[Archived] Fulham Preview

[thenodrog]

I am STILL laughing at the Dingle family on Match of the Day 2.....dad had buck teeth and his wife decided to call their kid Robbie-Blake Moore.

His wife had the 'same' teeth I thought!!

[47er]

The attendance was so down thanks to the 150 or so Fulham fans, rather than the normal 3000 away fans we are used to!

Today - Benni showed why, he MUST NOT be sold

Also Olsson showed why he should be given a chance on the left wing, rather than MGP.

Another thing is that Kalinic should now get a good run of games

2 or 3 years ago we played Fulham at Ewood on an absolutely beautiful August evening. The attendance?--16000. Philip, you're talking rubbish due to your late conversion that Sam must go. We didn't start with 4-5-1, we didn't omit Kalinic,he hasn't lost his passion and he definitely hasn't lost the dressing room.

And we won! The morbid have a while to wait yet.

[47er]

The corner that resulted in Reid hitting it miles over the bar? I was annoyed at the fact that it was played short as well, simply because out 2 goals came from set pieces, and both our central defenders scored, so why not lump it into the mix again and see what happens? Instead, we wasted it.

Also Reid had a player completely unmarked to his right.

[47er]

Just got back in from the match (went for a couple of drinks afterwards) and although it wasn't a 'great' game, we did QUITE well. A nice mixture of play, I thought (apart from the bits of head tennis, which I hate).

Nelsen - goal (was it offside?) and good defensive play at times.

Robbo - some outstanding saves, very few complications and a clean sheet (my MOTM).

Reidy - Not fantastic, but did very well on his return. Ran everywhere, putting pressure on the ball constantly and has a MUCH better throw than Pedersen. His 3 years of gym work has paid off (must've been Sam's plan!)

Olsson - How much better was he than Pedersen on the left of midfield??? Get him playing more!

Hoilett - Again, did very well when he came on. Nice touches and plenty of pace.

McCarthy - A few bad touches (more than you'd expect) but still many marvellous touches and even a few showboats thrown in.

Emerton - A lot of running, but decided towards the end that he didn't have to track back whenever he lost the ball. That got right on my tits.

Chimbo - On and off. Some good movement but a bit dodgy at times.

Givet - did okay.

Samba - Did very well in the air, but seemed to struggle with tackles after his booking. Nice flukey goal.

Kalinic - Not his best performance. It could well have been DiSanto in his place tbh. But no disappointments.

Salgado - No words needed. He is Salgado (did okay).

Andrews - pointed. That's it.

What have we learnt?

Robbo

Jacobsen-Samba-Nelsen-Chimbonda

Hoilett-Reid-NZonzi-Olsson

Dunn - Kalinic

This would be my favoured formation after today.

Surely you'd give Benni at least one more chance? (Sorry I read later you'd seen sense!)

[tonyoz]

Pleased with the three points, but there are times when someone seems to flick a switch and we become a shambles defensively. Very pleased with Olsson, Kalinic and Reid. Kalinic definitely needs to start putting the ball in the net and I do still think he is a bit lightweight, but he reminds me of a Jansen/Fowler kind of player.

Olsson put up a very pleasing performance on the wing. (He is still a bit scary at full back though.) It's been a while since we have had any real attacking threat coming from this direction.

Kalinic is growing on me - he did much better this week but he still does a fair impression of Pinocchio when he is running under challenge.

Reid is a good prospect if he can keep fit. He is tough in the tackle, something we have been missing but he was late to the ball quite a few times. Maybe it's not surprising after the time he's had but the lad deserves some good fortune.

Benni made the game worth watching - he seemed to revel in the company of the young lads.

[MarkBRFC71]

I interpret 'in the hole' (Dunn's Position) as a forward role. Apologies to all pedantics. In the end, it's 11 men on the pitch. Although having thought about it, I'd probably play Benni there in Dunn's place, at least on todays evidence.

Yeah, cos playing someone 'in the hole' has worked really well this season. Benni played better today because he was up front with Niko. It has to be two up front, none of this 'in the hole', 'playing off the striker' b*llocks which has proven time and time again to be totally inneffectual for us.

