Friday Fulham Stuff (08/12/17)...

[WhiteJC]

 
Former Fulham captain Danny Murphy thinks the club are struggling as a result of selling their better players

Both Scott Malone and Sone Aluko left the club in the summer and the Match of the Day pundit believes the club are in a "real pickle" this season

Former Fulham captain Danny Murphy believes the club are struggling to make an impact in the Championship this season as a result of selling some of their better players in the summer.

Scott Malone and Sone Aluko both left Craven Cottage for Huddersfield and Reading respectively in the transfer window and Slavisa Jokanovic's side have failed to reach the heights they did last season, sitting in 15th place with 26 points so far.

Although eleven replacements came into the side, only Oliver Norwood has cemented himself as a first team regular with a number of others struggling, while assistant director of Football Operations Craig Kline has since left the club.

And Murphy thinks Fulham have got themselves into a "real pickle" as a result of losing those important players during the summer.

In a sit-down with www.AskFans.co.uk , he said: "They are struggling because they sell a lot of their best players. They then have to keep trying to fill the gaps.

"Their budget isn't anywhere near as big as the other Championship teams. In actual fact, last year - they punched above their weight in that respect.


Real pickle: Danny Murhpy reckons Fulham are in trouble (Image: John Peters/GettyImages)

"They should have won the play-off semi-finals. They dominated the games and were unlucky.

"They have now got themselves in a real pickle because parachute payments are dwindling, they are struggling to make an impact because a couple of their best players have gone."

Murphy also believes the Craven Cottage outfit has gone from being in a healthy place to finding itself in difficult circumstances, something he believes is a shame as Fulham was a "fantastic club to be around."

"The club has gone from being a really healthy place to a really difficult place. I feel for the owners as they brought the club in good faith as a Premier League club. It was in good condition.

"A couple of the people at the club at the time decided they walked on water, went against all the advice they were getting and messed it up.

"It was a shame because it was a fantastic club to be around."



http://www.getwestlondon.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/former-fulham-captain-danny-murphy-14004980

[WhiteJC]

 
U23s Host Brighton

Peter Grant's Under-23 host Brighton and Hove Albion on Friday evening at Motspur Park in a 7pm kick off.

Fulham are fifth in the PL2 Division 2 and are pitted against the Seagulls who are one spot and three points behind the Whites.

Fulham are in a fine fettle of form having won their last five consecutive league matches.

Brighton are also a form team, undefeated in their last six league matches with three wins and three draws. However, on Monday evening the Seagulls lost 4-1 in the Premier League Cup in a heavy away loss at Exeter City.

Last time out the Under-21s beat Crawley 3-1 in the Checkatrade Trophy, with Jordan Graham grabbing a brace and Elijah Adebayo getting his 10th goal of the season.

Victory on Friday would give the Whites a five-point cushion in the play-off spots, and could potentially lift them to fourth in the table.  However, a win for Brighton would see them leapfrog Fulham.

The two sides have already played once this season in the reverse fixture. Brighton won that encounter 4-2.

This match will be streamed live on fulhamfctv for subscribers, alternatively there will be live updates on the Club's official twitter account, @FulhamFC.

http://www.fulhamfc.com/news/2017/december/07/u23s-host-brighton

[WhiteJC]

 
Odoi To Serve A Suspension This Week - 7/12/17

Fulham's Denis Odoi will be out of action this week as he serves an automatic suspension.

Including Odoi, here's a list of all the players currently serving, or under a suspension at the beginning of the week, that will potentially keep them out of contention for an applicable fixture in the days to come.

The list of applicable suspensions for first team matches - either by a build up of individual yellow cards, a double yellow card in a single game or a straight red card offence - are updated by the Football Association on the following link Click Here so errors are their own.

For this week's fixtures specifically across the Premier League and the Football League, the following players find themselves ruled out of their manager's thoughts but a few lucky ones may find their suspension expires before their clubs' next fixture depending on the scheduling.

With some appeals still potentially ticking through, the below list may change in the coming days.

For anybody interested in how their team's health looks in terms of potential coming suspensions, if you visit the above link and select the 'one caution away' option in the table, it will give you a run down of all those players skirting a ban before the next amnesty window kicks in.



