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Sunday Fulham Stuff (15.05.11)

Started by White Noise, May 14, 2011, 11:42:21 PM

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White Noise


Tottenham are involved in an exciting race – to finish sixth in the league.

It would seem they don't want to get into the Europa League. They appear to see it as an ­annoyance, whereas Liverpool see it as a new ­challenge.

There's no doubt playing in the Europa League means a lot of games and the competition can be a distraction, yet it may also bring in extra revenue.

Liverpool appear to be hinting they will mix up teams with youngsters, squad players and seniors so it does not distract them from their league programme.

Next season will be a big one for manager Kenny Dalglish.

A new three-year contract, money to spend and exciting times ahead.

Given the right sort of player recruitment, they ­definitely have the manager to help them ­challenge for the top four again.

But my wish for the Europa League is that it reverts to the old UEFA Cup-type format and goes knockout again.



Read more: http://www.mirrorfootball.co.uk/opinion/columnists/mark-lawrenson/Mark-Lawrenson-Why-I-think-Manchester-United-will-be-even-harder-to-beat-next-year-and-Liverpool-wont-mind-Europa-League-exertions-article735253.html#ixzz1MOpql7GT

White Noise


http://www.toffeeweb.com/season/10-11/comment/fan/17786.html



From my seat: Academy League Final



By Paul Marshall :  14/05/2011 :   Comments (2) :


As a fan of Ken Buckley's match reports, thought I'd have a first stab at one (and nick his article title while I'm at it)!

As a London blue and with nothing better to do on a Friday night after work I rocked up to the cottage hoping for more of an entertaining game than the 0-0 that I'd witnessed the senior team mange back in September. Good level of support for the blues, I reckon on par with the Fulham lot and interesting to be all mixed in with the Fulham fans in the Haynes Stand! I was enjoying the obligatory pre match beer and sausage roll in the stand when Bill Kenwright walked past; had a quick word with him and good to see him showing support to the lads!

Never having seen the U18s before I was interested to see how some of the more recognisable names like Garbutt, Bidwell and McAleny performed. The lads lined up 4-3-3, with Forrester leading the line. I must admit most of the first half was quite hard work to watch. Not too many clear-cut chances, with Fulham happy to sit back and let their monster centre backs mop most of our attacks up and then try and counter us on the break. Best player on the park in the first half was our no.8 (from the names on the official website I reckon this was Donegan) who showed some great drive going forward and the ability to skip past a few challenges. Forrester was quite isolated at times as Thomas and McAleny struggled to get the ball in good areas of the pitch. Our no. 6 Barrow had a huge throw on him (ala Delap) and this was used on countless occasions to try and pick out Forrester and look for a knock-down. Although this gave us a few half-chances, I was disappointed the lads used the long throw every time and didn't mix it up a bit and use a short throw and play to feet!

Second half and we'd moved seats to get out of the way of a post, but unfortunately we moved right in front of some Fulham fans who basically gave a rubbish running commentary of the events unfolding. Anyway, the game progressed in a similar vain, with a few half chances for both sides, but no keeper really having to work that hard. Our defence looked very solid, Dier (the English lad we've signed on loan I think from Sporting Lisbon) and Bidwell keeping it steady, and the fullbacks dealing well with a skilful looking Fulham forward line. The right back, Browning was quick and strong, but unfortunately seems to the distribution skills of Hibbo in his early days; let's hope he gets better with age like our Tony! Bidwell the left back has great left peg on him, put in some good corners.

Anyway, the action finally started with about 15 minutes left! The first incident of real controversy was a mistake across our back four, with the Fulham no. 9 poking the ball past Bidwell through on goal, and with no full-backs to cover, it looked like Bidwell dragged him to the ground, but lucky days the ref waved play on! My first reaction was that he was last man and was a lucky boy to stay on the pitch! This sparked the crowd into life and the blues looked shaken, so much so it only took a few minutes for Fulham to take the lead as a break led to the ball rolling across the box for their no.8 to rifle the ball into the top corner; quality finish.