- did Sam really turn over a new page today? I think we were playing 4-5-1 again given how isolated Kalinic was much of the time with Benni in the Dunn role.

No, it was definitely 4-4-2. Benni was right up alongside Niko - this was a large factor in us winning for me.

[thenodrog]

Yeah, cos playing someone 'in the hole' has worked really well this season. Benni played better today because he was up front with Niko. It has to be two up front, none of this 'in the hole', 'playing off the striker' b*llocks which has proven time and time again to be totally inneffectual for us.

Seems to work fine for most other Prem clubs.

It's not 'how' it's 'who'. It all depends who is playing inside left or inside right. Rooney, Lampard / Cole and Gerrard seem to do OK for their clubs most weeks.

[Paul]

Come on... the tactics were exactly the same. We scored from set pieces and quite a few of our chances (or rather forays into the opposition's box) actually came from Robinson's punts up field. We scored 2 goals from set pieces. It was in no way a change of tactics/formation. The difference was the players looked more determined for the win and when we had McCarthy, Hoilett and Olsson on the field (some players with skill) we started tearing it up on the left flank. If Sam needs to learn anything then it's that we should keep faith in players like Olsson, Hoilett, Kalinic and McCarthy to create chances and win us games, rather than Diouf, Andrews, Roberts etc.

The overall point here is simply wrong. We played 4-4-2 for long periods which caused Fulham to keep three men back to mark McCarthy and Kalinic, something we haven't seen at Ewwod for sometime. Around 70-75 minutes Benni dropped deeper to help the midfield protect our lead, I wasn't overjoyed by this but see why it was done. It's true the two strikers weren't side by side but it was definetley 4-4-2 with much of our creative football coming from the wings and McCarthy in particular. Robbo looked to throw the ball to the fullbacks on many occassions but they are so unused to this tactic they had usually already gone to the half-way line, this forced Robinson into his long ball punts.

Dunn has been playing "in the hole," McCarthy did not for most of the match.

The reasons why I said it might be expensive:

- is Sam's football going to bring those 4,000 fans back that were missing from Ewood compared with our average attendance?

- did Sam really turn over a new page today? I think we were playing 4-5-1 again given how isolated Kalinic was much of the time with Benni in the Dunn role.

- if Sam has made himself safe today, he is going to force the sale of Benni. Would we have won today without Benni?

- are the players going to play for Sam after he scapegoated the lot of them in his own defence?

- is anyone arguing that fortune didn't favour us today in the way we haven't got lucky in other games?

- what happens if today proves to be just a blip? A replacement will have to arrive without a transfer window to work with and a far worse set of fixtures remaining. Coyle couldn't conjure a point in his first game today whilst Wigan could do to us what they did to Wolves.

Don't get me wrong, being 5 points above danger is a huge relief but I want to see us playing better football convincingly under Sam before being remotely relaxed about his tenure. As den reported, Sam went bananas when the players tried a short corner to mix things up a bit- that is not a good sign at all.

There's a lot of truth here

He was clearly as disgusted and fed up with the fans as I have been over the past few weeks. The message was clear, it shouldn't take him to score a goal for the fans to start supporting the team. Go nuts for the team you love and they will repay you for your support every time.

People seem to want instant changes in every game. Making drastic changes is just not realistic. People are on here saying Sam should be changing it around more, but look over this season and see just how much he has varied formations, line ups and tactics. How many other managers have done that this season? The problem isn't him changing things around, the problem is him being unable to find his best team.

I hope after tonight he will have seen the potential of an attack force consisting of Hoilett, Olsson, McCarthy and Kalinic and play them next game. I would like to see this lineup against Villa, and I would be very confident about getting the win:

Robinson

Chimbonda/Jacobsen/Salgado-Nelsen-Samba-Givet

Hoilett-Reid-Dunn-Olsson

McCarthy-Kalinic

It's very easy to watch from the other side of the world and criticise the support. One thing I can tell you for sure is supporters who start calling those who are in the ground need to be careful. Samba's reaction had nothing to do with the crowd, that was clear to all of us.

