The View from South Texas -- CFC v. FFC

[HatterDon]

Okay, so we lost to arguably the best team in the world. Okay, so we tightened up some blue butts in the last 10-15 minutes or so. Okay, so we haven't won against them in the top flight on their patch since the PM's name was Harold Wilson. Okay, OKAY!!!!! I still hate losing against them.

About Chelsea: The only good thing to be said about Chelsea is that they no longer pay that Teutonic Diving Thug Ballack. Aside from that, I don't even want to mention them in this report.

About us: Mark fielded an XI that looked like we'd be playing a 4-6-0. The graphic on the TV said 4-4-1-1, but really we were playing a 6-3-1. Unsure as to whether to go with Kelly & Briggs at FB or with Davies and Duff, Mark evidently went with both for most of the first half. This left Dempsey, Etuhu, and Cap'n Danny to position themselves barely in the same county as Dembele [and if I ever learn how to put in those accents, trust me I will]. The stats say that we had 42% of the possession today. I'm willing to bet that those numbers were in single digits for the first half.

Mark Schwarzer celebrated the news of his impending two-year contract extension with a solid display. He made a couple of good saves and he wasn't as hesitant as he might have been coming off the line -- although still not as decisive as I remember him being most of the last couple of seasons. He can't be faulted for the goal.

The titular back four: Kelly played a reasonable right back. With Davies's help, there wasn't a lot of Cole's marauding down the left wing. He passed out of defense well, but I can't really comment on his contribution to attack, since I'm not sure he got past the center line today. Young Mr. Briggs had, on average, a good day. That is to say that he had several brilliant moments and several "oh-my-god-did-you-see-that-crap" moments as well. He made some tentative passes in the first half that cost us possession deep in our half, but he recovered. What I especially liked is that, when moving upfield not confronted by any resistance, he kept going and fired on goal with his left peg. It was an easy save, but it was still one more positive move on goal than I've seen from Eddie Johnson this season. I think he earned himself a start against Newcastle and, perhaps, beyond. Hangeland had a so-so game by his standards. He got some exercize by running up to the Chelsea goal mouth on dead balls so as to get an excellent view of a corner or free kick delivered directly to the first defender. Hughes, on the other hand, had a great game, frustrating Dogbreath and Kalou repeatedly.

Titular midfield: Davies spent a lot of time defending, but also looked dangerous on the wing in attack. His best moves, unfortunately, ended in passes towards Dembele and ... well, more on him later. Etuhu didn't look fit to me, frankly, and he played like he was a bit cramped. After all, he had to share his standard "back to the penalty area" position with at least 5 teammates on the day. I wasn't too surprised when he went off after an hour. I think we'll see him closer to his usual form on Saturday. Danny? Well Danny frustrated me all day long. There were the short indecisive passes near our penalty area. There were the short trips into the opposing half, followed by passes to a guy in blue, and then there were the woefully crap free kick opportunities. I may find disagreement, but I thought he had a poor match. Duff was better in defense -- where he wound up the 90 minutes -- than on attack. Playing on his natural left side, he never came close to beating Bosingwa to the goal line. He slowed to an absolute crawl everytime he got the ball. I kept waiting for that to turn into a quick darting move, but it never did. Sigh. After about 15 minutes of urging by the Fulham Faithful [WHO I COULD HEAR LOUD AND CLEAR THE ENTIRE MATCH!], Mark brought on Zoltan Gera, who had more positive moments in his 20 minutes today than he had in the whole of the Villa game. I loved his thunderbolt; it was a shame that it was saved.

"Attack" -- Clint Dempsey spent the first 60 minutes defending from just inside his own half, and then the last 30 minutes out on the wing -- where he also did some defending. He had a couple of decent moves, didn't cost us too much possession that I could see, and came closest to getting an underserved equalizer [not that I wouldn't have cried about it had it happened] with a screaming shot that Eraserhead just managed to fingertip over. The sad thing was that the resulting corner was so poorly taken that it threatened our goal more than theirs. And then there's Dembele. If there is a worse person to put up front in a 4-5-1 [or 6-3-1] then I can't remember his name. I do not recall him ever laying a ball off as soon as he received it. Aside from passing to teammates who were under defensive pressure BEFORE the pass got there, Dembele's main strategy seemed to be: (a) get the ball (b) run upfield for 10-15 yards into a crowd of blue shirts (c) give the ball to one of them. It's just my opinion, but our most creative and talented healthy attacker is woefully out of form and mightily confused. He needs to sit down against the barcodes. Andrew Johnson once again looked promising in his 30 minutes of work. He needs a big man to work off, but Chelsea's defenders were shaken when the ball got near him. We changed noticably when he came on the pitch, and his presence is what allowed us to dominate the last minutes of the match.

