Football review of 2010

[shoutsfromthestands]

Hi all,

Hope you've all had a nice Christmas. It's been a fantastic year of football in 2010, with many highs and lows throughout. Myself and my mate run a football website called 'Shouts from the stands' and we have come up with a review of what the past 12 months have come up with in the game we love.

It would be great (if you get the chance of course) if you could take a peek at our review of 2010 and see what you think. You are also more than welcome to leave your views on the comments section of the blog on how you've viewed the past footballing year, and what you think will happen in 2011.

Many thanks, and a happy new year to you all!

http://www.shoutsfromthestands.com/

[Mr_Moon]

Shameless plug

[mrska]

Had a look..  not bad mate.. :045:

[ImperialWhite]

Good review but (speaking as Fulham fan...) I'd object to Blackpool winning the team of the year. Teams facing relegation and achieving promotion against the odds must happen all the time - but cos it's the Prem it's caught the media attention. Having David Brent Ian Holloway as their manager helps, I suppose.

Surely our European final merits team of the year anyday? It has all the fairytale quality that Blackpool's story does - we avoid relegation on goal difference, then qualify for Europa, then get to the final! I'd bet that the odds of us reaching a final (or even qualifying for it) were longer than the odds were for Blackpool getting promotion.

[VB]

This is the piece on Fulham

By Laurie Fitzgerald

As we move into the Christmas programme, seasons are starting to be shaped for teams across the country.

While many look to the second half of the season, one side may be wishing that time could give them a chance to rewrite the first half of the campaign.

Fulham were preparing for the new campaign with real optimism following a fantastic year that saw them reach the Europa League final and cruelly lose to Atletico Madrid in extra time.

But Roy Hodgson departed to take up the Liverpool job and after a failed attempt to bring in Martin Jol from Ajax, the job was given to Mark Hughes.

There were no significant departures from the squad that went on that heroic European journey, so Hughes had the opportunity to build on the success of the season before.

But as we approach 2011, Fulham find themselves in the bottom three on the back of a hugely disappointing 3-1 defeat at home to West Ham. While Avram Grant's side deserved the win, it was a game that further underlined their inability to find a cutting edge and pull away from the opposition when on top.

It should be pointed out at this point that Fulham are missing their main goal threat.

Bobby Zamora's broken leg has had a huge impact on the Cottagers season, and while new recruit Moussa Dembele shows promise and Andy Johnson is still not 100% since returning from a long lay-off, Zamora's ability to score from nothing and hold the ball up has been enormously missed.

But what might be a bigger issue is the gameplan that Hughes seems to be using. The former Wales manager has made his team hard to beat, and their defeat to the Hammers was their first loss to a side outside the current top five.

But the 47 year-old has also seen his new team win just two league games all season. To reach the halfway mark and have just two wins to your name is simply not good enough, and he doesn't seem to have learnt from lessons before in his managerial career.

While many can point out that his sacking from Manchester City a year ago was unjust, it was on the back of a run that saw seven draws in a row. While this run was sandwiched in-between 10 games unbeaten, only two were turned into wins and more points were actually dropped than gained.

Maybe if Hughes urged his team from going for the win instead of being afraid to lose, then Fulham would be further up the table. There's no doubt that improvement will also be made from the long-awaited return of Zamora.

But unless Hughes takes more of a gamble and gets them out of a position they shouldn't be in, then Hughes really will wish he had the ability to turn back time.

So what do you think? Are Fulham unlucky to find themselves at the wrong end of the table? Is Hughes running out of time? Let us know