The View From South Texas -- FFC v. WBA

[HatterDon]

Well, That Was More Like It

Both Martin Jol and Steve Clarke described today's match as "must win." So, naturally, it wound up a draw. Both sides worked hard and, although Fulham were certainly the more unlucky in front of goal, a draw was a fair result over the run of play.

Fulham fielded a side filled with potential scapegoats: Richardson, Ruiz, Berbatov, Sidwell, and Arch Scapegoat Senderos. West Brom decided to keep their main danger man on the sub's bench and so the answer to the big question in the run-up to the match, "Who will have to mark Sinclair?" turned out to be "Clarke" – for at least the first hour or so. Victor Anichebe did feature and, for the first half, engaged in a very entertaining duel with Philippe Senderos.

Last season, Steve Clarke was the only manager in the Premier League who didn't know that the way to stifle Fulham was to pressure our slow attackers and stop us from turning. As a result, we got six points from them that a better organized Albion might have kept for themselves. Today, Clarke's side looked a bit more proactive, and there was a right battle up and down the pitch for 90+ minutes.

Fulham featured a starting XI that included Kacaniklic and Kasami, with both Ruiz and Berbatov in "creative attacking roles." In other words, Fulham fielded a 4-6-0 at home. Unlike previous weeks however, Berbatov spent most of his time closer to the opposing keeper than to his own, and his presence, along with Kasami's strength and aggression made Fulham a difficult side to contain. Special K was either thrilling or invisible throughout the match, but he was involved in most of the good things Fulham did in attack. In the 22nd minute, Fulham won a corner after a neat overlap by Richardson. Kacaniklic took the corner and with a leaping, twisting header, Senderos put the ball in Steve Sidwell's reach, and the English midfielder's poise in front of goal rewarded Fulham's desperate supporters. 1-0 was a fair result, and it was heartening seeing the club immediately go for a second. Berbatov put the ball in the net twice more but was ruled offside on each occasion – one of them as close a call as you're likely to see.

In the second half, Anichebe's all out wrestling match with Senderos was interrupted when the Nigerian giant moved over to confront Hangeland. He easily rolled Fulham's captain but fired a weak strike that Stockdale handled somewhat less than comfortably. That was the closest West Brom had come to a convincing chance. Everything changed, though, when West Brom brought on Sinclair and McAuley in the 63rd minute. Jol had just taken off a tiring Richardson for Amorebieta [the first ever Venezuelan in the Premier League according to the International Feed's announcers], when Sinclair came on and immediately pressured our left back playing centre half.

From this point on, West Brom looked the team most likely. And so it was a surprise, really, when – on a top quality counter attack – several Fulham players contrived to get the ball to Bryan Ruiz's feet inside the Albion penalty area. Ruiz collected himself and lofted a gorgeous ball that rebounded off the cross bar and out. Two seconds later, Fulham had the ball in the net courtesy of Rodallega [who had come in for Berbatov] but AGAIN the goal was disallowed for offside. I saw the replay three times; perhaps a fourth will convince me that SOMEBODY in Fulham colors was offside on that play. Never mind. Stockdale, after an uncertain performance, delivered a spectacular save and, after a scary looking injury for Fulham's Costa Rican creator, the 90 minutes were well up.

Then came extra time – six minutes of it. West Brom were pouring it on and, after Fulham conceded a corner, Brunt found Gareth McAuley haring into the penalty area. The Albion sub beat Hangeland to the ball and headed past the Fulham defense into the net. The increased quality and creativity that West Brom showed after the double substitution of Sinclair and McAuley was rewarded.

Interestingly, after West Brom's first goal of the season – two minutes into injury time of their FOURTH match – the visitors were the hungrier to get the decider. But that never came. Points shared, and it's hard to argue that it's an unfair result – even with the three disallowed Fulham "goals."

Who looked good? Well, most everybody in white. Senderos had an excellent match in the main and mastered Anichebe. Riether did very well in defense and in attack. Ruiz was 75% wonderful and 25% rubbish. I still would like to see him in the role he plays for Costa Rica – a classic #10 pulling the strings – but that's not going to happen. I thought Berbatov had his best match for us, and despite his tendency to wander into irrelevant positions, Kacaniklic gives us a dimension we have lacked without Dejagah in the side – someone who will turn upfield with pace and menace. Kasami was somewhat uneven, but with an attack that is as languid and passive as Fulham's, he really needs to be up there – especially if we're not going to play Taarabt. For Albion, the guy that caught my eye was Morgan Amalfitano. His play on the right nicely balances Brunt's on the left. Once he's gotten his Premiership legs, West Brom could give a lot of sides a lot of trouble.

