[Archived] Fulham Preview

[mr bishi]

"He's got three or four stitches in the side of his head and a bang on his eye," Kean said of Hoilett.

"It's not a great challenge and he'll have some concussion. It's a bad one.

"It could have been worse. He was out for a little bit of time and it might affect him for the next game. But he'll be fine."

[super_arran]

We settled for a point against Fulham.... No urgency in attack, Kean's substitutions were baffling. Rochina played very well, Dann made a good debut bar that suicide pass to Zamora.

The game was crying out for Yakubu coming on, why Lowe was brought on I'll never know.

He needs to go ASAP.

Webb bottled the sending off of Schwarzer, roles reversed you've got to wonder if that would have been the case. I'm not going down the road of blaming the referee for everything, I'm just concerned by the standard of refereeing in the Premiership, over the weekend there have been some terrible decisions made.

Rochina came off with an injury; as did Dunn and Samba.

It was never a sending off. He came for the ball, missed it. It was just clumsy more than anything. No malice

[K-Hod]

Rochina came off with an injury; as did Dunn and Samba.

It was never a sending off. He came for the ball, missed it. It was just clumsy more than anything. No malice

Hoilett was first to the ball, Schwarzer denied a goalscoring opportunity, red card, end of.

[Balwer]

Hoilett was first to the ball, Schwarzer denied a goalscoring opportunity, red card, end of.

No, it has to be an obvious goalscoring opportunity. Kelly was behind Schwarzer at the time of contact. At the time I thought it was a red but now think yellow was appropriate.

[Pedro]

Unfit chaos, without any fitness!

Oh and we are not fit enough!

Totally agree with you, our lads looked absolutely shattered from about an hour onwards. The substitutions were all due to injuries so that ruined whatever game plan Kean may have pretended to have.

[modes98]

It was never a sending off. He came for the ball, missed it. It was just clumsy more than anything. No malice

There doesn't have to be malice. Nor intent.

Had Schwarzer not come out and clattered him Junior would have had a chance to score. Afterwards Kelly got back but that doesn't change the fact that the keeper fouling him stopped him having a shot.

Having said that we were awful. Kean has to go, we looked horrific.

[Pedro]

No, it has to be an obvious goalscoring opportunity. Kelly was behind Schwarzer at the time of contact. At the time I thought it was a red but now think yellow was appropriate.

I don't know how much more of an obvious goal scoring opportunity you can have than getting behind the defender, beating the keeper to the ball and heading it past him towards an empty net only to be absolutely KO'd. Referees are WAY too lenient on goalkeepers trashing outfield players. If you are the last man, you should always walk.

[Balwer]

I don't know how much more of an obvious goal scoring opportunity you can have than getting behind the defender, beating the keeper to the ball and heading it past him towards an empty net only to be absolutely KO'd. Referees are WAY too lenient on goalkeepers trashing outfield players. If you are the last man, you should always walk.

He never had possession, it was a contested ball in the air that Schwarzer came in too late on. Also, he wasn't the last man as already stated. Schwarzer has every right to contest for the ball, he was late, it was a foul, yellow card.

[K-Hod]

I don't know how much more of an obvious goal scoring opportunity you can have than getting behind the defender, beating the keeper to the ball and heading it past him towards an empty net only to be absolutely KO'd. Referees are WAY too lenient on goalkeepers trashing outfield players. If you are the last man, you should always walk.

You put that better than I did!

[chris]

I don't know how much more of an obvious goal scoring opportunity you can have than getting behind the defender, beating the keeper to the ball and heading it past him towards an empty net only to be absolutely KO'd. Referees are WAY too lenient on goalkeepers trashing outfield players. If you are the last man, you should always walk.

he would have never got to the ball, he was so unbalanced from the jump and the header was weak.

I agree with the ref.

[DE.]

The thing that's most worrying for me is that the players do not seem to understand what system they're playing. I tried to work out what formation we were playing, what each player's role was, and I really struggled. We didn't look stable, we just looked like a disorganised mess. Our few attacks came from players like Rochina showing their individual talent - there was very little team-play on show. As someone else earlier in the thread mentioned, our team play like strangers.

Whilst Fulham were very blunt attacking wise and had no real threat, I could at least make sense of the system they were playing and what each player was supposed to be doing.

[LDRover]

Yeah but the last man is usually the last defender with the keeper in behind.In this case Schwarzer was the last defender with the 'defender' behind. It's a sending off,no doubt.

[den]

It was a red card for violent conduct, never mind whether it was a goalscoring opportunity or not.

If a midfielder had attacked another midfielder in the same way, causing stitches to the side of the head, a blow to the eye and knocked him out, that should always be a red card as well.

[McClarky]

Worying how we get all these muscular injuries and then seem to fade as the game goes on. Looks like a poor level of fitness to me. We had Goodwillie there looking like he was struggling for most of the game as well. Overall a fair result as we played OK in the 1st half but we weren't in it at all after half time. Great display at the back from Givet in particular in the 2nd half kept us in it really.

The midfield in the 2nd half was really bad, N'zonzi contributes nect to nothing really and once Dunn had gone we were outplayed completely. The lack of any proper full backs is costing us as well as we struggle to defend properly and to get out when we do get it at the back. I'd consider playing Dann at rb next week if Samba is fit with Olsson at lb but this is another patch up job to try and address glaring holwes in our squad.

Kean Out!

[Smithyster]

The thing that's most worrying for me is that the players do not seem to understand what system they're playing. I tried to work out what formation we were playing, what each player's role was, and I really struggled. We didn't look stable, we just looked like a disorganised mess. Our few attacks came from players like Rochina showing their individual talent - there was very little team-play on show. As someone else earlier in the thread mentioned, our team play like strangers.

