Sunday Fulham Stuff - 17/11/19...

[WhiteJC]

2 Fulham players that need to prove themselves in the international break

Fulham secured all three points last weekend after narrowly beating Birmingham City 1-0 at St Andrew's after Aleksandar Mitrović's goal proved the difference.

Mitrović was well-positioned to pounce on an error from Blues goalkeeper Lee Camp who spilt a cross straight into the path of the Serbian striker who reacted well to score the decisive goal.

Birmingham were the better team for large spells of the match and had good opportunities to win after having 16 attempts on goal.

The win was an important one for Fulham, who had failed to win their previous two matches against Hull and Middlesbrough.

This victory was just Fulham's second in six matches and it has helped to keep them within touching distance of the play off places as Scott Parker's side are just two points from sixth placed Bristol City.

The international break will be a welcome opportunity for Parker to assess his start to the campaign and consider any possible changes to his team.

Here are two players that need to prove themselves over the international break.

Stefan Johansen

The Norwegian midfielder has been a bit part feature of Scott Parker's side so far this season having started just 10 games from the opening 16.

The 28 year old has been used in a variety of positions and has played in central midfield, right midfield and as a defensive midfielder showing that Parker is unsure of where to place Johansen.

Joahnsen has only started to feature in the side since the end of September and he put in a stand out display in the 4-1 win over Reading in early October, claiming two assists during this match.

But, he is yet to recapture this form despite starting three of the last four matches and has looked unconvincing on left or right of a midfield three.

Marcus Bettinelli

27-year-old goalkeeper Marcus Bettinelli looked to be cementing himself as Fulham's number one goalkeeper in the early stages of the season but didn't feature in Saturday's win over Birmingham.

Despite playing in 14 matches this season, Bettinelli's form has dropped in recent weeks as he let in seven goals in four matches which saw him lose his spot to Marek Rodak against Luton and Middlesborough recently.

Bettinelli returned against Hull in place of a suspended Rodak, but he missed out against Birmingham this weekend after letting in three goals during the Hull match.

Parker seems to be favouring Rodak currently, but if Bettinelli can impress over the international break then he could earn his starting place back in the coming weeks.



https://footballleagueworld.co.uk/2-fulham-players-that-need-to-prove-themselves-in-the-international-break/

[WhiteJC]

20% win ratio at Fulham: What's Felix Magath up to these days?

The name Felix Magath will resonate with Fulham fans. He had a brief and dismal spell in charge of the club in 2014, but what's he up to now?

German-born Felix Magath made almost 400 appearances for Hamburger SV in the Bundesliga through the 70's and 80's, with over forty caps for West Germany who he'd represented at both the 1982 and '86 World Cups.

A highly-regarded footballer in Germany at the time, Magath won three domestic titles with Hamburg and the European Cup in 1982. He also went on to have a successful career in the game as a manager, that is he before he joined Fulham.

Magath took the role of Head Coach at Hamburg II in 1993 – his first of ten separate jobs with nine different clubs in German football.

From there he was promoted to manager of Hamburg, before having spells with Nurnberg, Werder Bremen and Eintracht Frankfurt before landing at Stuttgart.

It was with Stuttgart that Magath won his first honour as a manager, the 2002 Intertoto Cup. He spent three years at Stuttgart overseeing 147 games and winning almost exactly half of them and being named German Manager of the Year for the first of three times, before being appointed manager of Bayern Munich in 2004

The most sought after job in German football, Magath was named manager of Bayern Munich on July 1st. Another three-year-spell saw Magath win five domestic including back-to-back Bundesliga and DFB Pokal titles in the 2004/05 and 2005/06 seasons.

What followed next was arguably Magath's greatest achievement as a manager – he joined Wolfsburg in the summer of 2007, finished fifth in his first season and to qualify for the Europa League, and won the Bundesliga the next.

An astounding achievement for the German, who was soon snapped up by Schalke who wanted him to emulate his Wolfsburg heroics, and bring Schalke a Bundesliga title. And they came close. In their first season under Magath they finished 2nd but he was shown the door in his next season.

Magath took two years before taking the Fulham job in February 2014. He had just 12 games to save Fulham from an imminent relegation from the Premier League and unsurprisingly, he failed to keep the team up.

