Fulham vs. Newcastle - FA Cup

After a good EFL cup run with a disappointing finish, Fulham continues in the FA Cup under the lights of Craven Cottage against Newcastle. The match kicks off at 2pm EST on ESPN+

I don't have much to say about this one, except that I think Fulham wins.

 

This 1 p.m. start time (central) is weirding me out. Usually it's do I eat my breakfast before or after the game? Today it's do I eat my lunch before or after the game? At least it's a more appropriate time to open a beer!

 

I normally can't be critical of Silva, but if I had seen today's lineup before my initial post I would not have thought a win was likely. In fact, that was a lineup destined to fail. And why weren't the subs made at the half when the game was still within reach. At 0-2, what's the point of bringing on your best players against a solid defense?

I guess didn't understand the handball rule. I thought if there was any handball in the build up to a goal it was chalked-off. Turns out that is only the case if the hand belonged to the shooter.

Dan Burn and Cauley Woodrow score on the same night, but no current Fulham players. Woof.

And it seemed like there were just as many Newcastle fans there (Newcastle, nearly in Scotland) as Fulham fans. Pretty poor showing all around.

 

I thought we played well enough to win on another, luckier day. They took two of their few chances. We shot blanks and made four defensive mistakes, two of which cost us. I didn't mind Silva rotating players--they all take Premier League level paychecks and any of them should be ready to step in and play. A shakier match from Bobby and Tim, but Tim has an excuse, and Bobby has enough good will credit. Muniz moved better than I've ever seen him. Lukic filled in ably. Rodak showed that he could start in Leno's place if need be. All in all, I thought it was good, except for Harry's shoulder injury, I just didn't like the result.

 

I hoped the team wouldn't be completely gassed from losing to Liverpool, and they didn't just come out and roll over to Newcastle. It was reminiscent of early season Fulham - some patches were ok, mistakes were costly and nobody looked too much of a threat to score. Yesterday's performance is again reflective of the lack of a consistent finisher....blah blah blah. There are 3 days left in the window and the club ain't done shit.

 

What nevzter said. I also do not understand the decision not to recall Stansfield. A free upgrade.

 

Missed 90% of the match but from what I gather nothing new here. Our season is now practically over and, barring a major tailspin on our part coupled with 5-6 other teams getting their acts together and leap frogging us, I'm not sure what there's left to look forward to.

My hope is that the relationship between the fans and the club ownership/management improves because the situatiom is growing more toxic by the week. I don't need to recap yesterday's non-boycott and tone deaf club statement, nor the ongoing issue of ticket prices and season ticket costs, but there's something very strange going on with the club's business ops. No, I don't think its because Shad is trying to do everything he can to sell. No, it's not to do with Tony's transfer policy, or lack thereof (sidebar: no one is making any moves this window).

There's a wild opaqueness to the business operations that I cant figure. I dont know if there was a change in leadership somewhere in the hierarchy or a shift in focus by Ali Mac, etc. But, the result is very clearly alienating fans, and to my dumb eyes its running things into the ground. It wouldn't surprise me if this is all somehow connected to the albatross that is the Riverside Stand development, which is approaching year 5 and, from what I gather, completely stalled out over a year ago(?). There's a lot of smoke and tensions, and another 3-4 months of playing out the string.

 

I think timmyg is onto something with the Riverside Stand. It was supposed to increase our capacity. More supply with the same demand equals lower prices. I think, though, that the stand won't be enough to fix things. For ticket prices to go down, the club would either have to sell even more tickets (i.e. play in a significantly bigger stadium) or come up with some revenue from other sources.

That last is where I think the bosses are failing. There is absolutely no creativity in our marketing. No novel ideas of any kind. We're not even doing well with the old ideas: sign a good marketable player from a large market (US, Japan, etc.), sell the shirts. We aren't trying to tell any interesting stories outside the few blocks around the stadium. With our ownership, we could be a club with global following. At the very least make sure some of our famous fans get photographed with a Fulham shirt on once in a while. It's like we aren't even trying to shore up financially outside of not spending money.