Whilst Fulham were very blunt attacking wise and had no real threat, I could at least make sense of the system they were playing and what each player was supposed to be doing.

Agreed. They seemed to just scatter. One thing i noticed was the ineffective Nzonzi always seem to crop up on the wing and up the pitch. I would have thought that if we were going to have Dunny and Nzonzi sitting behind Formica, Rochina, Goody and Hoilett then they would actually stay there. And if there was to be any roaming from either of them, it would be Dunn who would do it.

[Balwer]

Yeah but the last man is usually the last defender with the keeper in behind.In this case Schwarzer was the last defender with the 'defender' behind. It's a sending off,no doubt.

The law states that a player should be sent off for an offence punishable by either a free-kick or penalty kick which denies an obvious goal-scoring opportunity. An interpretation of the law says that the referee needs to consider the location and number of defenders. It doesn’t however specify if the player causing the infringement is the last and only player in the vicinity of the ball. Equally the law doesn’t indicate that if the closest defender to the goal causes and infringement that player must be sent off. In both cases it is the referee who must interpret the law as it applies to the infringement at the time.

[BuckyRover]

The law states that a player should be sent off for an offence punishable by either a free-kick or penalty kick which denies an obvious goal-scoring opportunity. An interpretation of the law says that the referee needs to consider the location and number of defenders. It doesn’t however specify if the player causing the infringement is the last and only player in the vicinity of the ball. Equally the law doesn’t indicate that if the closest defender to the goal causes and infringement that player must be sent off. In both cases it is the referee who must interpret the law as it applies to the infringement at the time.

It bloody annoys me when pundits say "last man" as you have just pointed out it's not in the rules.

[DE.]

Agreed. They seemed to just scatter. One thing i noticed was the ineffective Nzonzi always seem to crop up on the wing and up the pitch. I would have thought that if we were going to have Dunny and Nzonzi sitting behind Formica, Rochina, Goody and Hoilett then they would actually stay there. And if there was to be any roaming from either of them, it would be Dunn who would do it.

When I was trying to work out what each player's role was I looked at where players were popping up, what runs they were making, where they moved to when we lost possession... honestly, it was amazing to see how little consistency there was. Our full-backs were out of position a lot, N'Zonzi, as you said, was all over the place. Rochina too - I have no problem with Ruben having a free role, but Formica also seems to have a free role, and N'Zonzi isn't disciplined enough to stay in his position. Hoilett also drifted into the centre too often. The centre-backs and Goodwillie were the only players on the pitch who really seemed to stay in their positions and be effective - well, Goodwillie wasn't effective, but he generally stayed in his position on the pitch.

Now, it could be that Kean has a plan and the players are just ignoring him, or it could be that Kean gives them too much freedom to do whatever they want. Either way it's his fault that this isn't working.

[Blue n White Rover]

We settled for a point against Fulham.... No urgency in attack, Kean's substitutions were baffling. Rochina played very well, Dann made a good debut bar that suicide pass to Zamora.

The game was crying out for Yakubu coming on, why Lowe was brought on I'll never know.

He needs to go ASAP.

Webb bottled the sending off of Schwarzer, roles reversed you've got to wonder if that would have been the case. I'm not going down the road of blaming the referee for everything, I'm just concerned by the standard of refereeing in the Premiership, over the weekend there have been some terrible decisions made.

I thought Lowe coming on was a bit odd at first too. However, if Rochina was injured then I guess it was the right choice to make. We've played 3 games and got 0 points on the board. As much as I would have liked to see Yakubu bought on to play alongside Goodwillie or even replace him, I guess to secure that first point was more important.

First time I've seen the players in action since coming back from my holidays. Very impressed with Rochina, and also thought Dann was solid barring a few slip ups. Givet was miles better in centre half than at LB (What was he doing with their goal??).

Biggest disappointment for me has to be Petrovic. Thought he was very poor, how has he played in the other games?

[imy9]

always trust imy to look to postitives even when there arent any.

this result just gives kean a stay of execution, a point is little consilation with a performance like that, out-manouvered, outplayed, outclassed. Fulham clearly have the same problem as us a big imobile striker who cant hit the target (bar his goal of course) .

another excuse for the chicken chokers to keep the bald headed numpty on.

So the fact that we were playing away at a tough place like Fulham, lost our best defender, arguably our best player this season (Dunn), our goal scorer (Rochina), our most creative player (Junior) and came away with a point is not a positive?

[LDRover]

It bloody annoys me when pundits say "last man" as you have just pointed out it's not in the rules.

Exactly. Thanks for the ruling by the way Balwer.

[ABBEY]

he would have never got to the ball, he was so unbalanced from the jump and the header was weak.

I agree with the ref.

He headed it .

[Pedro]

he would have never got to the ball, he was so unbalanced from the jump and the header was weak.

I agree with the ref.

I'd say he was more "unbalanced" courtesy of a 6ft 4" Aussie and the header served it's purpose of getting it beyond the keeper. Regardless, it was a good point but a very poor 2nd half performance.

[Mattyblue]

So the fact that we were playing away at a tough place like Fulham, lost our best defender, arguably our best player this season (Dunn), our goal scorer (Rochina), our most creative player (Junior) and came away with a point is not a positive?

You play teams on their merits, they were as poor as us first half. It was another winniable game.

As for the injuries, a plethora of muscle strains usually points to one thing- lack of fitness and looking at the state of our players that is no surprise.

[Andy]

It was a red card for violent conduct

Really?!

It was a clash of heads in a 50/50 contest.

I think the ref got it spot-on to be honest.