Surprisingly, Magath took charge into next season and was convinced that he could take Fulham straight back up. But losing his opening four games in the Championship, he was shown the door by the Fulham board.

Austria Wien were rumoured to want the German next, and Spartak Mosow had reportedly offered him a contract. But both vacancies were filled and Magath's next move would be in China, when he took to managers job at Shandong Luneng. He lasted just over fifty games in the Chinese Super League with Shandong but after finishing 6th in the 2017 domestic league, left the club.

He's since been out of the game but just this week, Magath is reported to have applied for the vacant Hearts job. Could we see Magath make a comeback to the sport, and would he be a good fit for Scottish Football? Fulham fans will be tuning in to that one.



https://footballleagueworld.co.uk/20-win-ratio-at-fulham-whats-felix-magath-up-to-these-days/

[WhiteJC]

Tim Ream Q&A: On Fulham, Aaron Long and MLS in St. Louis

Always a technically-gifted defender, the former Red Bulls center back is tailored to the modern game.

As Fulham cut the ribbon on a return to the Premier League last August, their Player of the Season from a playoff-winning promotion was nowhere to be found.

Off the back of five grueling seasons in the English Championship – following a short-lived initial spell in the Premier League with Bolton – Tim Ream was supposed to reap the reward for his persistence. The St. Louis, Mo., native and former New York Red Bulls center back was meant to begin a first full season in the English top flight. Fate had other ideas.

As the Premier League festival returned to little, old Craven Cottage on Aug. 11, 2018, Ream could not take part. A nerve injury had flared up in his lower back only a few days prior. It was an unsettling injury, one without a clear timetable, spoiling a long-awaited return to the big stage.

Despite an influx of summer signings totaling over $100 million, romantic expectations for Fulham never materialized in 2018/19. New players failed to mesh and the team lacked the mettle essential for a newly-promoted club.

One year on, I caught up with the now 32-year-old, in a conversation that sheds light on his unconventional path and rollercoaster recent seasons.

OaM: You got a quick taste of the Premier League and then had to dig deep for six years in the Championship. Talk about what it was like to get promoted after that long run.

Ream: I mean, the ultimate goal is always to play at the highest level and, unfortunately, I never really had the chance to get back with Bolton. For it to happen with Fulham after a few years was, I mean, exciting. It was a great year, a great second half of the season for us. You know, it was somewhere we all want to be.

I don't think there's a better script written than, you know, getting to the playoff final and winning it at Wembley. I think most of the players in the Championship would agree, if you can guarantee a win in the playoff final at Wembley on a Saturday, it doesn't get much better than that. And that was the case for us.

OaM: I watched the highlights of the playoff semifinal at Craven Cottage, and you were right alongside Denis Odoi when he headed that goal in. That must have been a surreal moment for you.

Ream: Yeah, [the cross] was actually coming straight for me. And then, I saw him jump in front of me and, I just, I tracked [the ball] the entire way. So, I had probably one of the best views that there was. It was an unbelievable moment, trying to chase him down and just the celebrations that ensued after was – you're making me relive some really good moments in my career.

OaM: Rewinding a bit, MLS has come a long way since you broke out in 2010/11. You were a player that had a lot of potential, but you were a raw player when you stepped into the Premier League. What were the areas you had to improve in the most when you moved to England?

Ream: I think, in general, just a mentality of, just to keep going. It's an unforgiving, unforgiving league, the Premier League. But, also the Championship is, it's unforgiving. It's 46 games, and that's just the league. Then you have the FA Cup and the League Cup, and it was just about mentally staying focused for 90 minutes.

And I don't know whether that was because I was kind of checked out and ready to move on when I was in New York, and, you know, wanted to test myself even more than I was being tested [in MLS]. But, just the mental aspect of, yeah, staying focused for 90 minutes.

Kind of being a little bit stronger on and off the ball, as well; I think that's really come a long way for me. Listen, I've always had the technical ability, the ability to pass the ball, read the game well. And, you know, I think that six years in the Championship really helped me hone the mental side of my game.

OaM: Remind me, were you involved with the national team at all before you broke out with the Red Bulls?

Ream: Nooo. I was never in any ODP or any regional teams, nothing, nothing like that."

OaM: It's interesting because, I think about Aaron Long – obviously, coming through with the Red Bulls – and you're sort of similar to him in that way. He was a late bloomer, not a huge prospect, and yet here you both are with the national team. Is there a dialogue about that when you're both at the national team?

