Monday Fulham Stuff (28.02.11)

[White Noise]

http://www.sportinglife.com/football/premiership/news/story_get.cgi?STORY_NAME=soccer/11/02/28/SOCCER_Fulham.html

HUGHES: HANGELAND IS ONE OF THE BEST





Mark Hughes feels that Brede Hangeland is the equal of any central defender in the Premier League.

Hughes was an admirer of the giant Norwegian even before he was appointed as Roy Hodgson's replacement at Fulham last summer.

However, the opportunity to work at close quarters with the 29-year-old has allowed Hughes to realise just how good Hangeland is.

At Manchester City yesterday, not only did Hangeland produce a towering defensive performance that kept Carlos Tevez and company at bay, he also played the delicate pass to Andrew Johnson that released the Fulham striker to cross for Damien Duff's opener.

"Brede is one of those players that you don't realise how good he is until you actually work with him," said Hughes.

"There are a number of those players at Fulham. In that sense, I was delighted with what I discovered there.

"As a ball-playing centre-half, Brede is as good as they come.

"He can see the type of passes he played in the build-up to our goal. He doesn't just want to clear his lines."

So willing is Hangeland to play, he can land himself in bother with his manager.

"On occasion he will get a little bit of criticism from me because we can sometimes overplay," said Hughes.

"But it is great to see the kind of pass he played to Andy Johnson."

Yesterday's draw extended a remarkable run for Fulham at Eastlands.

The Londoners have lost only once in eight league visits.

Their latest result followed on from an equally spirited point against Chelsea a fortnight ago, which really should have been three given Clint Dempsey missed an injury-time penalty.

It means the Londoners are still only four points off the drop zone, although Hughes insists he is not losing any sleep over the threat of relegation.

"We are looking up rather than at what is behind us," he said.

"We feel there are a number of teams in front of us that we are capable of catching."

Saturday's opponents Blackburn have already been caught and overtaken - admittedly only on goal difference - and Fulham should be bolstered for that encounter by the return of star striker Bobby Zamora, who missed yesterday's game with a minor ankle injury.

[White Noise]

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Monday 28th February 2011


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[Mr Fulham]

http://www.goalcity.com/?area=home&sezione=news_esplosa&id_news=50523&titolo=Newcastle%2C+offerti+16+milioni+al+Fulham+per+Dempsey

Newcastle, offered 16 million for Dempsey to Fulham



The Magpies want at all costs the attacker and the U.S. are ready to madness just to win the bids.

Newcastle wants at all costs the U.S. striker Fulham, Clint Dempsey. The Magpies are ready to offer up to 16 million €.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Yank site?

No, tranlsated it from the Italian original.

ok, that makes it even worse, :beer:

[White Noise]

http://www.skysports.com/story/0,19528,11676_6786411,00.html


Dunn to miss Fulham clash

Short stint on the sidelines for Rovers ace


Last updated: 28th February 2011

   

Dunn: Hip muscle tear

Blackburn Rovers have confirmed that playmaker David Dunn will miss this weekend's clash with Fulham.

The former Birmingham midfielder suffered a hip muscle tear that ruled him out of their trip to Aston Villa.

The 31-year-old missed Rovers' 4-1 defeat to Villa on Saturday and will also be unavailable against The Cottagers.

The club do not believe the injury is a long-term problem and hope with a few days' rest that he will be on the road to recovery.

"David has a small tear and it will take a few days for it to settle down, ruling him out of this week's action," a spokesman confirmed on the club's official website.

[White Noise]

http://www.cottagersconfidential.com/2011/2/28/2020602/hughes-is-no-hodgson


Hughes is No Hodgson


by Kristian Balkin on Feb 28, 2011 6:35 PM GMT




Jamie McDonald - Getty Images

Had Roy Hodgson been on the receiving end of Roberto Mancini's lackluster handshake on Sunday afternoon, I'm sure a swift removal of the hand and a press-conference-rant would have been the last thing on his mind.

It just goes to show how personality shapes a manager. Hodgson was always reserved, quiet and humble in his demeanor, which worked. To an extent.

Mark Hughes, however, has a wealth of fire in his belly. He may have told the media that vengeance was not on his mind on Sunday, but we all know that deep down, this was probably the most important game of his inaugural season at Fulham.

Yes, personal matters shouldn't really provide the means for a top notch performance, but, if it gets the results, who really cares?

I for one am more than delighted that we have, in Hughes, appointed a man who can and will speak his mind on any given occasion. He has an unrivaled passion for the game which extends from his arduous days as a player and his brief but extensively successful spells at Wales, Blackburn and Man City as gaffer.

I'm not saying Hodgson didn't have that same passion, as every football manager in the World has a degree of it, yet, less of it was exposed to public. With Hughes we have a man who is youthful, yet experienced, outgoing, yet popular and brutal, yet disciplined. He ticks all the boxes.

That's not to detract from Hodgson either. (Sir) Roy was so experienced, so cool headed and so tactically knowledgeable that almost every Birtish manager in the land was envious of his innate ability. However, Hughes can easily rival him with his recognition of the beautiful game. He understands football as well as El-Hadj Diouf understands what it's like to be hated.

There's no other way to see our appointment of Hughes than as a huge step in the right direction. Hodgson was good, brilliant in fact, but you got the sense that his talent as a manager had been saturated once he was awarded with a runner-up medal in Hamburg. There was no way he, himself, could better Fulham. Not with his methods. Not with his ways.

Al Fayed responded accordingly and brought in a man who still encourages nice football, still instills that winning mentality, and most importantly, still has years of petrol left in the tank.

And where did Hodgson end up? West Brom.

