Fulham v. Crystal Palace 8/11/18

Here we go. COYW!!!

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2018/aug/10/fulham-crystal-palace-match-preview

https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/45067373

 

And for your pre-match Joka reading...
https://www.theguardian.com/football/2018/aug/10/slavisa-jokanovic-fulham-premier-league

If Fulham’s performance in the Championship last year was not quite a fairytale, it was certainly a good yarn. A team that had struggled to clear its head after failing in the play-offs the previous year put together a run of form unmatched anywhere in the country, going 23 games unbeaten, before winning the first play-off fixtures in the club’s history to regain a place in the Premier League. As of Saturday, however, that story is forgotten.

Perhaps that is an exaggeration. An enormous photograph of the Fulhamteam emerging on to the Wembley pitch in May hangs on the wall of the media room at the club’s Motspur Park training complex. But for Slavisa Jokanovic, what is done is done.

Any sentiment about recent achievements, however grand they may have been, would be a weakness. And if that means the Fulham manager ends up denying those players who helped him get to the promised land the chance to experience it, then so be it.

Fulham spent upwards of £100m in the summer transfer window, an outlay surpassed only by Liverpool and Chelsea. To say this is not typical of the side who, in Jokanovic’s words, are “last into the division” would be an understatement. The club have a recruit for every position in the team and have made some of the most eye-catching deals in Europe – from the coveted midfielder Jean Michaël Seri to the German international and former Chelsea star André Schürrle. These players have not come to west London to sit on the bench.

“We are living in this modern life, it’s full of pressure and we are professionals,” said Jokanovic of the challenge now facing his squad. “The players must know it’s not easy. It will be hard for all of them to have an opportunity to be a Premier League player. It’s not a question of who is a new player but in football memory does not exist. This is not a sentimental man. I want to be professional and at the end I am here to work hard, to try to take the right decisions and not to make mistakes. If I start to be sentimental, this is when we will have more space for making mistakes.”

Jokanovic speaks from experience, of course. The Serb himself has never managed in the division, having been denied the opportunity after leading Watford to promotion in 2015. He immediately moved to Maccabi Tel Aviv and helped them qualify for the Champions League but was back in England by Christmas, at Fulham. After first steering the club clear of relegation he built a side that is both steely and attractive on the eye. As his remarks make clear, despite the money spent Jokanovic is not taking the challenge that awaits his team lightly.

“Our first target has to be to stay up,” he said. “We are talking about money but sometimes money is important and sometimes it is not. We can compare ourselves with Spurs, they have made no investment but they have a Premier League team that is done. We were third in the Championship. We arrived here last. It’s important for our side to show ambition. We also have to be clever, to modify some things. We are going to play against different levels of quality, of pace and of power. We don’t have to change much but we need to be intelligent. We need to grow up.”

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Fulham’s first fixture back in the top flight pits them against Crystal Palaceand a manager who is a legend at the club, Roy Hodgson. Jokanovic was effusive in his praise of Hodgson’s side and wished his opposite number well – “after this game”.

“Last season they started with a problem but after Hodgson arrived they started to play very well and finished the season in a high level, playing really good football,” Jokanovic said. “They definitely have more experience than us at this level. They have danger in the offensive side, with [Christian] Benteke, [Wilfried] Zaha and [Andros] Townsend. But on the other side we must take care about Luka Milivojevic, too, who is the heart of the team. Many things depend on this guy. We’ve made the analysis of this team and I hope we are ready.”

After the summer they have had many will feel Fulham should exceed their previous expectations this season. If Jokanovic believes he is now likely to be held to higher standards, he certainly does not seem intimidated by the prospect. He may not be a sentimental man but he is certainly a determined one.

 

So much for Sessegnon being forced to play at left back - Bryan gets thrown right into the deep end! I like your style Jokanovic!

 

Not gonna lie.

This disturbs me.

 

Agreed. This disturbs me more than the loss frankly.

Although Fulham was playing in the Premier League with a lot of new names, everything felt oddly familiar. Fulham still played the same style as last year - a focus on possession with a lot of nice passing. But, as with some earlier matches, we couldn't convert opportunities and were vulnerable to counter attacks. And as with the last two years we started the season without Bettinelli in net and clearly suffered. I don't know if Bettinelli is a Premier League quality keeper, but I know I'd rather have him start than Fabri.

I was generally pretty happy with how we played. Although the scoreline wasn't pretty, Fulham didn't look out of their league on the pitch. There was a lot of good passing between guys who are just starting to play together - that went better than I expected. Fabri was the only player I was really disappointed with although Le Marchand wasn't spectacular in my view either. However, I'm not sure what things are going to look like when we face higher quality teams. Palace looked pretty poor in the first half and we still couldn't get a lead. I worry what a more dangerous team like Tottenham will do on counters when Fulham pushes up - we'll find out soon!

 

Well, poop. Now, it's a relegation scrap for certain. Gotta question Joka's tactics - he's rubbish and needs to go.

