Fulham Away to Citeh

It's time to start the obligatory match thread in which our beloved Whties travel to the Etihad to play Man City. Stranger things have happened, but can't see anything but a 3-0 thrashing by the hosts. MJ was right about one thing in his recent comments, and that we are an 'unsettled squad'. However, it's his freaking job to settle it. Starting to lean towards AggieMatt's assessment that he is a front runner, and looks to the clubs finances as an excuse to fail.

 

The match will be on ESPN2 at 7am Pacific Time.

Looking for some type of fight, spirit, etc. to carryover after the Blackpool victory. I don't expect anything from this match, but some assertive play would be nice.

From the BBC in 4/2008, and look at those names on the team sheets and how they've changed, for both clubs. Can still remember, as if it were yesterday, falling out of my chair in sheer joy at the sight of Kamara's winner:

Man City 2-3 Fulham
By Tom Fordyce

Diomansy Kamara
Kamara goes to the Fulham fans after his dramatic late winner

Fulham staged a remarkable comeback to keep their Premier League hopes alive in a dramatic see-saw match.

City opened a 2-0 lead thanks to a brilliant curler from Stephen Ireland and Benjani's side-foot finish.

Diomansy Kamara put Fulham back into it with 20 minutes left by drilling a shot through 'keeper Joe Hart's legs.

Danny Murphy equalised nine minutes later, slotting home after Joe hart saved his penalty, and Kamara fired the winner in the very last minute.

I never lost hope - Hodgson

Fulham needed a minor miracle to stay up before the match, and manager Roy Hodgson's body language told its own story as events unfolded.

As news came in of early goals from relegation rivals Birmingham and Bolton, Hodgson's frown deepened and his shoulders slumped.

By contrast, City boss Sven-Goran Eriksson was all smiles as his team impressed under the watching eyes of owner Thaksin Shinawatra.


606: DEBATE
Your thoughts on Fulham's comeback

But when Kamara kept his cool to give Fulham the points, Hodgson and his staff leapt from their seats in joy.

City started sleepily in the spring sunshine at Eastlands as Fulham created early chances; Clint Dempsey forced Hart into a diving save from Simon Davies's pull-back after Jimmy Bullard's long-range effort dipped wide.

But Ireland's goal was the catalyst for a change in the balance of play as Fulham's optimism crumbled in the face of a slick City onslaught.

When Benjani slid his shot home on 21 minutes, the writing appeared to be on the wall for the visitors.

Interview: Man City boss Sven Goran Eriksson

Elano was somehow running the game from right-back, picking out Vassell behind the defence and finding Petrov with some wonderful crossfield passes.

And when Fulham finally did create a chance - Northern Ireland striker David Healy meeting Simon Davies' cross with a point-blank header - Hart made a fine one-handed reflex save.

Fulham have been stuck in 19th place in the table since the New Year, and with Birmingham two ahead against Liverpool, their long-suffering fans fell silent.

But when Murphy put them level after Hart had blocked his tame spot-kick as Liverpool drew level at St Andrews and Bolton failed to hold their lead at Tottenham, they finally found their voice.

A draw, however, was not enough for Fulham and as they pressed forward a fine ball picked out Kamara in the inside left channel and he lashed powerfully into the roof of the net to leave Eriksson shaking his head in disbelief.

Manchester City manager Sven-Goran Eriksson:
"We lost a game we should have won. We controlled most of it, and we thought it was done.

"If you don't defend, you lose the ball and you give them chances. They fought until the end, but we stopped fighting.

"We can't blame anyone but ourselves for losing a game like this."

Fulham manager Roy Hodgson:
"It was a splendid victory for us, one we so badly needed.

"It looked bleak at half-time, and we had a mountain to climb - we didn't deserve to be losing. But we did it.

"At 0-2 I honestly thought we weren't out of it. I never lost hope, but to win it was extraordinary. We've given ourselves a chance now."

Man City: Hart, Elano, Corluka, Ball, Jihai, Vassell (Caicedo 80), Gelson, Johnson, Petrov, Ireland (Geovanni 56), Mwaruwari.
Subs Not Used: Isaksson, Castillo, Logan.

Goals: Ireland 10, Mwaruwari 21.

Fulham: Keller, Stalteri, Hangeland, Hughes, Konchesky, Davies, Bullard, Murphy, Dempsey, Healy (Kamara 64), McBride (Nevland 71).
Subs Not Used: Warner, Bocanegra, Andreasen.

Booked: Dempsey.

Goals: Kamara 70, Murphy 79, Kamara 90.

Att: 44,504

Ref: Mike Dean (Wirral).

BBC Sport Player Rater man of the match: Manchester City's Vedran Corluka 8 (on 90 minutes).

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-YM7TD2un1Q[/youtube]

 

I think it'll be closer than most expect, with our lads buoyed by the result at Blackpool. Still see a loss, even though City has a tendency to play poorly
at home at times. We'll put up a good fight, but lose 2-1 at the end.

 

I cannot see this being anything except a Citeh win and the statistics point toward an unhealthy movement for Fulham's goal differential this weekend.