Overall I enjoyed this game of FOOTBALL. We weren't great but we were different, which makes things interesting for the support and the opposition!! McCarthy had an excellent game and so much of our creativity stemmed from him it would make you wonder what would happen if he played like this every game. That two defenders scored is irrelevant, the whole team is supposed to contribute goals and if our forwards are distracting the opposing defence enough to allow Samba and Nelsen to score so be it.

These are the first three of twelve points we desperately need in the next six weeks. We must follow this up with victories over Wigan, Hull and Bolton.

Really pleased I have tickets for Wednesday. I feel confident and excited we have a chance, just a chance, to get a result at Villa Park. Before the game I felt were already beaten but there was enough on view on Sunday to suggest it could be worth the journey.

Can we have Duff back?

[Majiball]

In all honesty, my problems with Sam are his seeming refusal to be unpredictable and change play now and again.

For me its one of the biggest flaws in our game. Our goals came from one thing yesterday, Benni. Now his first some are saying was a mis-hit, personnally I think Benni's cheeky enough to try whipping it in like that. Nelsen's goal also came from a set-piece that wasn't taken as normal IE hit at Samba's head.

If ever Sam needed an example of how variation brings success on the pitch then yesterday should be it, because I'm not convinced Benni followed the plan for either set-piece.

[thenodrog]

For me its one of the biggest flaws in our game. Our goals came from one thing yesterday, Benni. Now his first some are saying was a mis-hit, personnally I think Benni's cheeky enough to try whipping it in like that. Nelsen's goal also came from a set-piece that wasn't taken as normal IE hit at Samba's head.

If ever Sam needed an example of how variation brings success on the pitch then yesterday should be it, because I'm not convinced Benni followed the plan for either set-piece.

I think MoTD 2 outlined that that corner was a scuff majiball. It went straight towards Murphy and Duff at shin level. It only came good cos Murphy moved out at the last second just as BM was kicking it.

As for the second. I think we've all seen many times that from the left of the box BM can hit them hard and flat with swerve better than most.

[Majiball]

Nevermind.

The point was and still is the two goals we scored yesterday came from not punting the ball at Samba for a change. Regardless of intent we deviated from the norm and look what happened.

[Muddboy]

The attendance was so down thanks to the 150 or so Fulham fans, rather than the normal 3000 away fans we are used to!

Today - Benni showed why, he MUST NOT be sold

Also Olsson showed why he should be given a chance on the left wing, rather than MGP.

Another thing is that Kalinic should now get a good run of games

Olsson brought more excitement to the left wing yesterday than I've seen from Pedersen all season.

It's just great to see a player with a bit of energy and who is willing to have a go at the fullback.

I was also pleased to see him putting his foot and doing some defending when Fulham were attacking. Givet needs a little bit of cover when he's at left back and that's something he never gets when MGP is playing.

[waggy]

i honestly think we will win tomorrow,by hook or by crook,lifes just like that,when i'm nearing a return to ewood fate will play its deadly hand,2-0 rovers field and o'mara

brilliant result and prediction,thanks duffer for playing a superb pass to samba,and the lino for missing a obvious offside,from my bar stool we looked lucky but who gives a flying fook,LARDARSE OUT

[Kelbo]

I was also pleased to see him putting his foot and doing some defending when Fulham were attacking. Givet needs a little bit of cover when he's at left back and that's something he never gets when MGP is playing.

I thought that was Pedersons strong point, he tracks back pretty well, indeed a perfect illustration v Villa when he got back to cover well, after the full back was out of position!!

[dazmaz]

a much needed result, imo reid was a huge boost for us, got a few crunching tackles in early on and making fulham think twice. shame about his shot in the 2nd half, i think the pass from the corner caught him by surprise. wasnt all plain sailing though, a few individual mistakes could have cost us on another day. the linesman from the first half (one in our half) was very poor, very slow to give a offside, robbo looked like he wanted to deck him. lets hope things go our way on wednesday.

[G Somerset Rover]

Olsson brought more excitement to the left wing yesterday than I've seen from Pedersen all season.

I'm excited by Olsson. I and a fair few others had been calling for his inclusion on the left of midfield for some time and it was vindicated yesterday. The lad has pace to burn (except when up against Lennon ) and can whip in a dangerous cross.

