Recent Posts

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General Discussion / Old Sod's Army-Fulham United

« Last post by bog on Today at 01:33:24 PM »

I am probably behind one and all here but I notice there is a Fulham United that play in the South Australia State League. I did not know this and also that there is place called Fulham in South Australia. Formed in 1970 they also play in the legendary black and white. Bit of a way to go though for a reserve game....and then it gets called off. 


 

 

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General Discussion / Re: The Fulham web site is littered with...........

« Last post by bobby01 on Today at 01:25:30 PM »

And it gets worse an article by Schurrle now about not being well.

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General Discussion / Re: Fulham’s defence must be improvedii

« Last post by Sting of the North on Today at 01:23:50 PM »

Point taken, what you say is perfectly reasonable.
But I happen to think you could have allowed me a little poetic licence. Just getting arms and legs to me is not much different to not getting anyone all... but I accept all you say. Perhaps you would have prefered a more accurate, needed a defense and got players that were nominally called defenders but in fact turned out to be nowhere near good enough. And for that I hold TK and the whole senior management of the club totally responsible because that is what I beliebve to be the case.

In the end, we shall have to see whether lessons have been learned, I suspect not but hope springs eternal.

I didn't mean to be derive you of any poetic license, it was just in my opinion an important difference. I fully understand and respect that it may very well be no need to take what you write so literal however, and appreciate your explanation above. I still don't agree on your conclusion that the defenders brought in were so bad that they could never be good enough, but am happy to concede that this is very much an area where opinions can differ a lot. 

So, we may disagree on whether the plan was good or whether recruitment was reasonable or unreasonable. We may also disagree to various degrees on how good, bad or indifferent the intentions of the upper management were, or whether or not they are completely incompetent. I believe however that we can agree that at the end of the day they failed with their objective (since I believe it is fair to assume that they at the very least aimed for survival). For that I also agree that they have to take responsibility. If that is by stepping down, or improving doesn't matter much to me, as long as we are not stuck in a downwards spiral.

I join you therefore in hoping that lessons have been learned, albeit I am probably a tad more optimistic about the possibilities of than you are.

Cheers to a good summer 

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General Discussion / Re: Fulham’s defence must be improvedii

« Last post by toshes mate on Today at 01:19:51 PM »

It is two completely different things, namely being able to identify a need versus being able to find a suitable solution for that need. Or, if you will the difference between ignoring a problem or failing to address said problem. The outcome may ultimately be the same, but for different reasons. They obviously did the former, at least to an extent. It is more debatable if they managed the latter.

In isolation from the context of the Khans' time at FFC, this makes sense, as in everybody was on the same page about what was required, and the problem was purely in delivery. It was to happen in Winter 2019 too (the might have beens' that never were).  I think the issue surrounds the record of recruitment under the years containing almost a whole team sized range of managers/coaches.  That record, of course, also encompasses the successful players recruited either permanently or as loans. 

Undeniably some of those recruits have been instrumental to success.  But what of the problem positions which became critical to Jokanovic's style, formations, and player profiles.  He wanted players with pace, aggression, ability and willingness to learn how to adapt to a style of football very popular among successful clubs, but often he was given last minute best fits.  The recruiters had no shortage of blue prints on which to determine suitability even for players sold on - McCormack, Dembele, Malone, Aluko, for example - and yet we ended up with a large number of duds too, unsuited to anything FFC could offer them.  Even if Jokanovic never spoke a word of English to the recruiters and scouts they should have been savvy enough to know what was required.  Even if TK wanted no interference with his recruitment regime (and only Mitrovic shows to be an exception to that rule, superficially in any event) then he must at least be wanting to service the Club to succeed and not fail.  And so what input did the Talbot's have, or were they bystanders or, worse, 'yes people'?

When you look at the problem in context rather than in isolation then it seems as if May 2018 just went to some people's heads and I don't believe that Jokanovic was a guilty party.  Indeed I believe he was the only one who could say to others 'well if you did your jobs as well as I do mine, safety in the PL would be a relatively straightforward job'.  He couldn't say that because he knew nobody was listening and they hadn't been listening even when SJ was delivering spot on target.  It is recruitment failure and although it may be rather complex to identify the reason, heads must role at the senior level if that team cannot deliver better.   Get a charismatic DoF in a see how many suitors turn up at FFC's door.  If it isn't any better that life under TK then fair enough the problem lies elsewhere, but why should TK remain in situ when he has been found so lacking?

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General Discussion / Re: Fulham’s defence must be improvedii

« Last post by Skatzoffc on Today at 01:15:50 PM »

I just watched the last 30 minutes again of the fantastic 2-0 win in the Semi Final v Derby for the first time this season.

What you notice is our great possession play, but also the absolutely terrible mistakes made in defence.   Our back line in the Premier League was very similar and that back 4 and was frankly a relatively average defensive unit.  Great going forward yes, but made too many mistakes.  To even think that defence could handle the Premier League was madness and just re-confirmed my view that only really adding an injured Mawson was the great mistake of last summers transfer dealings.   
We love Tim Ream, but defensively he is not good enough, he made about 3 critical errors in that last 30 mins v Derby that could have cost us, the difference then was that Derby unlike most Premier teams did not punish us.

Max is a decent squad player but we need to sign at least one very good championship central defender as a top priority this summer.

Agreed with all of this Stu

and Max scares the life out of me every time he gets the ball tbh.

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General Discussion / Re: Six Confirmed Rule Changes to Come Into Effect in 2019/20

« Last post by Carborundum on Today at 12:55:09 PM »

I look forward to the first instance of a substituted player pretending to forget the new rule about departing the pitch, so heading 20 metres towards dugouts then theatrically playing the “deary me I forgot” card to head back in the opposite direction.  Will happen and probably in the first round of games.

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General Discussion / Re: The Fulham web site is littered with...........

« Last post by Two Ton Ted on Today at 12:34:45 PM »

It's bizarre isn't it?

After an appalling season the guys who were not good enough to keep us up explain how grateful they are for the money and to be able to move onto the next cash cow.

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General Discussion / Re: New Kits Thread 2019/20

« Last post by Two Ton Ted on Today at 12:32:08 PM »

Chelsea

That's a shocker even by their low standards.

I fully expect to see it worn in all the pubs in South London this summer by the "can't afford to ever go" crew.

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General Discussion / Re: How Do You Put A Picture Up Using My Phone?(New Top)

« Last post by Two Ton Ted on Today at 12:30:38 PM »

Call me a bluff old traditionlist, but who difficult is it to produce a plain white football shirt?

We've never worn stripes so why start now?

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General Discussion / Re: Steve Clarke is named new Scotland manager on three-year deal

« Last post by ALG01 on Today at 12:18:38 PM »

I think clarke is decent and what he did at Kilmarnock was amazing.