Monday Fulham Stuff (011/08/14)...

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Cat-astrophe for sad Felix: Magath's Fulham beaten by Ipswich on opening day
IS Fulham boss Felix Magath bonkers or brilliant?

The jury is still out on that one after this disastrous defeat.

A frantic summer of post-relegation wheeling and dealing saw him send out a completely new-look line-up featuring EIGHT players making their debuts and representing nine nations.

Scott Parker was the only survivor of the side that finished last season and the only familiar new face was former Leeds striker Ross McCormack.

But the Scottish international hardly had a look-in and he was substituted after just 57 minutes. You obviously don't get much for £11million these days.

Ipswich, meanwhile, were full value for their morale-boosting win and apart from during the final few minutes Mick McCarthy's men barely had to break sweat as they strolled to victory.

They started with virtually the same side that surprised so many people last season and, in contrast to the Cottagers, looked well drilled and well organised.

The opening goal came after 32 minutes with midfi elder Luke Hyam clipping a carefully-measured ball into the path of striker Daryl Murphy and the Republic of Ireland international eased past central defender Shaun Hutchinson before fi nishing clinically.

Substitute striker David McGoldrick then drilled home the decisive second goal on the hour from Murphy's half-cleared cross before German right-back Tim Hoogland finally gave the Fulham fans something to cheer about with an 86th-minute shot deflected in off Tommy Smith.


http://www.dailystar.co.uk/sport/football/393607/Cat-astrophe-for-sad-Felix-Magath-s-Fulham-beaten-by-Ipswich-on-opening-day

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Hyndman is youngest U.S. debutant in England

[AMERICANS ABROAD] Emerson Hyndman, the 18-year-old grandson of former FC Dallas coach Schellas Hyndman, became the latest in a long line of Americans to play for Fulham as he made his pro debut, starting on the left side of midfield in the Cottagers' 2-1 loss at Ipswich Town. He is the youngest American to move to England and make his pro league debut.

Fulham's veteran German manager, Felix Magath, has completely overhauled the Cottagers since their relegation from the Premier League, and Hyndman was one of five academy players to start along with five new signings and captain Scott Parker. Magath said he had no qualms about using his youngsters, three of whom made their pro debuts: Jesse Joronen, Cameron Burgess and Hyndman.

"You will see the young players will improve," he said. "I hope next week in the home game [against Millwall] we have the chance to let the young players go and you will see they will make a good game, and why shouldn't we win? Everybody wants young players and now I give young players the chance to play and develop and I feel fine, and the players feel fine and are glad, and so we will go on."

Hyndman moved from Dallas to join the Fulham academy program in 2011. He is the youngest American to move to England and make his pro league debut. Jonathan Spector was one month older when he debuted for Manchester United in 2004. Johann Smith was 19 when he debuted for Bolton Wanderers, and Jozy Altidore was 20 when he first played for Hull City.

He follows in the footsteps of Americans Carlos Bocanegra, Clint Dempsey, Marcus Hahnemann, Eddie Johnson, Kasey Keller, Eddie Lewis and Brian McBride, who all played at Fulham. All were picked to represent the USA at one or more World Cups.



http://www.socceramerica.com/article/59839/hyndman-is-youngest-us-debutant-in-england.html?

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Felix Magath backs "perfect striker" Ross McCormack

Fulham boss Felix Magath has claimed that summer signing Ross McCormack will become the "perfect striker" as soon as he regains match fitness.

The Cottagers' £11m man endured a lukewarm debut in Fulham's opening-day defeat to Ipswich Town at Portman Road on Saturday.

However, Magath says that the former Leeds United hitman will go on to justify his hefty transfer fee once his fitness improves.

"Ross came to us with a lack of fitness and not at the beginning of pre-season. He is not at the same level as the rest of the players," he told Sky Sports News.

"I wanted him to be fit when we signed him but at the moment he is not in the right shape.

"He has to improve his fitness and I don't know how long that will take. When he does, he will be the perfect striker for us."

