Fulham v. The Undead [R]

I thought it was a pretty blah performance by both teams with Chelsea scoring on their two chances.

Dempsey should be at midfield. Gera should be on the bench. Has Kamara slept with Roy's wife? If not, he should be up top with Zamora until Andy gets back.

With all that said, a great time in London this past week finally getting to see the Cottage and Fulham live. A great time on Sunday enjoying multiple beers with Sully at various drinking establishments.

I will try to post my pictures on here sometime this week after I get back.

 

I thought Duff wasn't as bad as some -- remember the scrap play he made in the midfield in the first half to win a 50/50 ball? He had to win that thing three times. Deuce is definitely better in the midfield. ANd Gera... what the hell happened to his first touch? It was just awful yesterday.

I blame myself for the first goal. I said aloud, "Damn, we are hard to break down today" just as Drogba beat our offsides trap.

Even though I was not expecting a four nil Fulham win, it still sucks.

 

I hate losing to Chelsea. Honestly, our defense held off as best as they could against the onslaught of Undead. It could have been a lot worse, I suppose. Our offense looked deflated.

And I cannot let go of my great dislike of Chris Baird. I'm trying...I really, really am. How long will Murphy be off?

-T

 

Chelsea

Sorry but I thought we were awful, yes we all know Chelsea are far better than us in every department, barring maybe goalkeeper and that is up for debate.

There was some discussion earlier about London derbies, let me first say in my day this was it for Fulham fans, yes we loved playing the Devils and Liverpools, but this was it, you could lose all year but if you beat the Blues everything was right with the World.

To say I dont mind losing 2-0 to Chelsea is just plain stupid, if thats the mindset then you have already lost, Fulham are a premiership team they have earned that right, we are in Europe, hopefully deep into the season, surely thats what the club wants and we all as fans want,but to say we were jaded and lacked effort against our nearest rivals geographically is just not on.

If I go to work tomorrow and my boss tells me I am jaded and lack lustre I will be fired, not being a professional athlete my job is obviously different, but in this day of players demanding this and that and contracts, what we as fans can expect is effort every game and for all of the 90 minutes, not what we saw yesterday.

My take on this Fulham team is that we have no real problems in defence, except yesterday whose bright idea was it for us to play a straight back four against Chelsea and leave Hughes exposed with Anelka, but enough of that game, we need some innovative midfield, Murphy is ok against the lesser lights but when he comes up against class he as not got it anymore, and its sad to say he is still our best, you can have the best strikers in the World but if your midfield does not give them the quality, they wont score, you win games today as you did in the past by controlling midfield.

Some teams tried in the past to bypass midfield with long balls, it surprises for awhile but then these coaches work it out, we need a special kind of player in the midfield then the goals will come, but alas that's easier said than done.

One last point about yesterday, the line up was basically defensive to start with, every one in the Chelsea set up said ok lads we have them already, I as a Fulham fan when my team is playing at home wants to see us going for goals, yes we may lose but lets lose going forward, not retreating like yesterday.

 

While we certainly weren't very threatening, I came away from this one chalking it up to the gulf in class.

Gera is rubbish and needs to find the bench asap. One of the primary problems yesterday was the distribution through the midfield and he brings none. He rarely passes the ball forward and rarely gets in position to play in a cross. Of course, this is when he's not giving it away. Once Baird came in to partner w/ Etuhu, central distribution was nil. I'd be curious to have seen Dempsey in Danny's spot and Riise on the right but I expect they haven't trained that setup.

Hughes got skinned a number of times on the day, but given the line they were playing you've got to figure Anelka and Drogba will do that to him. I was surprised there wasn't more help back on those though.

Only other complaint would be the number of long balls and the number of times the mids played it straight back to the defense. Those probing balls and runs didn't appear to be much in evidence. Duff seemed to be the only mid doing it prior to subbing off Gera.

I remember one offside on Dempsey, but Barry's right, there weren't many. Soccernet lists it at 2. Agree that the problem up front was a combo of the two being similar and the lack of service.

Hate chelsea all you want, but when you go 0-3-7 in the last 10, you have to expect that losing is a probable result.

 

Everyone is following Hull City now thanks the Jozy Altidore. Great start to his EPL career. Long may it continue.

 

1. I didn't count but my best guess is between 10-15.
2. No idea about Gentleman Jim.
3. It was in the mid 70's and I spent the weekend outside and cleaning my garage. I hope everyone else was doing the same. Although, I am betting you are to blame for the low input weekend at FUSA. Announcing you were going to play hookey this weekend everyone probably gave everyone else the same idea.

 

I thought playing Dempsey up top was a mistake - he's our most creative player and is more effective in the midfield.

I thought we should have started EJ, who at least has the pace to challenge Chelsea. I'd rather have had 10 offsides than the lackluster approach we took today. (yes, EJ is faster than Kamara)

I thougth bringing on Baird for Murphy was a poor choice, especially considering we needed a goal. While I rate Baird as a defensive mid, and a substitution for Murphy when we're in the lead is ok, he is not going to help us create chances. Best best would have been to put in a stiker instead and move Dempsey to central midfield.

I predict Chelsea will win the League this year; they're playing well and aren't making mistakes.

 

You know what else pissed me off about this game? There wasn't even any blatant diving or whining by Drogba or any cheap Lampard goals to get angry about.

 

You are mistaken...maybe no goals by Lampard but Drogba did a nice dive in the first half, in front of the hammersmith end which ended in a free kick just outside the 18. It was so blatant that Pantsil was laughing at him.

 

The seasons still early!

 

I remember that dive and it was responsible for launching a stream of invective not fit for my 3 y/o son to hear. Whoops.

As usual, the Blue Poo -- great talent, great team, zero class.

 

Certainly, CSK Londinium got lucky the way Ben Hogan used to, superior talent(grudgingly admitted),but Fulham tho' spirited, had no KARMA. Nothing fell there way. C'est la vie! Next......

 

A couple pictures from the game:

 

Those are great, LaxAttack, thanks!

 

Yeah, this an extremely late response to this recent debacle, but I've been in password limbo for awhile... :?

Thanks for the reset Mike! 8)

On the match:

I believe Gera has been given one chance too many at this point. He is a decent squad player at best and should be relegated to the occasional sub appearance.

My one beef tactically was the sub for Murphy. Chris Baird? That seems like a move for when we are up two goals and not down two. I was baffled....

I really couldn't tell if the Dempsey and Zamora combo was effective, since there was little if any support from the midfield.

An overall "meh" performance...