Fulham v Swansea

They invented the word 'FULHAMISH" for a reason. 2-1 Whites final.

 

If Ruiz starts, I think we have every chance. Still, I think the best hopes I have are a relatively energetic 2-2 draw. Goals by Berba and Sidwell (he finds the slight touch he was missing on Boxing day). A point wouldn't be bad considering our miserable away form. Of course, given my success in predictions we'll probably lose 3-0 or win 0-1 on a Swansea own goal.

~ Steve

 

Broken record alert....blip, blip...Play with some d#*%n grit!!!

 

Two words, Michu... :S We control him and stop ex-Fulham W Routledge, Dyer, and Hernandez getting him the ball and it will be a good draw. Vorn is a beast. Not sure how we get by him. Want to be positive, but Swans are in form.

 

Don't think I'll forget Hatter's headline from last season's debacle...."Classy Swansea Rule The Cottage." No reason to think this year will be any different. Michu is hot, our defense is a sieve, and that's all you need to know. 0-3, Swans.

 

No need to control him, according to the Prem's website he's out.

http://www.premierleague.com/en-gb/news ... ek-20.html

That should help.

 

And no Vorn? We are starting Stockdale, Briggs AND Frei?!? Wow. Go for it Jol

 

As I missed today's match due to an internet outage, and Fulham are probably last again on MOTD, would someone explain how and why allegedly: 1) Our titular captain, Brede Hangeland finished at 9 r/t 5 (much as Cookie played at Palace or Samba under Big Sam) 2) Bryan was moved to 7 r/t 10 behind the #9? Also, do these changes, if true, mean our Oranje revolution has now fully embraced the, er, direct approach of say Dick Aadvocaat's Glasgow Rangers (different flavours of orangemen entirely and neither as sweet as advertised)?

Answers on a postcard, please.

 

The good news is that we showed greater effort (until the final 10 minutes) and created more chances in attack. We looked better offensively with Ruiz and Karagounis out there.

The bad news is despite that, we still lost at home, to a Swansea side comprised of almost half their B team. And a side that was incredibly careless in possession. Read that again and let it sink in. Five backups started for Swansea and they turned the ball over (usually unforced) at an alarming rate and STILL beat us at the Cottage.

Jol's substitutions continue to cause more head scratching than actually improving anything on the pitch. We became more narrow once he took Dejagah off and we generated fewer quality chances. I don't know what he was thinking bringing on Senderos. For someone who says he doesn't want us hoofing the ball up the pitch, moving Hangeland to CF meant we were going to do just that. Hangeland was never going to score from that position, so while we added a target man we reduced our chances of scoring by one and became one dimensional. Swansea's possession increased dramatically after that switch.

I still don't get the love for Jol's style of football and I fail to see the beauty (or sexiness) in it. When Swansea actually held onto the ball long enough to attack, they put three guys deep into our box. We keep trying to set things up at the top of the box. That's how we can generate so many shots and chances and come away with next to nothing. When Roy managed us we'd line up our 2 banks of four and force teams to bomb away from outside. I remember laughing at the sides that fell for that trap. Sure, you'll get burned on the occassional screamer, but it's very low percentage. From all appearances, that seems to be our goal offensively. I suspect that's also why when we do try to play wide and cross it in we rarely have more than one player in the box and when we do have more than one, they're aren't very deep in the box. All that said, we probably were unlucky to not get at least one more goal today.

Stockdale had a rough outing, but it's important to note that his distribution was better than Schwarzer's and likely aided quite a bit in our improved possession today. I'd like to see him get another shot and hope Jol (or Schwarzer's injury) allows that.

While today's performance seems to have generated a slight uptick in optimism around the Fulham universe, I'm still quite concerned. Barring much better luck with injuries and a busy and successful transfer window, I have a hard time seeing us in anything other than a relegation fight.

 

After the loss, I smashed all of my Bonnie Tyler records.