Interesting read

[Deanothefulhamfan]

http://blog.paddypower.com/2013/01/24/keep-calm-and-blame-rodallega-how-fulham-have-ruined-dimitar-berbatov/?

this article made me laugh - how WE ruined Berbatov, yet before we bought him how many appearances did he make in a man utd shirt the season before he joined us?

here are the key things I picked out;

Berbatov needs Ruiz to play alongside him ,much to everyone else's opinion.

Rodallega is worse then I thought.... and I didn't have any positive things to say about him before hand.

[Burt]

For those of you (me included) who couldn't be bothered to click through and read:

A lazy, sulky striker with a terrible work-rate or a technical genius, blessed with instant control and incredible grace across the turf? Whichever side of the Dimitar Berbatov fence you sit on, it has come to our attention that Bryan Ruiz and Hugo Rodallega are ruining the striker's career like One Direction are ruining music.

Berbatov began his first season at Craven Cottage in stunning form, bagging five goals in his opening seven games and revealing some Bulgarian banter . But with just two goals in the last two months the Berba critics have piped up and are as irritating as living in the Big Brother house with Rylan.

This season Berbatov has racked up seven goals in a Fulham team that have as many shots as a nun on a Tuesday night.

Who's to blame for this shocking statistic? The wasteful Hugo Rodallega and six-foot-two-inches of Costa Rican creativity Bryan Ruiz and his gammy hamstring.

As a team Fulham don't really enjoying shooting at goal, a simple fact that isn't going to help any striker's prospects of being a strong force at the club. They've had just 290 shots in total this season compared to United's 353, Chelsea's 363, City's 418 and Tottenham's 424. Liverpool take more shots than Andy Carrol and Kevin Nolan on a lads weekend in Kavos and Luis Suarez alone has had almost half the amount of attempts as the entire Fulham team.

Robin Van Persie tops the league's goal-scoring charts but he has been dished up an opportunity every 22 minutes this season. Demba Ba tries his luck every 19 minutes and, despite having Jordan Henderson teeing him up, Luis Suarez gets a chance every quarter of an hour. Unfortunately Berbatov is not lucky enough to get this service. He has to wait 34 minutes for a sniff of goal, in which time you could have cooked 29 Rustlers Quarter Pounders one after the other. Although that's not recommended – they taste like cardboard.

Incredibly this season his Fulham strike-partner Hugo Rodallega gets set up by his team mates every 27 minutes. That's despite only 36 per cent of his shots going on target, compared to Berba's 41 per cent, and while Dimitar knocks in one goal for every seven shots, it takes Hugo 21 shots before he can wheel away in celebration. Maybe the Fulham players don't realise Bebatov's ability, or maybe they're just jealous of his ridiculous modelling skills...

Whatever the reason Berbatov is only managing 2.6 shots per game in a Fulham shirt. That's compared to the 4.1 shots a game he was getting for Manchester United between 2009 and 2011 when he notched up 32 goals in 48 starts. Give him the chances and Berba will rack them up faster than George Michael racks up driving offences.

Bryan Ruiz is an essential cog in Martin Jol's team and gets a goal or an assist every 117 minutes for the Cottagers. He's the one who pulls the strings for Fulham and without him Berbatov is as helpless as a turtle on its back.

The six weeks Ruiz was out with a hamstring injury Dimi played 630 minutes of Premier League football and didn't score. In the three games after Ruiz returned Berba knocked in two, Ruiz helped himself to one and Fulham were as easy on the eye as Charlotte Jackson.

With Ruiz playing close to his best and Martin Jol growing some cajones and letting Fulham play some more attacking football, Dimitar Berbatov can rediscover his goalscoring form and show the world what a prolific striker he is.

It would also be good to keep the ball away from Hugo Rodallega.

[Deanothefulhamfan]

Thanks Burt. What are your opininons of Berbatov?

[Burt]

Best signing we have had in years. Since George Best, probably.

But playing in a side that are not on the same wavelength and not of the same quality, and who do not (or cannot?) play to his strengths.

[Mr K.Dilkington]

Best signing we have had in years. Since George Best, probably.

But playing in a side that are not on the same wavelength and not of the same quality, and who do not (or cannot?) play to his strengths.

