Sunday Fulham Stuff (30/09/12)...

[WhiteJC]

 
U18s win at Fulham

Liverpool U18s produced a superb performance to get their first win of the season with a 3-1 win at Fulham on Saturday.

Steve Cooper's side were full value for their victory and got the win courtesy of goals from Jerome Sinclair, Kristoffer Peterson and Yalany Baio.

Cooper told Liverpoolfc.com: "The lads played very well and I am delighted for them.

"We played some great football, created lots of chances and this win has been coming.

"We have played well this season but our problem has been not putting away the chances we are creating, but today our finishing was clinical.

"It was a really positive performance and the lads have worked so hard."

Liverpool U18s team: Fulton, Quirk, Maguire, Williams, Jones, Baio, Peterson, Lussey, Sinclair, Trickett-Smith (Randall 75), Gainford.



http://www.liverpoolfc.com/news/latest-news/u18s-win-at-fulham?

[WhiteJC]

 
Super sub Dzeko saves City
City come back against Cottagers after controversial early penalty

Edin Dzeko netted a late winner for Manchester City just 60 seconds after coming off the bench to seal a dramatic 2-1 victory over Fulham.

Defending Premier League champions Manchester City were heading for their third straight winless league encounter until Bosnian striker Dzeko intervened at Craven Cottage, smashing home Gael Clichy's cross three minutes from time.

Roberto Mancini's men had fallen behind in the 10th minute in West London after a controversial penalty was awarded to the hosts when John Arne Riise went down under a challenge by Pablo Zabaleta.

Mladen Petric sent City goalkeeper Joe Hart the wrong way to hand the Cottagers the early lead but the visitors responded by firmly taking control of the encounter.

They were rewarded when Sergio Aguero tapped home the follow-up after keeper Schwarzer had parried Carlos Tevez's deflected shot two minutes before the interval.

Then, after City had pressed throughout the second half, Dzeko had the final say after he came on in the 86th minute.

Injury

The hosts were unable to call upon talisman Dimitar Berbatov for Saturday's game after he pulled up with an injury in training this week.

Petric played in his place and was one of two changes made by manager Martin Jol, while there were only three survivors from the City team that fell to a 4-2 extra-time defeat at home to Aston Villa in the Capital One Cup.

City made the brighter start to proceedings by the Thames, retaining possession with ease as they waited for Fulham's defence to open up.

The hosts extinguished that early threat, though, and were handed a chance to break the deadlock by Mark Halsey.

Zabaleta tripped Riise after the full-back cut in from the left, which the referee adjudged to be just inside the 18-yard box.

The call looked harsh but Petric made no mistake with his spot-kick, sending Hart the wrong way with a well-struck left-footed effort.

The Croatia international wasted a decent chance to double Fulham's advantage five minutes later as he scooped over after fine link-up play with Hugo Rodallega.

The visitors were remaining patient in their build-up play and it would have paid dividends in the 25th minute had Brede Hangeland not swept clear Zabaleta's driven ball across the six-yard box.

Both sides came close from set-pieces as the half-hour mark approached as first Riise saw a venomous 35-yard free-kick saved by Hart.

David Silva then whipped in a corner that was nodded to the back post by Javi Garcia, although Aguero's close-range header could only find the side netting.

City were becoming visibly frustrated by their start to the game and Tevez confronted Riise after the striker had claims for a penalty waved away.

Clichy tested Schwarzer with a hopeful left-foot drive as the reigning champions pressed for a leveller, although they were still struggling to stifle the Whites at the other end.

Vincent Kompany was booked for bringing down Petric on the edge of the 18-yard box and was fortunate Bryan Ruiz fired wide after the resulting free-kick was blocked.

While Fulham were threatening, they were having to defend at their best to keep City out.

Aaron Hughes and Schwarzer combined superbly to somehow stop the visitors' bundled effort on the line, before the latter showed great reactions to thwart Silva and Hughes cleared from the cross that followed.

