Tired of all this pessimism

[Sheepskin Junior]

Seriously, I know we haven't had the best of starts, but it's been 3 games. There are 35 games left. I don't understand how people are baying for blood so soon in the season. In 2008/09, we lost 5 in our first 10. We finished 7th.

Have some faith.

Jol signed Stekelenburg, Amorebieta, Boateng, Parker, Taraabt, Bent and Zverotic. They will take time to gel together. We can't expect players to come in and make things work in one game.

I know I don't have as much experience in these things as the rest of you, but I'm still looking to this season as being a good one. There are always going to be changes. They never work instantaneously. If you want new signings to all work toghether as soon as they start, sign 11 from one team.

Jol will be trying out different formations as well as different line-ups. It's an experimental team. We will eventually get better and get into the winning once again.

Have faith. We are Fulham. Super Fulham.

[Lighthouse]

When we are still playing as negatively as we did at Newcastle and some of our fans still think we were unlucky to lose. That is the time I think we have to be honest. But oh happy I shall be if Jol learns that Berbatov and Ruiz are good going forward and shouldn't play so deep. Yes we may well be beaten but at least we wouldn't just be setting ourselves up to draw.

Even away to Burton we shot from outside the area, but never got into the area until we had to. This squad is a good one. So let Jol be positive with it and make is positive too. It isn't just the results but the dull way we approach games under Jol.

[Fulham76]

Seriously, I know we haven't had the best of starts, but it's been 3 games. There are 35 games left. I don't understand how people are baying for blood so soon in the season. In 2008/09, we lost 5 in our first 10. We finished 7th.

Have some faith.

Jol signed Stekelenburg, Amorebieta, Boateng, Parker, Taraabt, Bent and Zverotic. They will take time to gel together. We can't expect players to come in and make things work in one game.

I know I don't have as much experience in these things as the rest of you, but I'm still looking to this season as being a good one. There are always going to be changes. They never work instantaneously. If you want new signings to all work toghether as soon as they start, sign 11 from one team.

Jol will be trying out different formations as well as different line-ups. It's an experimental team. We will eventually get better and get into the winning once again.

Have faith. We are Fulham. Super Fulham.

The problem is Jol. He is unbelievably negative & getting more so by the game! With his negative tactics we wont win games - it looks like he doesn't want to with his style. The team is decent. With Berbatov, Bent, Parker & Ruiz we should & could score plenty of goals but Jol holds them back. He has no plan B & no sign of changing things.
We came through a complete fluke at Sunderland & have lost our last 2 with barely an attempt at goal & lost our last 5 or 6 home league games. Not good signs.
Also, this isn't an 'experimental team', it's Jol's team. One he's spent the last 2 years putting together. This is his team now & he needs to take responsibility for their results.

[Brown@FFC]

The negativeness is all about the football. The sooner Jol goes, the better.

[The Bronsons]

It's not just three games. It's three *more* games that continue a pattern of negative play, poor tactics, and misuse and mismanagement of players.

I have been in the "Jol in" camp on the whole, simply because I felt he needed time to sort it out and hoped he would. He's had time and hasn't.

[JudgeBread]

The negativeness is all about the football. The sooner Jol goes, the better.

There are two other threads on the first page. One asking whether Jol is killing the academy and another cites his poor man management as the reason for Dempsey leaving.

People obviously are sick of the football and that's their right but I feel some are allowing that impatience to blame Jol for thing which aren't strictly his fault alone. Which then I'd say leads to this generally sense of negativity.

[RaySmith]

Yes, Jol seems to have become a scapegoat for everything.

I predict that Jol will be sacked if results are bad enough, and not if they aren't. If he goes the new man will face the same problems if he gets the same amount of funding, and face the same degree of hostility from fans - it was ever thus, except with Roy.

I don't understand this degree of negativity at the beginning of a season - we are meant to be supporters after all- nd  part of the nature of supporting is certain degree of optimism imo - ie you go to every match hoping fulham will get a positive result, even if  the head says it is unlikely - well i do anyway.

A club like fulham is always going to have imperfections compared to the big boys, but why not think of the positives  of supporting this  unique club.

