Fulham vs Villa

I think Duff will come around, but maybe I'm just overly optimistic about that. He seems to have alot of his talent from years past and seems to be a player who will hustle the whole 90, but not do much other than that. I hope he can regain his old form, but if these last 2 games are anything to go by, we've made a bad judgment to sign him.


Surely somebody else notices the fact that we drop off of on rushing forwards to much? It's almost always Hughes too. I remember this happening last year against Man United and it seems a players get a chance a game because of his errors. This is something that needs to be fixed.

 

Greening is no Danny Murphy.

The way we played, seemed as if 2 Villa players were around us at all times, the back 4 couldn't even pass the ball around without being harassed by Villains.

It's hard to stomach seeing a side that was so different, and therefore so unorganized. 24 is right, we just NEVER looked dangerous. ESPN gave us 8 shots, with a big fat ZERO on goal, but i'm not sure where they even got the 8.

Onto the Everton match, where I'll hope the lads don't spoil my Cottage debut.

 

its harder to stomach watching a team look like its never going to score, not just that it cannot score.

seriously, we've only let loose once this season -- at home to Perm. i know i know its august, but 5 games assemble a blueprint.

[and for those slagging off Greening, CCN addresses that well and dispels any such thoughts. i personally thought he did okay]

and funny on MOTD not a single mention of the absences and injuries was made. instead it was the old cliche about weariness from europe.

good to know british sports pundits' banter is as mindless and lazy as here in the usa!

 

Way too many unforced turnovers. Lots of passes were sent right to the feet of Villa, with Greening leading the charge, they must have forgot to tell him we were in White.

I think the announcers had it right, "Fulham could play to Christmas and still be trying to score..." OUCH!! :|

 

Injuries aside, that was dismal. No offense, timid and gutless play in the middle, and defensive lapses ruled the day. Sure, Villa have more talent, but you got the feeling that Fulham gave this one away. Not the win, b/c you can't win with 0 goals. But a draw seemed attainable. Villa didn't exactly threaten Schwarzer that much either.

Apparantly, Danny Murphy is worth two players b/c the difference in Etuhu w/Danny directing the middle is significant. And while I hate to take the piss out of a guy in his debut, Greening was terrible. You could hear the coaching staff screaming at him to go forward on tv. Yet anytime he got w/in 30 yds of the box, he started back-pedaling. Someone mentioned the pressure Villa were able to put on the back four. Part of that was b/c of both CM's playing so far back. Seemed like Etuhu got forward more in the 2nd half, but Greening was way too far back down 2 goals. Aside from that, his touch was poor, his passing was poor, most of them went sideways or backward and he looked very timid. I'm hoping a good bit of that was being new to the side and first game jitters. I really wish Roy would let Dempsey man Danny's spot in his absense but the injury situation means it would just leave a hole on the wing.

And what the heck happened to Aaron Hughes? He's been poor two games running. I realize he played over his head last year, so a dropoff was entirely possible, but this is quite a regression. Roy needs to put a moritorium on Hughes passing back to Schwarzer for a while.

Duff is confusing. He seems to get the ball deeper on the wings than our other mids have, but he keeps turning it back from the touchline and passing to PK. He's not crossing it at all. I like his hustle and passing and he displays some vision, but most of his touches result in nothing. Could be like Greening though. The plan was probably not to have either starting & logging so many minutes this early into their time with the club.

Schwarzer and Hangeland looked good. Didn't think Clint looked bad and Eddie showed confidence on the ball after he came on. He looked better than either of the starters did today.

Ironically, during the summer and the start of the transfer window, there were a lot of requests for a CB for depth and a ST. Both are proving to continue to be big needs and remain unfilled.

Hope we get some starters back soon, b/c on the back of the last 3 matches, it may be a while before we see a win.

 

Dempsey, Hangeland, and Nevland were the only ones who looked as if they knew what they were doing, oh and Duff. Roy should have played Gera. I did not like what I saw from Greening - he seems fond of diving and fouling. EJ had no opportunities to use his speed, but he did hold the ball up a couple of times which I find promising. Not a fun match to watch.

 

I'm in a half-full mood today.

Aston Villa, a very good attacking side, had very few opportunities against us. Really, only one (their 2nd goal). We're not that far off our defensive form.

Dempsey was solid, showing he's easily one of our best 3 players. I think the majority of the shots we had were his.