Yes, Fulham dropped two points in injury time. Yes, we gave up the first goal Albion scored this season. Yes we still give up more shots on goal than any other Premier League side. But I still think today's performance was "more like it." We defended the fortress for the most part; we attacked early and often. We played with conviction and, occasionally, some pace. I was pleased to see the way we played the damn game, okay?

HatterDon's Man of the Match is Scott Parker. I believe we have our Danny Murphy replacement, and – if we play in the manner we played today – I think he'll be good enough to keep us out of trouble this year.

Who's next? Who cares? Our home losing streak is over!

[BarryP]

Sidwell was offside on Hugo's disallowed goal and I was not quite as impressed with Fulham as your report conveys today. Things did look somewhat better but there was still a real lack of offensive cohesiveness in the final third, we attack at a snail's pace and there was a lack of defensive composure to close out the match.

[Ordar]

What I think is quite telling, is due to how abysmally we've been playing, today is apparently seen as a "good" performance. More a case of not being as awful as we have been. Still playing like relegation candidates as far as I can assess. Too many passengers. Ruiz and Kaca in particular

[MasterHaynes]

Accurate summary once again, I missed the first 15 minutes as I stayed to the end at the U18 game but was told we started verywell. Overall happy with the performance, we seem to be getting it together at last and Berba for the first time looked sort of interested.

I am puzzled though as to why Boateng didn't make the bench, anyone who saw him against Betis and Parma will have been impressed with his defensive qualities in screening the back 4. In both of the last two games he was the ideal player to have brought on for the last 10-15 minutes to shut up shop.

If only I had a tenner every time we have lost or drawn a game in the last minute or injury time since I started watching in 67 I could have retired now.

[LordNelson]

Teams that draw to clubs like WBA at home get relegated. As the late great philosopher Waylon Jennings said: "Lord it's the same old tune, fiddle and guitar.  Where do we take it from here?"

[LBNo11]

...pretty much as I saw it Don, but I could not match the eloquence.

There were some positives, we had more attacking moves in this game than we have had in what seems like months of play. We were unlucky to have at least one of those goals disallowed, I thought Rodellega's was a good goal too. Parker was having a field day, Richardson was a rock in defence, Hangeland was back to his composed best, Stockdale saved our bacon, Kaca and Kasami got in the baggie's faces and we looked more composed than a less than convincing WBA.

Nothing to get carried away with, but definitely an improvement compared with what we have had to endure of late...

[Forever Fulham]

I thought several players did quite well.  Sidwell and Senderos played well.  Stockdale did a fine job. I can't remember the last time so many defenders got up the pitch on a consistent basis.  We had numbers.  I'll have to check the rules to better understand the offsides rule as applied to Sidwell today in that third disallowed goal.  He was initially offsides without touching the ball.  Then the ball was passed from teammate to teammate ending with a shot off the wood work.  Then, still not having touched the ball, Sidwell takes a step or two back, and a defender gets between him and the goalie.  Then the ball eventually comes his way from a teammate, he passes it to another who puts it in the net, but it's waved off because Sidwell is STILL considered offside--an impermissible link in the play leading up to the waved off goal.  Have I got that right?  So, I suppose a defender is required to have made contact with the ball during this sequence prior to Sidwell touching it again.  Anyway, I'm going to be controversial here and claim that the West Brom goal was the Venezuelan's fault.  He failed to mark the guy who snuck up behind him, crawled up his back and headed it in.  He stood there and went to sleep.  So much for his debut.

[farfouille]

Regarding the offside rule: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Offside_(association_football)

See the Offside offence section. Sidwell was offside in the moment Ruiz fired the ball, then the rebounded ball went to him.

Unfortunately, all 3 disallowed goals were indeed offsides. Good work from the referees. By the way, Jol said that "The second one from Dimitar Berbatov wasn't offside". So much nonsense in this interview of his...

[Lighthouse]

As a somewhat better like thing what report. Here is the view from the Lighthouse -

Oh for jvevtt sake you could see that coming oh for jjvej sake and then how many blimmin and what the eihv4ouhgouh yeah and don't get me started on that vpejbjb because oh for ......

I am so depressed.

Will this do as a weekly blog? No? Oh well.

