FULHAM FC vs. Newcastle - [R]

Once again, Fulham is undone in the last few minutes. I'm so unbelievably pissed off right now. I don't know if that was a penalty or not. Alan Smith went down a bit easy in my opinion. Why, oh why do we get ourselves in these situations??? Again and again and again!!!!! We're in the relegation fight for sure now. I'd like to give Lawrie more time but I'm thinking his days might be numbered...

 

All I can say is that was completly gutting!

 

I can't fully put into words how disappointed I am with the result. The penalty was deserved and I have no complaints in that regard. Fulham on their heels the entire first half and it they only picked up their play in the second half. I can't exactly fault the efforts of the players. Can't seem to get the right consistency of attacking and defense that is needed at this level.

Can't wait for Jimmy and Brian to be back. It seems more and more likely that Lawrie will get the axe sooner rather than later. If he doesn't take three points away from the Wigan fixture, I think he is done.

 

A letter to the FFC Board.

I think the time has come for Lawrie Sanchez to be sacked. He has been given over 25M to spend and has built a team that is poor defensively and comes undone in the last 10 minutes in nearly every game we have a chance to get something out of. We have not improved our away form and players like Kamara and Davis have not proven themselves to be worth 6M and 4M respectively. I respect Lawrie as a top class international manager, but he has not cut it as a club manager. There are some good choices out there for us to choose as the next FFC manager. Like if you were really ambitious Jose Mourinho. If you want a manager who has experience at this level and is a bit more realistic target then Alan Pardew. Please do the right thing and sack Lawrie.



I am actually thinking about sending this as an email to Fulham. I was wrong about Lawrie and was wrong about Kamara. I am in tears right now as we lost yet another game in the last 10 minutes. This is downright appalling and something needs to be done quick.

 

Haven't seen too many matches this season due to travel and bad timing. The lack of aggressiveness in the attack was really disappointing. They picked it up a bit in the 2nd half but why play the 1st half like you are going for a draw at home? Bad luck at the end but better to lose being aggressive that back on your heels. What good would it do to fire Sanchez right now? Who is going to come in and solve the problem?

 

I like Pardew. At least we would be attacking and not sitting back. Me mentioning Mourinho was more a joke than anything. I wish that would happen, but there is no possible way.

 

Dan, I don't believe Lawrie should take full responsibility for the lack of point earned by Fulham thus far. Injuries have hampered his side and several players have yet to play up to their potential as well.

My main problem with Lawrie stems from his lack of imagination in attack and a defensive philosophy that a first year manager could break down. He continues to play Dempsey out of position, continues to rely on his NI players in every situation, playing Kuqi as a loan forward expecting to get a result, not adapting when sides focus their attack at one member of the defense... so on and so forth.

I agree that the worst thing Fulham could do now is sack Lawrie and not have a quality replacement available to step in. MAF will probably give Lawrie the Wigan match to prove himself. After that he faces the axe.

 

I think I want to puke.

It's your 19th birthday, Omozusi. You're not supposed to give other people gifts.

 

I had high hopes for the Sanchez era @ FFC, but hope is fading. An insightful coach takes the players at his disposal, and develops a winning game plan. Sanchez likes the long ball, but this strategy will NEVER work consistently against Prem sides. Instead of endlessly sending hopeful balls down the middle, why not outflank the defense down the wings and send in some quality crosses to our strikers. How many crosses did Davies send in today, why did Bouazza bring his defender inside during Kuqi's promising run. When you have three players going for the same ball, you have team organizational problems. At least I'll give LS credit for removing the "invisible man" and making the side feel more dangerous.

 

LS should be fired right now. heres (in no order) why:

1)newcastle wasn't even playing for the win and fulham cant even get a goal

2)another loss of points at the waning moments, at home

3)the only move he makes in a game fulham should win is bringing in kuqi WHO HASNT SCORED YET

4)of all of LS's acquisitions, its cookie's players that are either playing, or playing "well".

5)1 point out of their last 15. 2 goals in 5 games.

6)the overall play has decreased SIGNIFICANTLY since august.

7)fulham are a mere 1 point away from 19th - completely unacceptable.

lets face it, he's lost the locker room, the chairman, and the fans.

thanks for everything LS, and although i have NO idea who to bring in...

you're done.

 

I actually though that Fulham put in a good amount of crosses today - particularly in the 2nd half. Granted nothing came of them because they were either 1. well-defended 2. back-post floaters 3. Kuqi fouled the defender & thus eliminating the chance to go for others to go for the scraps.

