on any given subject, but if there's no difference of opinion then why should we bother?!!

So.. without going into the details, I'm just gonna post my hunches based on evrything I read from a satellite view.
England fans should be VERY AFRAID. Whatever shortcomings are apparent on outher squads in the group, the Lions are by no means assurred of getting out of the group.

Now we all gotta figure out how to move this into the WC thread

 

Is there even a reason to comment on the match at this point?

We looked well and truly tired for the most part in this one. A draw is a shock result and speaks to how poor Sunderland are at the moment. I'm a little confused as to why Roy won't use the bench now, especially with the miles on some of our guys. Danny in particular looked gassed and made a number of lazy plays until being subbed out.

The Mensah/Zamora confrontation was entertaining but I'm wondering why Mensah is trying to bring back the fade. I kept looking for lines shaved in the side of his head.

If Sunderland could get Bent and Jones on the same page, they'd be in a lot better shape.

As for Zamora for England, I'd rather see him get the extra rest and get a shot after the WC. I doubt he'd be integrated beyond the bench at this point given the depth.

 

I don't think either of those are true. Regarding playing time, while Crouch did come off the bench for a short appearance for Spurs this past weekend, he's been playing full 90s pretty frequently in recent weeks. (I've been keeping an eye on that because he's on my fantasy team.) And I don't think he's wholly useless if you're not playing high balls for him to lay off with his head; for example, he scored against us with some pretty nifty footwork, if I recall correctly, didn't he?

Regarding Andy's point, while it's true that Capello basically has to go back to the drawing board at left back, it seems to me that as a highly-paid coach who (presumably) also has assistants to help him with this stuff, he could also devote some of his attention to other positions as well.

And I loved that flat-top Mensah was rocking.

 

I agree. I liked every forward that made my big butt work that way. Hope they all are foing well.

 

I believe that Mensah is actually Teddy Riley in disguise. I always wondered what happened to "Guy"...

 

To clarify, I wasn't so much speaking from a coach-evaluation perspective, but from the standpoint of games at this point, you want to evaluate how the new players interact/interplay with your regulars - see how well they link up together, support each other, etc. You can't do that as effectively if you aren't using your regulars in other parts of the pitch; if you do it becomes a pure talent evaluation, ala Bob Bradley's January camp, rather than finding out who will be the best fit to join a mostly established WC squad. In many ways, it's more about ability to work within the system and with their teammates rather than individual talent.