[Fulham_Surrey]

I am going to say, I dont care of the score. For the first time in a while we played very very well.  And the lazy sod Berba showed class and interest.  We play like this, we will win a lot.

[Fulham1959]

As a somewhat better like thing what report. Here is the view from the Lighthouse -

Oh for jvevtt sake you could see that coming oh for jjvej sake and then how many blimmin and what the eihv4ouhgouh yeah and don't get me started on that vpejbjb because oh for ......

I am so depressed.

Will this do as a weekly blog? No? Oh well.

What on earth does that mean ?

[BillNRoc]

Didn't see the game on tv, so I'll try to accept HD's generally positive take. Still, the match stats don't suggest we dominated, with only two shots on target. Sorry about the Ruiz injury, though I'm far from a fan; he's just not up to it, overall.

Here's the thing - in a game I did watch, Everton played the way I'd like to think Fulham could play. I'm sure the match stats favor Chelsea, but Everton showed plenty of attacking intent and skill as well as solid defense. And I do think Martinez is a good manager - another stark contrast with Fulham. Everton beat Chelsea at home, and we drew with West Brom; we're surely not good enough for the top half any more, and we may not be good enough for 17th place, the way we've played late last season and the start of this one. We're stuck with the players we've got, the only way to shake things up is with new management. It may not be "fair," it may not even be "right" but it's one of few options available....unless you're looking forward to seeing FFC lounging in the lower half of the lower half of the table at Xmastime.

[Lighthouse]

As a somewhat better like thing what report. Here is the view from the Lighthouse -

Oh for jvevtt sake you could see that coming oh for jjvej sake and then how many blimmin and what the eihv4ouhgouh yeah and don't get me started on that vpejbjb because oh for ......

I am so depressed.

Will this do as a weekly blog? No? Oh well.

What on earth does that mean ?

I was attempting to show how frustrating many of us would find reporting on such a game while Hatter manages to put on record his thoughts in a calm and collective way.  Should I attempt such an endevour it would be full of poorly written prose and expletives.

[nose]

I am going to say, I dont care of the score. For the first time in a while we played very very well.  And the lazy sod Berba showed class and interest.  We play like this, we will win a lot.

we played better not very well, the opposition was second rate and that has to be taken into account.

ruiz was a waste of space, berba was much more like it, kasami was enthusiastic but seems to have no first,, second or third touch, kaka is so woefully out oif position that it is unfair to judge him, but his contribution was poor too. so i do not think played very well is quite correct.

The big plaus was the venazuelan, he looked a biyt more like it though i suspect we won't see much of him as he lookslike he might think for himself.

[EJL]

What I think is quite telling, is due to how abysmally we've been playing, today is apparently seen as a "good" performance. More a case of not being as awful as we have been. Still playing like relegation candidates as far as I can assess. Too many passengers. Ruiz and Kaca in particular

Kaca? Really?

[Liam_Baggies]

It was Morrison and Sinclair that were brought on - not McAuley. He started the game in defence next to Jonas Olsson.

[epsomraver]

What I think is quite telling, is due to how abysmally we've been playing, today is apparently seen as a "good" performance. More a case of not being as awful as we have been. Still playing like relegation candidates as far as I can assess. Too many passengers. Ruiz and Kaca in particular

Kaca? Really?

Kaca had a really good game!

[IranianCottager]

I'm confused. Yes, this was our best game of the season (mainly cause the other games were horrendous), but if getting outplayed at home by West Brom is our definition of "good," then we have some thinking to do...

[HatterDon]

It was Morrison and Sinclair that were brought on - not McAuley. He started the game in defence next to Jonas Olsson.

Thanks for the correction. I rush to get these done within an hour of the final whistle and I don't look at other writeups. For that reason, I often have factual errors -- although my analysis is usually brilliant! As you pointed out in another thread, it was the iintroduction of Sinclair and Morrison [not McAuley] that made the difference in the game's flow.

Oh, and Iranian Cottager [and how we missed our own Iranian Cottager on Saturday] I said "that's better" NOT "that's good."

[EJL]

What I think is quite telling, is due to how abysmally we've been playing, today is apparently seen as a "good" performance. More a case of not being as awful as we have been. Still playing like relegation candidates as far as I can assess. Too many passengers. Ruiz and Kaca in particular

Kaca? Really?

Kaca had a really good game!

My thoughts exactly. Both him and Kasami were great on the counter.