But the blues reaction was class! Barrow was removed in favour of a Crouchy lookalike Waring; and what an inspired move it was as it gave Forrester (who'd worked his socks off) some more support to pressure the two big Fulham centre backs. We won a free-kick wide right, the keeper didn't deal with the initial ball, and Thomas was in the right place to shoot low into the empty net! Now we were all over them, Fulham were 2nd to every ball and you knew who the winners were going to be. A great move down the left opened up their defence and a peach of a cross found Waring who nodded a cracker of a header back past the keeper! The lads looked like they enjoyed that celebration, and I enjoyed rubbing it into the Fulham fans sat behind me! To be fair to Fulham, they had a golden chance to equalise in extra time when they carved open our defence, only for one of their subs to blaze over.

Overall, a great performance by the lads, especially the character shown to come back into the game after going down 1-0 with only 15 minutes to go. Hopefully some of them can develop into decent first team players, there's certainly the potential there. Although the game didn't spark into life until the second half, I'm glad I went along and saw the lads playing with pride and delivering some silverware this season! And that's why I love being a blue!


White Noise


Fulham face unfair wait to hear Europa League future



Published 07:00 15/05/11


By Declan Taylor





Fulham's pre-season plans have been left in tatters by their possible qualification for the Europa League.

Mark Hughes' men are the highest-placed Premier League side in the Fair Play League and are on course for a place in next season's competition. But Fulham will not find out whether they have secured their spot until the final day of the current campaign.

Should they qualify, Hughes will have just four days between the players returning from their summer break and the first Europa League qualifying clash. Hughes said: "We've got plenty of pre-season plans but can't commit to them.

"We can hold certain things for a time but the longer it goes on, we might lose the opportunities.

"We will wait and see. We'll have to move quickly."



Read more: http://www.mirrorfootball.co.uk/news/Fulham-have-been-forced-to-wait-to-find-out-if-they-qualify-for-Europa-League-through-the-Fair-Play-League-article735662.html#ixzz1MP2nPakq


White Noise


Finish High


Sunday 15th May 2011



Fulham travel to St. Andrews this afternoon for a testing encounter against Birmingham City and Mark Hughes is looking for a repeat performance of Fulham's recent impressive away win against Sunderland today in the penultimate match of the 2010/11 season.

Following Fulham's recent 3-0 away win over Sunderland, Hughes believes his Team can add to their points tally at St. Andrews and consolidate their position in the top ten of the Barclays Premier League.

""It's important to finish in the top ten," Hughes told fulhamfc.com. "We want to win the last two games and it's important to hit the targets we've set ourselves. We've still got the opportunity to do that and we want to be consistently viewed as a top ten Premier League team.

"On paper it's always a difficult fixture against Birmingham City – they're a very accomplished at home and their record, more often than not, is good.

"It's difficult to get maximum points there and in recent times they've been very difficult to overcome. Due to the circumstances (of their League position] there maybe a little bit of apprehension in their game and we have to use that to our advantage.

"If there's any tension in their play then we have to exploit that like we did against Sunderland. They [Sunderland] looked a little bit tentative at times and we exploited that and ran away outright winners. If we can get in a similar situation we've got the quality to be able to win the game without a doubt.

"The key to it is probably who scores the first goal – if there is a goal. If we score first it will be very difficult for them but if they score that may calm them down and help them to see the game out. You've got to give yourself an opportunity to win the game and that means you have to get a foothold in the match and remain defensively sound – that gives you a platform to try and win it."
.

Read more: http://www.fulhamfc.com/Club/News/NewsArticles/2011/May/BirminghamPreview.aspx#ixzz1MPtKd4lH

White Noise


http://cravencottagenewsround.wordpress.com/2011/05/15/simulations/



Simulations


Filed under: Analysis — rich @ 8:52 am


Interesting:



This seems to have come remarkably close.  As a reminder, I took Fulham's last four seasons, weighted them so recent seasons were more important than older ones, and added Mark Hughes' managerial record for good measure.  This gave me an idea of the proportion of wins, draws and losses we might expect.

Then I simulated 1,000 seasons to cover natural variations. 47 points was the most common outcome, and with 45 on the board and two games left that seems likely to be about right.  Might be worth doing this for the whole division next season.


White Noise


http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/competition/2011/may/15/competition-tickets-fulham-arsenal-premier-league



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