Fulham v. Man City

Good on ya. Nice to hear a positive, constructive review. Such a contrast to the Fulhamfc board.

What I saw of Seol, I was also impressed. Konchesky also a great acquisition. If we could only tighten up in the rest of defence ........... it will come.

 

Baird, oh Baird. WHY must you do this to me? I couldn't help but to scream at the television after each goal. It seemed like every one came from his side and had him getting beat or just outplayed.

But we could have, and should have, won that one. I do not like Dempsey at midfield. He is far better up front.

It does make me sick though to see us still at the bottom of the table. Those numbers hardly do any justice to the squad this year. I hope a change will be made in defense and we will start seeing some amazing wins come our way. If not, I see a similiar fate as the Crew - can't be beat, but can't get points either.

And I ate major crow on that free kick goal. I was telling noodle that I didn't think they should go for goal, but MY what a rip from Bouzza. I even stated before the kick that if he scored, he can take all of them as far as I'm concerned. Though props to the commentator for giving me a laugh. "It looks like a board room meeting down there". lol. Good times.

so my final say ... Baird out, Seol in. He had some nice moves and good ball control. I knew there was a reason I liked him last season at Reading. Aside from Baird, I absolutely love the summer signings.

BRING ON BOLTON!

And dare I say, we might see an upset next week against CSKA London? All that upheaval and turmoil can't be good for a squad's confidence. But I will mention more on those thoughts later in the week.

 

The biggest question I have is where is Volzy? Two Saturdays ago I saw him walking up Fulham High St. instead of up at Wigan with the rest of the side.

Has he fallen out with Lawrie, is he injured, does his style not suit the defense...?

He is definitely a better option than Baird. Please oh please Lawrie give Volzy a chance.

 

After reading some of the comments from LS over on ESPNsoccernet, I am led to believe he has finally seen the light and will hopefully make a change.

The worst we can do is give Volzy a shot and see what happens.

I did like the nickname given to us though - Fighting Fulham. I likes it!

 

Baird is hooorible, he seems to be getting caught with his turned often and ManC knew it. Look how long the grass is on the other side of the field.

 

I didnt see the match but it seems to me from highlights that Baird starting pulling up as his man approached the end, leading to that near post goal.. apparently expecting Niemi to be able to parry any crossing shot..

At the time of the strike, he was at least half a step off and there was too much angle, still. What was he thinking? That he wouldnt be responsible for an own-goal deflection?

And yes... I watched it more than once. Same conclusion each time.

 

Me too. I think Baird has had his shot and has under performed. It's time to give someone else a chance over there. I'm not saying totally ditch Baird, but it's all about playing the guys who are in top form, right? Baird isn't at the moment. And, thankfully, we have options.

 

i think i am falling in love with this squad. they just dont give up. and oh yeah, we have depth!! i think we should go 4-3-3 alllllll the time.

sorry all but Baird is our weakest link on Defense. Yes our CB's are awful too. And your GK's are bad too. But every (quality) team attacks down our right flank and tries to expose him. Spurs, Villa, Citeh, Arsenal etc etc.

I dont know if Volzy is the answer because he isnt sound defensively, but instead is very frantic. But that RB spot needs to be solidified with a quality player come January.

lets bring on cska london next week.
coyw!

 

All I can say is that this is not the same team I watched last year...the fire is there and it is depressing that we cannot bolster our defense to get those three points we so desperately need. I hate seeing us at 17th in the fixtures when our games have consistently been high scoring, arguably strong, matches. I wondered aloud what was going on with that first Petrov goal...was someone pointing out a particularly odd shaped puffy cloud or something? The look on Niemi's face seemed to reflect that he was experiencing a similar feeling of confusion. But I digress...

I had a great time watching the game, as stressful as it was, and Martin, my husband and I did have others in the pub supporting the good guys. Maybe we will win more converts! I feel like a missionary...

I am in love with Deuce. There. I said it...
-Terri

Fulham Always Fights...Fighting Fulham...I like it!

