The View from South Texas -- THFC v. FFC

[HatterDon]

I hate it when we look better than a very good team on the day but still get nothing from the match.

I honestly thought that Spurs looked worried the entire 90 minutes. They looked tentative and at least a foot slow at all times. It's amazing when you're playing a team with Palacios and Modric in central midfield and you continually win possession from them. Ultimately, of course, we were undone by a moment of improvised brilliance by Gareth Bale. The Dutch Diver's free kick was going straight for goal, but Bale must have radar or something that caused him to see that Schwarzer had it covered, so he leapt up and glanced a beautiful header just under the bar with our Aussie completely wrong-footed.
About THFC: 'arry the Thug has to be fuming. They looked very ordinary. With Bobby Z in the lineup, I think we win easily. Nevland could have notched a hattrick as a 60th minute sub. When I realized that Kaboul was suspended, I had hopes for a 1-1. But I didn't count on two things: (1) William Gallas was fit enough to start, AND (2) He would play brilliantly. Even considering the all-round good play of Bale, Gallas was -- for me -- the best player on the pitch.

About us: The problem was, that -- in all honesty -- all we really deserved today was a split of the points at 0-0. Once again, like almost every girl I dated in my teens, we looked attractive and full of promise, but when it came time to deliver, we just weren't there.

Schwarzer had a good match, and we send him off to Qatar knowing that he had no chance to protect his clean sheet. He didn't look indecisive, made a couple of good saves, and showed some amazing body control to gather a shot at his knees that had been deflected. I'm comfortable with Stockdale replacing him, but he certainly has been solid for us of late.

Both Baird and Paintsil were periodically roasted, but that's to be expected when you consider who they had to deal with. As I had predicted, our major problem would come with their wingers and, over all, the boys done good. Baird especially made some timely interceptions and finally adjusted to Lennon's pace. Hangeland scared the crap out of me with his George Best imitations upfield, but he and the once-again excellent Aaron Hughes more than managed Spurs' Russian.

Our midfield was very good, with one glaring exception -- and I know I'll find some disagreement here. Etuhu had his second very good match in a row. His passing was increasingly into attacking areas, and he was strong in the tackle and quick to intercept. He had a couple of threatening runs into their penalty area, but didn't connect on either occasion. Danny Murphy looked a bit shattered in the last 15 minutes, but he was once again very good. It was a captain's performance. It's hard to take your eyes off him. Davies looked a little more out of it than those two. He moved well without the ball, but over dribbled at times. Duff had an amazing day -- and not really in a good way. Inevitably each time we made a coherent attack, it was through him. Inevitably every time he had an opportunity to make THE decisive pass, he muffed it. I think he did this about 8 times in comparison to the one GREAT pass he made to AJ. I'm not faulting him for the Row Zed job after Baird's delicious pass in the 2nd half. He wasn't our only player to shoot high, wide, and less than handsome. Gera made an appearance to replace Duff, but really never did. When the ball fell to him in the Tottenham box shortly after he got onto the pitch, I KNEW that here was our equalizer, but he never really got off a shot.

Dempsey and Johnson worked very hard, but the majority of their creativity and  aggression occured near the center circle. Both were great at tackling back, harrying defenders and linking nicely with our defenders and midfielders in beautiful triangles all over the pitch. The problem is that neither got a good shot off today. AJ really should have had a great chance early in the 2nd half, but muffed it. About the 60 minute mark I took another look at our bench and was disappointed to see that there was no Erik the Viking on the bench. He would have had fun out there today.

Mark Hughes had us prepared well today. Even though it was "same again" for the oldest starting XI in the league, we played well throughout. I thought we were much the better side in the 2nd half, and were about evens in the first half. On our form and teamwork, we deserved three points. This is pretty much down to Mark's getting the team playing good solid football that causes our opponents to respect us. On our attacking, we got as many goals as we deserved. I really doubt that our injuries to Zamora and Dembele can be blamed on our manager.

MOtM? Well, had he converted either his first half or second half chance, I'd have gone with Dickson, but for me it's all evens between Baird, Hughes, and Murphy.

The way we have turned it around since Wet Spam, I see 6 points out of 6 in our next two matches. COYW!

[Mr Fulham]

Brilliant stuff, Mr Hatter.

I fully agree with the Nevland bit. I always said that we should have kept him for at least another season.
Nevertheless, I'm hopeful, as you know. :wine:

[FatFreddysCat]

Great report HD and i love your guitar case  :54:

[SuffolkWhite]

Good read HD, it gives me confidence we will move up the table soon.

[NogoodBoyo]

Interesting, very interesting.  Highly insightful and alarmingly intelligent for a South Texan who had the misfortune to live in Luton once(-:)
Will start  a spearate thread on Tony Gale's views.
Nogood "big hats off to Big Don" Boyo

[sipwell]

Great report once more. I do however disagree with your take on Etuhu. In my humble opinion he slowed the attack down since he seems afraid to give a risky pass forward. He always plays safe and often passes lateral rather than pass the ball forward to a player in front of him. I focussed on that part of the game and he only did it (in my count) once!