1. We are away and we bleed goals on the oppents pitch giving up 23 with a -8 goal differential.
2. Only Southampton (26), Villa (26) and Newcastle (25) have leaked more goals on the road than Fulham.
3. At +16 with 25 goals scored and only 9 goals allowed Citeh are tied for the top spot for goal differential at home and goals allowed at home.
4. Citeh are also the second leading goal scoring team at home.
5. Citeh are coming off only their second loss of the season to Arsenal last weekend where they where shut out for the second time this season in the Prem.
6. After the prior two shut-outs Citeh has bounced back with wins.

Although I am delighted to read that Fulham will have the services of Sidwell for the match I cannot see a lineup that puts Fulham in any kind of favorable position against the defending champions. They outmatch us in class across the pitch as well they should and I believe Fulham will struggle to hold possession of the ball for any length of time. To achieve any level of success Fulham will have to try to level out the possession statistics and prevent Citeh from recycling the ball in our defensive end of the pitch until they find the back of the net. You can dislike or mock Citehfor their spend with abandon policy of purchasing players but the quality they will field against Fulham this weekend cannot be allowed to pass the ball around in front of the goal without end and interruption because that will spell certain doom with this squads defensive lapses.

If fully healthy, my guess is we will see a pairing of Karagounis and Sidwell sitting in front of a back five of Reither, Hughes, Hangeland, Richardson and Schwarzer. The best possible outcome is for Sidwell and Karagounis to be able to link up with Ruiz who has a blinder of a game in possession spraying the ball around the pitch to Duff and Kaca on the wings and springing Berba with a few glorious though balls for converted chances on goals. That is the Fulhamish dream I dream. How about you?

 

I expect Silva, Zabaleta and co will give us a footballing lesson: A five man midfield with Dzeko up top and the spare man pinging balls about. That was how Manicini set up against us at home in the 1-4 in November '10--Jo was the5th midfielder in a rare start as I recall-- and, I expect a similar result today with Zabaleta as the post-modern sweeper.

I arrived at the Cottage about an hour ago. It seemed unusually quiet as I walked down Finlay from FPR and as I turned onto Stevenage, there were the other dozen or so away supporters standing on the pavement, waiting for the coach! "Is it usually here by now?" one chap asked to me as we exchanged knowing, po-faced smirks. How fulhamish indeed. We reckoned as a contingency, we could fit in perhaps four minicabs.20 minutes later, the King's Ferry turned in. It had stopped at Motspur Park first. As I write this, we have stopped just past the north circular for a toilet break as the carsey in back has frozen. Through the snowy landscape, with plucky resolution, expecting nothing and likely to receive same, we roll on Fulham' s magical mystery tour, Lancs bound!

 

:clap: sfm. Now if only the lads play with 'plucky resolution'.

 

"knowing, po-faced smirks" - love it.

Thanks, as always, sfm for sharing a bit of the journey with us.

 

My prediction - MCFC will be over confident. Fulham will score two goals from set-pieces to go up 2-0. MCFC will predictably battle back to level things. Then Fulham pulls out the victory in the dying minutes from a piece of Berbatov brilliance.

 

Line-ups:

Fulham 4-4-1-1: Schwarzer, Riether, Hughes, Hangeland, Richardson, Dejagah (listed on right), Sidwell, Karagounis, Duff, Ruiz, Berbatov

Subs are reportedly: Etheridge, Senderos, Baird, Petric, Briggs, Rodallega, Kacaniklic

Citeh 4-2-3-1: Hart, Zabaleta, Kompany, Natasic, Clichy, Milner, Javi Garcia, Silva, Tevez, Dzeko

Subs are reportedly: Pantilimon, Lescott, Rodwell, Kolarov, Nasri, Balotelli, Aguero

 

Let's see .... we have one purely attacking sub and they have one purely defensive sub. Anyone want to guess what the manager's are thinking?

 

Don't expect or even care about a result, I just want to see us fight for whatever we get for 90 minutes. The bar has unfortunately been lowered that much.

 

And we love you for that Heather.

 

What to say? At first blush, it was away to the defending champs so we got the expected result. But that ignores the fact that they practically rolled out the red carpet inviting us to score on them. Daring us even. And...we passed sideways, and backwards, and stood around, made almost no runs in the box and couldn't deliver a decent cross most of the time anyway. As the match wore on, we hardly stepped in the box at all. 3 total shots, 0 on target, 2 corners won. Don't remember any free kicks. Had we parked the bus and done that, it would be one thing. But that's not what happened.

It's beating the proverbial dead horse, but the problem is this stupid, ill-fitting offensive scheme. We don't have the quality to play like Barca. Not even close and especially against better teams. It barely worked against a Championship side that had won only 1 of their last 10 home matches. But we continue to do the same thing and we continue to see 0 incoming activity in the transfer window. Absolutely frustrating.

The one positive? For the first 65 min or so our effort (as in want to) was better. But it went to crap after the 2nd goal. It's all rather irrelevant when the scheme is as poor as it is, but it beats watching us walk around like we couldn't be bothered.

I won't go into player performances much b/c I really can't fault them for what's happening. They're being set up to fail. I did think Karagounis was rather poor and ineffective, but after logging 120+ minutes midweek, that's hardly surprising. Schwarzer's punch wasn't well played on the first goal, but then again, he had almost no support there either. Man of the Match, Sidwell I guess if I have to pick one. He did a number of positive things.

We're still 6 pts above the drop, but now there are three teams within 6 pts of us and 2 (Reading & QPR) seem to have turned things around.

Just fire Jol already. Please!!!