Goals in either half from Daryl Murphy and David McGoldrick sent Ipswich well on their way to victory, before Tim Hoogland bagged a late consolation for the Londoners.


http://www.sportsmole.co.uk/football/fulham/news/magath-backs-perfect-striker-mccormack_170397.html

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Johnny's Story

In 1962, Fulham's most famous son penned his footballing story so far. It's All In The Game sees Johnny Haynes regale readers with tales from his career, told at the height of his fame as England captain, and each week on fulhamfc.com we'll be serialising his words. This is Johnny's Story.


Introduction

Football has been good to me.

But then, I have been good to football.

Perhaps the game has given me a better life, a richer life, than I might otherwise have had. Perhaps. But you never can tell. If I had not been a footballer, who knows, I might have been Prime Minister. No man can ever be quite sure about these things. The game did not rescue me from poverty. I am sure I could have made a success of life in another direction but I happened to be one of thousands of young people who find themselves hopelessly in love with this remarkable game and I have been luckier than most of them – I have a talent for playing the game.

I have never dreamed of doing anything else with my life but playing football and I have given football my whole life. Now I have been thirteen years with a leading Football League club and I have been a professional player for eleven years. I have played for my country half a hundred times at every level – schoolboy, youth, junior and senior international. All my waking moments have been concerned with the game and I have always had definite opinions on how it should be played and administered. I have waited a long time to express them, and now I think the time is right. Many things have been wrong with the game in our country and I want to help put them right in so far as I can. I hope my opinions will interest you. I imagine you love this game of football as much as I do.

Chapter One – Captain of England

The vast concrete sierras of the Santiago Bernabeu Stadium, home of Real Madrid, towered around us in three great ramparts in the sunshine, but this time they were gaunt, bare, empty. No vast crowd of 125,000 packed the ground, as it does on the great football occasions, but merely a scattering of casual Castillians leaned on the fence. The England players were training in preparation for their match against Spain. It was May, 1960.

Mid-way through the session, Walter Winterbottom called us all together in the centre of the field and announced that Haynes would be captain of the team. Some of the players said well done, John, and congratulations. We carried on training. It was that simple, that straightforward. Earlier that Friday morning, just after breakfast, the team selection has been announced and Ronnie Clayton, the Blackburn Rovers wing-half and reigning captain, was not included. We all felt that the choice would be between myself and Jimmy Armfield, the Blackpool right-back. My only feeling about the situation was that I had a little more international experience than Jimmy.

This would be the place to tell you of the torrent of thoughts that rushed through my mind as I went back to lapping the Real Madrid ground – of my parents, of the early days in the parks and streets of Edmonton; of the schoolboy matches and the long progression through various teams and matches to full international status; of Fulham and all the other grounds, the people and the places up and down our country and abroad, all of which had contributed to this moment; of Ronnie Clayton and Billy Wright, George Hardwick, Frank Swift, Hapgood, Cullis, Goodall and all the other England captains that had ever been, so many of them misty names to me. It would be warming to say that I thought of all these things, but I don't remember if I did. I just don't remember. But the stadium of Real Madrid seemed a good place to be given the honour, and I hoped it would be a good omen of international success to come.

At Madrid, there was an omen of another kind. I still cannot quite decide whether it has been good or bad. We stayed about twenty-five miles out, in a very pleasant ranch house hotel where we could wander around in track suits all day. We decided one evening to organise a whist drive, some of us taking the places of women. I won the woman's prize. Perhaps that had some deep significance, unknown to me.

We lost the match against Spain, 3-0. The Spaniards got an early goal, but we had a reasonable share of the play and created quite a few good openings only to squander them. Spain scored two late goals for a win that was a little flattering. The England team had not played brilliantly, but it had not played terribly badly, and although the result looked definite enough, we were by no means shattered by the defeat. The Spanish team was not outstanding despite their many fine players. I had the impression that the Spanish players are not quite so interested in playing for their country as for their clubs. In fact di Stefano and the other Real Madrid players were flying off to Glasgow after the match to play in the European Cup Final against Frankfurt Eintracht on the following Wednesday and we had time for only a few brief words with them at the dinner after the match.

