FULHAM v. Basel

We got a win and held serve at the Cottage which is great but did anyone else get the feeling they were watching a USMNT match? The Whites scrappy play put them a goal up and then it looked like someone put grease on the sides of Fulham's boots becasue they could not maintain possession for more than about 3 seconds.

 

Second half we looked really good. Should have been more goals from both teams, but glad we took the win.

 

You cant have been watching Fulham for very long 3 seconds is a Record?

Watch Etuhu when he plays he cant count to three so it's released long before.

 

Tale of two halves. I thought Basel played very well, Premiership quality even. We had a pretty dominant 2nd half though, so I feel we deserved the win, especially considering the two penalty shouts that we should have gotten justice on at least one of.

Player Ratings:

Schwarzer: 6
..... didn't have much to do, but controlled the box well
Kelly: 3
..... got beaten quite a few times and didn't offer much going forward
Smalling: 5
..... Solid game for the youngster, who provided much needed height in the box. Good composure at times, but his distribution was off at times, too.
Baird: 6
..... Nice job reading the game.
Konchesky: 6
..... Did well against Basel's best player and was effective moving forward.
Riise: 5
..... Good energy, but not very effective. Gera and Duff are safe.
Murphy: 7
..... Great distribution, active defensively. Well taken goal.
Greening: 4
..... Reckless tackles, was lucky not to get 2 yellows. Offered nothing to the attack; always back-passed.
Dempsey: 7
..... Dangerous on the attack and played well defensively.
Zamora: 5
..... Good movement and passing, but shooting was poor and was disposessed from behind too easily.
Johnson: 8
..... Very active and dangerous the entire game. Had two penalty shouts denied by the ref, at least one of which was a stonewall penalty. Applied good pressure on their back four and keeper. My MOM.

 

AndyP, I dont see your Dempsey rating.

I would have liked to see Kamara and Gera brought on. Roy really doesnt like to sub, even with a lot of second stringers.

 

Tell me something I didnt know before the game, nothing new about Zamora

 

I've had the worst luck following these Europa matches from work. I'm glad to see us top of the group and with 3 pts from yesterday. Also good to see the clean sheet, we're going to need that kind of defense with our scoring woes.

How bad did the attendance turn out?

 

Don.

Perhaps Konch "doing well" is a relative term, but I adjust my ratings based upon the difficulty of the job they had to do. Carlito is a very skilled player and while Konch did lose the ball a couple of times (he stole the ball off just about every player on that side of the pitch at one time or the other), he stayed with him and at least, IMO, did an effective job of slowing him down.

As far as Kelly goes, I have to disagree there. I thought his ONLY good attacking pass was in the goal. I thought his touch wasn't great and he hung Riise out to dry a few times with his balls. His first half defending was bad enough to make me wish Roy would move Baird to Right Back - the way he was pushed off the ball so easily and gifted Basel one of their best scoring opportunities was shameful at this level.

Martin.

Dempsey: If you check my edit time, it was after Mo posted (and pointed out my miss)

Zamora: I think Zamora's hold up/possession play is normally better than he had yesterday; there were more than a few times a Basel player came from behind and swiped the ball away. But yeah, on the shooting, I was stating the obvious

 

Best postmatch quote from Roy concerning UEFA not allowing Zuber to backup Mark: 'we must thank our lucky stars that Schwarzer wasn't injured and Zoltan Gera had to put the gloves on, which he was looking forward to and I wasn't'.

Glad to see the lads are able to go to the training ground and get ready for Spam after a win.

 

I don't see how you can continue to slag on Etuhu considering how poor Greening has been every time we've seen him. Etuhu's passing is usually efficient, if not imaginative (which is not his job), and at least he can tackle cleanly.

Nevland is next to useless against a packed-in defense like Arsenal was showing us late. He needs to find running room to be successful and he wouldn't have found any in that match.

I have to agree with those who said Kelly had a poor game; he got up field a lot and was lucky not to get punished for it. Carlitos had his way with Konch a fair amount too. A win is a win and all, but the boys were probably pretty lucky to escape with a clean sheet.

 

Understandably the win wasn't convincing BUT Basel is a quality European team and one that was at full strength. They couldn't hit a barn door on the day but our squad wasn't exactly the starting XI. An impressive win regardless of how we got there.

I'm a bit surprised at the lack of chat regarding out 19 year old center back Chris Smalling. He has played three games for us and two of them in Europe performing to a very high level. Great for someone who was playing non-league only a year ago!

 

I'LL talk up Smalling. This Basel side isn't a group of hacks. Frei is no mug. I thought Smalling did a pretty nice job tying their offense up, on the whole. Sure he had some help, but then, so does the first team. Nice work Chris, and I look forward for more to come.


I just learned this -- celebrity fan of Basel -- Roger Federer.

 

You have got to be kidding me?

First off NO I wont stop slagging off Etuhu in plain English He's Fcuking Useless, NO He cant tackle and YES He's a Midfield player Imagination is about MIDFIELD, without midfield and imagination any team is DOOMED

If you dont think the Midfield should have imigaination your surely watching the wrong sport, thats like saying an NFL teams doesnt need a quarterback that can pass.

Secondly dont bring Greening into this, this is about Etuhu. and without me seeing him play Im not being drawn into someone I havent seen play.

Wake up this is English Premiership Not a schoolboy kick about with your mates.

 

Martin. Midifield is not just about imagination. In Roy's system, he has an enforcer and a creative player. THAT's his system and in that system, Etuhu does well.

He tackles well, his positioning within the formation is good, he's good in the air, and he doesn't turn the ball over. That is the sum total of everything Roy is asking him to do.

 

I never said it's "Just" about Imigination, I was purely stating the fact that a Midfield player"Needs" Imigination, I think part of my point was proved yesterday when Etuhu didnt play and he's replacement got sent off rightly so and we still managed to get a point so nearly got three, nobody missed either Etuhu or Zamora, In fact I would go as far to say I liked to way we played yesterday and deserved maybe all three points.

 

I take it this "midfield-imagination" discussion has already taken into consideration USA's own Michael Bradley.

Etuhu has a purpose SOMETIMES, but just like USMNT should not stick with Bradley all of the time (unless you ask dad, who for better or worse is head coach), neither should FULHAM have Etuhu in there all of the time.

 

The point of having Etuhu there is that by having him there, it allows Murphy to focus more on being creative.

As for the West Ham game, Martin, didn't you notice that Baird replaced AJ and slotted into the holding midfielder spot vacated by Chicago?

Even for the USMNT, I think our best lineup is Bradley + Feilhaber as Bradley's defensive presence allows Feilhaber to focus on finding the four attacking players in threatening positions.