Read more: http://www.fulham.vitalfootball.co.uk/article.asp?a=514326#ixzz50eQ7qJSD

[WhiteJC]

 
Tom Cairney: Fulham are suffering 'hangover' from play-off semi-final defeat

Tom Cairney missed seven weeks of this season with a knee injury

Fulham captain Tom Cairney thinks the side are suffering "a hangover" from last season's Championship play-off semi-final defeat by Reading.

Having finished sixth last season, the Whites are 15th, nine points off the play-offs, after 20 games of 2017-18.

"I think we were a surprise last season and teams didn't know whether to drop off or press us," the 26-year-old midfielder told BBC Radio London.

"When people have played us this season it has been a totally different feel."

He added; "The top teams have to deal with it every week and we are no different."

The west London club were beaten 2-1 by the Royals on aggregate, with Jaap Stam's side going on to lose to Huddersfield Town in the Wembley final.

Fulham spent the majority of last season outside of the top six, having battled relegation in the two previous campaigns after seeing their 13-year stay in the Premier League end in the summer of 2014.

"To get there was a great achievement, especially after the couple of seasons Fulham had in the Championship before that," said Cairney. "[The defeat] was the hardest thing to get over.

"We did make the club turn the corner and we have to try to do it again somehow. The second season is always the hardest to do it again.

"At this stage last season we started to put a few results together and it is time we did that now."



http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/42252253

[WhiteJC]

 
Danny Murphy's comments have some truth - but selling players isn't the be all and end all for Fulham

The former Fulham man was critical of Fulham losing best players, but our reporter Ryan O'Donovan doesn't think that's the reason for their flaws this season

Danny Murphy's comments about Fulham struggling this season is a result of them selling their best players has some truth behind it, but I don't think selling players is the be all and end all for the side.

Let's go back to the end of the summer transfer window - Fulham had brought in eleven new faces while losing Scott Malone to Huddersfield and Sone Aluko to Reading, but had done extremely well to tie Tom Cairney down to a new deal while Ryan Sessegnon, and twin Steven, signed their first pro deals.

On the face of it, it looked like a good window - I'll happily admit I thought Tony Khan and the recruitment team had done a good job when the window closed, in fact, you can read why I thought that at the time right here .

I'm a fan of using stats in football and using them to gain an advantage in the transfer window, teams like Brentford and Brighton have used them to great effect in the past and I don't see why Fulham should be any different.

Now, with the benefit of hindsight, we can see that the model the club used was slightly flawed - as I've said previously, any model that reportedly doesn't want to sign Andreas Pereira or Aaron Mooy has something wrong with it.

Murphy has said that "They [Fulham] have now got themselves in a real pickle because parachute payments are dwindling, they are struggling to make an impact because a couple of their best players have gone."


Rui Fonte in action for Fulham

Firstly, Fulham didn't sell their best players.

Cairney and Kevin McDonald are still at the club, while the future of one of the best players in a generation was secured for the next three years.

What they did do was sell Malone, who had the season of his life at left back to a Premier League club, one he wanted to go to, and offload a 28-year-old for around £7.5million more than what they got him for the season before.

On the face of it, that's pretty good business.

Here's where it went a bit pear shaped for Fulham - the players brought in to replace those two key members of Slavisa Jokanovic's squad weren't of the same mould.

Teams lose players all the time - I hate to keep bringing it back to Brentford, especially after Saturday, but you have to admire the way they do business.

They have one of the smallest transfer budgets in the league, they lose their best players every year, and yet they continue to improve.

Why?

They recruit players that fit into the way the side plays football - philosophy is huge at Griffin Park and every footballer they sign must fit the philosophy of the football club, amongst other things that would take a good while to go through.

That didn't happen at Craven Cottage this summer and now, in December, it looks like the players brought in were signed because their stats made them a target, without any real thought as to how they would fit in with Fulham's philosophy.

That's where Jokanovic comes into it, we know he is the Head Coach and doesn't have too much say on transfers, but he wants Fulham to play a certain style of football and there is no point brining in people who don't fit that.

Him and Kline didn't get on, but now the American is gone we will hopefully see more of a willingness from the boss to get involved in the transfer department - he may not get the players he wants, but he'll get players the stats says are good that will fit into his formation.

