Thursday Fulham Stuff (04/10/18)...

[WhiteJC]

 
Arsenal Tickets: Sold Out

Tickets for Sunday's fixture between Fulham and Arsenal at Craven Cottage are now sold out!

Thank you for your fantastic support.

Limited Matchday Hospitality Available

An extremely limited number of Matchday Hospitality packages remain available to purchase.

The only way to watch the action unfold at Craven Cottage this Sunday, packages start from £299 (+VAT).

For more information or to book your package, supporters can buy online, call our Hospitality team on 020 8336 7555 (Mon-Fri, 9am-5.30pm), or simply email [email protected].



http://www.fulhamfc.com/news/2018/october/03/arsenal-tickets-sold-out

[WhiteJC]

"I went home thinking he'd stay" – DoF reveals how Fulham deadline transfer came about

We joke about it often at Sport Witness, but sometimes, offers you can't refuse really exist, and clubs are forced to accept them somewhat reluctantly.

This is, in essence, what happened at Marseille when Fulham came knocking on their door with a €30m offer for André Franck Zambo Anguissa.

Speaking to La Provence, the Ligue 1 side's director of football, Andoni Zubizarreta, revealed how the transfer came about.

He said: "The English transfer market was shutting on the Thursday. I left the training centre on the Wednesday evening, and Fulham's offer was too low. I went home thinking he would be staying. The next morning at 7am, I get a phone call from the club president telling me they upped their offer to €30m.

"That's how his exit took place. It was a crazy day. The original aim was to keep the team together barring any 'over the top' offers that you cannot refuse."

Despite letting him go, Zubizarreta would have liked to see the now Fulham defensive midfielder stay, as he felt he still had room to grow at Marseille, having just come off his first full season with the French side.

As he puts it, sometimes, you just have to work with 'realities' and make the decisions based on what's in front of you.

And to show there's nothing but love coming from the south of France, he added: "I'm happy for him. He's going to have a nice career in English football."

Since arriving at Fulham, the 22-year-old has made eight appearances in all competitions, and started in the 3-0 loss to Everton at the weekend.



http://sportwitness.co.uk/i-went-home-thinking-hed-stay-dof-reveals-fulham-deadline-transfer-came/

[WhiteJC]

Manchester City forced into Thursday night fixture against Fulham in November

Remember those Thursday night Europa League games? They are long gone, but Manchester City will have a rare Thursday night fixture at the beginning of November when they take on Fulham in the Carabao Cup fourth round.

City have been forced into a late kick-off against Fulham after agreeing to have the Premier League game against Tottenham moved to the Monday night due to their stadium problems.

With so little rest time after that, a Tuesday and Wednesday date for the Fulham tie would have been difficult, and it has now been announced that City will host Fulham at 7.45pm on Thursday 1 November.

The home game against Southampton that follows has been pushed back a day to Sunday, giving City as much rest time as can be expected in such a busy week.

City host Shakhtar Donetsk in the Champions League the following week, ahead of the Manchester derby, which means City fans have four home games in ten days to look forward to.

Here's how the fixtures look around that period:

Shakhtar (a): Tuesday 23 October
Spurs (a): Monday 29 October
Fulham (h): Thursday 1 November (Carabao Cup)
Southampton (h): Sunday 4 November
Shakhtar (h): Wednesday 7 November
Manchester United (h): Sunday 11 November



https://www.mcfcwatch.com/2018/10/03/manchester-city-forced-into-thursday-night-fixture-against-fulham-in-november/

[WhiteJC]

City Date Confirmed

Fulham's Carabao Cup Fourth Round tie against Manchester City will take place on Thursday 1st November (7.45pm) at the Etihad Stadium.

Ticket pricing information to follow.



http://www.fulhamfc.com/news/2018/october/03/city-date-confirmed

[WhiteJC]

 
Hammyend Player of the Month – September

As months go, September wasn't particularly fruitful for Fulham. Five games played, two defeats, two draws and our solitary victory coming in a Carabao Cup match against Millwall at the Den. Before the season started I had been hoping for wins against Brighton and Watford (I hadn't expected Watford to start quite as well as they did) while Manchester City was always going to be a bit of a free hit and Everton? Well, we never have a good time there, do we?

With the team not exactly covering themselves in glory it wasn't easy picking out four players to even be nominated for September's prize, but the team have come up with their suggestions, so here goes.