But for all that defensive work, Fulham could not quite maintain their lead heading into half-time.

Tevez's deflected shot was turned goalwards by Silva, which forced Schwarzer into a fine save that unfortunately for the veteran fell kindly for Aguero to tuck away.

The tempo slowed as the second half started as Fulham continued in their attempts to contain City.

After Hangeland came close after connecting with a Ruiz corner four minutes in, most of the play was at the other end and Aguero was unfortunate to see a header loop just wide of the far post.

Outlet

Mario Balotelli came on for Tevez with 25 minutes remaining as the visitors looked for a new attacking outlet, while Alex Kacaniklic replaced Petric for the hosts.

Five minutes after coming on both introductions were having an impact as first Balotelli curled wide from the edge of the box.

Kacaniklic then darted down the left and, after seeing an appeal for a handball against Zabaleta turned down, saw his blocked cross fall to Ruiz, whose strike would have nestled in the top corner had it not been for a Hart save.

Giorgos Karagounis came on for his Fulham debut with the clock winding down, while Samir Nasri and Dzeko were brought on in a bid to change the course of the game.

Less than two minutes after the latter's introduction the plan worked as Riise's failure to clear a Clichy cross allowed Dzeko to rifle home inside the box and secure three points.


http://www1.skysports.com/football/live/match/261614/report

[WhiteJC]

 
Fulham 1 Manchester City 2: match report
Read a full match report of the Premier League game between Fulham and Manchester City at Craven Cottage on Saturday Sep 29 2012.

Roberto Mancini insists his Manchester City team will defend their Premier League title but that it will be a harder task than last year. On this evidence, after City had to come from behind to finally subdue lively Fulham with an Edin Dzeko winner, the Italian may be on to something.

This was a game which City were really obliged to win, given the amount of possession they hogged, but after a sleepy start on the bank of the Thames which saw them fail once again to keep a clean sheet and up against a side who enjoy nothing more than working feverishly to turn over the fat cats at the Cottage, they made almightily laborious work of the job.

It looked as if they were heading for a fifth straight match without a win but, ultimately, after much decent passing interplay, largely conducted by David Silva, only some amateurish defending from the home side gifted City victory with just three minutes left,

Dzeko scoring with his first touch within a minute of being brought on.

Gaël Clichy's cross, flicked on by Mario Balotelli, should have been comfortably dealt with at the far post but John Arne Riise headed the ball feebly back off his team-mate Brede Hangeland into the predators' zone, with Dzeko's strength enabling him to hold off a challenge, turn and beat the excellent Mark Schwarzer.

Mancini was not about to hide his relief. "We've been unlucky for three or four weeks when we had matches we deserved to win," he said.

Adamant that City were again on the wrong end of another bad decision, after referee Mark Halsey had awarded Fulham a 10th minute penalty which Mladen Petric converted, Mancini had fretted that they would end up dropping a point here, just as they had last season.

The League's loveliest ground, as it sometimes has a habit of doing, appeared to lull the champions into a lethargic false sense of security for a good half an hour. And when Riise tried a push and run around Pablo Zabaleta, it was soon time for the visitors to contemplate an unwelcome claim to fame, becoming the first Premier League champions to concede goals in their first six matches of their defence.

Zabaleta hung out a leg and flopped out an arm as Riise, barely brushed, took the tumble on the edge of the box. It looked a soft penalty all right and City seemed so out of sorts afterwards that the Croatian Petric, having sent Joe Hart the wrong way with his spot kick, ought to have had a second goal when he ballooned a great opportunity high and not very handsome.

After that Fulham created little, relying on the immense Schwarzer and his increasingly beleaguered rearguard to deal with the City trident of Carlos Tévez, Sergio Aguero and Silva working some bewildering angles.

Tévez was public enemy No 1, twice claiming to have been bundled over by Riise in the Fulham area, protests which were met with considerable derision from the home fans, especially the tumble which came complete with a pirouette and a despairing appeal to Halsey.