Lets hope he gets given a fair run in that position now so that he can make the place his own. MGP must have been choking on his prawn sandwiches yesterday!

[Amo]

Apart from those set-pieces, I don't think we looked like scoring. It was all laboured when we tried to get out the blocks, without any pace and penetration. Kalinic spent a lot of the time chasing lost causes, instead of having the ball played through to him. This result epitomized Sam's football decree: Play for the set-pieces and hope something comes off. There were moments when we passed it about, but they were few and far between and still lacked a cutting edge.

All in all, it was a good result, but there's still a lot of work to be done to shake off our bugbear.

[CrazyIvan]

Garth Crooks Team of the week includes Big Chris. Nelly is on the bench along with P Robinson and a certain Benni McCarthy... And is the tiny logo on the shirts last seasons?

[JAL]

I think MoTD 2 outlined that that corner was a scuff majiball. It went straight towards Murphy and Duff at shin level. It only came good cos Murphy moved out at the last second just as BM was kicking it.

Theno, IT WASNT A SCUFF BALL. MaCarthy deliberately kicked the ball the way he did. He tried something different, gambled, and it paid off. Good instinctive bit of play from Benni.

The only bit of luck you could say would be the clearance from the Fulham defender.

[S15]

brilliant result and prediction,thanks duffer for playing a superb pass to samba,and the lino for missing a obvious offside,from my bar stool we looked lucky but who gives a flying fook,LARDARSE OUT

TBH it wasn't exactly a stunning performance that proves the doubters wrong, but I don't think after some of the tripe on show recently anyone was expecting us to fly out the traps and destroy Fulham with a brand of free flowing football.

0-0 was probably the fairest result, but it was a good solid performance where we got the breaks through a combination of luck of persistence.

My problems with the manager don't lie with the approaches to games like Fulham at home, I'm just fed up with a lack of a cunning game plan against the big clubs, especially away from home. Hughes managed to come up with a game plan that allowed us to pick up unexpected points, hence we spent most our time in the top 8/10 under Hughes, whereas it's lower mid table under Allardyce.

The most frustrating thing from my point of view is Allardyce came up with such an approach at Bolton, so why not with us? Give him money, and see if the next five months bring a change. If not, questions will continue to be asked, and rightly so.

However, I still don't believe he has under performed to a level that warrant him being sacked, and if we start sacking managers who have us in 12th position and 5 points from the drop, not many managers are going to see it as a job worth taking.

[JAL]

Garth Crooks Team of the week includes Big Chris. Nelly is on the bench along with P Robinson and a certain Benni McCarthy... And is the tiny logo on the shirts last seasons?

For the record its got to be said that up until Samba scored, he was very poor.

Somehow he seemed to be lifted by his goal which was good for us and then had a good game, though he SHOULD have been SENT OFF in the second half and a penalty awarded to Fulham.

Dont here many people criticising the referee for his critical mistake here.

The game should have gone 2-1 with ten men and Keef on aswell for the last twenty minutes.

[MarkBRFC71]

People are on here saying Sam should be changing it around more, but look over this season and see just how much he has varied formations, line ups and tactics. How many other managers have done that this season? The problem isn't him changing things around, the problem is him being unable to find his best team.

Robinson

Chimbonda/Jacobsen/Salgado-Nelsen-Samba-Givet

Hoilett-Reid-Dunn-Olsson

McCarthy-Kalinic

Line-ups have varied (too much chopping and changing for me), formations and tactics have been almost exactly the same every game, at least when starting matches. He has only changed during games when being a goal or two behind has forced it upon him. The only time they changed before yesterday were the Bolton and Chelsea games - any coincidence that was when McDonald was in charge?

That said, I agree with your proposed line-up - but I'll be VERY surprised if we see that on Wednesday.

[TimmyJimmy]

I thought Samba was pointing to the press box, maybe he was asking Nicko to say it again. It obviously stung many in the camp as evidenced by Sam's "little man" comment (ouch) and Reidy saying in the LET interview that the unrest was nonsense. Good to get that kind of response from the players on the pitch.

Enjoyed the match, enjoyed the formation and the performances, enjoyed the result the most though. We are clearly still a work in progress and given where we are in our development this was a good result.