[White Noise]

http://thetheatreofbasecomedy.blogspot.com/2011/02/city-1-1-fulham-return-of-draw.html


City 1 - 1 Fulham: Return of the draw specialist

Fulham earned their point yesterday in the face of a rather flat City performance - extending our poor recent home form against the London side (one victory in the past eight seasons).  As a frustrated Mancini is probably all too aware, these are the sorts of games that we should be winning in the race for a Champions' League spot.

There was a moment about half way through the second half when Pablo Zabaleta ran some thirty yards to block a defender's clearance, before turning (possibly in the direction of Jerome Boateng - who had just backed out of a challenge he was clear favourite to win) and gesturing that the team needed more aggression and desire.  In some ways Zabaleta's frustration summed up the afternoon. 

Even though it is a weak excuse, the team certainly looked jaded and this could be symptomatic of games every three or four days since the Manchester derby with a squad that is getting more and more depleted.  By contrast, Fulham have just returned from a break in the Algarve.  City will get very little sympathy for such worries, with the strength of the squad we have, and I am not suggesting that this should excuse the performance yesterday, but it probably is starting to have an effect on the players who have to play all the games.  Regardless, if all the players had the same attitude as Pablo Zabaleta, then City would always out-compete teams. 

I would argue that only four outfield starting players performed to an expected level yesterday: Zabaleta, Lescott, Barry and, despite Mancini's comments after the game, Mario Balotelli.  Despite the odd frustrating moment, Balotelli actually worked quite hard for the team yesterday - often doubling up as a left-sided midfielder and covering Kolarov.  Balotelli's was more of a team performance than he put in against Aris, for example, and I thought he looked more settled, rather than trying to pull off the outlandish all the time - which has often been the case as he has tried to impress.  His goal was brilliantly taken and he was our main attacking threat, as Tevez had one of those days when he tries to run through people, on his own, and without realising there is too much of Hangeland to run through.   

Taking Tevez out of the equation, our top three performers this season were missing - Kompany, Silva and De Jong - and Mancini will be hoping their calming, creative and crushing respective influences will be returning soon.  Without Silva there is a noticeable lack of verve and impetus from midfield going forward - and City's midfield struggled to offer many scraps for the strikers.  Yaya Toure cut a particularly frustrated figure after the Fulham midfield kept him well shackled - after being a very influential figure in the excellent performance at Craven Cottage, he was almost anonymous here. 

Fulham did play very well though and their goal was of top quality - fans around me were trying to pin blame on moments up to a minute earlier, but the speed and precision of the move and Andy Johnson's delivery deserved the moment. 

Overreactions abound, as ever, when results don't go the way you want them to, but this is just one result in a string of very good home results and performances - and, despite what you may presume reading some of the reactions across the internet, it was still a point. 

On an entirely different note, the atmosphere was about as flat as the performance yesterday.  I know the tiny Fulham following support didn't help matters (the South stand had already decided it would be better to pick on other stands rather than the away fans they could hardly see by about five minutes in), but the home support was hardly conducive to a passion-filled performance from the players.  I know there is a little of the chicken and the egg about this - should the players excite the fans to an extent? - but it was pretty flat following the atmosphere against Aris.

Maybe the City fans were just a little bewildered due to the slightly peculiar 'televisation' of our half-time.  I may be a bit old-fashioned/grumpy, but one of the bonuses of going to live football is that you escape fifteen minutes of football punditry in the break.  This is nothing against the people involved - I'm sure what they had to say was quite interesting, and I don't mind having endless replays on the big screens, but I'd rather hear the murmurings of the crowd at half-time than long pieces of punditry on what was a quite uneventful first-half anyway.  Oh well... 

Posted by Michael Maguire at 18:18

[White Noise]

http://viewfromablue.wordpress.com/2011/02/28/man-city-1-1-fulham-my-thoughts/


MAN CITY 1 – 1 Fulham


MY THOUGHTS

28Feb

Absence makes the heart grow fonder. Six words which may seem a little antiquated and out of place in football, yet that very phrase perhaps best sums up our lacklustre 1-1 draw with Fulham. Without the creative majesty of David Silva, the no-nonsense defending of Vincent Kompany or the harnessed aggression of Nigel de Jong, City were a limp outfit, undeserving of more than a point against Fulham.

A goal from out of nowhere by the ever mercurial Mario Balotelli set us on course to continue our recent impressive home form, but an early second half finish from Damien Duff, such a poor goal to give away from our point of view enabled the visitors to return to London with a share of the spoils. A post-match spat between the managers, Roberto Mancini and Mark Hughes, may overshadow the actual on-pitch action, but we should not look beyond our own shortcomings as we lose ground in the race for the top four.

What annoys me particularly is that we are making the same mistakes game after game, week after week. Whether that is the fault of the manager, the coaching staff, or even the players for failing to change their ways, I'm not sure. But if we are to challenge in the upper echelons of this league and in the latter stages of cup competitions, we need to make immediate improvements.

I'm not alone in thinking that our tempo is so laboured, especially without Silva, it wouldn't be out of place at a geriatric convention. The lack of incision from our midfield is frightening, whilst the likes of Kolarov and Boateng have failed to provide us with the necessary spark needed if they are the width in the side. The forward three of Džeko, Balotelli and Tévez didn't click and although I'm not overly concerned with that considering they haven't played a great deal together, players of their quality should pose more of a threat than they currently do.

I don't want to come across as unduly critical as we do still lie in a decent position, but I'm frustrated by our failure to address reoccurring issues. I'm sure Mancini will be working hard in training at rectifying these problems and the sooner he does, the better. Of course, fatigue is a problem, as is the plethora of injuries we currently have, but we must be winning games such as this one. On Wednesday we play host to Aston Villa in the FA Cup and a repeat performance of Sunday would surely see us crashing out.