The View from South Texas -- Fulham v. Everton

[HatterDon]

Two Brilliant Goals and Seriously Rubbish Midfield Play

This was the banner that would have nicely summed up the 1-1 draw that today's match looked like being. And then ... and then Bobby Zamora missed a sitter to deny Fulham the win ... and then freshly introduced Aaron Hughes [of all people] gifted Everton two goals that denied Fulham the draw. As I type this, I don't know where Fulham are in the standings, but I do know that, metaphorically, we're circling the drain.

It's hard to fault anybody for Drenthe's goal. Yes, Danny lost the ball – literally – and yes, that contributed to the Real Madrid loanee finding himself with a half chance that turned into a certain goal of the month contender. You really don't mind giving up a shot like that, since there was probably only a 10% chance of it becoming any sort of trouble. You really encourage your opponents to end their possessions with shots like that, since they're VASTLY more likely to end up endangering someone in H5 than nestling in the net. Semicolon, however, comma, there IS that 10%. Drenthe's goal was a stunner, and Fulham were behind before I had a chance to sit down and "relax" through the first half.

It's fair to say that we had more of the ball for the rest of the half, but it's accurate to say that our possession and movement didn't threaten anything. I keep reading and hearing that Jol loves wing play, but I keep SEEING wide midfielders and defenders cutting in toward an incredibly crowded middle of the field. Everton have two very good central defenders in Distin and Jagielka. They also have two suspect wide defenders who had little to do but attack on the day. Why? Because we never stretched the Everton defense with wide play in the first half. As a result, the work that Everton's middle pair had to do was made much more easy for them. The only threat of a Fulham goal came right out of Tony Pulis's playbook. An arching long throw by Riise to the tallest player in white, a Hangeland on-target header for Tim Howard to push over his bar. Whee! As a matter of fact, Hangeland might have been our best attacker in the first half – certainly our best chance of getting the ball from the back line to the front line. The only good thing about the first half was that we weren't behind by more than one goal. Our entire midfield was incoherent – yet, somehow, Sidwell's play stood out in its incredibly uselessness.

At the end of the first half, I went to church and then to lunch with the in-laws. So it was some three hours later that I restarted the DVR to watch – much more of the same. Like the announcer, I was a little stunned to see Murphy subbed off in favor of  Ruiz, figuring that Sidwell certainly had used up his quotient of crap by 60 minutes. But the Costa Rican's arrival resulted in a goal as different as possible from Drenthe's, yet equally as brilliant in execution. By the time Fulham scored in the 66th, Zamora and Johnson had long given up on playing the striker position – starved as they were for service from Fulham's alleged midfield creators. In their absence, Dempsey and Dembele took up the job of probing the Everton defense looking for holes. And so it was that Dempsey held the ball briefly before passing it into the penalty area for Ruiz to run on to. Ruiz assessed the situation, determined that Howard had lost control of about 20% of his goal frame, and then chipped the ball into that 20%. What an absolutely amazing and stunning goal.

It would be nice to say that what followed was 25 minutes of exciting give-and-take as each side fought for the full three points. Actually, what followed was a series of receiverless passes, possession given up easier than chastity in a cathouse, and frustration on the part of fans from both sides. And then ... and then Andy Johnson made yet another industrious run passing the ball into Bobby Zamora. A quick turn and a deft feint, and Fulham's England striker was free of Howard with pretty much the entire goal at his mercy. And yes, he decided to end the match with an exclamation point. The thing is, that the exclamatory punctuation that ended the match came from the folks in blue.

In the closing minutes, Jol decided to break up the back four. He couldn't take off Hangeland – despite the fact that he escaped punishment for what looked to me like TWO fouls that should have resulted in penalties. Instead he took off Grygera [who may have been injured]. Instead of bringing on Kelly to replace a RB with a RB, he brought on Aaron Hughes, and in the space of four minutes the Northern Irishman's lack of match fitness and pace resulted in goals by Saha and Rodwell. What should have been a 2-1 Fulham victory turned into a 1-3 Fulham defeat. The international announcers and I agreed that, without the deflating miss by Zamora, there's probably no answer from Everton at all.

Having said that, though, I'm not sure Fulham's performance merited a victory over Everton today. We started the day facing a teenager roaming up front alone, and a makeshift midfield. BOTH Saha and Cahill – easily Everton's two most dangerous attacking players – were on the bench. Everton were there to be taken apart by even an adequate attack. We didn't provide one.

Johnson and Zamora both looked capable, but neither got the ball when they had the time or space to do anything with it. Riise looked lively on the left, but seldom took Hibbert to the dead-ball line. Grygera, who we KNOW has an excellent right foot, invariably turned into the middle and passed with his weaker foot, ALL while helping to clog up the middle. Of the six players who started in front of the defense, only Dempsey showed any consistent menace. And that's just the individual performances.

