Friday Fulham Stuff (26/10/18)...

[WhiteJC]

Cottage Talk: View Of The Opposition - Bournemouth
Take a listen to a podcast that focuses on Fulham Football Club.

This episode is an interview with David Cordell, who is a supporter of Bournemouth, and a member of the North American Cherries Overseas Supporters Facebook Group. He was on the show to give the Bournemouth perspective on this upcoming match.

David shared his thoughts on this season so far for Bournemouth, and then later on shared his view on the upcoming match. This show is our preview episode for this match.


You can also listen to here...
https://cottagersconfidential.sbnation.com/2018/10/25/18024514/cottage-talk-view-of-the-opposition-bournemouth

[WhiteJC]

 
Mawson and Schurrle to start – Predicted 4-3-3 Fulham XI to face Bournemouth in the Premier League

Predicted Fulham XI to face Bournemouth in the Premier League

Fulham's Premier League dreams seem to be falling apart very quickly after a dismal performance in the 4-2 loss at the hands of Cardiff City last weekend.

Slavisa Jokanovic's side sit 18th in the standings and have shipped goals at an alarming rate, having conceded 25 goals already.

Eddie Howe's Bournemouth have been in blistering form this season in the Premier League and the Cherries sit 6th in the standings with 5 wins from their first nine games.

The Cherries played out a rather boring 0-0 draw against Southampton last weekend but will be the outright favourites when they visit Craven Cottage to play Fulham.

Fulham's porous and vulnerable backline will have their work cut out against the potent and in-form trio of Callum Wilson, Joshua King and Ryan Fraser.

Team News

Tom Cairney is back to training but is unlikely to start on Saturday as he is yet to fully recover from his ankle injury. Timothy Fosu-Mensah continues to recover from his shoulder injury while Calum Chambers is doubtful to feature on Saturday after picking up an ankle injury against Cardiff City.

Left-back Joe Bryan is unlikely to be in contention for Saturday's clash as he continues his recovery from a hamstring injury.

Formation: 4-3-3
Manager: Slavisa Jokanovic
Predicted XI
Marcus Bettinelli (GK)

He made some good saves in the last game as he has done all season and should retain his place in the eleven.
Cyrus Christie (RB)

Injuries to both Chambers and Fosu-Mensah should open the door for the Irishman to make a return despite his poor performances this season.
Denis Odoi (CB)

He didn't do a great job in central defense in the 4-2 drubbing at the hands of Cardiff but Fulham do have too many options either.
Alfie Mawson (CB)

Tim Ream had a nightmarish outing against Cardiff and Jokanovic might hand Mawson a start despite his lacklustre performances so far this season.

Ryan Sessegnon (LB)

He gave his team some hope with a delightful finish in the last game and also tracked back to help out the defense.
Kevin Mcdonald (RCM)

Struggled to cope with Cardiff's pressing in the last outing and will have his work cut out against the likes of Jefferson Lerma and Lewis Cook.
Frank Anguissa (CDM)

He has shown glimpses of promise in central midfield and Fulham should use his physicality to win the balls in the centre of the park.
Jean Michael Seri (LCM)

The Ivorian seems to have lost his magic after a wonderful start to the season and Fulham will need him to fire if they are to get their campaign back on track.
Luciano Vietto (RW)

The Argentine has picked up 4 assists this season and has linked up the play effectively with the likes of Mitrovic and Schurrle.

Andre Schurrle (LW)

Scored his 4th goal of the season with a delightful shot from range against Cardiff but has lacked that creative influence in the final third.
Read More:- Comparing Fulham's on-loan sensation to this £30million ace – Who has had a greater impact so far?
Aleksandar Mitrovic (ST)

Registered an assist in the last game. Has been effective with his headers and hold-up play but needs more supply to make a significant impact.



http://www.mediareferee.com/2018/10/26/mawson-and-schurrle-to-start-predicted-4-3-3-fulham-xi-to-face-bournemouth-in-the-premier-league/

[WhiteJC]

Just the Stats: Fulham 2, Cardiff City 4
One more time to pour salt into this wound

Believe me, I don't enjoy reminiscing about unforgiving losses as much as I do. But miss the potential tea leaves that occur on the pitch and you might miss the real reasons Fulham are or are not playing the way they should be. Boy, were there plenty of reasons why Fulham didn't play well last weekend.

For starts, Slavisa Jokanovic's team might have scored first in the first ten minutes of the game, but that had no indication as to how poorly they really were playing. Andre Schürrle's long range effort was Fulham's first shot all game and delivered just 0.02 expected goals according to Understat. It was a world class effort that came off the foot of a player that really is on a hot streak (four goals vs. 1.84 expected goals this season). Here's hoping the 2014 World Cup winner doesn't lose his scoring touch anytime soon because my goodness will this attack get worse really fast if it does.