Be sure to return to fulhamfc.com next Sunday when Johnny discusses what he thinks makes a good captain, and recalls the time a fishbone almost ruled him out of England duty.

It's All In The Game was published by Arthur Baker Limited.


http://www.fulhamfc.com/news/2014/august/10/johnnys-story?

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Why miserable Fulham can take positives from Ipswich loss

Felix Magath has plenty of work to do to turn Fulham into promotion contenders (Picture: Getty Images)

It's the same old Fulham, it seems, with yet another defeat under our belts to get this season going from exactly where we left off.

This time it is a whole division lower, with a whole new team and a whole new philosophy. Only one player that started in the 2-2 with Crystal Palace at the end of last season was in the first 11 at Portman Road, where Fulham fell 2-1 to Ipswich Town.

As such, a certain amount of leeway must be given. This squad has barely played together and is certainly a long way off gelling, ticking and working off each other's games.

But it you bring it down to the basics, over the 90 minutes against the Tractor Boys, we were quite woeful. Shaun Hutchinson had a debut to forget at centre back, justifiably at blame for both of the home side's goals.

And the link play between midfield and the front line – a strong and expensive one, featuring Ross McCormack and Moussa Dembele – was non-existent.

We controlled large swathes of the first half – possession statistics showed that – but did next-to-nothing with the ball. Passing was crisp and sharp and accurate but it wasn't cutting, it wasn't threatening.

And it is from there that are problems lie. We have strong, technically gifted players, but there was no vision or creativity on show on Saturday evening. And Felix Magath needs to find some.

Whether that will come in the transfer market or whether that will come with training, nobody knows, but it is clearly an area of concern. It was a major issue last year and it doesn't seem to have gone away.

The game did not pass by without glimmers of hope, though. Tim Hoogland's goal, naturally, was one. But there was far more to be found in the way we approached the game, keen to keep the ball and pick at defences, rather than launching it, aimlessly, towards the penalty area.

Just like it will take time for the squad to work together, it will take time for that style of play to bear fruit in a league like the Championship where, as we saw in Suffolk, the football is a tad more brutal.

But if we stick at it, things will get better. The performance of certain individuals showed that, on a personnel level at least, Magath is onto something.

Emerson Hyndman was superb, spraying sensible balls around with the intelligence of someone far more experienced, while Patrick Roberts had a matter of minutes at the end of the game to show just what a nuisance he can be to opposition teams.

He was tricky and fast and opened up the Ipswich defence in a way we hadn't seen throughout the 70 minutes before. Jesse Joronen, with Maarten Stekelenburg now gone, put in a respectable shift, too.

He was by no means flawless but given his age, nerves would have played a part.

And so, despite the scoreline and despite the sometimes dispiriting performance, there was much hope from this opening day of Championship football.

Form can turn in a matter of days and, if this team continues on the right track, it won't be long before the wins begin to clock up.




http://metro.co.uk/2014/08/10/why-miserable-fulham-can-take-positives-from-ipswich-loss-4827186/?

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Ross McCormack Didn't Arrive from Leeds in Good Shape – Fulham Boss Felix Magath

Fulham boss Felix Magath has hit out at the state in which Ross McCormack arrived at the club from Leeds United, saying the striker is unfit.

Magath substituted the club's £11m signing in the 57th minute during yesterday's 2-1 Championship defeat at Portman Road against Ipswich Town.

And the German, who is a notorious disciplinarian and demands the highest levels of fitness from his players, believes McCormack still has work to do, having arrived at less than peak condition in July.

"He has to improve his fitness and I don't know how long that will take", Magath was quoted as saying by the BBC.

"Ross came to us with a lack of fitness and not at the beginning of pre-season. He is not at the same level as the rest of the players.

