Fulham v Norwich City

Paul Lambert should be up for manager of the year for the job he's done w/the Canaries. Norwich sits on 39 points and will be coming to the Cottage in better shape than the last time they visited in the top flight (a season ending, relegation performance in which Brian McBride scored twice in a rout). One bit of good news for our beloved Whites is that their captain Grant Holt saw red last week and will miss out. Speaking of captains, START MURPHY!!!!!!!

Norwich has an away record we would kill for (4 wins and 4 draws away from Carrow Road). The Canaries are anchored in defense by my cousin Zak Whitbread (JK, wake the #$%@ up and call this guy, he's AMERICAN and starts for a team in the PREMIER LEAGUE, I guess the MLS, Danish, and Scottish leagues are far superior :roll: ).

A win gets Fulham to 39 pts. and would move them past Norwich on GD and closer to a top 10 finish. Time to give the fans a goal or two and put in a performance that will further put the Swansea debacle in the rear view mirror.

 

I see us winning this game. While I agree Norwich has busted the bookies this season, the Cottage holds strong AND Riise finally gets his laser beam. 2-0. Dempsey and Riise.

 

After the rough stretch we've had, I've gotta think we get a W. Team look promising against United and I imagine they will only improve at home. I agree with Joe, Murphy has got to start this one.

I'll say Dempsey adds to his goal total and Fulham win 1-0

 

270+ w/o a goal. I'm saying a draw...at best. The club is in a funk and I hope they snap out of it, yet I don't think they will (tm to Lighthouse).

 

Incredibly HUGE 3 points for the table. Poor Wolves though. They are in real trouble.

 

:text-+1: The amount of money for each position in the table is vital. Only saw the highlights, but fantastic strike (great save by the Norwich keeper) by Kaca. Clint w/the bundle and exquisite thru ball to DD for the second. What else to add but...
:banana-guitar: :banana-linedance: :banana-dance:

 

Good to get the win but it got a little nervier than it needed to at the end.

Watching the intro stuff, you have to wonder what makes a person put on green and yellow hair, buy a toddlers kit and put it on a stuffed puppet then bring that to the match. Slightly disturbing. It also looked like Clint's little girl was one of the children during the walkout/lineup stuff. She was wearing a 23 shirt with DADDY on the back. Kinda fitting that he'd score the first goal just under 2 minutes in then.

We looked brilliant early on with Clint getting a goal and an assist. Good work by Ruiz in controlling the ball on the first goal and getting a good shot off to sting Ruddy's hands and force him to spill it right into Clint's path. The 7-8 pass buildup on the 2nd was quite good as well as we moved the ball all over the pitch before it settled onto Dempsey's boot and he slotted in a wide open Duff on the right. We had a couple of good chances after that, but while we weren't able to convert a third before half, Norwich looked to have nothing in attack in the first stanza either.

Hopefully Pog is okay and only came off b/c we had the 2 goal cushion that afforded us that opportunity. I was initially disappointed that Kacaniklic wasn't in the starting lineup, but he came on with plenty of time to make his mark on the match. And boy, did he. That's probably the most impressive match we've seen from one of the young players. He definitely benefited from Norwich's switch to a 3-5-2 in the 2nd half, but even marked, he looked a handful. He's a natural fit on the left wing and looks plenty capable of providing depth there next year. Hopefully his presence will cause Jol to put Frei in a spot that better suits him. For my money, I'd say Frei looks a good backup for Dembele in the middle. His best asset is his dribbling and playing him central negates that whole left foot issue he has more than any other position. I'm not sure how solid his defending is though.

The second half felt a bit more disjointed, especially when Diarra came on for Murphy. And by the time Etuhu came on for Ruiz, we were just hanging on for the 3 pts. It wasn't as pretty as the first half promised, but we got the result, got some goals, and that's all that matters. Any win with goals by Dempsey and Duff is pretty near perfect for me.

I thought most everyone had a good match. Ruiz was at his best in the first 15 minutes when he was playing quite a bit further forward than usual. He seems to lose effectiveness when he's pulled further away from the box though. Kacaniklic's effectiveness was a nice surprise. H&H looked like the Thames Barrier of old for most of the match. But MotM for me was Dempsey. Clearly, he had the goal and the assist, but he was also very effective in dribbling the ball through the midfield and transitioning us into attack. Hopefully we can build on this momentum.

 

Nice write-up Ag. Agree with most everything, and I'm impressed that you can spell Kacaniklic. I was surprised at how poor Diarra looked when he came on. Also, wasnt Norwich playing a 3-5-2 from the start of the game?

I wish the second half had been better but I'll take the three points. We need AJ back.

 

btw, what is Duffers doing in this pic?

 

Mo, they started in a 5-3-2 then transitioned to 3-5-2 at the half when Whitbread came off and Simeon Jackson came on in a midfield role. Because Martin (their rb) was getting so far forward on offense, it left them w/o that extra cb to provide cover on the flank while the wingbacks tracked back. As a result, Kacaniklic often had acres of space to operate in going forward.

You'll see a similar thing happen occasionally with us when Dempsey inverts and goes into the box and Riise bombs forward down the flank. When that happens, Murphy or Dembele will usually cover that hole until Riise tracks back, but it usually results in our flank being rather exposed. Norwich's cm's didn't do that much after the change though. Probably b/c they're used to a setup where that responsibility belongs to the extra cb's. Either way, Kacaniklic couldn't have asked for a better scheme to debut against b/c there was low pressure and he had a lot of time on the ball before the pressure usually came. That's not to take away from his performance per se, just a caution against overrating it too much.

 

Disappointed I didnt get to see the second half but it sounds like I didn't miss much from a Fulham perspective. Glad we could hold on for the much needed 3 points!

 

You saw more than me. I didn't get to see any of the match. What happened to Pog?

We have a nice stretch coming up to pick up a lot of points. Glad we have Chelsea at the Cottage.

 

I think Murphy had his children with him too.

 

According to Jol, he suffered an ankle sprain and will be back next week. Apparently he's had an ongoing issue with his ankle and it was reaggravated during the match (challenge with Ward, if I recall).

Mo, they may have been. I noticed Clint's b/c he picked her up and had her wave to a spot in the stands. The players usually don't handle the kids like that so I paid more attention. Then he carried her through the handshake line and it was pretty obvious.

 

It was nice chatting with you folks during the first half, which I haven't been able to do for a couple weeks. I'm glad having to leave after about half an hour didn't jinx us. I saw the highlights and even from watching those- Special K looked well, special. Maybe he's the player Kasami was supposed to be? (Not that I'm writing off Kasami, the guy is all of 19 years old- he's just looked over-matched out there more often than not and honestly, Special K is only 20 and an auspicious debut half does not a great player make...). Anyhow, the second half may have made me a little too nervous and been a little too close for comfort. Still, a nice win for the boys and a good way to end the Fulhamish achievement of losing three straight league matches immediately after winning three straight. I hope Jol is right about Pogs' ankle- a sprain seems to be a thing that could nag him to the point of being out a few weeks rather than just one.

~ Steve

 

You are two insightful Texicans!!!