Still, it was the Argentine's shot just before the break, deflected by Silva, which brought a third exceptional save from Schwarzer, only for Aguero, in just his second game back after injury, to pounce on the loose ball for the equaliser.

From there, it seemed only a matter of time before City's power and class prevailed but apart from one curler from sub Balotelli and a header looped wide from Aguero, the champions seemed to become increasingly clueless until Dzeko, now City's leading marksman this term, arrived to net his fourth of the season. "We wanted that," said Mancini. They needed it too.



http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/competitions/premier-league/9570622/Fulham-1-Manchester-City-2-match-report.html

[WhiteJC]

 
Dzeko gives points to shapeless City
Fulham 1 Manchester City 2: Late goal earns Mancini's men a first win in four but lack of chances will be a cause for concern

Finally, Manchester City conquer, but still don't truly convince. And, after a first victory in four games, the key question is whether they should be encouraged by another late win or concerned by the way it came about. That question was encapsulated in the nature of the decisive goal. Although Edin Dzeko's turn-and-finish was exquisitely executed, it arrived thanks to an awful defensive error from John Arne Riise.

Before that, City's approach did not look like fashioning such an opportunity. One Sergio Aguero header aside, too many second-half attacks ended with the ball blazed high or wide from distance.

The general lack of shape to the team resulted in a general lack of chances. It's been a recurring theme. To give City credit, though, it isn't the only theme that has been recurred, with one of them admirably reversed.

After a trailblazing start to last season, this fixture away to Fulham was the first time City dropped points, with the manner in which they lost a two-goal lead pointing to some of the problems they would encounter later in the campaign.

Those problems have continued into this season despite the way in which they won the title but, having come back from behind yesterday, the expectation from Roberto Mancini will have been raised. That's not to say the Italian thinks there were too many problems with City's recent displays. He is more willing to put them down to misfortune.

Such was the manner of Fulham's opening goal here, he could reasonably argue that again. Arne Riise went down under Pablo Zabaleta's challenge, although there was considerable doubt about whether the incident was inside the box or contact was made. There was no doubt, however, about Mladen Petric's finish as City again failed to keep a clean sheet.

"For me, it wasn't a penalty," Mancini insisted. "We are in an unlucky moment because we have had that three times in our last four games."

The only problem with primarily putting all that down to fortune is that it ignores the issues with shape that allowed it to happen in the first place. Quite simply, it was hard to say what formation City were playing. Gareth Barry appeared to be in defensive midfield but kept drifting; Aguero seemed to be a floating attacker but remained on the fringes. The idea was undoubtedly fluidity but, for the most part, all that was evident was shapelessness.

Fulham's manager, Martin Jol, agreed. "They played 4-3-3 with three midfield players and they don't do that all the time, but that was good for us." Very good. For the first half-hour, Hugo Rodallega and Bryan Ruiz were pulling off the kind of interchanges that eventually opened the space for Riise to run into. If City have not been convincing, though, it can't be said that they don't control games. That was again the case here as, after the goal, Fulham withdrew and Mancini's team won more and more of the ball.

After 43 minutes, Aguero saw enough of it to score. Having previously missed an easy enough header, the Argentinian was alert to divert home a Mark Schwarzer parry. The trouble for City was that they did not really make the Fulham keeper do much more of that. So, with his team looking less and less penetrative, Mancini threw on more attackers.Eventually, it told as substitute Dzeko struck. It is not, of course, the first time he's done that.

One of the curious patterns of last season was that, as excellent as City often were, up until March they had only scored one genuinely match-winning goal after the hour. The general pattern was that, if they were not winning by the hour they usually did not win at all as Mancini struggled to influence games.

Clearly, that changed dramatically in the run-in. It triggered the eventual win here. If it continues to be the case, there's more cause for encouragement than concern.

Fulham (4-4-2): Schwarzer; Reither, Hangeland, Hughes, Riise; Duff, Sidwell, Baird (Karagounis, 81), Rodallega; Ruiz, Petric (Kacaniklic, 65).