Overall? Well, we looked like a team with injuries in defense, injuries in attack, and fielding too many midfielders. The positives is that we never panicked against Chelsea. We're very flattered by the one goal margin, but I'm betting that 90% of those in attendance believed that we were going to nick a point in the last 5-10 minutes. Having said that, Mark needs to find someone to take a corner or a free kick and deliver it beyond the first defender. On another day, half of those dead ball deliveries could have wound up costing us a goal, and we'd have lost 3 or 4-0.

My Man of the Match -- Aaron Hughes just pips Tha Big Aussie. Serious props also to the Fulham travelers who could be heard over the home fans all match long.

On to Toon Town, and COYW!

[RidgeRider]

Another excellent report Hatter. I sort of FELT the same way, but you are much better at describing the goings on than I. I agree, Hughes saved our bacon more than once and had a truly awesome today.

I thought, in general, we didn't lack from effort today. We looked like a side that was playing a side that had better overall talent. That struck me during most of the match. It didn't really bother me that we were being outplayed because I expected it.

During the first half, we did not have much possession, as you pointed out and the match didn't feel much different than last years, in that we were under constant pressure. The second half we did better, but Chelsea was good at disrupting us and playing with energy so we didn't have many clear cut chances and I couldn't agree with you more about Dembele. He was, dare I say, kind of poor today. Not threatening at all and I summed it up to a make shift line-up and him playing a position that is just not his position. Dempsey would have been better in the upfront position, cause he can play off others and lay off the high balls that we seem to like to drop into the box these days.

My biggest question was, last year, the other chap would have had us well prepared and playing good football against these big teams and we just don't look like that with MH. We have more defensive breakdowns and our attack just overall seems less threatening right now. BZ presence is becoming more and more immense with each passing match that he is not with us. Everything really happened through him.

I was proud of our boys though for playing it close and giving me a reason to watch the entire match with hope we might nick an equalizer. We handled the pressure well and the boys seemed to cover for each other well in the back four.

Would love to hear from someone who attended the match how Essien was able to be so wide open on his goal.

[Lighthouse]

We looked very much a Roy 11 behind the ball side in the first hour. Kelly made a goal saving tackle first half and deserves a little more credit. Last 20 we looked as if with an addition of a forward and a central midfield player we could be quite good. The ten minutes inbetween we just looked eager.

You know how annoying you are Hatter . Well you said you seemed to be annoying people lately. I have just one question. What is it like NOT to annoy people? Just wondered as it is an experience that has passed me by.

As annoying usual a very concise roundup of the match. Ta ever so.

[finnster01]

Would love to hear from someone who attended the match how Essien was able to be so wide open on his goal.

I obviously didn't go to the match but I watched it and the ever so lauded Hughes that can never do anything wrong dropped his marking completely :016:

Take a look at the goal again if you can find a clip.

[timmyg]

Would love to hear from someone who attended the match how Essien was able to be so wide open on his goal.

I obviously didn't go to the match but I watched it and the ever so lauded Hughes that can never do anything wrong dropped his marking completely :016:

Take a look at the goal again if you can find a clip.

From what I saw on TV, right before Kalou swung the cross in, Etuhu found himself in a position where he was covering Essien and someone else (was it Zhirkov?).

He basically froze for a nano-second, and then elected to cover Essien...Who by then was a solid step ahead of him, and wide open for the header.

[finnster01]

Would love to hear from someone who attended the match how Essien was able to be so wide open on his goal.

I obviously didn't go to the match but I watched it and the ever so lauded Hughes that can never do anything wrong dropped his marking completely :016:

Take a look at the goal again if you can find a clip.

From what I saw on TV, right before Kalou swung the cross in, Etuhu found himself in a position where he was covering Essien and someone else (was it Zhirkov?).

He basically froze for a nano-second, and then elected to cover Essien...Who by then was a solid step ahead of him, and wide open for the header.

That is exactly my point. Hughes should have stepped up and marked a man. He marked nobody. He just stands looking. Poor defending.