 

After watching just the highlights on the NBC Sports YouTube channel, I have only this to say: starting only 4 of the potential 10 who won at Wembley (and only 2 to the bench), plus starting a new keeper and 4 new backs, is a bloody crime.
Chambers might have had a good overall game, but he got abused by Schlupp (who?) on their first. Fabri might end up being a better PL keeper in the long run, but how do you NOT give a healthy Marcus Bettinelli a chance here. To not even name him to the bench is, to me, unconscionable. But there wouldn’t be a darn thing wrong with putting him out there today. Same with some of the others from last season. Instead, they seem to have cut these guys loose.
I know this is big boy football in the biggest league on the planet, not a sentimental popularity contest, but every fiber of my being says what happened today was wrong.
If we start Betts, Ream, Johansen, Kamara and even Odoi, we do just as well...or better.
But, it is the first game, so I will trust that Joka still knows what he’s doing for the long haul. I just don’t like wholesale discarding of players that got you there, and earned a shot at the big time.

 

Ream is out hurt, Odoi is suspended for two games. Seri starting over Johansen was the right decision. Betts should have gotten the chance to play if healthy, and it appears he is; Fabri's not as fast a shot stopper and made a couple of horrendously poor decisions. Other than Betts, I don't have a problem with Jokanovic's lineup and tactics. If we continue to play this style, we'll gel, get the goals eventually, and will say up.

 

It sure is a lot easier to find highlights now. No need to figure out which teams post highlights and when they post them, just go to the NBC channel - but where's the fun in that?!

 

Well, Fulham looked exactly like a bunch of players that haven't really played together and, unsurprisingly, Fabri was the lowest rated Fulham player on the pitch. I was surprised, like others on this site, that there weren't more players from last season in the squad of 18. I was even more surprised that 4 of the 5 deadline day transfers were in the squad - and one even started - with presumably no more than two full practices (probably less). I'm hoping Bryan isn't out for too long since I felt like he slotted in to the left back position admirably. (By the way, Targett must be pissed as he didn't even make the squad of 18 for Southampton!)

Regarding the keeper position, I'm not sure what else Bettinelli needs to show Jokanovic. For three straight years now, Joka has handed another keeper the starting job at the beginning of the season (though I believe that Betts was truly injured in 2016). I've read that Sergio Rico will eventually be the number one, but the recentness of his arrival and poor spoken English are reasons for not starting him right away. All that aside, Fabri was quite unimpressive. I could argue that he was at fault for both goals.

The team stuck to the plan and attempted to play out from the back but the newness of all the players made this difficult. Fabri and Le Marchand were least impressive. However, Le Marchand was solid in defending so I'm hoping that the passing and ball control will improve with time. Similar to the start of last season, the final product was lacking - 66% possession, no goals. At least we got a decent amount of shots on target (6). Christie was given ample time and space on the right, but played in very few, if any, quality crosses (according to whoscored.com, Christie had 12 crosses but only 1 accurate cross).

Overall, I like that Mitro was on target and troublesome for most of the match. Seri, Chambers, Bryan, and Vietto's brief appearance were all positives from the new class. I would have preferred at least a point, but I don't think Fulham looked out of place against a team that is largely unchanged from the squad that finished 11th last term.

 

I was looking for him in their highlight reel against Burnley. When I didn't see him, I thought, there's no way he wasn't at least named to the bench. Wrong. If Sparky and company don't rate him, (and it certainly appears they don't), why not sell him to someone who does?
I don't get it.

 

If you read between the lines here, it seems pretty obvious, at least to me, that somebody, probably Tony Khan, has told Joka that Bettinelli is not a PL quality keeper. Here's Fabri, here's Rico, play them. A little too much sensitivity and defensiveness here when asked such an obvious question. And Betts made it clear that he was NOT bitching about not being named, but merely responding to fans' questions about his fitness. I don't know, but that's what I take from the words on the printed page, without hearing the manner or tone they were delivered.

"We can Tweet what we want, sometimes I tweet too but Marcus Bettinelli start working with us this week, first day we have opportunity for kicking the ball and last two days he make complete work with the team and I am here to take decision who will be on the goal, on the bench and in the stands.

"I cannot give you another answer."

 

Even Love Bite still loves us!

 

Well, we're back with the big boys after wandering the wilderness for 4 seasons. In addition to catching the match, I consumed as much media about the EPL and realized the following:

What I Missed

• The pace! Granted Palace are a counterattacking side, and we were in a lower division last season, but holy moly it was like watching a different sport. The Championship is enjoyable, but the pace is more methodic, with goals (mostly) coming from breaking down a defense (see, all of Sessegnon's tap in last year). This? Goals (mostly) came out of seemingly nowhere, born from individual skill. It's like watching the NCAA versus NBA.
• The coverage! No longer must we search high and wide for drops of information
• The community. Friends who support other clubs now talk to me! No longer do they awkwardly ask about Fulham as if we went off the grid and moved to the mountains and make our own hemp moonshine.

What I Have Not Missed

• Tony Gale. Hoo boy here I was thinking GJ was too critical
• Mike Dean.
• Coverage consisting of the Big 6 and no one else
• Compartmentalizing every match into a "must win", "should win", "wont win" and being distraught when the first two categories go pear-shaped.