Let's bring it back to Murphy and his comments, yes Fulham sold key players, yes they're struggling at the moment, but to pin that down to a smaller budget is nonsense in my eyes.

Fulham are struggling because of the following reasons:

    Teams have figured them out and the side have been slow to adapt to that
    Injuries to key personnel have taken their toll, something which didn't happen last season
    They don't miss Malone and Aluko as individuals, they miss players that can play in those positions that play a similar style
    There's still no goalscorer and Fulham's huge haul of goals last season made signing one less of a priority than it perhaps should've been

It's always easy to blame a poor run of transfer business and selling players like Aluko and Malone, as I've heard people say, when in reality, those players haven't really pulled up any trees since leaving - it's all about who comes in to replace them.

The January Transfer Window opens in 24 days, mistakes have been made but those can be corrected next month.



http://www.getwestlondon.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/danny-murphys-comments-truth-selling-14005800

[WhiteJC]

 
Crystal Palace manager: Wilfried Zaha reminds me of my Fulham favourites

Crystal Palace manager Roy Hodgson has revealed that Wilfried Zaha and Christian Benteke remind him of his favourite players from his spell at Fulham, Andy Johnson and Bobby Zamora.

Hodgson oversaw Fulham's surprise run to the final of the 2010 UEFA Europa League final, with Johnson and Zamora key figures in their fantastic continental performances.

And the veteran manager has now gone on to state that his current Palace attacking partnership of Zaha and Benteke remind him of the duo.

The 70-year-old said: "I think it definitely can. They obviously both have quality, but I thought they worked very hard as well and that was obvious too.

"If we can get that work rate from them and ally that with the quality that they both have in different ways; we know their quality moving forward and in Christian's case, we are hoping that is going to get better [after his injury].

"It reminded me a little of the [Bobby] Zamora and [Andy] Johnson partnership that I benefited from for so long at Fulham."



https://africanfootball.com//news/736761/Crystal-Palace-manager-Wilfried-Zaha-reminds-me-of-my-Fulham-favourites

[WhiteJC]

 
Ex-Fulham boss Micky Adams thinks Fulham must start grinding out results if they want to be promoted

Adams led Leicester City to the Premier League in 2002-03 and he believes Fulham must also stick together if they want promotion

Former Fulham boss Micky Adams doesn't think the Cottagers are out the equation for getting promoted just yet, but they need to stick together and starting turn draws into wins.

Slavisa Jokanovic's side have already tied eight games this season, with six of those draws coming at Craven Cottage which have included conceding last minute goals to Norwich, Cardiff and Middlesbrough.

Adams, who got Fulham promoted in the 1996-97 season from the Third Division, also led Leicester City to the Premier League by finishing second in the First Division in 2002-03 and he believes Fulham must start grinding out results if they want to get themselves back to the top flight of English football.

He said: "I saw the game against Derby, I think they're a few points off the Play-offs so they're not out of it the equation in terms of getting promoted, they just have to get those draws into wins.


20 Apr 1996: Portrait of Fulham Manager Micky Adams during the Nationwide Division Three match against Wigan Atheltic played at Craven Cottage in London, England. Fulham won the match 1-0. \ Mandatory Credit: Allsport /Allsport

"They've done that recently, Sheffield United away and Millwall at home where they perhaps ground out a win and that's what they're going to have to do, because getting out of the Championship is never easy.

"I've done it once at Leicester - it's about grinding out results and sticking together, there will be ups and downs and you can't get too upset when you're losing games of football but stick together.

"I think that's the one thing you can say about Fulham fans, is that the hardcore of them don't forget what the journey has been all about to get to where they are."



http://www.getwestlondon.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/ex-fulham-boss-micky-adams-14007406

[WhiteJC]

 
This is what Steve Cotterill is doing to address Birmingham City's goal shortage

BCFC have scored 10 league goals this season and only three in their last nine matches

Steve Cotterill insists Birmingham City are doing everything they can to address their goal-shortage.

Blues have scored just ten times in 20 league games this season - including only three in the last nine - and they head to Fulham in dire need of a break in front of goal.

Their efforts will be compromised by mounting fitness issues, on which Cotterill refused to expand.