[SmithyFFC]

Great report once more. I do however disagree with your take on Etuhu. In my humble opinion he slowed the attack down since he seems afraid to give a risky pass forward. He always plays safe and often passes lateral rather than pass the ball forward to a player in front of him. I focussed on that part of the game and he only did it (in my count) once!

Yeh I agree. Etuhu defiantley breaks down attacks, unfortunatley they are usually our own attacks.

[FFCSteve]

& he cant shoot for toffee!

I was screaming at him to shoot (via the internet :029:), but he just wont! The one occasion he attempted to, I can see why he doesn't!

[AlFayedsChequebook]

Great report once more. I do however disagree with your take on Etuhu. In my humble opinion he slowed the attack down since he seems afraid to give a risky pass forward. He always plays safe and often passes lateral rather than pass the ball forward to a player in front of him. I focussed on that part of the game and he only did it (in my count) once!

This is the way I saw it.

I like Etuhu but he is not an attacking player - he hinders our attack more than helps it.

[NogoodBoyo]

But he did have a very good game yesterday.
Nogood "Etuhu Brute, isit" Boyo

[duffbeer]

Enjoyed "the View" once again.

[AlFayedsChequebook]

But he did have a very good game yesterday.
Nogood "Etuhu Brute, isit" Boyo

He did, and if you look at the chalkboards on the guardian website you can see how dominant he was in the middle.

BUT

He made about 60 passes and only one was an attempt to move the ball forward in the middle of the pitch.

If he is going to be truly effective we need him trying to keep play running smoothly through the middle, especially when we dominate the middle as much as we did yesterday.

[ImperialWhite]

But he did have a very good game yesterday.
Nogood "Etuhu Brute, isit" Boyo

He did, and if you look at the chalkboards on the guardian website you can see how dominant he was in the middle.

BUT

He made about 60 passes and only one was an attempt to move the ball forward in the middle of the pitch.

If he is going to be truly effective we need him trying to keep play running smoothly through the middle, especially when we dominate the middle as much as we did yesterday.

But forward passing isn't his job, is it?

At least, I don't see why it should be. What's wrong with a Etuhu breaks up attack, passes to Murphy, Murphy does something useful dynamic? Plays to their strengths. Murphy is an outstanding passer of the ball, Etuhu is big and strong and can tackle a bit.

[AlFayedsChequebook]

But he did have a very good game yesterday.
Nogood "Etuhu Brute, isit" Boyo

He did, and if you look at the chalkboards on the guardian website you can see how dominant he was in the middle.

BUT

He made about 60 passes and only one was an attempt to move the ball forward in the middle of the pitch.

If he is going to be truly effective we need him trying to keep play running smoothly through the middle, especially when we dominate the middle as much as we did yesterday.

But forward passing isn't his job, is it?

At least, I don't see why it should be. What's wrong with a Etuhu breaks up attack, passes to Murphy, Murphy does something useful dynamic? Plays to their strengths. Murphy is an outstanding passer of the ball, Etuhu is big and strong and can tackle a bit.

I completely agree, but the problem is that Hughes has him playing half the game ahead of Murphy so he keeps recieving the ball in advanced positions. If he cannot keep play moving (which I agree is not his game) then he needs to hang back more and do later runs into the box.

He is a good defensive player and a very powerful runner. I guess this is another lack of a big man problem. Without a holdup player up front to bring others into play, Murphy's options are limited and Etuhu becomes more of a target?

[finnster01]

But he did have a very good game yesterday.
Nogood "Etuhu Brute, isit" Boyo

He did, and if you look at the chalkboards on the guardian website you can see how dominant he was in the middle.

BUT

He made about 60 passes and only one was an attempt to move the ball forward in the middle of the pitch.

If he is going to be truly effective we need him trying to keep play running smoothly through the middle, especially when we dominate the middle as much as we did yesterday.

But forward passing isn't his job, is it?

At least, I don't see why it should be. What's wrong with a Etuhu breaks up attack, passes to Murphy, Murphy does something useful dynamic? Plays to their strengths. Murphy is an outstanding passer of the ball, Etuhu is big and strong and can tackle a bit.

I completely agree, but the problem is that Hughes has him playing half the game ahead of Murphy so he keeps recieving the ball in advanced positions. If he cannot keep play moving (which I agree is not his game) then he needs to hang back more and do later runs into the box.

He is a good defensive player and a very powerful runner. I guess this is another lack of a big man problem. Without a holdup player up front to bring others into play, Murphy's options are limited and Etuhu becomes more of a target?

I totally agree Mr AFC,

Etuhu is a bit like the Italian tanks in World War II. One gear forwards and 22 reverse.

Now get your weight in mate for Slim Jim 2011.

[nevzter]

As always, nice summary, HD and thank you.   :wine:

It was that final ball - that damn final ball - that Fulham couldn't produce.  In my eyes, they did everything else necessary to nick a draw...and Dempsey should've really poked in the rebound off of AJ's shot - he has to knock over the Spurs man (I forget whether it was Gallas or Dawson, or neither) to put a boot on that ball.  All of which leads to  :beer:

And, after the past two matches, I like Fulham's chances against WBA.  Moreover, Fulham need to atone for their woeful performance at WBA in October and I believe Hughes will have the squad up for it.