Fulham v. Sunderland [R]

I remember Richardson when he played at ManU as having his overinflated head up his ass so far that he could see what he just swallowed. When I saw him start, I figured that at least one bad guy wouldn't cause us any grief. Shows what I know.

I fail to see why we have been as crabby as we are today. Sunderland is not going to face relegation this year. As someone said, we improved, but they improved too. I shudder to think what their training session is like if someone pushes Keano's buttons, and they have maybe a smidge more talent than we do.

The back line looked pretty good, if not incredibly lucky on the two woodwork shots. We had some good play up front w/ AJ and Zamora.

No bloodletting from me yet.

 

You must be a bit disappointed that over the last 5 games (one championship side and four mid to bottom premiership sides) we've managed one goal, which was a penalty.

 

Was going to post this almost word for word but see you have done so already.

Johnny was looking down and poor ol' Richardson was never going to score.

 

Did anyone else catch what Jimmy Bullard was doing in the wall before the free kick that the goal was called back? Or more specifically to a Sunderland Player? The player got a kick out of it.

 

I don't want this to happen but considering the string of results, the reality that we may not get a point from our next two games, and the club's past dealings with slumping managers...

I'm just beginning to feel its a tragic inevitability.

 

My impression this season has been that the team has performed much better than last season but here are a few statistics from this season and last season to compare:

....................This year..............Last Year

Record.............2-1-4...................1-3-3

Points.................7..........................6

Goals For............5.........................12

Goals Against......7........................13

Goal Diff.............-2.........................-1

Even though things look similar I still think things have improved. The goals against difference of +6 over last season indicates a huge improvement on the defensive end. Hopefully the squad will sort out the scoring difficulties and we will begin a climb up the table soon. I know statistics don't tell the whole story and when I have more time later I may try to add some others like shots and shots on goal simply because I think they would be interesting to compare.

My caveat about the statistics is that I added last seasons numbers based on a fixture table from last season. They may be off a little but they should be close.

 

We were losers on football365.com


Fulham
Fulham are without a goal in open play in six matches. The obvious response of Roy Hodgson would be to introduce some additional attacking flair to support Bobby Zamora and Andrew Johnson but how can he when Fulham continue to deploy arguably the least defensively-minded midfield quartet - Danny Murphy, Simon Davies, Jimmy Bullard and Zoltan Gera - of any in the league? It might seem like putting the cart ahead of the course but to get his side scoring again Hodgson's best approach might be to introduce graft over craft.

 

Putting things in perspective:

Goals conceded:

Chelsea 3
Man United 4
Liverpool 6
Arsenal 6
Fulham 7

 

i watched this match last night (after the red bull soapbox races - which were hillarious, and i recommend attending if they're in your area) and we could cut and paste everybody's comments from the past 4 or 5 matches and they would all be relevant to the sunderland match, i.e. 'good passing, good possession, created good chances, we look better than last year, can't finish, unlucky, etc.'

wet blanket department: i like the positives, and we all gotta find something good when you're a fulham supporter, but i don't know if only 7 goals allowed is indicative of quality as much as good fortune. true, FFC's defense is improved this campaign and they have conceded less than last year, but how many times have opposing clubs been in great positions and hit the woodwork? i can think of arsenal, blackburn and obviously, yesterday. that #7 could easily be an 11 or 12 and maybe FFC's defense has been slightly more exposed than the numbers show. the fact that it isn't 11 or 12 inspires hope.

however, a much larger concern to FFC, i cannot freakin' remember the last goal scored from the run of play. seriously, i cannot remember who scored it or who it was against - maybe senility setting in, or maybe it's just been a long, long time.

we're in for a fight again this year, and god bless this team, because it's never boring!!
COYW

 

Zamora against Bolton.

I haven't actually seen Fulham score a goal in the run of play yet this year. I guess actually the goal against Arsenal is the ONLY goal I've seen Fulham score this year.

I certainly think even considering firing Roy at this point is premature. But honestly, I don't know what it's going to take to make him alter his approach or his lineup (other than suspension or injury I suppose) and that makes me nervous. He's got to shake things up in the midfield, if you ask me.

 

I saw someone pushing and shoving in the wall from Sunderland and when the players all went to cover their junk, someone gave Chopra, I believe, a sharp tweak to the manhood -- grabass and giggles all around -- was that Bullard?

Also, Keano's post match conference -- http://www.fulhamfc.com/Club/News/NewsA ... ction.aspx

Sorry Roy, wishing it to be a goal won't make it so.

 

That was Bullard. I replayed it on the DVR because I thought I was seeing things. My wife was cracking up as we watched it.

 

It was definitely Bullard and he was grabbing the junk of Chimbonda...but Chimbonda WAS smiling...hmmmmmm.

 

The good would be another clean sheet by Schwarzer although he was lucky to get this one. After last season, the GA is a nice change.

The bad, we've got 1 goal in over 500 minutes. There may be a direct correlation between the two stats, but the latter needs to change.

 

That's been said about Dempsey a number of times. I wonder if he wouldn't be better served to be loaned out to a Cola team for a 1/2 season to get regular playing time and further work on his finishing, etc at a lower level (but higher than the one he came to FFC from). Especially if he won't get regular minutes at Fulham at this time.

 

You can't say Dempsey's finishing is any worse than Gera's, and he's starting every week....

 

I watched it a few times ... I would just watch it and laugh and then repeat the process again ... it was soooooo funny. Chimbonda was definitely laughing about it. What a mess ... lol.

 

You knew this was coming.