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With the start of our new season underway, what are your expectations ?

Discussion in 'Fulham' started by frogman27, Jul 2, 2011.

  1. frogman27

    frogman27 Member

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    Morning all,

    With the start of the season getting underway this week, it has made me look at what we could realistically expect from the next 11 months. Without stating the obvious, we start another new season with another new manager, albeit the man who should have been instated at the beginning of last season.

    Martin Jol, it is becoming clearer by the day, is a complete football man. He seems to live football. He is what we all refer to as " Fulhamish " to the core. He retains integrity in the face of all occasions and will be the first to praise quality but quickly criticise if the players do not perform. A man who has realistic expectations of what the players as a team can achieve.

    He has inherited a quality squad that function superbly as a team. Although he wants attacking football, it will be hard to get this group of players to change a very solid defensive style of football.

    Conspiracy theorists among us could suggest that Mark Hughes was brought in to fill the void until Martin Jol became available. Hughes has the introduced a far more attacking style in the year he has been temporarily in charge. This is perfect preparation for when Jol starts to get us playing " total football ".

    A convincing victory on thursday was expected and the team did exactly what was needed. Only back in training for a few sessions, they gave us the lead required for the away leg. Jol pointed out that he hoped for a few more goals. With time under his guidance this will hopefully come.

    Reading views from the players in the press, it seems that they are all excited by the sessions so far and look forward to life under Jol. Stability has been retained at the club even with change in coaching personnel. Great to see Ray Lewington still in the set up, he is a familiar face to the players.

    Great to see Dalle Valle getting an opportunity. He sounds like a level headed young lad, saying on the FFC site that he worked hard in close season to be as fit as possible for when his chance came. And so it did. That sort of attitude bodes well him.

    So what can we expect ? A stable squad, enjoying playing football. This is the basis for good football, some quality coaching added to the mix and we could expect plenty more of the good passing and solid defense, with some more goals thrown in. If so it is not unrealistic to want a top ten finish and a decent run in the cups, Europa league included. I felt last season that if we could overcome our inability to win away, we could get into Europe. This is key this season, we have to start winning away from the Cottage if we want to step a level. Bringing young players through could help this process. Under Jol though, we can be sure of something: honesty and attacking football. Bring in on!!!!

    COYW
     
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  2. Super Brian McBride

    Super Brian McBride Well-Known Member

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    I've always had this theory ever since we got to the Premier:

    If you win most of your home games against non top 4 teams then we should finish outside the relegation zone and near mid table.
    If on top of that if we don't lose more than half our away games we should finish mid table or above.
    If we can keep our normal home record and on top of that we can win a least 6 games away then we should be competing for automatic European places.

    So realistically our away form has to improve, but that will be hard as shown last season that there are a lot of teams who are at the same level as us in not losing home games easily.

    I think Jol has a different mentality to Cup games , in thinking they are a route to show team improvement by getting to semi-finals if not Finals. So I think a good run in one the cups and if not a push for automatic Europa Place would make me a happy chappy;)
     
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  3. Penguin

    Penguin Member

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    Morning Frogman. That's a good summary of where we are now and what we might hope for and I don't disagree with any of it.

    The only thing I'd add about Jol is that, as well as the various good qualities you've mentioned, he seems to have an understanding of the fans expectations. It is surely unusual for a manager to even look at forums let alone admit he'd done so (I can't imagine MH deigning to do such a thing!) But he did it and picked up that we are ambitious for the club but not overly so - there are no deluded hopes of the Champions League. I really like the way he has been so thorough in immersing himself completely in all things Fulham and I hope that that kind of understanding can only lead to good things.

    As for my expectations, I am looking forward to an exciting season with lots of matches. I'd like us to score more goals and win away more. We also need to be beating the top teams sometimes which we didn't manage last season (although we have done in the past). I'd also like a continuation of our fair play record - its one of the things I'm most proud of about the club.

    As for results I'd like to think, as you've said, we can achieve a top 10 finish and some good runs in the domestic cups. And here's where I am going to be perhaps overly ambitious - this year I want us to win the Europa League. I know it won't be easy but the players have European experience now and they must want to go that extra step even more than we do. So fingers crossed and at least we know we'll enjoy the ride!
     
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  4. Bidley

    Bidley Well-Known Member

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    Some great comments here, and a top article from frogman <applause>

    Realistically, I'd be happy to consolidate our PL status and make a good account of ourselves in the cups, and call it our transitional season. But what I'd like is either latter stages of Europa/cup final appearance with a top ten finish, or failing that a top 7 finish.
     
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  5. Cottager58

    Cottager58 Well-Known Member

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    I can't wait till the end of the season and we can get back to our Black and White strip !!!

    No seriously, good post Frgman.
     
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  6. GeraScores

    GeraScores Well-Known Member

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    A bit early to say, no doubt with some in/outs to go, but a top-10 finish, but how high depends on the EL. I'd love us to get into the group stage of the EL but then it becomes a lottery whether we progress to the final knock-out rounds. Still thinking about Juventus and (even better) Hamburg at home - the hairs still stand up!

    Certainly, I'd like Martin "Fulhamish" Jol to do well.

    COYW
     
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  7. toshchamberlainsmate

    toshchamberlainsmate Well-Known Member

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    Assuming we get to the group stage, we will be seeded fairly well - we are 51 in the UEFA ranking, so should be seeded in first or second pot.
     
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  8. Captain Morgan

    Captain Morgan Well-Known Member

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    I had a look at the UEFA co-efficients a couple of weeks ago, Tosh, and I'm not sure we'll make the first pot. As I understand it, pot 1 is the first 12 seeds, pot 2 the next 12 and so on. If nobody unexpectedly gets knocked out before the group stages we might be looking to sneak in, but that's without counting on the teams who go out early from the Champions League and get a second bite at europe in the Europa. It won't take many big fish to be among those and we could easily find ourselves in the second pot. Still, either way it's an improvement on last time, when I seem to remember us being ranked third in our group.

    My hopes for the season: Reaching and getting through the group stages (and then who knows? Like Penguin I'm secretly hoping for lightning to strike twice and we go all the way). I'd like us to find a way to still finish in the top half of the table in spite of european commitments, but suspect that if we have make it very far into the knock-out rounds, we might have to settle for 12th or so again. An FA cup run would be good, particularly if we don't go so far in the Europa this time, but I could live with an early exit from the league cup to avoid fixture congestion and player burn-out.

    Most of all, I'd like to see two or three of our younger players emerging as genuine squad players. There's a lot of noise coming out of the club about the quality of our youth set up, I'm hoping that some of it will start bearing fruit for the first team.
     
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  9. toshchamberlainsmate

    toshchamberlainsmate Well-Known Member

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    Agreed Morgs, 2nd pot more likely.
     
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