Spot on.

[King_Crud]

those analogies made reading that article a painful experience. He even used the shots reference in a drink based way twice in just a few lines.

[Deanothefulhamfan]

Yeah I think he is a class act, and as you say one of the most gifted players we have had at fulham in a long time. My only problem is with his attitude, not very fulhamish in the slghtest, and is not a player you would want to have when in a relegation battle.

If he had better players around him im sure his attitutde would change

[Burt]

He's not used to playing in a team that is performing with such mediocrity.

To that end, I agree, he wouldn't be an automatic first choice if we had a real relegation scrap on a cold, wet, Tuesday night somewhere north of Watford.

[alexbishop]

Reason Berbatov isn't shooting is cos he's playing in midfield every game. Crap article.

[Gozorich]

Best signing we have had in years. Since George Best, probably.

But playing in a side that are not on the same wavelength and not of the same quality, and who do not (or cannot?) play to his strengths.

Pushing it a bit there Burt methinks? Van der Saar, Saha and Dembele are just a few my addled brain can come up with just now but I'm sure there would be more if I had the time or inclination.

As I have said many times Berbatov is a luxury and we should play him as such, not someone who insists that every move should be made through him and gets a Haynes fissy when things are centimeters out. Either accommodate him, like Best, or get rid.

He is ruining what little team morale we have left. :wine:

[Northern Cottager]

Poor article with an attempt at poor humour. Hardly a well balanced piece by a sporting guru and more a pissed up view by an amateur.

[Enter the Frei]

it's an article written in jest and it made me laugh a couple of times.



Suave

[Jack Fulham]

Let's blame anyone but Berba for his poor form.

[Berserker]

If i didn't think it would a storm i'd do a poll on whether Berbie is pissed off or not, and whether he'll leave this transfer window

[aaronmcguigan]

Berbatov is a luxury in what is meant to be an otherwise industrious first XI. The luxuries belong at the top of the league. If we have him, we have to play to his strengths.

Ruiz is key and needs to be at the centre of everything, be that hard working cog to link the play together to feed it to Berbatov. Im not saying Ruiz is imperative to the team, just that Berbatov + 10 average players is as good as 11 poor players on a pitch

[Snibbo]

Berbatov is a luxury in what is meant to be an otherwise industrious first XI.

Trouble is we haven't even looked industrious in most recent matches. There was f*** all industry from us at the Loftadome for instance.

[JackyFulham90]

Berbatov is quality he only drops deep as Kara & Sidwell can't pick him out with a killer ball we always play sideways

[Lighthouse]

In our side he needs a player to play alongside him with pace. Not sure why Rodders is being go at here. He is our ONLY forward with pace and causes problems unlike ANY other player we have.

George Best could play with rubbish and still look like a gem. At least in bits. Berbatov is not in that class but is a great player. But we need to use him. Playing with Ruiz behind him doesn't work. We need a forward with Berbatov.

[ffcbulgaria]

Best signing we have had in years. Since George Best, probably.

But playing in a side that are not on the same wavelength and not of the same quality, and who do not (or cannot?) play to his strengths.

Best signing ..... I nearly agree. But I would say without Saha we might not have stormed into the Premiership as we did.
When people talk about not being on the same wavelength or even quality it's simply ridiculous and it started being obvious to me after the first 5 or 6 games.

I can't see how you could blame our players for not being quality when they pass the ball 10 inches too far from him to stretch and then he happens to pass 3 yards behind Riether and scream at him for making a run forward....

Real quality players when playing in a lesser team will try to put in extra effort. You know, in our neighbourhood we have a very good player but most of the time he's shouting at everyone else while he's actually doing f% all. When he manages to shut up for 10 minutes we can turn a game around from 5 goals down. Sound familiar? I guess it doesn't cause my fellow countryman can't even come up with the idea...

To sum it up. Yes he might be a very good player BUT he's not really helping our cause much atm and it's easier to blame the rest.
Like in his first 10 games when other players ran his socks off on the pitch and performed excellent people on this website still voted Berbatov MotM just because "he's a class above our team" and he didn't even prove it on the pitch...

[MikeCdawg]

what a load of tosh. this guy actually gets paid for writing that column?