Ream: Yeah, absolutely. We talk all the time in these camps.

OaM: And obviously he had some interest in Europe –

Ream: Yeah, even when all that was going on, we were exchanging messages back and forth. He was trying to figure out what he wanted and how he could get [a move]. And it was unfortunate that everything was kind of blocked for him and it didn't work out.

But, yeah, we do, we've had multiple conversations since March, when I first came back in under Gregg [Berhalter]. Just talking about the similar paths and what it's taken to kind of get out, blaze my own path and make a career for myself. And he's obviously trying to do the same thing.

His story might even be more interesting than mine, with all the USL play that he went through before breaking through with the Red Bulls. I was lucky enough to find a coach in New York that wanted to play me right away. So, I think his is definitely a more interesting path.

OaM: I want to ask you about the start of last season. I imagine with what you went through at Bolton, you would have wanted to start off on the right foot in the Premier League with Fulham. And you had an injury right at the start of the season. How tough was that?

Ream: Yeah, it was really tough, to be honest with you. I think, again, mentally it was, it was difficult, because I knew I had a really good preseason, and I was coming off a really, really good season; being promoted, Player of the Season in a promotion team that you could have picked any of the starting 11 guys for that award.

To pick up an injury, in the way that I did, really, I was doing nothing. We had finished our last preseason game and, two days later, not doing anything, just hanging with the family, my back just didn't feel right. It was kind of sore and shooting pains down my leg. I knew right away that something wasn't right. And, I don't think, it took a good six to eight weeks to kind of rehab it, to learn to walk again, really, it was that bad.

OaM: Those injuries are really tricky –

Ream: It was. It was a nerve injury, and there's no real timetable. You don't know when it's going to heal, how quick it's going to heal. It's just, you're at the mercy of it. So, I wasn't, I don't think, fully-fit and ready to go until probably mid-February. But, I was playing games because they felt like they needed me to.

So, it was a long, long, hard time. But, I got through it. That's, again, the mental side, you work your way through it and you come out the other side of it.

OaM: When you're going through the type of season that you went through with Fulham, and also Bolton, how quickly can you feel the danger of relegation? How quickly does it turn into a bad situation?

Ream: Yeah, I think, first and foremost, with the number of guys we brought in, it was hard to integrate everybody in a timely fashion. So, I think, I don't know if it was early as people might think. We knew we were down there, we knew we had a fight on our hands. You know, I think, up until, probably, Southampton away – which was, I want to say, probably almost March (Feb. 27) – we felt like we had the talent to kind of dig ourselves out.

Unfortunately, talent only gets you so far, and, you know, mentality is a big thing. We didn't have the mentality to dig ourselves out. And, I keep saying the mental side and, it is, it's huge. There's only one thing that's going to stop you in achieving what you're going to do, and that's your own mental capacity and what you think you can achieve. And if you don't believe it, you're going to show.

OaM: I don't think it was ever a question for you, though, once Fulham went down, about leaving?

Ream: Yeah, it was never a question for me, if I was going to leave. I'm one of those guys that, I don't like to move around and jump teams. I want to stay where I'm happy. I want to play where I'm happy. And I know that the system, the coach, everything at Fulham is a perfect fit for me, and it's the reason I chose Fulham in the first place.

OaM: Last question. You are someone who has totally embraced playing in England. But, I think about St. Louis' MLS expansion and, when you look down the road, is that something that you've set your sights on?

Ream: Ehh, maybe. It's not really, MLS really isn't, it's not on my radar at the moment. Whether that's St. Louis or New York or Columbus or LA, it's just not – for me, like I said, I'm happy where I am. I'm enjoying being challenged every single week, sometimes two to three times a week with the amount of games. And I still feel like I have a lot to give, and a lot of years left.

So, yeah, like I said, it's not on my radar. It would take something very special to sway me the opposite way. But, at the moment, I'm very happy to stay where I am.



https://www.onceametro.com/2019/11/16/20961960/tim-ream-q-a-on-fulham-aaron-long-and-mls-in-st-louis

[ScalleysDad]

I thought, and could probably be wrong, that Felix got a job with the Bosnian national team after us.

[gang]

I thought, and could probably be wrong, that Felix got a job with the Bosnian national team after us.

He turned it down.