EJ actually looked ok coming off the bench. Certainly looked better in his 15 mins than Kamara looked the whole game. He could get more playing time out of this.

I did like the way that Dempsey and Duff were able to switch sides on the fly.

Konch did a good job of shutting down Milner.

 

I'm gonna pile on: that was awful. None of those XI should ever see the field as one unit for the rest of the season - those pieces obviously don't work together.

One goal, scored off Zamora's ass is poor at this level, and not even threatening for the better part of two matches (given one match was Chelsea) sucks. Was that a premiership club out there, b/c I saw much better play over the weekend in MLS?

The sky's not falling, and it's very early, but yesterday's display should earn nothing but invective from the supporters. I'm not surprised by the loss at Villa Park, it's the manner in which it went down that's worrisome.

Fulham need to basically start anew after the int'l break, and let's hope for a clean bill of health for FFC's internationals.

 

Well I drove up to Birmingham Sunday morning after going back and forth about making the trip and in the end said what the hell its only a two hour drive.

I kind of wished I'd stayed home (well not really, the experience was well worth it although 36 quid was a bit absorbent for the crappy away section conditions). I will say in the support department, Villa were non existent for most of the match and we held our own. That was the highlight of the match. "We're all going on a European tour!" chant did not sit too well with the Villa faithful so soon after the Rapid Vienna loss.

I would not give anyone a rating of above 6. It had to be one of the most frustrating matches I have ever been to. We were so pissed with the offensive effort that when anyone had the ball within 35 metres of the goal we were screaming SHOOT. Friedel was never tested....at all. A nice Fulham fan even went so far as to describe the characteristics of the goal (the white wood thing, with the net). Our boys didn't hear him I guess.

Duff and Greening were not impressive. What is it with our lead feet? Almost every time we played the ball in it bounced 4 or 5 feet off our guys. No fluidity in the mid field. I also thought there was a general lack of effort, possible due to the fun travel schedule. Such is life being in the Europa league. Anytime we started to create something, we then swiftly gave up possession. EJ actually had a few decent touches during his brief appearance. Villa did a very good job pressing us and not giving us anytime with the ball.

Lets chalk this up as a bad game, dust off, and come back stronger.

Of course it was pissing rain on the walk back to the car park to add insult to injury (and no beer for the away fans, that's just cruel). :cry:

 

No beer for away fans, but the home fan can drink? Seriously? All kidding aside, how is that not discrimination? Are there no laws? Is there no decency? I'm beginning to think that taxation without representation is just revisionist history put in place but 18th Puritanical historians. Clearly the red coats were just keeping beer from the colonists.

 

*Sigh*

Most of what I intended to post has been pretty well covered in this thread.

I would like to point out that the team that lined up against Villa yesterday is very different from the team we've become accustomed to watching this past season.

Sure, missing Zamora and Johnson hurts the team, but I think the absence of Simon Davies and Danny Murphy impacts the team far more.

That bit of quality coming from the midfield has been sorely lacking and has directly contributed to the anemic offensive displays of late.

Having a healthy Murphy and Davies, would've allowed for Duff and Greening to get acclimated into the team at a normal pace.

Losing to the blue poo and the villians away should not be a huge surprise, so I am not yet ready to push the panic button.

However, the situation in the midfield needs to be sorted. Especially if we don't expect Davies back soon and if Murphy's injury persists for more than a couple matches.

 

Oh yeah, I was well warned. I came up the M40 Sunday at noon and got out of Dodge early Monday morning, the motorway was busy, but manageable. Had a few beers with some Brummies Sunday evening though.

 

I watched the match last night. Ugghhhh!!!!!!!! What happened to playing possession? I think my kids were wondering why I was saying "give away" over and over again (since one is in the parrot stage, he may start repeating that when he sees a match).

Demps had a decent match, and I thought EJ had nice touches even though every one of them were from him coming back to the ball - nice little 1-2 with Etuhu. The one time he had the opportunity to use any speed was down the wing where he won a corner.
Again, Ugghhhh!!!!!!!!

 

I love this picture:



It looks like Dempsey is jump-kicking Nicky Shorey!

 

Cantona style! (well at leat Demps is on the pitch and not in the stands)

 

Enter the Nacogdoches Dragon. :lol:

 

What Team Was That?!? Painful to watch a bunch of guys not know where to go or what to do...