 

I don't see anything in LS's comments that leads me to believe he'll take Baird out, despite most of our defensive issues arising on his side. For what it's worth, I thought the point of having fullbacks who didn't attack too aggressively (i.e. the point of playing Baird instead of a guy like Liam Rosenior) was so that your outside midfielders didn't *have to* come back to defend all the time.

Niemi should've had that near post goal for sure - not sure if I remember the other two clearly enough to say.

Davies made a great run to get in position to score the first goal.

Bouazza's goal off the free kick was really nice - some wicked bend away from Schmeichel.

I'm not crazy about Healy. Being able to finish is nice, but I just don't think he brings much else to the table.

Seol looked very good in limited action - I think he deserves some more time, maybe a start midweek.

Looked pretty clear that Kamara was offsides before Murphy's goal, but I guess *sometimes* we have to get some of the breaks, right?

Davis is looking more confident in midfield but Smertin seems less visible than he was early on.

I do agree with everyone else that I like the fire that this team shows.

 

jmh: if you watch his interview on the official site, you can tell the disappointment he has for the way the defense has been playing. I refuse to believe he is that blind to not see where the holes are in the D.

 

I would like to see Volzy go in for Baird next game, if nothing else, a game on the bench will be good for Baird's development, and watching Volzy play "his" position will help teach him some things.

I would like to see Keller play a game as well. I think Niemi needs to feel a bit less secure in his starting spot so he focuses better; we was quite poor on Saturday.

I am sure Dempsey is taking a lot of knocks on the OFAL (I haven't been there yet), but he was being marked by arguably the best young defender in England. Sanchez did the right thing by moving him to the right, in this game, as the matchup in the center wasn't working. Remember that Dempsey is playing target forward for the first time this year; against the quality of Micah Richards, he's simply not going dominate that matchup.

I like Seol, when he played, at Reading last year. Be warned that he does have OFF games and really disappears when that happens. He was remarkable on Saturday, though.

Murphy did very well as well. Fulham is full of quality attacking threats now, and we have yet to see two of our signings (Cook, Kuqi).

I thought it was a great game, very entertaining. If nothing else, we may get more games on TV if we continue to produce games of this quality. Afterall, who wants to see Arsenal beat defenseless Derby into the ground 5-0?

 

Baird and Niemi get the donkey award for this past weekend. To be beat on the near post is just unacceptable. Though if we keep scoring the goals that we proven we can. We will be safe. At least our GD isn't -16 like Derby. Also Simon Davies got into the team of the week on soccernet:
http://soccernet.espn.go.com/columns/st ... d=tab1pos1

 

for those who couldnt watch the game, or saw it streaming in low, low quality (me), here's a link to the vid highlights.

http://www.footytube.com/2007/09/22/fulham-vs-man-city/

 

Oh Don! You wound me!

I must count myself among those who were unimpressed by Bouazza in his first few matches (although I never said he was a waste of money) and I'm not above eating my words and giving him all the credit in the world for the match he played Saturday. He was great in every respect and his free kick was fantastic.

Re: Baird. I continue to think everyone is being a little hard on him. Two of the Man City goals were shots Niemi should have saved. I love Niemi more than anyone, but he has NOT been on form so far this season. I do think he'll get it together, hopefully sooner rather than later.

I watched the match with a friend and we were both enormously impressed with Seol in his limited action. His dribbling and ball control are excellent. It seemed like he was always surrounded by two (or more) defenders, but didn't concede possession and managed to make things happen. I can't wait to see what he can do with some more playing time.

Great match. Wish we could've gotten all the points.

 

As long as the ball was not played to Kamara in an offside position, he would not judged offsides.

 

I see now what you mean. Close call. Glad it went our way.

 

I didn't even think it was all that close, I thought it was pretty clearly a blown call.

 

We were afraid it might have been offsides when we watched the match...but I'm not complaining! I still can't wrap my head around offsides anyway ...