Marcus Bettinelli
Our number one always seems to split opinion, but I consider us very fortunate to have a player who is playing for the club that he loves. It's very telling that after the defeats away to Manchester City and Everton that it was the two players to come from the academy who spent the longest applauding the fans. But onto the football. You could argue that it hasn't been a great month for Betts as he has had to pick the ball out of his net nine times, but he also arguably saved us from defeats in both the Brighton and Watford games. He saved a penalty at Brighton while it could have been game over by half time against Watford if it wasn't for a number of key saves. Slav even handed him the armband in the absence of both Cairney and McDonald from the starting team on Saturday, and while I'm not a big fan of keepers as captains, it shows a great deal of faith in him from the gaffer.

Aleksandar Mitrovic
I would imagine that it will be hard to keep Mitrovic out of these nominations in any month. This time around Mitro has scored twice including the equaliser against Watford. He was the main threat throughout the second half and is constantly showing why it was a stroke of genius from Jokanovic to give him a chance with us. He has the most shots on target in the league, alongside Mo Salah, and is sitting second in the race for the Golden Boot with five goals to his name. The player snubbed by Newcastle on his own has more goals than his former club in the league. Championship player, will never make it in the Premier League, eh?

Luciano Vietto
What a breath of fresh air the Argentinian has been in a month of otherwise uninspiring displays from the team. At first I thought that he had been quite wasteful against Watford, but looking back on it it's becoming a habit of his to be involved in pretty much everything about Fulham's attack. Despite looking quite skinny, he has great strength that so often sees him surrounded by players but able to keep the ball and start an attack. I do think that his decision making in the final third needs improvement, but he is constantly causing headaches for defenders. He grabbed the assist for Mitrovic's equaliser taking his total to three for the season, third overall in the league. I fully expect more to come from him in the coming months.

Luca De La Torre
Normally I'd rather have players who have played more than once at least for us in the Player of the Month nominees, but with it being slim pickings this month, there was space for players with just the one appearance. What a performance we had from Luca De La Torre against Millwall in the cup. An assist either side of his first goal for the Whites meant that he was involved in every goal that night. We don't really have another player at the club who can play in that number ten role so it will be interesting to see if he can do enough to get a chance in the league. He has been at the club for quite a while now, but is one who many have been excited about, and with good reason. He has the vision and the energy to be a very useful player for us, and his performance against Millwall was enough to see him get a mention in these nominees.

So there you have it, your four nominees. The poll this month will be held entirely on twitter so make sure that you cast your vote.



https://hammyend.com/index.php/2018/10/hammyend-player-of-the-month-september/

[WhiteJC]

Just the Stats: Everton 3, Fulham 0
We take one last deep dive on a dreadful performance at Goodison Park

With a scoreline so lobsided last Saturday, plenty of Fulham supporters would love to forget about what happened up at Goodison Park and focus on getting ready for their home fixture against Arsenal. But sometimes, diving into the past can explain what can happen to Fulham in the future.

I explained last week how the club have consistently been a poor first half team that tries to kick it back up in the second half. Fortunately, the reverse happened this time around and it looked like Fulham set themselves up for a good result after a solid first 45 minutes. They were only outshot 5-6, had four blocked shots to Everton's none, and of their 14 tackles, 11 of them occured in Everton's half of the pitch. As a result, the home were only able to generate 0.25 expected goals off of their chances. It was quite clear that needing two banks of midfield and defense were once again critical to a successful day out at Goodison Park and Slavisa Jokanovic's side were working to it to a tee.

Along with that, plenty of the new starters in Jokanovic's XI were putting in great shifts. Those most responsible were Andre-Frank Zambo Anguissa with five tackles and an interception in the first half and Tim Ream with five interceptions of his own.

In attack, Fulham once again were back to their "feed the ball to Aleksander Mitrovic or shrug emoji" style of attack as the big Serbian would produce three shots in the first half alone. It should be noted that world class players usually get somewhere between two to three per contest, so that goes to show what type of playing field Mitrovic has been throughout the start of this season. However, Ryan Sessegnon and Andre Schurrle were the only ones to produce a single shot. Lastly, Joe Bryan was able to unleash the club's loan successful cross the entire opening frame.

On the other side, Idrissa Gueye was absolutely everywhere with six tackles, three interceptions and two key passes. The Senegal International was critical to Everton's efforts of stymieing Fulham's attack and would end up being Everton's best player in setting up chances as well with a club-leading 1.09 xGChain and xGBuildup throughout the contest. And while we all paid attention to Gueye's exploits, Jonjoe Kenny's three tackles, two interceptions and 0.82 match long xGChain shouldn't be ignored either.