Asked whether Blues needed a change in personnel or tactics he was adamant they are leaving no attacking stone unturned in training.

"It's not going to be a change in tactics. Why would we not want to score a goal? There is always a tactic, a way, a run, there is always something we do," he said.

"Whether it's trying to set up a throw-in to get a cross in because we have got people in the box who can get on the end of a cross to score a goal.

"Every area that you could possibly think of where you could score a goal has been done.

"Possession, counter-attack, throw-in, free-kick, corner, wide free-kick, it's all worked on every week to get us a goal.

"Long throw, I don't know what other scenarios we could set up there.

"I see plenty of goals go in, in the Championship where they are scruffy deflections.

"We haven't really had a lot of luck on that. But we keep trying."

Match preview
What time is kick-off? How can you follow it?

The match starts at 3pm on Saturday, December 9 and is not being shown on live television.

But it will be broadcast on BBC WM and you can keep up with the action at www.birminghammail.co.uk where Brian Dick will be blogging live from the wooden pressbox.

Match highlights will also be shown in Channel 5's Football on 5 Championship show, which starts at 9pm on Saturday.

Team news
Blues must figure out how to how to replace the suspended Harlee Dean. The defender's red card against Wolves leaves them with just two front-line centre backs and a three-at-the-back system.

Steve Cotterill has various options to choose from and a change of set-up at the back will have ramifications in midfield where David Davis and Stephen Gleeson will be hopeful of a start.

Sam Gallagher and Che Adams will be pressing for a recall up front too.

Isaac Vassell is the only confirmed absentee but Maxime Colin hasn't yet made his comeback from a hamstring injury.

For Fulham Lucas Piazon (broken leg) and Floyd Ayite (hamstring) are still missing while Dennis Odoi is now suspended having been sent off against Brentford.

What Cotterill has said:
"To be fair to them [the players] their spirit has got better. We needed a bit more belief - that would be the big thing for me in the [Wolves] game.

"We made a mistake, anybody can make a mistake, I am not about to pillory anybody for making a mistake.

"For me it's the quality you need to have, otherwise don't fill your squad up. That's the big thing for me.

"Trying to get a 20-goal striker, everybody wants one of those but they are very, very difficult to come by and they are even more difficult to come by when we are in the situation we are in."

What Slavisa Jokanovic has said:
The Fulham boss started the last game - a 3-1 defeat at Brentford - with a false No. 9.

After taking the lead, they conceded an equaliser then had Odoi sent off early in the second half.

"I played many times with fake striker, this is not the first time and not the last for us, this plan works well and we connect enough times with them.

"This is what I expect we find during the game, but after the second half we find many problems.

"I try [to] choose what is best, I play with strikers and play with phase strikers too, it's simple we are talking about this situation so many times we try to fix this problem and at the moment I didn't."

Predicted XIs
Blues (4-3-2-1): Stockdale; Nsue, Morrison, Roberts, Grounds; Kieftenbeld, Gleeson, Ndoye; Jota, Boga; Jutkiewicz

Fulham (4-3-3): Button; Fredericks, Kalas, Ream, Sessegnon; Cairney, McDonald, Norwood; Ojo, Kebano, Johansen
Who is the ref?

The game will be refereed by Tony Harrington, who has taken charge of 19 games so far, showing 63 yellow cards and dishing out three red.

The official took charge of Blues' 2-1 defeat to Burton Albion earlier this season; issuing a yellow card to Brewers goalkeeper Stephen Bywater.

He also officiated Fulham's 1-1 draw at home to Cardiff earlier this season and booked four Whites players; David Button, Kevin McDonald, Stefan Johansen and Yohan Mollo.

Mr Harrington will have Daniel Leach and Darren Blunden assisting him

Key stats
Outside the top-flight, Fulham haven't beaten Birmingham in any of their last 11 home league meetings (D4 L7) since winning 2-0 on Boxing Day in 1968.

Last season, Birmingham won both Championship matches against the Cottagers 1-0, their first league double over the west London side since the 1991/92 season.

Fulham haven't kept back to back home league clean sheets within the same season since October 2014.

Birmingham have collected just two points from their opening 10 away league games – their worst tally since 1978/79 (1).