Before that magnificent strike, Cardiff were completely bossing this game. They went ahead and had the first three shots of the game and were out-passing Fulham in the attacking third 21-9. None of their efforts were threatening enough that it scared Marcus Bettinelli in any capacity as their expected goals tally in the first 11 minutes was just 0.14. They also didn't have that great of a press with over 15 passes per defensive action, but Fulham just kept making poor passes that allowed their opponents to springboard their attack quite easily.

Speaking of easy, my goodness was the defending on the first goal horrendous. Between Schürrle's strike and Josh Murphy's tally, Cardiff went on to complete 15 of their 17 completed passes in the attacking half of the pitch. One of those passes from the defensive side came from Sol Bamba, who found a very open Murphy that allowed him to dribble all the way into the penalty area to put it passed Bettinelli. It would be the second of five total shots the former Norwich man had along with four successful dribbles. Only Bobby Reid went on to have more (5) among Cardiff players that day.

By then, Aron Gunnarsson was really putting his mark on the pitch. By the time of Murphy's strike, the Icelandic International returned from injury and was leading Cardiff in completed passes with 13 and passes going into the final third with seven. Even after he was substituted in the 77th minuted, Gunnarsson still lead all Cardiff players on the day with 49 completed passes and would also pitch in with a club-leading three tackles as well.

After Fulham's first marker, Cardiff kept curve-stomping Fulham until Tim Ream's mess up of a clearing attempt lead to Bobby Reid's goal in the 19th minute. By that point, Cardiff were outshooting Fulham 10-1 and generated 0.75 expected goals to Fulham's tiny 0.02 that didn't change at all since the Schürrle goal.

That being said, Fulham finally had their opportunity to control the game for the rest of the opening 45 minutes. Since the Reid goal, Fulham slowed the game down by only allowing one shot to their two (including the Ryan Sessegnon goal) and dominated possession with a 146-77 completed passes advantage. The game also turned ugly as Fulham put in a crunching seven tackles and six fouls committed to Cardiff's three and five, respectively, and that was in a 25 minute span! That meant that the visitors were able to work their pressing game much better than Cardiff did, even if those defensive actions mainly took place down the left hand flank and on the defensive side of the ball.

The bad news from that first half was that Fulham were really giving up way too many shots and struggled mightily to get out of their own half and dictate the tempo of the game from the start. The good news was that once they did control the tempo of the game, Cardiff struggled to get any sniff of the ball and parity was created in terms of what both teams were able to do with and without the ball. You would have thought there was a genuine blue print to execute and claim three points in the second half. It turned out that wasn't the case.

In the opening 13 minutes, Fulham were outshot 5-1 and outscored in expectation 0.20-0.02 and outplayed in final third completed passes 32-16. In that moment, Jokanovic thought it was a good idea to sub Jean-Michael Seri for Floyd Ayite. The Frenchman finished his 58 minutes of play with 0 shots, 2 key passes (including an innocuous assist on Schurrle's goal), 0 tackles or interceptions and 47 completed passes. That's a quiet stat line for Fulham's most expensive player, but if Seri's appearance was 90 minutes long, he actually was on pace to complete a club-leading 73 passes. With him and Johansen trying to generate anything in attack, it would have been best to push either up the field as the makeshift Tom Cairney role and replace the other with an extra midfield destroyer in Andre Frank Zambo Anguissa.

Instead, Jokanovic went with Floyd Ayite. As usual, the Togo International is a solid workhorse at Championship level, but is quite normal and bland, and therefore, not good enough at what he does at Premier League level. Adding an extra attacker onto the pitch made sense in that there needed to be an extra body to collect the ball and dictate play inside Cardiff's final third. However, the connection between midfield and attack has been so out of sorts since Cairney's absence that it would have been so much better to have a creator move further forward instead.

In a strange way, Fulham's attack got a tiny bit better by losing the shot battle 6-5 the rest of the way. But what made matters worse was banking on Johansen to be a strong cog in a double pivot with McDonald. Talk about two traffic cones in defense! If anything, Cardiff would go on to have 152 completed passes to Fulham's eight defensive actions: good enough for a press that allowed exactly 19 passes per stop. That is well below what to expect from a solid defense and it showed in the latter stages of this fixture. Combined, the Johansen-McDonald duo only had two tackles all game. All of them belonged to McDonald and all of them occurred in the latter stages of the first half. Again, with more feeling, Fulham has to start incorporating Anguissa into the midfield, at minimum. Otherwise, expect the center of the pitch to always be won by Fulham's opposition in an easier manner.

Again, Cardiff were able to make life easy for themselves in attack by getting into the attacking third 80 times to Fulham's 54. They also were able to complete nine dribbles to Fulham's four: thus making themselves the much more mobile team on the day. These are damning facts, but until Fulham's attack gets better and more creative, Fulham's defense suffers and vice versa. The elements are there to play a solid pressing game in the Premier League, but it has to be consistent and with the correct players starting and playing the correct amount of minutes. Jokanovic isn't there yet at all with his definitive system and squad rotation. That's fine if we're at the end of August. We're almost at the end of October and it seems like there's no solution in site and not enough trust being built on the whole. Here goes them giving it a go against one of the surprise team's of the season in Bournemouth.