Gylfi Sigurdsson also had a part to play with two shots and two key passes in the first half that would go on to reverberate through the rest of the second half. That being said, it seemed like there was too much reliance on Theo Walcott (three dribbles, 1 shot) and Richarlison (four dribbles, three times dispossessed, 1 key pass, two shots) to create chances in attack and Fulham were able to sniff both speedsters and master dribblers well.

So while the first half seemed to be like a defensive stalemate, Everton were a bit more diverse in their creativity in attack. If they were to just cut out the poor shot quality, they would be on their way. Sadly for Fulham supporters, that is exactly what happened. It was quite amazing that Everton had just 53.6% in the second half, because a 13-1 shot advantage painted a much better picture to how the second half unfolded. Any cute individual displays that slowed the game down and allowed Fulham to settle were just not there anymore (two total dribbles in the second half) and Everton were able to connect passes into the final third more as a result. Along with that, the home side were much better on their own end in wiping out any possession Jokanovic's team wanted to have thanks to a 20-14 advantage in defensive contributions. It wasn't necessarily a press (3-2 in defensive contributions in the attacking half), but it was effective enough to springboard bursting runs down both flanks and set up the latter two of Everton's three goals.

Oh, and that man, Gylfi Sigurdsson? Yeah, he was pretty incredible. Just having two goals alone was huge in giving him this distinction. But just in this final stanza alone, he had three key passes, four shots, three successful tackles and an amazing 13 crosses (!!!).

Meanwhile, where on earth was Jean-Michael Seri?! Sure, he was quite bad in defeat to Manchester City, but so many have been during this past 14 months of terror at the Etihad Stadium. Everton are not Manchester City and because of that, this has to go down as the star Ivorian's worst performance in his early Fulham career. In the second half, Seri only had just 12 completed passes and seemed so stuck in his side's own end of the pitch. With just one key pass in the entire contest, there was definitive reasons for him to come off in the 84th minute. Tom Cairney did his best to perform well in his 30-minute cameo and was admirable with his 24 completed passes, but there was no product whatsoever to what he was doing on the pitch (0.00 xG Buildup and xG Chain). When your two most important players on the pitch aren't producing, a 3-0 defeat just seems inevitable.

Lastly, I want to talk about Marcus Bettinelli. It was a strange afternoon for him because he had to deal with a football ground that doesn't do well with having consistent sunlight throughout the pitch. As afternoon became evening in Mersyside, the vision of Bettinelli's was clearly being affected and it was no surprise with his decision to put on a cap for his assistance. Sadly, Bettinelli was dreadful after he had to deal with a Sigurdsson penalty that went off the crossbar. Such is the irony that football delivers on a daily basis. In spite of giving up 1.05 expected goals by his defense, Bettinelli gave up three, with two of them from which he stood like a statue and having no idea how to handle the shot that was coming towards him.

Would any of those potential saves been the difference? Probably, but for the most part, probably not. If anything, the fact that Fulham's holding midfielder was the only player to produce a shot in the second half is the even more worrying stat. Simply put, the rest of Fulham's attacking players have to start producing goals. If you take away such a wonderful performance against Burnley, the leaderboard would show Mitrovic with three goals and Schurrle with his loan goal against Brighton. That's it! Mitrovic might win the Premier League's golden ball and the club might still be relegated. That genuinely could happen if they don't fix things in a hurry. Until that changes, supporters will wonder if this club is good at anything at this level. Here's to hoping they find solutions the rest of this autumn, let alone Saturday's outing against Arsenal.



https://cottagersconfidential.sbnation.com/2018/10/3/17930384/just-the-stats-everton-3-fulham-0

[WhiteJC]

 
Borussia Dortmund, Fulham and Burnley target highly-rated Chelsea defender

He played 12 times for the Gas but his career at the Mem didn't take off

German giants Borussia Dortmund are said to be tracking a former Bristol Rovers defender.

Bayer Leverkusen as well as Premier League sides Burnley and Fulham are also watching Chelsea loanee Jake Clarke-Salter.

The centre-back is currently on loan at Vitesse in the Eredivisie in the Netherlands.

During the 2016-17 season Clarke-Salter was on loan at the Memorial Stadium and the now 21-year-old made some 12 appearances for the Gas.