Manchester City(4-2-3-1): Hart; Zabaleta, Kompany, Nastasic, Clichy; Garcia (Dzeko, 85), Barry (Nasri, 76); Y Touré, Silva, Aguero; Tevez (Balotelli, 65).

Referee: Mark Halsey

Man of the match: Silva (Manchester City)

Match rating: 6/10



http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/premier-league/dzeko-gives-points-to-shapeless-city-8190860.html

[WhiteJC]

 
Manager Jol left to rue costly Riise error

Fulham manager Martin Jol bemoaned the error by John Arne Riise which led to Manchester City's late winner at Craven Cottage.

Jol's side, who took the lead through Mladen Petric's early penalty, looked set to pick up a point before Edin Dzeko scored with three minutes remaining.

The striker pounced after a poor header from Riise, who was attempting to clear Gael Clichy's left-wing cross.

"He will be disappointed because it was a mistake he made and it was punished," said Jol.

"I feel if you work that hard, to concede a goal that late from your own mistake is frustrating. It was a bad clearance.

"The frustrating thing is that although they dominated possession, especially in the second half, their goals were pretty scrappy."



http://www.westlondonsport.com/fulham/manager-jol-left-to-rue-costly-riise-error?

[WhiteJC]

 
The View from South Texas — Fulham FC v. Manchester City

by HatterDon

Valiant but Not Up to It

Early in the match, announcer Paul Walsh said about Fulham's parity with the  Man City of the past, "that's before they struck oil ... or rather, before oil struck them." A clever remark, but an apt one. We were like the Bailey Savings and Loan [It's a Wonderful Life reference] against the House of Rothschild. Exaggerating? Their SUBS were Dzeko, Balotelli, and Nasri for goodness sake.

And so we lost 1-2. I expected us to lose, but overall I was pleased at what I saw today. For the first half-hour or so of the match, we looked a good match-up for the billionaires. Rodallega and Ruiz looked especially sharp, and we were attacking strongly on both wings. The seriously outgunned central midfield was holding strong, and the defense was neat and tidy. Only Petrić seemed to be out of sorts and so, naturally, he scored.

Riise nutmegged Zabaleta and the defender lifted his arm to restrain our left back. It was on the edge of the penalty area, and most refs – if they bothered to call it a foul at all – would have given a free kick just outside the box. Referee Halsey [who once called two penalties in our favor against Tottenham in the FA Cup] pointed to the spot and Petrić put it away easily, although he was a bit lucky. Had Hart not moved at all he could have caught it in both hands. So it was 1-0 in the 9th minute.

Only 81 minutes left to hold the lead. For most of the rest of the first half, Fulham and Citeh both went strongly for the next goal. It was very entertaining, but fruitless. The Blues – who were NOT wearing blue – pressed hard on both wings in the last 15 minutes or so, and should have had a couple of goals when, with 43 minutes on the clock, they scored what has to be called a lucky goal. A speculative cross ricocheted off Silva and brought a memorable reaction parry from Schwarzer. Unfortunately, Aguero was lurking in the far corner and tapped it in. Where HAVE we seen that kind of opportunistic goal poaching before?

We finished the half looking to regain our lead, but in the second half, Citeh were all over us. Tevez was a severe irritant, and David Silva was brilliant. Yaya Toure, playing well forward, was okay but had he been fielded in the center of midfield, I don't think that the Sidwell-Baird partnership would have been nearly so effective as they were. The 66th minute was when the match really turned for City. Tevez, however dangerous he may have been, was not the physical presence he might have been, and so he left in favor of Balotelli. I was heartened to see that our substitution was Kacaniklic who replaced the loneliest man on the pitch, Mladen Petrić.