The young kids coming through will be really significant for us next year, this is a good policy by Sam, we just need to stay up this year. The right addition here and there in the close season and we could go places next season IMO.

Best player on the park by a country mile was Dempsey, well impressed, hope he isn't too badly injured.

When Man of the March was being announced the five of us all shouted out different names so I think that shows the effort that all the players put in. Kalinic for me, but I would have had no objection to several others winning it.

Nelson was a different man to the one that played against Villa, why oh why can't he stay at that level every match. Respect where it's due Ryan you had a very good game.

<<flame on>> The booing - it was a totally cringeworthy moment, even the announcer was struggling to phrase the announcement of the substitution as he was anticipating another bout of booing when he said 'Andrews'. It shames the club and it shames me being a supporter of the club, I'd happily knock one of the boo-ers out but they are too difficult spot amongst all the woodwork the inhabit. It's about time the supporters in the same section turned on them as they are taking cheap shots because they think there's no consequences, well there are, this is our club. I don't know where you cretins infiltrated from but you clearly have no feel for the club at all, you are complete disgrace. Andrews is a Rovers player, until that changes he is one of us. In my book if you kick one of us then we all limp. I've had enough of you t*ssers just pack up and move out, you aren't wanted or needed. <<flame off>>

[Sysagent]

<<flame on>> The booing - it was a totally cringeworthy moment, even the announcer was struggling to phrase the announcement of the substitution as he was anticipating another bout of booing when he said 'Andrews'. It shames the club and it shames me being a supporter of the club, I'd happily knock one of the boo-ers out but they are too difficult spot amongst all the woodwork the inhabit. It's about time the supporters in the same section turned on them as they are taking cheap shots because they think there's no consequences, well there are, this is our club. I don't know where you cretins infiltrated from but you clearly have no feel for the club at all, you are complete disgrace. Andrews is a Rovers player, until that changes he is one of us. In my book if you kick one of us then we all limp. I've had enough of you t*ssers just pack up and move out, you aren't wanted or needed. <<flame off>>

100% agreed, my daughter (11yr old) asked "Dad why are they booing one of our players".

I had no answer, as there isn't one...

[JAL]

I thought Samba was pointing to the press box, maybe he was asking Nicko to say it again. It obviously stung many in the camp as evidenced by Sam's "little man" comment (ouch) and Reidy saying in the LET interview that the unrest was nonsense. Good to get that kind of response from the players on the pitch.

Enjoyed the match, enjoyed the formation and the performances, enjoyed the result the most though. We are clearly still a work in progress and given where we are in our development this was a good result.

The young kids coming through will be really significant for us next year, this is a good policy by Sam, we just need to stay up this year. The right addition here and there in the close season and we could go places next season IMO.

Best player on the park by a country mile was Dempsey, well impressed, hope he isn't too badly injured.

When Man of the March was being announced the five of us all shouted out different names so I think that shows the effort that all the players put in. Kalinic for me, but I would have had no objection to several others winning it.

Nelson was a different man to the one that played against Villa, why oh why can't he stay at that level every match. Respect where it's due Ryan you had a very good game.

<<flame on>> The booing - it was a totally cringeworthy moment, even the announcer was struggling to phrase the announcement of the substitution as he was anticipating another bout of booing when he said 'Andrews'. It shames the club and it shames me being a supporter of the club, I'd happily knock one of the boo-ers out but they are too difficult spot amongst all the woodwork the inhabit. It's about time the supporters in the same section turned on them as they are taking cheap shots because they think there's no consequences, well there are, this is our club. I don't know where you cretins infiltrated from but you clearly have no feel for the club at all, you are complete disgrace. Andrews is a Rovers player, until that changes he is one of us. In my book if you kick one of us then we all limp. I've had enough of you t*ssers just pack up and move out, you aren't wanted or needed. <<flame off>>

Ryan did cock up again first half, by moving forward to close down a Fulham midfielder then stopped, this allowed AJ in on goal, but he took his shot early from the edge of the box, thankfully for us he missed the target.

This could have been another defining moment in the game had AJ put the ball in the net.