Our free kicks have gone from useless to comic opera to cringe-making. Why does the referee bother making the defensive wall retreat 10 yards when we're only going to have Murphy touch it to either Riise or Baird who will shoot with a defender 5 feet away? Even Martin Jol must have come to the conclusion by now that our free kick strategy is flawed. Even Martin Jol must realize that we need to spread out rather than compress the attack. If only we could hire a Continental manager who prefers his teams to attack relentlessly through aggressive wing play. You know ... someone who has a reputation like Martin Jol.

HatterDon's Man of the Match: The two Fulham players who sucked the least on the day were Clint Dempsey and Chris Baird, so they can divide this award between them.

Sort it out, Fulham, because the way we're playing right now ... .

[Rambling_Syd_Rumpo]

your making more sense of it than I could Don,I'm still fuming :035: :035: :035: :035: :035: :035: :035: :035: :035: :035: :035:

good write up by the way

[jarv]

Very well written, not pleasant reading though. Glad I missed it.  Thanks for the report.

[Snibbo]

Baird gave up all claims to man of the match with that stupid foul which led directly to their 3rd goal.

I've never understood the Sidwell love in, and agree with you HD, that he was totally ineffective. Bring back Dickson to give us some spine.  No point having a 'box to box' midfielder if he can't shoot to save himself.

Bobby's quietness worries me too, but what alternative do we have?  None, even Sa is injured.

Having said that, we didn't deserve to lose, and if the luck had fallen differently, could have won 3-1 ourselves.

[TonyGilroy]

I agree about Sidwell. To me he's a nearly man. Plenty of effort and committment but the end product is rarely there. I'm sure Murphy operates better with Etuhu but my major concern is the ability of Murphy and Zamora to maintain their past standards.

It may well be that this is a season too far for Murphy and that Zamora's leg break has permanently diminished him. I hope not but that's what I suspect.

[Basil]

I am not sure I am totally in agreement with this report (and obviously this is fine on a forum - I hope!). I think it is too critical and negative.

I felt we fell behind to a fantastic goal, worked hard to get ourselves back into it despite some ill fortune, eventually pressure told and we got a deserved equaliser with a truly outstanding individual goal. We then went for the winner and missed a gilt edge chance to a hard earnt, if a hardly stunning win. Then in a cruel twist our defence got caught cold post an unfortunate injury forced reorganisation in the last minute.

We were not half as bad as some of the reports suggest. Any neutral would vouch for that after that game.

[sipwell]

I think your report, Don, lacks an insight on Fellaini whom I thought - just based on MOTD2 - was disrupting our attack/midfield/defence quite well. We need a box-to-box player like that on the condition it is a smart cookie like Fellaini and less of a no brainer like Etuhu. A player with physical abilities - a strong body basically - and tactical insight would ease the pressure on Murphy et alii. Why do our wingers need to collect the ball halfway the field? This allows the opposition to move forward and put pressure on our midfield. A smart and strong player can alleviate some of the pressure and give the wingers/attackers more breathing space.

[Lighthouse]

I like Sidwell and without him yesterday we would have been in trouble more often. These people who can't support the team and ...... :005:

[Jimbobob]

If only we could hire a Continental manager who prefers his teams to attack relentlessly through aggressive wing play. You know ... someone who has a reputation like Martin Jol.

Nice write up HD. I applaud you for taking the time. I was on business all weekend so saw nothing as it looked liked we played liked nothing I didn't miss anything. Your line above says it all - a sublime bit of prose.
Being in the minority here I do think the Europa play has damaged us from the start.
If Jol had a plan (I think he did/does not) it has had to be implemented on the fly and thus never implemented. Regardless I still believe we have the talent in the dressing room to be a much better club but we are a an absolute train wreck of a club now....................
Almost November and we have one win and lose badly at home. This is one big mess.

[Steve_orino]

Very well written, not pleasant reading though. Glad I missed it.  Thanks for the report.

+1

[HatterDon]

I am not sure I am totally in agreement with this report (and obviously this is fine on a forum - I hope!). I think it is too critical and negative.

I felt we fell behind to a fantastic goal, worked hard to get ourselves back into it despite some ill fortune, eventually pressure told and we got a deserved equaliser with a truly outstanding individual goal. We then went for the winner and missed a gilt edge chance to a hard earnt, if a hardly stunning win. Then in a cruel twist our defence got caught cold post an unfortunate injury forced reorganisation in the last minute.

We were not half as bad as some of the reports suggest. Any neutral would vouch for that after that game.

It is MORE than okay with me, Mr. Basil. I write these reports to stimulate discussion rather than to end it. I expect to be disagreed with and it doesn't supriise me. I learn from everyone who takes issue with me -- well, except for the gentleman whose post followed yours and who obviously believes that the answer to all problems is more Belgians.  :007:

Thanks for taking the time to read the report and to comment on it.  065.gif