Tag Archives: Premiership

The View from South Texas — Man United v. Fulham

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by HatterDon

United Defeat Resolute Fulham at Old Trafford

Well, there’s not much one could fault our defense or our defensive mids for today. Of course, there was the Diarra mess-up followed by the Hangeland comedy act shortly thereafter, but this was VERY early in the match. Generally speaking, Fulham contained the United attack – only three wingers on the pitch today – and the goal they did give up had a bit of the old pinball wizardry about it.

Of course, I DO have a quibble or two. One is “Why Diarra instead of Murphy?” Murphy has been in Man U’s heads for more than a decade – especially at Old Trafford. He is also the core of our attacking creativity. Diarra played well, please don’t get me wrong, but if we’re going to bench Danny for an away match, why in the world would it be at Old Trafford? As it was, Oh Captain Our Captain came on long enough to make two brilliant passes that might have resulted in goals, as well as earning a penalty in the dying minutes that was ignored by the young referee.

Another quibble is “Why Frei?” or more appropriately “Why Frei on the LEFT wing?” I’m not even certain he uses his left foot to stand on. Upon receiving the ball, the pacy youngster immediately cut inside and passed backwards time after time after time. In this way he contributed nothing to the attack, while simultaneously leaving his wing wide open for Rafael to venture forward. Since Riise already had his hands full with Valencia – for my money the best winger in the game right now – the added attacking threat of United’s Own Ninja Turtle meant that the Red Devils owned the left side of our defense for 90+ minutes. And this was even with Riise having a handy match.

Finally, we now have the answer to the musical question, “What does Pogrebnyak bring to the club aside from scoring goals?” The answer is “nothing.” He could not lay off or even control the ball with his back to goal and the only person on United’s payroll NOT to dispossess him in a one-on-one was Sir Alex Ferguson. I think it’s clear that Pavel’s the boy for a 4-4-2. I don’t know whether Jol’s 4-2-3-1 will be enough to drive him away from Fulham this summer, or whether it will ensure enough performances like this to make him unattractive to anyone but us.

Who looked good? Schwarzer for a start. He made some wonderful saves, and a couple of timely interventions. I didn’t see Hughes make any mistakes out there, and Kelly was superb – especially late in the game. Dembélé provided our only consistent attacking threat, and Dempsey and Ruiz caused more than a bit of concern. And, of course, there was Danny Murphy, who almost turned the game around single-handed. I wish I could say the the only thing that prevented us from earning a point was the Ref. The truth is, we only attacked about 20 minutes total across the entire match. We looked like the home club protecting a 1-0 lead right up to the point Murphy came on. [b]HatterDon’s Man of the Match [/b] [and I can hear the howls of rage already] [i]Steven Kelly[/i].

Next up is Norwich without Grant Holt, AT the Cottage. Certainly we’ll prevail there and get the last three points we’ll really need. Will we see Our Late President? I know Pog wishes we will. Will we AT LONG LAST see Frei on the right side? Who knows.

COYW

The View from South Texas – Fulham FC v WWFC

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by HatterDon

The Natural

Pavel Pogrebnyak celebrated his return to the Russian squad by dominating a disintegrating Wolves defense on the way to Fulham’s 5-0 defeat of the storied Midlands team. Our new number seven now has 5 goals from his first three starts with the club, and suddenly the disappointing January transfer window looks genius in retrospect.

Fulham dominated for all of the 90 minutes – only the second time this has happened all season. Although it looked as if Riise would be the first to score, it was Pogrebnyak who converted a Duff corner by powering a pile-driving header past Hennessy. It was clean and clinical, but how did Wolves manage to allow Fulham’s lead striker so much space to convert so easily? Pog got his second off a wonderful counter attacking move that resulted from a Wolves defender surrendering possession at the midfield stripe. Andrew Johnson was off in an instant and stretched the remaining defense wide enough so that his sharp cross was converted by Pogrebnyak with a crisp right-foot volley. Fulham had finally scored a second goal just before half time. Certainly this would be enough for me to relax and enjoy the rest of the match. Of course not; I’m a Fulham supporter.

I fully expected Connor to change things up – specifically in defense – at the half. Wolves have, after all, accumulated more points after falling behind than anyone else in the Barclay’s Premier League. Just last weekend they overcame a 2-0 deficit to share the spoils with Newcastle. And, as we all know, whenever Fulham have dominated the first half against a weak opponent, we come out after the interval timid and tentative. Well, not so much of that today.

The Mad Russian completed his hat-trick with a Dempsey-ish effort. Our Late President found himself clear in the center of attack and hammered a shot that Hennessy could only parry with his legs. Pogrebnyak nipped in to convert the rebound with the outside of his left foot. This completed the “natural hat-trick,” and it was left only for Dempsey to “score with his left” and “score with his right” and make Wolverhampton look … well, look as if they well and truly belonged in the bottom three.

Heroes abounded for The Mighty Whites today. The back four was solid – Hughes dealing with the ever-present threat of Matt Jarvis better than most right backs in the league have, Hangeland and Senderos quelling whatever threat came through the middle, and Riise complementing his resolute defensive work by being a constant attacking threat down Fulham’s left wing. You can’t emphasize enough the importance of Riise’s contribution to our attack today. By running the left wing so relentlessly, he drew the defense wide and opened up plenty of space in the middle for Dempsey and Dembélé.