As the pressure on Fulham's defense increased, I was stunned to see that Chris Baird – in many ways the key man in containing City's central attack – was substituted out for our Ancient Greek, Giorgos Karagounis. With less than 10 minutes left on the clock, this seemed a strange choice. Within seconds our newly signed central midfielder conceded a free kick in a dangerous area, and Balotelli became even more menacing. Fulham's fate was sealed when Dzeko came on in the 86th minute. He scored the winner a minute later in a scramble that very closely resembled the last minute goal we conceded at Wigan.

So, we lost 1-2 ... against the league champions. And, most ominous, the goals came in the last five minutes of each half. The stats make it look like a disaster for us – especially the 30-70 possession.

There were positives, though. Sidwell and Baird more than held their own, and Baird may have been our best player on the day. Our center mids were weak going forward, but broke up attack after attack when under pressure. Speaking of attacking, we mounted pressure on both wings and, for the most part, our defensive shape was fine. Even when under unbearable pressure, we reacted well. In attack we had a few very hopeful performances. Rodallega worked hard all game on both sides of the ball and was the focus of most of our counter attacks. Duff was amazing to watch once again, and Ruiz – especially in the first half hour – was creative as well as strong. Like Rodallega, on a different day [against a different keeper], Duff might have scored.

And, how might the day have finished had we had Berbatov up front?

Hatter Don's Man of the Match award goes to Chris Baird [or Burt as the announcer called him] and Steve Sidwell.

Off to Southampton and another 3 on the road? Why not?

COYW



http://www.friendsoffulham.com/wordpress/?p=191

[WhiteJC]

 
Martin Jol was disappointed Fulham didn't build on an early goal against Man City

Martin Jol expressed his disappointment at Fulham's failure to build on an early goal during the 2-1 home defeat by Manchester City.

Fulham took a 10th minute lead when Mladen Petric converted from the penalty spot, but Edin Dzeko scored a late winner for City after Sergio Aguero had equalised just before half-time.

The Cottagers were without recent signing Dimitar Berbatov due to injury and Jol praised the way in which Petric took responsibility to put his side in front.

"Although Berbatov didn't play, Mladen took responsibility and he scored that goal as well," Jol told Sky Sports.

"That's exactly what you need against these world-class teams, to score a goal.

"But after that we didn't do enough to play our style and we didn't earn the right to play what we are capable of and that was one of the problems."

Jol added: "You can't complain because they are a world-class team.

"If it's still 1-1 after 87 minutes, then you still have a slight hope that you could do something on the break or defend against them.

"I think we did defending but the frustrating thing was that although they dominated possession, especially in the second half, the goals were pretty scrappy."

Dzeko thumped home the winner after John Arne Riise had failed to clear a Gael Clichy cross and Jol concedes the Norwegian full-back will be disappointed.

The Fulham boss continued: "It was a mistimed ball. I would hit it with my right foot instead of trying to head it. It was a bad clearance.

"I think he will be disappointed because the mistake he made they punished.

"They are a very good team but there is always a possibility against them to play your football like, for example, Arsenal did last week.

"We couldn't keep the ball, they were stronger than us and more eager to score.

"The only thing we could do was defend, defend, defend and that is probably not enough if you would like a result against them."



http://www1.skysports.com/football/news/11661/8121318?

[WhiteJC]

 
Fulham hand trial to teenage ADO Den Haag midfielder Hadil Tihouna

Fulham have handed a trial to ADO Den Haag midfielder Hadil Tihouna, the Dutch club have announced.

The 19-year-old has not played first-team football in the Eredivisie and so has been given the chance to impress with Fulham and their Dutch boss, Martin Jol, over the weekend.

Tihouna is not contracted at ADO as he plays as an amateur for the club and so could move to Craven Cottage if he does well.

ADO assistant coach Henk Fraser told Dutch paper Algemeen Dagblad: "Hadli won't be a first-team regular for now. So we have agreed this trial."

Fulham on Saturday suffered a close 2-1 defeat by defending Premier League champions Manchester City.



http://www1.skysports.com/football/news/11681/8121585?