[epsomraver]

Quote "I predict that Jol will be sacked if results are bad enough, and not if they aren't, that is a prediction?  064.gif What are Wenesday's lottery numbers magic meg?

[JBH]

Yes, Jol seems to have become a scapegoat for everything.

I predict that Jol will be sacked if results are bad enough, and not if they aren't. If he goes the new man will face the same problems if he gets the same amount of funding, and face the same degree of hostility from fans - it was ever thus, except with Roy.

I don't understand this degree of negativity at the beginning of a season - we are meant to be supporters after all- nd  part of the nature of supporting is certain degree of optimism imo - ie you go to every match hoping fulham will get a positive result, even if  the head says it is unlikely - well i do anyway.

A club like fulham is always going to have imperfections compared to the big boys, but why not think of the positives  of supporting this  unique club.

Well said RaySmith  :clap_hands:

Unfortunately it would appear that some people on this board would rather see Fulham lose at the moment and risk relegation so that M Jol is sacked and then no doubt they would have great pleasure in saying " I told you so"

[TonyGilroy]

Charlton are the example to be wary of.

The supporters got bored with Curbishley's perceived mediocrity so changes were made. Two relegations later they started to realise how well off they'd been.

Meanwhile this board gets ever more depressing and angry. Of course everyone's entitled to their opinion etc but this used to be a place for banter and insight and now it's anything but. Add that to the list of crimes to be laid at Jol's door.

Curbishley once said that 14 teams in this league are primarily concerned with getting 40 points. Too many people seem to think that we should be aiming higher with flowing attacking football.

Won't happen.

[Buffalo76]

Seriously, I know we haven't had the best of starts, but it's been 3 games. There are 35 games left. I don't understand how people are baying for blood so soon in the season. In 2008/09, we lost 5 in our first 10. We finished 7th.

Have some faith.

Jol signed Stekelenburg, Amorebieta, Boateng, Parker, Taraabt, Bent and Zverotic. They will take time to gel together. We can't expect players to come in and make things work in one game.

I know I don't have as much experience in these things as the rest of you, but I'm still looking to this season as being a good one. There are always going to be changes. They never work instantaneously. If you want new signings to all work toghether as soon as they start, sign 11 from one team.

Jol will be trying out different formations as well as different line-ups. It's an experimental team. We will eventually get better and get into the winning once again.

Have faith. We are Fulham. Super Fulham.

The problem is Jol. He is unbelievably negative & getting more so by the game! With his negative tactics we wont win games - it looks like he doesn't want to with his style. The team is decent. With Berbatov, Bent, Parker & Ruiz we should & could score plenty of goals but Jol holds them back. He has no plan B & no sign of changing things.
We came through a complete fluke at Sunderland & have lost our last 2 with barely an attempt at goal & lost our last 5 or 6 home league games. Not good signs.
Also, this isn't an 'experimental team', it's Jol's team. One he's spent the last 2 years putting together. This is his team now & he needs to take responsibility for their results.

:plus one:

[EJL]

But it's not just been three games, though, has it? Our football and run of form since the turn of the year has been absolutely dreadful, and the first few games of the current campaign have shown no signs of that improving.

[Roberty]

I am somewhat at a loss to understand how many points you believe we should have after 3 matches?

You need to go back to 08/09 to find a season when we had more points after 3 matches, so the worst that could be said is that it is average.

[nose]

I don't think what we have on the board is Pessimism. Pessimism would be things are bad and can never be any better, in fact are certain to get worse.
I am an optimist by nature and I say, things are not what they should be, but they are easily cured and we can start to move forward.
The senior management at Fulham have everything at their disposal to make the necessary changes to allow us to go forward and improve, or rather achieve our potential. I am optimistic that will happen, the only question is when?

Above somebody compared us to charlton, you could even include bolton. But they were different in that they had good managers and were doing well but those managers in both cases were unable to improve further. They had achived their potential. The problem we have is we are underachieving, we have a very good squad, we had a good squad last season too, but from the standard of play we look more like a team with no experience and players that had never been introduced.

I have to be honest, I thought our current manager was wrong after a very few games, he talks well saying all the right things, but it doesn't translate into actions.