Dempsey had a bit of mid-week joy of his own, of course, and played the match pretty much as a withdrawn striker. This is perhaps his best role, and his runs were picked up and exploited by Danny Murphy. The captain’s assist on Dempsey’s first was nothing short of brilliant. Duff had a relatively quiet match, but he was certainly up for it. He consistently got Hughes into the attack in good positions, and cut in well for a few shots of his own. Moussa Dembélé was absolutely brilliant the entire match. What a performance! I was tempted to give him Hatter Don’s Man of the Match, but I knew I’d hear from my friend down the road if I ignored the hat-trick hero. Oh, and welcome to Mamadou Diarra. I almost fell off the couch laughing when his first ever touch of the ball resulted in the Hammersmith End urging him to “shoot.” He looks useful, and it was a nice interplay with Dempsey that resulted in Clint’s second and Fulham’s fifth.

Speaking of which, Pogrebnyak had a marvelous game. His work in front of goal was clinical and efficient, but his hold-up work and his distribution were, as they say in American Mike’s part of the country, “cherce.” He’s the real deal, and I think he just sealed his place on the Russian squad for Euro 2012 today. If we can keep him at The Cottage for next season, I will be one very happy Texan. Andrew Johnson was brilliant all day as well, collecting two assists [really should have been three in a 6-0 defeat] and driving Wolves’ defense absolutely spare. I never tire of seeing the absolute joy on his face when we score. Good stuff for Our Late President.

Oh, and just in case you went to the loo in the 92nd minute, Schwarzer made a save.

As for Wolves, I don’t think I’ve ever seen them so toothless and – truth be told – lifeless. There seemed to be no communication among the defenders and their five-man midfield was pretty much dominated by Murphy and Dembélé, leaving Duff and Dempsey to run riot. I know that Connor is new, but I wonder that it took him so long to get Fletcher and Hunt into the game. Of all Wolves’ players, they would have reacted to Fulham’s mauling with a bit more resolution.

So, yeah, a great match. 90 consistently brilliant minutes, and good performances, communication, aggression, and – especially – passing. We looked very good out there. Wolves’ poor performance was 90% our determination and consistency.

HatterDon’s Man of the Match is Pavel Pogrebnyak who is, of course, okay.

On to Villa Park and COYW!

View from South Texas — Fulham vs West Brom

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by HatterDon

Hot, Steaming Football on a Cold Night

It was a tough, hard-fought contest on what appeared to be a bitter cold night. I usually miss being in The Cottage, but sitting in shorts and a tee-shirt on my living-room couch was just perfect for me as Fulham and Albion shared the points in an excellent match to watch — if you’re not freezing your gazungas off, of course.

Well, the first thing I have to say is that – surprisingly – I’m satisfied with the point. I know it’s the first one West Bromwich Albion have taken at The Cottage in the Premier League, but it was an entertaining match that both sides contributed mightily to. It was played in good spirit, and there were very good performances from both sides.

The second thing I have to say is that I saw more attacking from WBA today than I saw in the last two seasons of Roy Hodgson away games. I’m not sure if his philosophy has changed or if it’s just happenstance, but Albion have taken more points and scored more goals on the road this season than at home.

Fulham began with the 4-6-0 many of us forecasted as a result of Zamora’s departure yesterday. I don’t remember seeing anything about the fitness of Andrew Johnson, but he didn’t even feature on the bench. With four attacking midfielders, one box-to-box multi-tasker, and one attack-minded central mid in midfield, we should have expected a lot of creativity and entertaining passing. That’s what we got. Without a recognized striker on the pitch, we should have expected uncertain finishing. That’s what we got.

The first half was engaging and end-to-end. Much of the early work featured attacking passes to Simon Davies out on the left wing. I was so happy to see him out there and – apparently fit – I almost awarded him man of the match after 5 minutes. Murphy was finding everyone and, as the half went on, Damian Duff looked the most threatening player on the pitch. The Fulham faithful’s whipping boys all had good solid halves. Ruiz, Stockdale, Senderos, and Kelly all looked competent, if the former looked a bit slow and the latter seemed to have forgotten that he could actually kick with his left foot. Dempsey had some good attacking play, but WBA’s wide defenders did a competent job on Davies and Duff, and nothing came from nothing. There seemed to be absolute certainty that Fulham would score in the last 8 or so minutes of the half, but 0-0 was a very fair result.

The second half was more of the same. Ruiz became more effective as WBA dropped off him. It was his cleverly disguised pass that Dempsey dispatched for the Fulham goal – that’s SEVEN goals in his last four matches – and it looked like the points were safe. It looked like they were locked when Riise unleashed one of his thunderbolt specials that looked like a second, but curved safely wide.

And then WBA scored through their substitute Baby Back Tchoyi who managed to slip between our two center halves and then do what no Albion player had managed to do up to that point – get it on goal and at pace. Stockdale got a fingertip to it, but it was a well-taken goal. Fulham worked hard to get the winner [and give me two points in the picking pool], but shared points was fair. It does both sides a favor with the bottom five all dropping points.

I don’t believe that Jol went to his bench, and I don’t blame him. We were playing very well as a unit, and the only attacking players we had on the bench were Frei and Trotta, and this wasn’t the game for kids.

Graham Dorrans really caught my eye for West Brom, as did Morrison. The defensive capabilities of Duff and Davies on the wings allowed for both fullbacks to go forward and keep the attack wide. But for me the player that stood head and shoulders above everyone today [well, metaphorically speaking] was Danny Murphy. Given time by West Brom’s midfielders, he dictated play all over the pitch and helped his defense out into the bargain.

So, did we miss Zamora? Well, in our last home match he had a goal and three assists and any of those four would have given us all the points. Yes, we could have used that kind of support today, but until such time as Our Late President is picked, Pog gets match fit and/or Jol feels it’s time to bring Trotta to bear, we’re going to have to go with that 4-6-0. With Dempsey and Ruiz at the spearhead, that should be enough for us most days.

HatterDon’s Man of the Match: Cap’n’ Danny Murphy, who did the #13 shirt proud.

On to Eastlands on Saturday, and another live televised match. COYW