Re: Good/Average/Poor Season Definitions

[BalDrick]

'The team did try.  But they were up against a well organised, well drilled side...'

As they should be every week. I'm sorry, not having a go at you, but that's up there with 'but their keeper had a blinder' - they are Prem keepers, they are paid to have blinders every Saturday.

One of the things that made me realise I'd grown up was when I realised excuses don't cut it in the real world, and Fulham should not have to resort to them. With the exception of 'well they do have about a thousand times more money than we do' I suppose.

Well, firstly, I was addressing the comment that they players didn't try.

Secondly, it's not an excuse, it's a reason.  Are you denying that there are some teams that are better organised than others?  That there are some systems and formations and ways of playing that are harder to break down than others?  Because that's what your post looks like to me.  You seem to be arguing that because we are playing at a high level there aren't ways to stop sides scoring, or ways to restrict the opposition and that some sides are better at this then others?  That's the implication of your comment anyway.

Did you go to the Bolton game?  There was a team that lacked discipline, lacked shape and lacked organisation.  We found it easier to score against them.  In a team, West Brom, doing the opposite, we found it much harder.  Is that such an unreasonable position to take?  It struck me as fairly obvious watching last night.

No mate, all I'm saying is if we want to do more than beat a team that were, what 16th in the table at the time, at our place, we need to find ways round this, not excuses for not being able to do so. There aren't many teams that are as well organised as West Brom, simply because there aren't many teams that are as well managed as them (except the ones with silly money of course). But their points tally thus far this season, one less than us, would tend to indicate that several other teams, quite possibly lesser teams than us, have found a way through them (unless of course Baggies played out of their skins last night, which I haven't seen written anywhere so I'm assuming they didn't). Yet we didn't.

As for Bolton, yep I was there, and they were definitely second best throughout. But let's not paper over the fact that, were it not for a purple 3 minutes in which we scored twice, we may have ended up with 2 fewer points that day than we did.

I am not having a go at you at all, please be clear on that. What I am having a go at is yet another lacklustre, below-our-ability (or potential ability, seen in flashes this season but not for very long) performance by Jol's Fulham.

'Come on now Baldrick. How do you think Fulham were so successful when Roy was here?'

I'll tell you excatly how, by astute management and long hours on the training ground making sure every single player knew exactly where he was supposed to be and exactly what he was supposed to be doing throughout the match. On paper, our team should wipe the floor with West Brom's team, but we didn't. And that's down to one thing, astute management and attention to detail. Okay two things, astute management and attention to detail. (copyright Spanish Inquisition sketch.)