It isn't Pessimism, that is the wrong word. It is frustration that things could and should be so much better!

[Fulham76]

I am somewhat at a loss to understand how many points you believe we should have after 3 matches?

You need to go back to 08/09 to find a season when we had more points after 3 matches, so the worst that could be said is that it is average.

3 points from 2 away games & a home game against Arsenal probably is a decent return but the football we've played has been terrible, and it's been terrible for most of this year. Away from home it is embarrassing! We simply don't try to win these games. Jol sets up to not get beaten, which is probably fine against the top 4 but against teams like Newcastle & Sunderland? We should be a match for them but instead we make it too easy for them by sitting back. 9 times out of 10, eventually they will score, & usually do. Then we have to completely change our game plan & start chasing the game.
If we were a little more adventurous, (with the players we have), we may surprise ourselves. We pass it around the back 4 nicely enough but being so negative & slow going forward is cr*p to watch & won't get the results we need!

[nose]

I am somewhat at a loss to understand how many points you believe we should have after 3 matches?

You need to go back to 08/09 to find a season when we had more points after 3 matches, so the worst that could be said is that it is average.

As so many posters have said, it isn't how many points that is bothering uis, it is the dire nature of the performances and the fact the team look barely motivated. I expected nil points to be honest so am pleased we have three but the quality of our play suggests relegation.
E.g. Bent looks good, he makes the runs, he tries to get in the box, but the ball rarely comes forward, even at free kicks inside the opposition half the ball is more likely to end up with our goalkeeper than in the opposition penalty area.

[TonyGilroy]

the fact the team look barely motivated.
[/quote]


This is where I really disagree.

Tactically it's unconvincing and you can certainly say that we're less than the sum of our parts but I see no lack of effort and committment.

People seem bored but it's clear to me that Jol is trying to make us tougher defensively and as a consequence the attacking side of things is really not jelling. May improve - maybe not. A different manager might suit us better but the impression any reader of this board must have is that Jol is the devil's son in law and not fit for polite company.

In the real world as a club we are about as high up the food chain as it's realistically possible for us to be.

AND WE'RE NOT ENJOYING IT.

BECAUSE OF JOL

[BRNicholson]

If someone had offered me three points from those first three games I would probably have taken them. Grudgingly, as I tend to be eternally optimistic, but I probably would.

However, if someone had offered me only ten shots on target in those three games I'd have been less impressed. If you threw in three performances from which we'd not deserved a single point, let alone the three we'd managed to accumulate, I'd have begun to rethink my decision.

Ultimately, it is of course points on the board that count. So far this season, we are incredibly lucky to have any [points on the board] at all and we can't assume that such luck will continue to present itself. Performances need to improve dramatically, and that is what is getting myself - and I think many others - down.

Still, I look forward to the weekend and the hope that I'll see a deserved victory rather than another *pessimistic* performance.

[ToodlesMcToot]

I see your point Mr Sheepskin Jr. There is quite a lot of griping going on in the board at the moment and it can be a bit much since the vast majority of the griping is about the same thing.

Last season there seemed to be less of it than there is now, but it just continues to grow. Last season there were many more counter arguments and more putting down of the griping, but that appears to be waning.

For me though, I just can't recall much of the griping being about points and results. My recollection, and agreement with the majority of folks who've responded to your post, is that the griping, then and now, has been mostly about the manner in which the team approach the matches and the manner in which they play.

We have a rich owner. We have, by all accounts, a very good club operation. We have very talented players. We have most everything that a paying supporter would want in a club our size.

What we are lacking....and what we have lacked for some time now, extending back almost an entire year....is an onfield product that is worth the money that's being paid by the club's customers. And, in the first matches of this season, the onfield product doesn't show many signs of improving.

I feel that the players and manager have been given the benefit of the doubt long enough and that the griping is warranted.

......and I say all that while looking forward to an improved performance, and hopefully the points to show for it, every match.

[jarv]

I can only echo others. The product on the pitch is dire, almost unwatchable at times. Not just this season's 3 games. Nothing has changed from last season's woeful, pathetic displays.
It costs a fortune to go to games. If I lived in UK I certainly would not waste my money on Jol's product.