 

My thoughts on the game:

Still no creativity from the midfield - at least Davis did not hurt the team today (almost on that one pass back). There were spots, but it was not consistent enough. I like the midfield better with Dempsey, and the Davis sub could not come soon enough.

I thought the attack was pressing more when Kuqi came in.

Bouazza had some nice crosses, and the attack seemed to come from the left side - he played well except for that cut into the middle on the Kuqi break.

The PK to me was a little questionable. Was it a foul, yes, but throughout the game, these same types of fouls were passed on by the ref if possession was maintained. Smith got the pass off to Barton who took a shot, and the foul was after the pass. I just thought the call was inconsistent with what he let go during the rest of the match. It almost was as if the ref was bored, so he tried to make it exciting. At that point in time of the match, that should be a sure call especially if it impacts the outcome.

Overall, this team does not look like a competitive team. There is just not enough possession. The long ball is just not happening.

 

That's exactly how I felt about it. In a different match, maybe that's a penalty, but as much as the ref had let the players play throughout the rest of the match, it makes no sense to give the penalty there.

From Allardyce's postgame comments: "Today we probably didn't deserve to win but they certainly didn't deserve to, that's for sure." I can't say I disagree with him. Dempsey is playing out of position (Bocanegra now too), Healy had a miserable game, Davis was invisible, Murphy looked slow, Bouazza didn't see enough of the ball. This team doesn't know what it's doing, it seems like. There's just way too much hit-and-hope. I don't know what else to say, really. :?:

 

The 1st half was simply unacceptable football at home and a sad way for me to start my Saturday. No need for me to rehash the above sentiments which are mostly spot on. Nothing's working for the club right now. Absolutely nothing.

COYW!

 

Looking at Lawrie's signings:

Kamara - complete flop
Davis - complete flop
Baird - complete flop
Healy - can't fault a manager for signing a player who'll win a UEFA scoring award. I think he's a good poacher and he works hard. Perhaps a better super sub than starter.
Bouazza - while hot and cold, Hammeur has potential and has shown it in some matches, so I can't fault picking up a young player with potential
Hughes - has done pretty well
Konch - had good early season form
Murphy - at least has some decent attacking ability, even if his defensive skills and pace leave much to be desired
Stefanovich - ok - I can't fault him for bringing in another CB
Keller - good pick up
Cook - who?
Kuqi - I liked the pick up - we needed a big body up front while McBride heals

Still, the big money (12M?) went to players who haven't produced.

 

After Fulham has lost draws or wind 8 times in the last 10 minutes or so (I could be wrong on the exact number, I don't feel like researching it), their biggest problem is an intangible. They choke in the last minutes of the game, a fear of success, is that what the Brits call losing the bottle? That comes from the club leadership.

 

I agree rcl19. We have decent talent at all positions. What I think we are lacking is the attitude, leadership and poise to put it all together. We've played brilliantly at times this season. I've seen it with my own two eyes. We can do it again! I think we are just in a downward spiral at the moment. I hope it stops very soon.

 

the downward spiral has gone way beyond it just being a temporary trend.

they need a new manager. now.

 

Don't Think Sanchez Should Be Fired

The team had to be rebuilt after last year. The team was old and very bad.

So far this year the team has played much better and Sanchez has got the defense sorted out. The defense isn't great, but it keeps Fulham in the game for most of the game. For the last several weeks the problem has been the offense which hasn't been able to score goals while Fulham has still been in the game.

In two games Fulham has dropped points at the very end of the game due to mistakes by young players (Bouazza's foul at Wigan and Omozusi's foul against Newcastle).

What has killed the first half of the season was not getting more points against Middlesbrough, Wigan, and Sunderland. Fulham could have and should have won those games. At the very least Fulham deserves an additional point from Healy's goal against Middlesbrough. The team is in the place it is now because of those three games. All the other games we should have only drawn or loss.

I don't believe in firing managers mid-way through a season. I don't believe in firing managers mid-way through a season because that is what English football clubs often do. It takes time to create something good in English football, unless you are willing to spend huge amounts of money to recreate your team one summer, i.e., Chelsea, Man City and Portsmouth.

... and there have been some injuries.

 

Its all gone to hell now. Everything is grinding strenuous effort. You can see nothing absolutely nothing is coming naturally. They're all thinking "what should I do now" before doing it. The result is no flow, predictability, general suckiness.

The fact that we could not get a goal, or come close even, at home against Newcastle speaks volumes. And I really don't think you can scapegoat Omozusi for this loss. A days time has done little to alter my feeling, at this point I have no opposition to showing Sanchez the door. But omg not if Alan Pardew is the answer. I mean Pardew!