Thoughts on Blackpool Game

[Ordar]

Only watched the game on a stream, so my views are only based on that.

1) Our mentality for the game seemed totally wrong. We sat off Blackpool for large periods and encouraged pressure. This got even worse when Zamora went off as Dempsey and Dembele couldnt hold the ball up.

2) Our central midfield needs looking at. Etuhu once again I thought played very well, and his good performance was capped off by a nice take goal, which has been coming. The partnership this Murphy just isnt working anymore. Murphy was very poor today, and often struggles to get into the game away from home. I would have a look at this area if I were Hughes. O'Hara is surely still available?

3) It will be well documented how poorly JP played, but I have to say it. I love JP as much as everyone else, but today he did nothing right. The OG was terrible, and he played Varney onside for the second. His overall display was unbelievably poor.

4) Dembele played very well in spells. His passes for both goals were very good (especially the second) Not entirely sure where his best position is. Dempsey did nothing when he came on except try his standard 25 yard efforts. The boy needs to learn to pass. He was trying to do everything on his own today, and it became frustrating.

5) I thought Blackpool looked fairly decent. I was saying in the second half that I felt they lacked an edge. The OG gave them belief and they looked threatening after that. We let them have too much time though and need to be more aggressive away from home.

Overall, I felt it was a very very poor away performance. It was nice to see us trying to attack at various stages of the match, and had JP been playing anywhere near his standard level I think we would have won. We are still undefeated though and have some winnable games coming up. We seem to be lacking a plan B, and are lost for options when we lose Zamora.

CM and someone to back up Zamora has to be the priorities for the end of the window.

[LRCN]

agreed with all your points there, no idea why we sat off so much.

[FatFreddysCat]

O'Hara in place of Murphy would be a great move. Surely he must know it's time to hang up the boots.

[timmyg]

I'd agree with this, except the fact that both their goals were scored on the counter when we had men forward. And when you play a team that runs a 4-3-3, you're going to get burned sometimes.

Particularly their second -- Kelly goes way forward and botches an opportunity to make it 2-1 and then they run down and immediately pull ahead.

[MrCheviot]

I agree w/ most of your points, except the comment re: Dempsey. He didn't really see much of the ball really, Blackpool were applying loads of pressure and as you mentioned Murphy couldn't find his way out of the mess w/ the ball. BZ is able to make more of the passes over midfield than Clint is, and today we simply did not do a good enough job of keeping the ball on the ground. They clogged the midfield and made it difficult, but we lacked any cutting edge advancing the ball into their third. I thought Clint's shot was well taken, was definitely on target and required a decent save, shame no one was on the rebound. He made good passes up the left flank for Kelly, but as we all know he's not left footed - if Konch was playing the centering pass back to Dempsey surely would've ended up in the back of the net.

I'll agree he's not an answer for a backup striker, and as I've mentioned elsewhere I would really prefer to see Dempsey concentrate on returning to midfield to challenge Davies & Duff for their starting roles. At the moment though he's the second best striker at the club, a reality I hope Hughes deals with in the next 72 hours.

[YankeeJim]

One thing I noticed both on Dempsey's long shot and on that last attempt we had, Dembele was flat footed out to the rt, near the top of the box. Isn't striker 101 to get to be where there might be a rebound? That is one thing that AJ did well. Perhaps its part of the adapting to a new team. Hopefully.

[MrCheviot]

I've just watched the replay, would've been tough for anyone to get to Dempsey's rebound. Dembele certainly has skills, hopefully he'll gain better positional awareness as he becomes more acclimated w/ our setup.

[mccscratch]

Ok for all the Dembele lovers.... just understand that he is going to get his legs broken if he continues to do the little cruyff triangle turn every time... yes he has looked very able since playing but he does not do all the little things that I think Clint does to win games... he does not sprint to close the ball down, does not tackle hard etc... he is very much a Kamara type player only left footed and perhaps more talented with his feet... I can say with 100% certainty that he gets a season long injury very soon unless he learns to move the ball faster... Dempsey sort of learned this early on as well...That all being said...Dembele's through ball to Etuhu was sublime...

The real issue in in the midfield today was Duff and Murphy... both were not good again and when you add in Paintsil having a shocker it was bad bad bad... but 1 pt from an excited team playing their first home match in the top fight for eons... not so bad...

We are certainly losing Konch and Schwarzer if you ask me... glad Stockdale continues to play well and hopefully Salcido can add something as Kelly is just not a left sided defender and Briggs needs to be eased in.

[FatFreddysCat]

Ok for all the Dembele lovers.... just understand that he is going to get his legs broken if he continues to do the little cruyff triangle turn every time... yes he has looked very able since playing but he does not do all the little things that I think Clint does to win games... he does not sprint to close the ball down, does not tackle hard etc... he is very much a Kamara type player only left footed and perhaps more talented with his feet... I can say with 100% certainty that he gets a season long injury very soon unless he learns to move the ball faster... Dempsey sort of learned this early on as well...That all being said...Dembele's through ball to Etuhu was sublime...

The real issue in in the midfield today was Duff and Murphy... both were not good again and when you add in Paintsil having a shocker it was bad bad bad... but 1 pt from an excited team playing their first home match in the top fight for eons... not so bad...