Jake Clarke-Salter

Unfortunately the move did not work out and Clarke-Salter's season was disrupted by a fractured arm and irregular football.

A similar spell on loan at Sunderland in the Championship last campaign for the final six months of the season did not work out either.

Now however, scouts are said to have taken in Vitesse Arnhem's match against Vitesse Arhem accoriding to HITC Sport.

They report that Clarke-Salter has featured in several team of the week selections in the Netherlands already, alerting side's that the defender may now be ready to match his potential that sees him so highly rated at Stamford Bridge.

The 21-year-old has made 12 appearances in all competitions for Vitesse.

He is on loan until January and the interested teams are all said to be weighing up moves for the former Bristol Rovers centre-back in the winter transfer window.



https://www.bristolpost.co.uk/sport/football/transfer-news/chelsea-transfer-news-rumours-gossip-2067452

[WhiteJC]

Emery plays down schedule concerns with Qarabag and Fulham on the horizon

Arsenal face Carpetbag in Azerbaijan tomorrow evening, and on Sunday at noon travel to Craven Cottage to play Fulham in the Premier League.

It's a tricky schedule, and many expected Unai Emery to travel without a number of key players, but the Gunners travelled to Baku earlier today with a very strong squad for their second European encounter of the season.

The time between the games, and the travel, makes it a less than ideal scenario, but the Spaniard was keen to play that down, urging his team to continue the winning run they've been on recently.

He admits it is different from the Champions League, but refused to use it as any kind of excuse.

"I had a very different experience, when you play Wednesday or Thursday and then Saturday or Sunday," said the man who has won the tournament three times.

"There are very few days to recover physically and also the mentality of the players to play again in a few hours another match.

"In this experience, I won, I lost and I played better in the second match. We are one team with every player with this experience and also with the habit to play, to recover for another match and continue playing.

"It's the reason, for me, that I prefer more time to have to recover physically for the players. But for me, it's good and we are okay tomorrow with every player to play.

"We are going to be also perfect to play against Fulham on Sunday."

Some eyebrows were raised at how strong the squad is for this one, but maybe we've become so used to the idea that these guys need to be mollycoddled when the reality is this is their job, and they should be capable of doing what's necessary.

Let's flog them like the worthless horses they are!

Or something.



https://arseblog.news/2018/10/emery-plays-down-schedule-concerns-with-qarabag-and-fulham-on-the-horizon/

[WhiteJC]

 
Why Ryan Sessegnon's Golden Boy snub is a disgrace

Ryan Sessegnon enjoyed an outstanding calendar year 2018, winning Championship Player of the Year, leading Fulham to promotion to the Premier League, and registering his first Premier League assist in August.

What is even more impressive is that Sessegnon played most of his football this year as a 17-year-old, only turning 18 in May, while playing with intelligence, nous and confidence well beyond his years.

Yet when the 40-player shortlist for the Golden Boy award was released this week, Sessegnon was bafflingly absent— a disgraceful decision that flatly ignores the contributions of one of Europe's brightest young talents.

Organised by Italian newspaper Tuttosport, the award is meant to recognise the best players under 21 in Europe, but the Fulham youngster missed out in puzzling circumstances.

Sessegnon lit up the Championship last season, with an uncanny knack for goal and lethal finishing that captivated the nation. And Sessegnon stepped up when it mattered most, scoring a crucial goal in the play-off semifinals and later assisting Tom Cairney for the multimillion pound strike that sent the Whites into the top flight.

There can be no doubting the English youth international enjoyed a stunning 2018, but unfortunately for Ryan Sessegnon, his achievements on the pitch were unjustly overlooked by the organisers of the prestigious Golden Boy awards.



https://tbrfootball.com/why-ryan-sessegnons-golden-boy-snub-is-a-disgrace/

[WhiteJC]

 
Games for the Weekend 06/10
This weekend we welcome Arsenal to the Cottage

My very first Fulham game was against Arsenal, New Years Day 1966, we won 1-0 and I was hooked! ...a repeat result would be more than welcome.

With Fosu-Mensah and Joe Bryan going off injured against Everton, and Alfie Mawson recovering from a back problem, it looks as if we'll continue to struggle to play a consistent four at the back. At least Tim Ream got the full 90 minutes so he'll be closer to full 'match fitness'.

Tom Cairney also got some game time so at least he'll be back in the squad, I always think we're better when he's on the pitch, he really has become our 'talisman'.