"I wanted him to be fit when we signed him but at the moment he is not in the right shape. When he does, he will be the perfect striker for us."

McCormack top scored in the Championship last season despite Leeds' struggles, hitting the back of the net on 28 occasions.


Read more at http://www.insidefutbol.com/2014/08/10/ross-mccormack-didnt-arrive-from-leeds-in-good-shape-fulham-boss-felix-magath/154146/#CAJiAHmEPvJEmHh5.99

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It`s a Tough League!
   
If anyone doubted life in the Championship would be tough then yesterday, down at Portman Road, was the proof.

Slipping to a 2-1 defeat, despite a late rally that saw Fulham grab a consolation goal and push for the equalizer late on, there was no getting over the fact that, compared to the Premier League, the football is far more physical.

After the game, Felix Magath dwelled on this point remarking to the media,

"It was tough for the young players we had on the pitch. I don`t think they were expecting so many tough tackles."

"The ref allowed it to happen and it was hard for us. We conceded unnecessary goals but I was pleased with the performance and I think a draw would have been a fair result. We were the unlucky side today."

Maybe! But perhaps we now need to knuckle down and start to make our own luck!


Read more: http://www.fulham.vitalfootball.co.uk/article.asp?a=366087#ixzz3A0hbot5J

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Stekelenburg Joins Monaco!
   
I always guessed it would only be a matter of time before our Dutch keeper Martin Stekelenberg departed Craven Cottage.

The 31 year-old joined Fulham hoping to play his part in keeping Fulham in the Premier League whilst also cementing his place in the Dutch World Cup squad, unfortunately he failed on both attempts.

Not keen to sample life in the Championship, Stekelenburg was always going to look for pastures anew and that has proven to be the case.

It has been announced that Stekelenburg has joined the French side AS Monaco on a season long loan.

We`d like to wish him well but......................we`ll perhaps pass on that ne seeing as we`re fed up with the lack of loyalty being shown since our Premier League demise!


Read more: http://www.fulham.vitalfootball.co.uk/article.asp?a=366090#ixzz3A0htyqWx

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Why McCormack Was Withdrawn!
   
With £11 million having been spent to bring Ross McCormack to Craven Cottage from Elland Road, his debut for Fulham yesterday was a little bewildering for those that travelled to Portman Road.

McCormack, who had offered very little, was withdrawn from the action early in the second half. When pressed on the reason why, Felix Magath had this to say,

"Ross came to us too late to be fully fit. He is not in the right shape at the moment but we have 45 games left so it is not a big problem."

So can we assume that next time out we`ll see exactly what we got for our money?


Read more: http://www.fulham.vitalfootball.co.uk/article.asp?a=366094#ixzz3A0iHfowq

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The Clubs New Mantra?
   
Losing our first game in the Championship isn`t the best way to start life outside of the Premier League.

But as has often been said before it is a marathon and not a sprint!

But if we are to maintain our status as a big club we can`t hang around in this league for too long and therefore we fully support Felix Magath when he remarks,

"The only thing I want this season is promotion back to the Premier League. I`m not here to stay in the Championship for several years."

We`ll second that, it could almost be the club`s mantra!


Read more: http://www.fulham.vitalfootball.co.uk/article.asp?a=366095#ixzz3A0iQgQAw

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Positives To Take

Fulham should not be too disconsolate following Saturday's defeat by Ipswich Town, debutant Emerson Hyndman insists.

The 18-year-old played 90 minutes at Portman Road and while he clearly would have liked to cap his first match with a positive result, he believes there were signs that the team is moving in the right direction.

Hyndman told fulhamfc.com: "It wasn't the result we wanted but I think we can take positives from the performance, especially the last 20 or 25 minutes when I think we really pressured them.

"Everyone's feeling the same way – I think we can all improve and that's what we're going to be looking at.

"I think we lost momentum throughout the first half after they got their first goal, but the second half saw us pick it up again. We got an unfortunate goal against us again but we then pushed on and were unlucky not to get something out of it in the end.