We are certainly losing Konch and Schwarzer if you ask me... glad Stockdale continues to play well and hopefully Salcido can add something as Kelly is just not a left sided defender and Briggs needs to be eased in.

Your extreme bias towards all things American is rather embarrasing, i wouldn't really have picked up on it if it wasn't for your EJ postings, if the Yanks are good enough  they'll play like McBride did, Dempsey is a good player who may feel hard done by , but apart from   one decent shot didn't do a lot to stake his claim.EJ on the other hand is just no where near good enough and i dont unserstand how you can say he was good preseason when your the other side of the pond. He's crap.

[ImperialWhite]

Ok for all the Dembele lovers....

Iz it cos he iz Belgian?!  :005:

[TonyGilroy]

I'm happy with 3 draws. Blackpool's first home match was always going to be a big game for them.

I'm also happy to see what the next few days of the transfer window brings and for Hughes to have time to stamp his authority on the squad.

So far, for me, it's been highly impressive but he needs time. I'm not one for snap judgments - all the squad need to adapt to new ways. I think this will be an outstanding season. Any underperformers will find themselves marginalised but I think it's far too early to identify culprits.

[Mr Fulham]

O'Hara in place of Murphy would be a great move.

O'Hara underwent surgery a few days ago. So I don't think he's available for a transfer and it would be a financial gamble to buy him now.

[mccscratch]

Ok for all the Dembele lovers.... just understand that he is going to get his legs broken if he continues to do the little cruyff triangle turn every time... yes he has looked very able since playing but he does not do all the little things that I think Clint does to win games... he does not sprint to close the ball down, does not tackle hard etc... he is very much a Kamara type player only left footed and perhaps more talented with his feet... I can say with 100% certainty that he gets a season long injury very soon unless he learns to move the ball faster... Dempsey sort of learned this early on as well...That all being said...Dembele's through ball to Etuhu was sublime...

The real issue in in the midfield today was Duff and Murphy... both were not good again and when you add in Paintsil having a shocker it was bad bad bad... but 1 pt from an excited team playing their first home match in the top fight for eons... not so bad...

We are certainly losing Konch and Schwarzer if you ask me... glad Stockdale continues to play well and hopefully Salcido can add something as Kelly is just not a left sided defender and Briggs needs to be eased in.

Your extreme bias towards all things American is rather embarrasing, i wouldn't really have picked up on it if it wasn't for your EJ postings, if the Yanks are good enough  they'll play like McBride did, Dempsey is a good player who may feel hard done by , but apart from   one decent shot didn't do a lot to stake his claim.EJ on the other hand is just no where near good enough and i dont unserstand how you can say he was good preseason when your the other side of the pond. He's crap.

FFF....BACK THE PHUCK OFF MATE.... I was season ticket holder 2 seasons ago and just cant get the time to get over enough these days due to work...Nothing I said above was even remotely Yank biased... Dembele is a good player but like I posted needs to be careful about holding the ball to long...the same thing Dempsey had to learn early on at Fulham... if you think about it they are very similar players... Dembele may have a bit more pace which I think we sorely need but also needs to learn to do the little things that the hole striker needs to do.. like make it difficult for teams to work the ball out of the back...the Tangs were able to hold the ball at will today because we were not in the same shape that we use to be under Roy...

As for EJ... I have never claimed he was a starter but I do defend the heck out of him because I think he has been unlucky not to see minutes... I have plenty of friends that go to all the matches and they are pretty split on EJ...nobody said he was a world beater but he is not the scum of the earth like people try to make him out to be... I knew EJ back from his KC Wizards days and he is as nice a kid as you would ever hope to meet and does have some quality as a footballer...maybe not a top 10 prem side but a footballer nonetheless..

Quit acting like I am some johnny come lately Yank poster... I have been around here since the Eddie Lewis days (played with Eddie in my younger days) and been to at least 10+ Fulham matches in my day... ease up mate..

[ImperialWhite]

I was season ticket holder 2 seasons ago and just cant get the time to get over enough these days due to work... 
 
Quit acting like I am some johnny come lately Yank poster... I have been around here since the Eddie Lewis days (played with Eddie in my younger days) and been to at least 10+ Fulham matches in my day... ease up mate.. 

You were flying in from the States to watch matches!? 
 
It certainly puts getting back into Oxford at 2am cos of a night match in perspective (although the Paddington-Oxford train doesn't have any toilets, it's murder if you've had a few post match celebratory lemonades). 
 

[mccscratch]

I was season ticket holder 2 seasons ago and just cant get the time to get over enough these days due to work... 
 
Quit acting like I am some johnny come lately Yank poster... I have been around here since the Eddie Lewis days (played with Eddie in my younger days) and been to at least 10+ Fulham matches in my day... ease up mate.. 

You were flying in from the States to watch matches!? 
 
It certainly puts getting back into Oxford at 2am cos of a night match in perspective (although the Paddington-Oxford train doesn't have any toilets, it's murder if you've had a few post match celebratory lemonades). 
 

Usually made weekends out of it... stayed with some friends in Surrey (Stanwell Moor)

Did not get to a match last season...tried desperately to make the final...