[NogoodBoyo]

Hughes is the last bloke I would pick on - he made goal-line clearances, last ditch tackles, marked Dogbra off the pitch and was constantly the last man in the right place at the right time.  Asking him to cover the goal is contrary when others were nearer to Essien (Etuhu?) when the cross was whipped in.
We looked very nervous and tentative in the first half.  Terrified of making a mistake, uncertain of our structure and formation - such a change to the last two years when everyone knew exactly what they had to do.  The team looks a little out of sorts under new management - as it was under the old fellah for the first half (or second half of the real season) of his first season. If you remember, we only came good right at the end in the great escape.
Tonight we only started to play after their goal.
Briggs looked startled in the headlights.  No great skill shown, some basic errors, nervousness, but he does have great pace.  Hopefully he can build on that.  Probably this was neither the game nor the location to have thrown him in, but he survived - and that's a big plus.  
Kelly was much better than I expected.
Hangeland and Hughes were absolutely amazing.  I think Big Don said it on the weekend.  They are the best central defence pairing in the Prem. And the big Aussie also backed them up with a couple of stunning saves, good positioning and a strong presence.
Duff and Davies were ordinary on the day - more concerned with defensive duties and unable or unwilling to take it to the opposition.  But, they supported their full-backs well, so should be commended for that.
Murphy failed to find movement up ahead but still commanded respect with his probing passes.  He too looked uncertain at the start and tired at the end.
Etuhu was absent - completely absent.  I'm very concerned about him.  He had a good season last year, one or two great, no, really great games at the beginning of the season.  As a result, he was very arrogant in his contract negotiations (see his website).  He has been poor since his return from injury.  I'm concerned about him.
I agree with Big Don that Gera was very impressive.  He brought a spark to the midfield that had been missing.  His volley was stunning.  I'll bet Chech's hands are still stinging!
Dembele?  He looked so out of sorts.  He just cannot lead from the front.  He could neither hold the ball up, nor lay it off.  Even his dribbling, usually so strong was poor.  He needs to be put back on the wing or in front of the midfield.  He just is not a striker, but needs must I suppose.  Many more games in his current position and he'll lose his confidence.
I too was pleased with Johnsons' input.  Lively, with good movement, he stretches defences.
My biggest disappointment on the day was Dempsey.  I lost count of the amount of times he gave the ball away or lost it in vulnerable positions.  We could (maybe should) have been 4-0 down by half time with two serious errors down to him.  But, I will cut him slack as he's been the model of consistency over the years and one bad game against Chelsea does not a bad player make! 
So, that's the harsh analysis.  On the positive side, we held one of the most expensive, most skilled sides in the world to 1-0 and really dominated the last 10-15 minutes.  We looked like we were going to score and that was heartening.
But, really, the praise for that should go to Hughes, Hangeland and Schwarzer for keeping us in the game in the first half.  They were simply stunning in controlling a world-beating strike-force, none more so than Hughes!
Nogood "calling it as I see it, eh" Boyo

[Steve_orino]

Was at work and didn't see the game and could barely keep up with the Offal text updates.

Thank you very much for the write-up!

[Ag]

Pretty much spot on Mr Hat.  We've talked about Murph not being up for 2 matches a week in the past and today looked to bear that out.  Chelsea get the credit for putting the pressure on and getting to our guys when they were on the ball so fast.  But Murphy didn't help the cause with too many soft passes and passing guys into coverage.  Danny is usually more likely to pass a guy open than lead him into a defender and doesn't usually leave them short, so I'd chalk that up to playing on short rest.  Of course, there's no one to play his role when he's out, so he went 90 today when he probably should have had the day off.  Man, I hope this is addressed in the January window.

I realize Bob is hurt, but surely we can use him in some capacity to teach Dembele how to hold the ball up and lay it off.  He's got the size for it and is skilled enough at the feet to do it.  You'd think he'd be better at it than he showed.  To his credit, there weren't going to be any immediate layoffs though, b/c no one was near him.  But you're right, holding it up would have been far more beneficial than charging down the pitch 1 v 4 and giving the ball away time and again.

I disagree with the previous poster about Dempsey.  He didn't give it away any more than the rest of the midfield imo and was the only player close to resembling a threat to Chelsea until AJ and Gera came on.

The only knock on Briggs is that he struggled with the pace of the game at times, especially on the offensive end when trying to get the cross off.  That's to be expected when you go from facing the ressies to one of the best sides in the world though.  He was far better than I thought he'd be in that situation.

Anyone who thinks something would have been different under RH has a short memory.  Hughes played it straight out of Hodgson's playbook.  The only thing different last year (aside from the depletion in the fullback ranks) was a forward capable of holding it up and allowing us some possession, thus decreasing the number of chances going the other way.

Second the kudos to our fans.  They were awesome.  They were especially clear through the tube during the malaria song and, of course, Stick your blue flag....