Tom Cairney, whose 10 assists last season were bettered only by Conor Hourihane (14) in the Championship, is yet to assist a goal in 11 matches this season.

The Blues' tally of just 10 goals from their opening 20 league games is the worst by a Championship side since Doncaster Rovers in 2008/09, who scored nine – however, they finished that season in 14th.
What are the bookies saying?

Fulham win 8/13

Blues win 9/2

Draw 14/5
How to replace Dean

Birmingham City will go to Fulham without Harlee Dean on Saturday following the defender's sending off on Monday night.

The Blues centre back was cautioned in the 77th minute of the 1-0 defeat to Wolves - and then shown a second yellow card for pushing Diogo Jota just six minutes later.

That earned him a one-game ban, which will keep him out of the trip to Craven Cottage - a suspension that has serious ramifications for Blues.

Dean is one of only three front-line senior centre halves - which when you play three-at-the-back becomes all the more problematic.

Steve Cotterill will spend the week considering his options - which include one or two direct replacements, a reshuffle or a change of formation.



http://www.birminghammail.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/what-steve-cotterill-doing-address-14008138

[WhiteJC]

 
Blues stretched by injuries ahead of Fulham trip

Steve Cotterill says he may have to dip into the Club's Under-23s ahead of Saturday's visit to Craven Cottage.

Without revealing specific details, Cotterill says he has several new injury concerns in the wake of the Wolves defeat on Monday.

"Injury-wise it's not very good at the moment and we've a few missing, but they are not ones that you will know about until Saturday," said the Blues boss.

"Things are so stretched that I may need to look into the Under 23s for a role going into this game."

Cotterill also offered updates on several other players; including Maxime Colin (hamstring), Jason Lowe (hamstring), Craig Gardner (calf), David Davis (knee) and Isaac Vassell (knee).

Tomasz Kuszczak missed the Wolves fixture due to a groin issue that he has bee troubled with for a number of weeks.

And Harlee Dean will be missing against Fulham, due to suspension.

"Maxime is coming along, but he is not in full training yet, so it is too early for him this week," said Cotterill.

"Jason and Craig are back in training but it's about how much training they have done after quite long injury lay-offs - that's the problem.

"We have ended up having repetitive injuries here. That is a big concern for me.

"We are looking at those and monitoring those, none of them would be fit to start at this moment in time.

"David Davis has managed to get a few more days training under his belt

"Davo is not as far behind as where Craig or Jason would be, just simply because he has only missed that one game.

"The game the other night against Wolves came a little bit early for him because of the amount of training he had done going into the game.

"Isaac Vassell is on the mend, but it's slow progress.

"He's without his crutches which is nice for him, but not anywhere near being back with the team.

"He's next season now. He won't be back this year and even if he gets back in training in the last month of the season he won't be playing because that reconstruction won't be rock solid until next year anyway."



https://www.bcfc.com/news/articles/2017/blues-stretched-by-injuries-ahead-of-fulham-trip/

[WhiteJC]

 
Fulham brought into transfer situation to tussle with Aston Villa and Newcastle United

On Thursday, Kicker's claims in Germany about Newcastle United, Aston Villa and Cardiff City all being interested in Holstein Kiel's Dominick Drexler caused a spate of articles in the English media.

The attacking midfielder, who has been one of the key reasons why the small German side are top of the 2. Bundesliga, is said to have been scouted by Newcastle 'on numerous occasions' while Aston Villa have 'extended feelers' about his situation at the club.

However, the aforementioned duo aren't the only teams in England taking an interest, as TuttoMercatoWeb in Italy, not wanting to be outdone by anyone anywhere when it comes to exclusives, throw Fulham into the mix too.

Slavisa Jokanovic's side are said to be monitoring the player, with the German side valuing their star at around €3m.

With a contract running out in 2019 and already 27, this could be one of the best times for him to discover something new, as his stock might never be as high as it is these days.

It wouldn't be surprising if Holstein Kiel are thinking the same, and if the right offer came along, it would be interesting to see what they do.

We'll be keeping an eye on this one, but if he ends up having to choose between Newcastle and going to either Fulham, Aston Villa or Cardiff, a spot at a Premier League club might be too good to refuse, especially in a team struggling for goals.