Slaviša Jokanović will have worked the lads hard(er) this week following the 2nd half display against Everton, we'll need to be fully focused for ALL of the match against an Arsenal side that Unai Emery is getting consistent results,  even when they play badly.

remember our game is the early kick-off 12:00 on Sunday

Games of interest...
Friday 5th
Brighton v West Ham

Saturday 6th
Burnley v Huddersfield
Palace v Wolves
Spurs v Cardiff

Sunday 7th
Fulham v Arsenal

COYW

[WhiteJC]

Jokanovic to make 4 changes – Predicted 4-3-3 Fulham XI to face Arsenal in the Premier League

Predicted Fulham line-up to face Arsenal in the Premier League

A struggling Fulham welcome the mighty Arsenal to Craven Cottage in a bid to improve their lacklustre league form this season. The newly-promoted Cottagers are labouring through the games in the Premier League and have not been able to string positive performances together on a regular basis.

They now face an Arsenal team who have won their last five league games and are looking in good shape ahead of this one. Hence, it will be tough for Slavisa Jokanovic and his men to put up a sturdy show at the back and also try to score goals at the other end.
Team News

Joe Bryan, Neeskens Kebano and Timothy Fosu-Mensah are ruled out for this game and are three to four weeks away. Alfie Mawson might start from the bench on Sunday.
Probable Fulham XI
Formation: 4-3-3
Manager: Slavisa Jokanovic
Marcus Bettinelli (GK)

The Englishman has taken his spot in a fabulous manner and looks determined to keep it for as long as he can.
Cyrus Christie (RB)

With Fosu-Mensah out, expect Christie to slot in at right-back against the Gunners.
Denis Odoi (CB)

The centre-back needs to perform better than what he has been doing so far.
Maxime Le Marchand (CB)

Tim Ream didn't look too comfortable in his first start of the season last week. We may see Le Marchand feature at centre-back.
Ryan Sessegnon (LB)

With Bryan out, the youngster could be pushed to play at left-back.
Kevin McDonald (CDM)

He was left out of the last game and Fulham didn't look any better. Expect him to come back into the line-up.
Jean Michael Seri (LCM)

The Ivorian must step up and create chances for his team if they are to string wins together in this unforgiving league.
Tom Cairney (RCM)

The captain is fully fit and is needed in the team right now. His presence in the midfield may help others a lot.
Andre Schurrle (LW)

The German should do more than what he's been doing on the field. If he steps up, things could get better for Fulham.
Aleksandar Mitrovic (ST)

The Serb has been in great form in front of the goal but he'd need support from others to help the team get better.
Luciano Vietto (RW)

The Atletico Madrid loanee has been in and out of form this season. Hopefully, he steps up against Emery's Arsenal.



https://soccersouls.com/2018/10/04/jokanovic-to-make-4-changes-predicted-4-3-3-fulham-xi-to-face-arsenal-in-the-premier-league/

[WhiteJC]

 
Revealed: When the Premier League TV fixtures for Christmas and New Year will be announced

An announcement on the next batch of televised fixtures is to be revealed very soon

Football fans won't have to wait much longer before finding out if their team will be on television over the Christmas period.

With the last announcement about televised games for October and November coming at the start of August, an announcement is due to be made at the end of next week regarding the festive fixtures.

According to the Premier League website, the next batch of games to shown on the box will be revealed on Friday, October 12.

At present, fixtures up until the start of December have been confirmed if they will be shown on either Sky Sports or BT Sport.

Arsenal are pencilled in to face Spurs on Saturday, December 1, although you would imagine that the fixture will get pushed back 24 hours so that Sky Sports can show the game on the same day as the Merseyside derby

Chelsea's game against title contenders Man City a week later also looks set to be moved for TV, while Spurs' trips to Leicester and Everton ahead of Christmas could also be moved from their original slot.

The Boxing Day games could see Arsenal's visit to Brighton broadcast live, with Watford vs Chelsea another possibility.

The Gunners' crunch clash at Liverpool a few days later is a certainty to be on either Sky or BT, whereas Chelsea and Spurs' respective games against Crystal Palace and Wolves could be possible options.

Fixtures will then also be shown on New Year's Day, although the only one you can guarantee will be on television at present is Man City's home fixture against Liverpool.

Approximate dates for televised fixtures
December/January - October 12

February - December 12

March - January 25

April - February 22

May - April 5



https://www.football.london/premier-league/premier-league-christmas-tv-fixtures-15231918