All data from today's post comes from whoscored.com and understat.com



https://cottagersconfidential.sbnation.com/2018/10/25/18014058/just-the-stats-fulham-2-cardiff-city-4

[WhiteJC]

 
Ex-Fulham star Tony Gale concerned by Cherries' counter-attacking threat

SKY pundit Tony Gale believes Fulham can learn lessons from Cherries' counter-attacking threat.

The teams are due to lock horns at Craven Cottage on Saturday (3pm) and former Fulham star Gale has underlined the danger posed by the likes of Callum Wilson, Joshua King and Ryan Fraser.

In his column for the Fulham website, Gale wrote: "We've got to be very wary of their pace on the counter. From defence into attack, their transition has been the big turning point for them.

"I think it's a lesson Eddie Howe's learned since they were promoted. This season he's gone with more pace in his side as he realised pretty football alone wasn't enough.

"Maybe there's a few lessons for us in the way Bournemouth play.

"I've seen them four times this season, including their draw with Southampton at the weekend, and we've got to be careful.

"They are a very well-organised side but within that organisation they play the same kind of football as us.

"This will be an open game because Bournemouth will be coming here to win, there's no doubt about that."

Cherries have an excellent recent record against Fulham having gone unbeaten in the past six encounters between the sides.



https://www.bournemouthecho.co.uk/sport/17008511.ex-fulham-star-tony-gale-concerned-by-cherries-counter-attacking-threat/

[WhiteJC]

 
Slavisa Jokanovic vows to fix Fulham's leaky defence following vote of confidence from owner Shahid Khan

    Fulham boss Slavisa Jokanovic has insisted he is still the right man for the job
    The Cottagers have the worst defensive record in Europe's big five divisions
    But Jokanovic was given a vote of confidence from owner Shahid Khan this week
    Jokanovic said: 'I never stop trusting myself. I never stop trusting in my players'

Slavisa Jokanovic insists he is the right man to fix Fulham and has never stopped trusting his methods after receiving vote of confidence from owner Shahid Khan on Thursday.

The Cottagers have the worst defensive record in Europe's big five divisions, after last weekend's 4-2 loss to Cardiff meant they have conceded 25 so far this season.

Jokanovic claims he can still lead the west London club towards the top half of the Premier League, having got them promoted in the first place against all odds.


Under-fire Fulham manager Slavisa Jokanovic has insisted he is still the right man for the job

Khan issued his public backing for the beleaguered boss, saying Jokanovic's 'record shows he has always led FFC admirably when the stakes are at their highest'.

Fulham currently sit in the bottom three and, asked about the criticism he has received, Jokanovic said: 'I do not feel I am disrespected. I must accept my part of the responsibility.

'I cannot be depressed or complain. All I can do is be brave, keep working and trust in myself. I never stop trusting myself. I never stop trusting in my players.



https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-6317939/Slavisa-Jokanovic-vows-fix-Fulham-vote-confidence.html

[WhiteJC]

 
'This is not tennis' - Slavisa Jokanovic hits back at suggestions Fulham are too attacking

The Fulham head coach wants his side to adapt but won't change his style ahead of the Bournemouth game

Slavisa Jokanovic hit back at suggestions he may have to change Fulham's attacking philosophy in order for them to get points in the Premier League.

His side have continued to play the same football that served them so well in the Championship, but that's come at a cost and they have, so far, conceded 25 goals in the top flight - the most in the entire division.

However, Aleksandar Mitrovic currently sits fourth in the top scorer rankings with his five goals, while Andre Schurrle isn't too far behind with his four goals.

What we've seen so far is that the Whites have the ability to play their attacking football at this level, but mistakes at the back have been costly and Jokanovic is concentrated on making sure his side adapt their style in order to become far stronger at the back.

While the head coach knows Fulham have been making mistake after mistake, he wouldn't be drawn into discussing individual errors, but hit back at a suggestion he may need to change his style in order to stop the mistakes.

He said: "It's not questions about change, it's about adaption.

"If you can explain a bit better and compare better with a team that we should play like? If we don't attack we don't score in any game.

"I don't understand the sense to be part of this without attacking opposite team.


(Image: Naomi Baker/Getty Images))

"What is the question and what I believe you are trying to ask me, in which moment when we will be more solid.

"We must find solidarity and defensive coordination and more discipline without being in danger in opposite goal.

"I need to adapt and if we stop this situation and don't score the goals, next time you will ask if I change again.

"We need to show enough responsibility and find the balance and we know it's not any excuse and know we make so many sloppy mistakes and we need to support one another.

"I don't want to talk about individual mistakes, this is football, it's not tennis and mistakes is part of this sport."



https://www.football.london/fulham-fc/this-not-tennis-slavisa-jokanovic-15331188