So far this season, Drexler has scored eight goals and assisted his teammate five times in 16 league appearances.



http://sportwitness.co.uk/fulham-brought-transfer-situation-tussle-aston-villa-newcastle/

[WhiteJC]

Why sacking Slav isn't the answer
by Lydia on December 7, 2017

The loss at Brentford was tough to take. In truth, it was the toughest to take of the season so far for me, given that it was against Brentford and that the substitutions and tactics seemed bizarre at best. The current frustration from Fulham fans is obvious with so many people taking to Twitter and Facebook to give an apparently overwhelming opinion of 'Slav out'. However, I'm going to go against the status quo and try and explain with three points why I think that our Serbian head coach should be given more time at the helm.

    Instant success is rare; we should be thinking about the long term-

Would it surprise you if I told you that Slavisa Jokanovic is currently the 6th longest serving manager in the Championship? In fact, if you look at the top 4 leagues in England, Jokanovic actually ranks as the 25th longest serving manager out of the 92 professional clubs. It still seems to me as though he is relatively new at the club even though we are coming up to his two-year anniversary with him on the 27th December in just a few weeks' time. In this day and age, the job of a football manager could be described as 'high risk' given that the average length of time of a person in that position seems to lower year on year. Being in a job that is results based is hard, but when those results are put on display for millions to see and scrutinise, even when many of those people aren't particularly qualified to scrutinise, it must be soul destroying at times. The culture of quick fire managerial sackings has caused football to become an industry where it is nearly impossible to succeed in because the expectations of so many are unrealistic. It means that managers aren't given anywhere near enough time to get things right which, in turn, means that a bad 6 game run can see someone sacked. It's outrageous.

If we sack Jokanovic now we are just giving in to that ruthless culture. Despite him being the 6th longest standing in the Championship at the minute, 2 years is still a very short time. There is no doubt that the current situation at Fulham is difficult, but getting rid of the boss won't bring any long term success. It might lighten the mood temporarily, but what happens when the next manager goes through his bad spell? Do we just sack him too and continue the cycle? Managers can come out of bad spells but they need to be given time and support.

    Sacking midseason, unless completely necessary, is a mistake-

I have a real issue with sacking someone when they are in the middle of a season. Don't get me wrong, sometimes it is the only answer. With the likes Kit Symons and Felix Magath there was no alternative- change it up or see the club get relegated again. But, generally speaking, when someone is sacked midseason, it just adds pressure to the successor to get instant results as well as widening the chance that the board at the club in appoint the wrong person because they rush into a decision. If Jokanovic was to be sacked now, then who would we appoint? I can't help but feel that we would end up with someone else who would only get himself sacked after a similar stint in charge. If we do end up sacking Jokanovic, I would rather it was at the end of the season when he has had two full seasons in charge. If things haven't changed by then, fair enough, but at least then we will have given him time. This way the board can focus on finding a suitable replacement with a bit of time rather than rushing into a bad decision midseason.

    Kline is gone; it's time to give Slav a go in the transfer window

The whole Craig Kline debacle was very well publicised in October with all sorts of strange goings on at Motspur Park. That alongside a number of angry outbursts from Jokanovic last summer about his lack of control in the transfer market has led to a lot of uncomfortable reports about unhappy staff and players at the club. I believe that the majority of this was down to Craig Kline's involvement in the clubs transfer policy and the acquisition of players who were clearly not even slightly on Jokanovic's radar. While his stubborn nature will have to ease if he is to get through this, I can appreciate that his job certainly wasn't made very easy by the over-controlling American statistician. But with the club now free of Kline's influence, now Jokanovic has a chance to work with a great deal less stress in the transfer business. Surely it is only fair to give him a window to have more of a say?

Overall I think that now is not the right time to change things up at Fulham regarding the manager. He is stubborn, yes, and this will have to change, but not that long ago many fans were practically praying for Slav to stay! Opinion's in football change so quickly on the basis of the most recent results, but if we change our manager every time we have a bad spell then we will get nowhere. My answer is simple; give him to the end of the season, allow him to control the transfer window within reason and then reassess come May. Sacking now would get us nowhere, especially in the long term.

#COYW



http://hammyend.com/index.php/2017/12/why-sacking-slav-isnt-the-answer/