Fulham @ Sunderland

Things have been dreary at the Stadium of Light as Sunderland has been awful and sitting 1 point above rock bottom of the table. That said 3 numbers stand out; 0, 8, & 9. Zero is the number of times the Black Cats have won at home this season (that's got to end at some point). 8 & 9 are the number of times Fulham and Sunderland have drawn this season respectively (Sunderland's 9 is tied w/Brentford & Wednesday for top 1 pointers). Would gladly take another ugly 1-0 victory and press on.

 

Zero home wins is a miserable number. It also sounds like the beginning of a Fulhamish statement unfortunately.

 

I say we make it 10. Let’s let somebody else be the unlucky bastards for a change. Our away form this season and last is way better than average, and I’m bullish on us now that the Brentford debacle is in the rear view mirror. Time for another goalfest breakout...WITHOUT conceding a bunch in return.

 

It looks like Ayite and Kebano will be out, but with Odoi returning from suspension (I think) it seems like the perfect time to put Sessegnon back up top.

Also nice to hear that Piazon has resumed practice with the first team and hopefully will be available again soon.

http://www.getwestlondon.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/fulham-injury-news-ahead-trip-14039142

 

Well it isn't the starting XI I would have picked. Sessegnon is still at the back. Didn't someone say that Joka is certifiable if he did that? If we don't have two goals by half time I hope Fonte gets pulled for Odoi so Sessegnon can go score some.

Bettinelli
Fredericks, Kalas, Ream, Sessegnon
McDonald, Norwood, Cairney
Ojo, Johansen, Fonte

Subs:
Button, Odoi, Graham, Djalo, de la Torre, Cisse, Kamara

 

I actually got to watch most of this match on ESPN3 and if I had anything in my hands, I would have been throwing it at the TV. My random thoughts with an untrained eye:

Johansen - save for a 5 minute stretch where he looked dangerous, he looked lost playing up in the top 3 and gave the ball away too cheaply way too often. He looked more comfortable when Graham came on and he slid back into his usual midfield role.

Cairney - looks a step slow, both physically and mentally. Maybe his knee is still bothering him, but the usual brilliance and threading of balls into tight spaces was off.

Fonte - has no cohesion with anyone out there. There were times where I thought he could be useful playing off a target man, but he cannot/should not be a target man in this league. He got tossed off the ball like a rag doll.

Sessegnon - if wasn't throwing the ball in so much, I wouldn't have known he was playing.

Ojo - seems like we wanted to run most everything through him and he looked good at times, but no one was there to help him.

Fredericks - if the ball wasn't working through Ojo, our attack was give the ball to Ryan so he can dribble to the byline and cross it in.

We miss the creativity on the wings to run at the defense at 45 degree angles, which Ojo tried to do, and Kebano and Ayite can do, but obviously they are injured.

Ream was my MOTM...he saved our bacon on more than one occasion.

 

I've only been able to see a couple of matches this season so far, but I always like to view the stats. I still don't understand why we don't get more shots off or at least get the shots that we take on net. Again we had 2/3 of the possession but 1/3 of the shots. It's really starting to frustrate me. Early on, I took the amount of possession and pass accuracy to be a positive sign. However, it seems that the majority of these passes amount to nothing. What good is a huge build-up that amounts to nothing? Are shots frowned upon? It seems that the team is always trying to make that perfect pass to provide an easy tap-in goal. Fulham had 536 accurate passes, but only 11 shots (3 on target, 4 off target, 4 blocked). The number of accurate passes is 209 passes more than Sunderland attempted (327). Yet they managed 17 total shots with 7 on target. I don't know what Joka is preaching or how his tactics are supposed to work, but they aren't panning out with the current team.

 

On a side note, how did Gooch look @encorespanish ?

 

I think part of the current malaise is fallout from the cancer that was Craig Kline. And even if we get a serviceable striker next month, it may be too late. The twitter trolls are starting to turn on Jokanovic, but that's a joke....although... It's puzzling that he chose not to return Sess to the front and put Odoi in at back. Still, it's WAY too early to be even thinking about a change at this point. We're still competitive, just not consistent. Matt Smith, anybody?

 

@astroevan I think he played a very positive game...every time they showed the middle of the park, it seemed like the announcers were mentioning his name as being involved in the run of play. All out effort and a tremendous annoyance for our lads. He looked very dangerous creating some chances in the first half as well.