The Era Of Sloppy Goals?

[White Noise]

http://fulham.theoffside.com/team-news/defending-our-defense.html


Defending our defense

By: timmyg | October 6th, 2010

One worrying trend so far this young season is the amount of goals sloppy goals we've conceded. I could be wrong, but I don't recall this happening when Roy was around.

Of the 7 goals Fulham have conceded, I'd say about half are a direct result from a turnover or an own goal. Let's overview them first, and then go through each:

8/22 Manchester United: Scholes, Hangeland (og)
8/28 @Blackpool: Panstil (og), Varney
9/11 Wolves: van Damme
9/18 @Blackburn: Samba
10/2 @West Ham: Piquionne

Scholes' goal for United was the first we conceded, and really the only one that wasn't a direct result from a Fulham player's mistake. United had a corner, and when it came to the old stalwart he thwacked it low and away past Stockdale. Next, Hangeland was the first own goal victim of the season when a Ryan Giggs shot krept

The next week at Blackpool, Johnny Panstil conceded an owl goal after he failed he clear a Luke Varney shot. The second goal was a result of two things: an intercepted pass from Danny Murphy and Steven Kelly not tracking back after playing very far forward and no one covering his position.

At home to Wolves, Jelle van Damme scored after Painstil failed to clear (am I sensing a trend here?) and deal with a cross from Kevin Doyle. Jelle was at the right place at the right time and scored an easy garbage goal.

Cherno Samba's goal at Blackburn was a foul and should not have counted. Enough said about that, the better.

And here are this past Saturday when a poor pass from Brede Hangeland was intercepted by West Ham, and because our flanks were progressing forward, our backs were caught out of position. Frédéric Piquionne received a free header and knocked it into the back of the net Rich, per usual, has some good analysis about that one.

I understand most goals are a result from a defensive mistake. But to have such a large ratio of goals conceded as a direct result from a sloppy pass out of the backfield is troubling. We can really only point to Scholes' goal as one fairly conceded. Under Roy, we'd probably have more than enough cover to negate any numerical disadvantage or being caught out of position had there been a turnover. That's because no one broke from the straight 4-4 defense and midfield lines.

The importance of mistake-free football when playing aggressively is becoming quite evident under Hughes, and is something I'd imagine he works on during this international break.