Fulham @ Hull City START YOUR ENGINES!!

The loss was bad, but I got one from the 'add insult to injury file...'

The 13 year old gets back from a month in England w/her grandparents and she beams that while in London they went to a stadium and knowing I follow the Prem got me a couple of souvenirs. Outside of Angels baseball she doesn't follow sports at all and she has no idea what team I like so what coffee mug and sports bottle does she pull out of the bag??? None other than Chelski. It's the thought that counts and she was mortified to learn of my hatred for the Undead (can't wait to talk w/grandad who knows I'm a Fulham fan), but I'm vowing that each time the lads play poorly the Sunday AM java will be poured into that mug. Needless to say the coffee this morning tasted a little more bitter than usual.

 

Agree Don. Also you forgot to mention how much better we could do if we started 11 players.

 

I am not trying to be a negative Nancy but after the first 30 minutes Hull adjusted to what we were doing and pretty much controlled the match. The difference in the game was George Boateng! Seriously our CB pairing was not good but the central midfielders were a big part of the problem. Not much of the second half was played in the Hull end and we spent way to much time knocking balls out of the back. Forgetting the players I will put a large part of the responsibility at Roy's feet. I am not sure what match he was watching but we needed a defensive midfielder and that was obvious from late in the first half on. Despite the early pretty passing and the few flashes of quality play in the second half Hull bossed the midfield and Boateng and Ashbee disrupted almost everything we tried to do. It was only thanks to the good play of Schwarzer that we did not lose that match 3 or 4 to 1.

 

The most disturbing thing for me was the lack of urgency once Hull tied it up and we showed no improvement on that front after going down. It seemed like the whole team was indifferent about the whole affair.

And Konch looked downright Bairdian giving up that goal.

 

Nitpick: As I understand it, Konchesky got beaten in the air to give up that late goal, whereas Baird's problem was always that he was way, WAY too slow to play right back. Therefore, I think you might be using "Bairdian" wrong. 8)

 

Wasn't in the air, Konch literally spun himself around till the ball was actually behind him and Folan took advantage.

 

The Offal's match report made it sound like Konch's mistake was in the air

 

I misunderstood then. That DOES sound like something Baird would do.

 

And in the post game Roy said as much. It is disappointing that he didnt adjust or make a sub until the 81st minute.

 

Well I didn't see the match, because I was floating in a state of excessive inebriation on Lake Travis. But sounds like quite the Fulhamish start to the season. But I'm not worried about one game. Let's all wait to freak out until at least a month into the season.
I do find it interesting to see how many articles commented on Murphy being invisible and Dempsey providing our only real bite in the midfield. Deuce as the midfield anchor. Ummm.....huh. Not really sure what to make of that.

 

Disappointed?! Sure! But playing Hull on one of the biggest days in their history was never going to be easy. If that is the best Hull has, they will surely go down.

As for our performance, considering I made the trip up there to see us lose in embarrassing fashion, it was great for the first half hour and after that it went down hill. Had we actually converted our chances to begin with and gone 2 or 3 nil up, it would've been job done. but we gave them hope and let them back in it.

Konch had a solid game but that one mistake came to haunt him.
hangeland was good
Hughes was good
Pantsil was good and really enjoyed watching him

Bullard should've done more
Murphy was also soliday but again, should've done more
Gera had a bad game. Not into it enough, gave up possession often and didn't convert his two chances.
Davies had a good game but I expected him to create more

Zamora - was mauled most of the game and did little
Seol - Surprisingly good but scary to think he was Roys second choice!

Like many, you had to question Roys substitutions but that is why he does what he does and we do what we do.

In Roy I Trust. Have faith and COYW's

 

I have a frivilous question - why did they wear their home kits? I assumed the purpose of third kits was for the times the away kit is too similar to the home team's. Or is it just so I can see the guys in baby blue a few times a year?

 

Spell much? If you are partial to cougars, keep the Polident handy. :wink:

 

This sounds like some other stuff I've read: the midfield was/is a problem, more than the back line. There is speculation on TIFF that we need a defensive midfielder. Do people agree with that?

 

The Premier League actually has a limit on how many times per season a team can wear their away shirts, so if the home shirt isn't too similar to the opponent's shirt, they'll just wear that.

 

I've seen a few people mention it but I have to say that our captain was MIA. I didn't even know he was out there on the field. I thought we did a poor job of attaking their man marking in midfield and in the attack. For large portions of the match they just sat behind us and then if we showed to the ball...they just shadowed us and when we would pass it the guy would come in from behind us with a hard tackle or what not and knock the ball away. We need to be smarter about attacking that. One time I saw us pull up their defenders and Simon Davies ran into space and whoever tried to play him through just didn't get enough on the pass so it was cut out by the defender. We could have had that the entire second half and I'm suprised we didn't try to exploit that more. Props to that CB for Hull that won every aerial challenge with Zamora. I'm so used to having Big Mac up there winning those headers..what a difference not having that, and then when the ball was headed clear, we had no one in midfield holding the ball in. I expect us to play much better against ManU which isn't saying we'll win, but if we play the same as Saturday we'll get buried.

 

I love Mike because he is not a naysayer.

 

That's an interesting rule - any idea why?

I love Mike because he helps me buy tickets when I go to England.

 

I love Mike because he started this website.