The View from South Texas -- Stoke City v. Fulham FC

[HatterDon]

Wrestling in the Rain

Fulham traveled to Stoke today to play in the outdoor carwash known as The Britannia Stadium. With injuries to two attacking players, a makeshift midfield, and a defensive lineup that did not feature our best defender, I suppose a 1-0 defeat was to be expected. But I always expect more when Berbatov is on the pitch, and so I was bitterly disappointed with the result.

Stoke City are no walk in the park at the best of times. Composed – as they are – of power forwards and middle linebackers, and playing – as they do – on a green postage stamp slightly larger than a tennis court, it is natural for them to play a physical and destructive game. Today, they did what came naturally. They hacked, shoved, tripped, and elbowed the livelong day. If there was a surprise in the score, it was that the yellow card result was 1-1. Both cards were well deserved, but there should have been at least three more yellows awarded to City. Sigh. Well, what can you expect of a side whose most technically brilliant and creative players are Peter Crouch, Charlie Adam, and Ryan Shawcross.

Fulham's makeshift midfield included Dejagah and Karagounis, each of whom impressed and depressed in equal measure. One had to admire Dejagah's consistency in finding attacking space and despair at a first touch so reminiscent of Eddie Johnson. Karagounis played very well, except for the 3 or 4 times he gave the ball away when not under pressure.

Senderos, our own Scapegoat Come Home Dog, had his hands full with the red and white striped redwoods. Crouch had the beating of him all day – something that would not have happened with Hangeland – and Stoke were very wise in pressuring him for the entire 90+ minutes. Schwarzer had an absolute craptastrophy of a match. Barring one tip over the bar from a set piece, he looked uncertain and tentative the entire match. If I read any more "Schwarzer's positioning and control of his penalty area is brilliant" comments, I may have a an absolute tiswas. As it happened, however, Stoke's 26th minute goal was the fault of neither Senderos nor Schwarzer. The Swiss Baldy found it difficult to jump in the penalty area with Crouch's arm shoving him down and Adam's conversion of Crouch's knock down would have beaten any keeper. While Hughes and Riether both turned in good shifts in the appalling conditions, it's fair to say that Fulham's most effective defenders were the linesman's flag and the crossbar.

Petric and Berbatov deserved better. They deserved better service, better protection from the referee, and better luck with their conversions. The major weakness in the attack was the fact that the creative midfielder charged with following up the attacks and converting the dribs and drabs was Steve Sidwell, not his strongest point, and I'm sure not Jol's first choice.

And so we lost a match we would have been expected to lose. Once again, quality was trumped by size and strength. Complain as we might, this is the very essence of the English game. Is there good news? Why yes! We're at the Dog Track on Wednesday. This is good news? Yes! I'll be drinking beer with Aggie Matt while watching this one, so my View may be enhanced and blurry at the same time.

HatterDon's Man of the Match?  The Classiest player on the pitch by far was our own Dimitar Berbatov. I just hope he doesn't get too discouraged at not finding any teammate capable of picking up his wavelength. Let's hope Bryan will soon be back.

COYW

[Count Berbatov]

Very well written and put. Without taking anything away from Stoke. It's how they've always played and it's brought them success... They're everything that's wrong with English football.

[zander]

Great as always HD.

The part about schwarzer grabbed my attention because I've been seeing it all season. He's still a top keeper but his decision making and command seems to have regressed a touch.   

[sipwell]

Apparently there was a very strong wind in the stadium, making it hard for the keeper to judge balls. Can't really see why you are slating Schwarzer for, as you rightly point out, he could not have saved the goal and had only to turn around once. For a side that was playing pressure play, I don't think that is that bad.

For the rest, great write-up. We miss creative central midfielders.

[Fulham1959]

Superb prose, HatterDon !

[NogoodBoyo]

Yes, Crouch's arm was round Senderos but the Fulham defender just wasn't at the races for the entire first half.  That's when we lost the game.
Tony Gale, the assistant commentator was one of the slowest, yet classiest centre backs I've ever seen play for Fulham.  I don't think I've ever heard an "expert" berate a player as much as he did Senderos today.  Crouch made Senderos look slow, weak and clumsy. 
The conditions were awful for goalkeepers today, so I would cut Schwartz some slack too.
Nogood "have I joined the baby Senderos clubbing gang, isit" Boyo

[BillNRoc]

For those of us who watched on tv, it's difficult to figure how much effect the dreadful weather had on anyone's play -- except that our opponents managed to create more chances than we did, in identical conditions. Tony Gale did soften his criticism of Senderos in the 2nd half, but Senderos seemed to play better after the break. However the guys we started in midfield had few clues how to get on the same wavelength as Berbatov, whose skills did seem dampened by the rain and cold. In any weather, his signing was the steal of the last transfer window; can you imagine where we'd be without him?

Like HD, you have to be disappointed by the result...and by the quality of play...from a team whose supporters fancy it to be top 6 or 7. Sure didn't look it today.

[A Humble Man]

Duff is by far the toughest and most determined professional we have and he should have played.  He would not have complained about the conditions he would have relished them.  The Stoke team is full of tough men, a lot of them British, who also thrive in such conditions.  We have too many fair weather players.

[Me-ate-Live, innit??]

Nice write up Hatter  :54:
As we are more likely to get something at The Bridge,  perhaps Jol may have been saving old man Duff

Tony Gale is fast going into my Ivor basket, another ex-player with nothing good to say about our current players.
Cheap shot at Senderos when he came back on the pitch after having his eye 'seen to'
''He looks a bit dazed ??  he looked like that before the injury '' guafff !!

Riisa had three opportunities to block and clear the ball that resulted in the goal,  but did not.  Mind you that happens most weeks       

[tommy]

Great write up mate. Onwards and upwards I say. Lets now give Benitez a hard time on wednesday

[BishopsParkFantastic]

If he hadn't been out on loan to Yeovil, I would have given Dan Burn an opportunity to start against Stoke, and mark Crouch instead of Senderos. We could have brought  on Senderos if Burn showed signs of struggling. Give our young players a chance, Martin Jol – Dan is a towering centre back, aged 20, and has been a brilliant captain and player in our under-21s. He is due to come back in January. The problem with having nearly all our under-21s out on loan is that they are unavailable for the 1st Team when opportunities arise; they also can't learn from our experienced players in training or in the under-21s. An example is Frei, who returned from being on loan to Cardiff (having only played about 85 minutes in  5 games!) and wasn't available to play on the left against Stoke.

[Lighthouse]

I think we deserved better from Petric who was a passenger for 88 of the 94  minutes. Not sure Hangeland would have done any better today. He has been pretty poor this season. Although Sendusdross and Brede together might have made a fist of it. But our marking continues to be poor in the area from dead balls and crosses.

If we don't bother to attack why turn up. Another lets wait until the game is over until we throw players forward.

Unbalanced and disorganised and poor.

I still wonder how Hatter can stay so calm writing his reports. GRRRRR.

Great View as usual.

[sipwell]

Sendusdross .

Word pun, Lighthouse?

[A Humble Man]

Sendusdross .

Word pun, Lighthouse?

I would suggest Surenderdross

[HatterDon]

thanks for your comments thus far, gents and lady. I appreciate it.

Over on FulhamUSA.com, where I also post the view, I have been getting some complaints by Stokies that I'm misrepresenting their team and their playing style. Me? I'm just thrilled that they're reading both the article and Fulham sites.

Anyhow, I'll be back sometime Wednesday with a View on the Dog Track Knuckle Draggers match.