"The fans were very positive after the game and we could hear them very clearly throughout the 90 minutes. As we were pushing forward for that late goal they were on their feet the whole time and we can't thank them enough for their support."

The American youth international was one of nine players to make their first appearance for the Whites on Saturday, and he revealed that Felix Magath had kept his cards close to his chest with regards to team selection.

"I didn't find out I was going to be playing until the day," he stated. "It was a great moment – I was very excited, nervous, a lot of different emotions flying through but I think now that I have that experience behind me it will serve me well.

"It's my goal to play as many games as possible. My initial goal was to make my debut this season and that's come pretty quick so now I just want to build on that."

Despite his tender age, Hyndman looked comfortable in the middle of the park pulling the strings for his side and he finished the game with an impressive pass success rate of 89 per cent.

The Sky Bet Championship is known for a somewhat robust nature, but the youngster was satisfied with how he performed against some of the league's more experienced individuals.

"It was better than I thought it would be," he admitted. "It is a physical league, especially against an Ipswich side which is known for it.

"Coming into it and seeing all the big guys, it's different but I think I coped with it well and as the game went on I just got used to it."

The Whites are back in action next Saturday with the first Craven Cottage encounter of the new season, and Hyndman is keen for his side to provide a positive response when Millwall make the journey across London.

He stated: "It's another big game and we really want to get a win out of that, especially as it's in front of our home fans, and because we want to bounce back after the Ipswich game."


http://www.fulhamfc.com/news/2014/august/10/positives-to-take?

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Fulham youngster Patrick Roberts looks set to star for Felix Magath's side this season... Here's Sportsmail's lowdown on the 17-year-old academy product
Patrick Roberts impressed during cameo appearance for Fulham against Ipswich
English winger helped Fulham's Under 18 side to FA Youth Cup final last season
Felix Magath looks set to give 17-year-old a chance this season
Roberts joined Fulham's academy at the age of 13

During their defeat at Ipswich, Fulham were at their most dangerous after 17-year-old Patrick Roberts was introduced from the bench with 20 minutes to play. But who is this teenage talent?

Here, Sportsmail gives you the lowdown on the Fulham youngster...


Talent: Patrick Roberts made a superb cameo appearance during Fulham's 2-1 defeat against Ipswich

Why all the fuss?
Quite simply, Roberts catches the eye with every performance, whether it be for Fulham's first team, their youth team or England Under 17s. Stationed on the right against Ipswich he tested their back line with his speed, skill and confidence to take on defenders.

Where does he play?
Roberts can either play wide on the right, where he regularly cuts inside the left back to shoot at goal or cross, or plays behind an out-and-out forward.


Leading man: Roberts inspired the Fulham Under 18s to the FA Youth Cup final last season

What's his background?
Roberts hails from Kingston-upon-Thames and joined Fulham's academy at 13. From the Under 14s, he advanced through the ranks and was soon a regular in the Under 18s.

Roberts has just inspired Fulham to the final of the FA Youth Cup. After just a handful of Under 21 appearances, Roberts was named in the squad for the match with Newcastle on March 15 before coming off the bench to make his debut at Manchester City a week later.

What about international honours?
He has scored six goals in 11 matches for the Under 17s and won a European Championship winners' medal in May after beating the Dutch on penalties.


The young winger has scored six goals in 11 matches for the Under 17s

What are his strengths?
As well as the speed and skills Roberts can score, has a neat first touch and great control.

And weaknesses?
Roberts may have to bulk up a little to cope with the physical demands of the top level.

Will he stay at Fulham?
Roberts' contract ties him to Fulham until 2016 but soon there is bound to be interest from the top flight.


Three Lions: Roberts won a European Championship winners' medal in May after beating Holland on penalties


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2721347/Fulham-youngster-Patrick-Roberts-looks-set-star-Felix-Magath-s-season-Here-s-Sportsmail-s-lowdown-17-year-old-academy-product.html#ixzz3A3ENtHBb
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