Fulham @ Liverpool

Will anyone be at the Golden Lion today to watch the match?

 

Nil-nil for 80 and 2-0 Liverpool for the last 10.

 

I was surprised Lawrie took demps out. Do you think it was 'cause of the yellow card or his play?

 

i'm not surprised with the result line

but after seeing the highlights was fulham in a 0-0-11 the entire second half?

i mean, my god.

 

I thought Fulham did quite well and it was the injection of Torres and Babel that won the game for Liverpool.

I suspect that Dempsey might have been suffering some after effects of the hit he took, otherwise, it made no sense to take him off.

With the exception of Davis, I thought the Fulham players did well. Davis was a complete waste in this game; most of his touches resulted in turn-overs; Sanchez should have replaced him with Smertin at half time.

Can't really be too disappointed overall; it was Liverpool AT Anfield, afterall, and Fulham did show, again, that no one gets easy points against us.

 

And a great article it is!

Of course, I'm biased. At least we managed to dry up the weather for you and HatterMom today so you could enjoy more of the city and less of the rain! Have a fantastic day playing tourist.

It was very enjoyable to be the only losing fans in the pub still having a good time. The game launched some interesting discussion points, including a concession from the lovely older British Liverpool supporter at the next table that the penalty was clearly a foul outside the box.

 

It's great to hear another set of Fulham yanks meeting up, and it's grat you had a good time, despite the loss. Similar to the Atlanta, New York and DC crews, you've done us proud!

As for the match itself, I was very frustrated with the loss as I thought we would sneak a draw. I think I am more upset than I normally would be (I figured we'd lose) but this giving up goals in the last 10 minutes is wearing me thin. I was not impressed with Kamara, S. Davis, and a few others but thought Dempsey, Niemi, Baird, Hughes, Boca all did quite well.

As usual, the travelling Fulham fans did us very very proud and I have to say the Liverpool 'fans' (they are as plastic as Chelsea these days) were shocking. I think they were all up for a drubbing of Fulham and didn't sing til they scored...oh well, it's the way of football in the prem these days.

Blackburn at home up next, it won't be easy and I would say that maybe Smertin and Dempsey in the middle would be an improvement.

FTID

 

I am disappointed with the result, but was it really unexpected? A win would of been unimaginable and a draw would of been fantastic.

The most infuriating portion of the match was Steven Davis' laxidasical approach to possession. He simply gave the ball with ease far too often. I found myself shouting at his mistakes roughly every five minutes. That being said, Dempsey, Kuqi, Hughes, Boca and most notably Niemi had a good match. They may feel a bit hard done by the result, but that is football.

I can't wait for the Blackburn match in two weeks time. It will be the last one that I can attend while in England and I am hoping for a good result. Anyone else going to be attending the match?

 

My way of looking at it is that Torres did something special, rather than Fulham having done something wrong. Torres is something special and Fulham just can't do anything about that.

 

I was bummed with the Dempsey substitution. He was holding the ball well, and he was trying to make things happen (even when he lost it). When Kamara came in, they should have considered dropping Dempsey back for Davis who could get anything going.

 

if there's one good thing we can take from this match is that none of the teams below us did much, so we havent lost too many spots on the table.

though i'm still bummed out heading into this long, long international snoozefest.

 

I'm a jinx. Just when I praise Steven Davis, he has his worst match of the year. But I still stand by what I said. He's been good for the most part.

I thought they played well, but they absolutely could not get anything going in attack in the second half. I'm all for playing some long ball, especially with a big target striker like Kuqi up front, but you can't play it EVERY time. I know Don has (correctly) been making the point that Fulham has an inability to move the ball from defense to attack through midfield, but I honestly don't think that was the problem this time. There were times when they had space and bodies in the middle of the pitch and still kicked it long. It was hard to watch.

Now another question...with the defense playing as well as it has in Konchesky's absence, who starts in defense next time out?? With the way Stefanovich and Hughes have done (IMO, very well), does Boca even get a start?

 

To say I was upset with the final score would be an understatement. But it was to be expected. Liverpool was clearly the team in control, and we couldn't do S%^T once we got the ball. I couldn't help but to scream at the television every time we sent a long ball up to no one, or to see it picked up right away.

Teams have caught on to our long ball play. Time to switch some tactics, LS. If you don't ... it may be a long and disgusting season.

Baird played okay on his return. With that said, the center backs were stellar and Boca combined with Stef and Hughes to form one heck of a back line. I was beyond proud of those guys and their efforts.

The midfield ... ugh. Did they show up to the game? The commentator's pointed out many times near the end that our midfield was tired. That comes with playing the long ball and playing chase. As a midfielder on my base's team, I fully understand that statement. All we do is boot the ball up and pray someone gets it up front. But that leaves us midfielders to run back and forth all game long.

Kuqi had a good game, and so did Healy. He was just too small for Liverpool's defense. Clint had another good game, and I was happy to see Murphy get a few cracks in. If nothing else, it showed we at least were there to play.

With all of that said ... I could have tasted the tie. A win was out of the question. We couldn't make any offensive stance to speak of. But our boys in the back did a splendid job.

I'm excited to see their play continue this fine form as we face Bolton at home.

 

I agree - the long ball was a good thing to try, but you have got to mix it up. I wonder if that is why Davis had such a stinker. He hardly was invloved and I would guess he was just running up and down the field and never got into a groove.

I like Kuqi, but I dont think he expected to be playing as long as he did. He had some major hustle first half and I loved it, but it is hard to keep that up for 90, and I think he, and the team as a whole - cant keep up the current style of play for 90 minutes and LS has to start sorting something else out.

 

I am a midfielder as well, and the long ball game kills me. Even in my Sunday league, when we play the long ball, we end up losing. I do not understand the mentality. Incorporating it as part of the strategy is one thing, but cutting out the midfield is a horrible idea.

The best chances FFC had against Reading came from the development of the play through the midfield. Kuqi is a nice target, so incorporating the long ball is not a bad idea sometimes (not all the time). I was happy with the effort especially on D, and I was hoping the clock would run a little faster to get one point, then Torres came in - dammit!!! He is a nice player.

 

Don't know if anyone has mentioned it yet, but Liverpool's first goal resulted from the loveliest flick-on by Fulham of a long ball all year. Oooops.

 

I was in awe as they scored, i was really hoping for a draw. I know i have said i was sick of draws, but the way Liverpoll is playing i would have taking it.