There was an article a couple of days ago,( with can we trust Jol in the transfer window answer NO NO, some replies said several of his acquisitions were free,so what, they are useless. To night they played to a plan scripted by the manager.his tactics all season have been very dubious,and tonight completly hopeless. We do not want player power,so in what 20 days, flog off Zamora before to many clubs rumble him,along with AJ. Get shot of Reise,Sa and give Jol his marching orders,along with his coaching relations. step up Billy Mac. "Ok I hear many of you say no experience" correct,has Jol got experience, yes, but no ability. If we loose the Bolton game and still have this clown in charge,we will be religated. Gates drop what by 10,000 per game, no new stand,so once again make the cuts sooner than later
Gilly, What if BZ goes else whare and does score a bucketful,he certainly is not scoring for us, and the longer he performs like the last few weeks bang goes our big fee.
If we can get a good fee for Zamora and AJ then let them go, though selling them without any replacements lined up would be naive. As for tonight, it is a combination of the players and Jol who must be held accountable. We played to our strengths in the 1st half, and didn't in the second half, simple as that. Our lack of width was a concern in the 2nd half, and did cost us. On many occassions we dwelt on the ball too long and wasted potential chances. However, I saw enough tonight that know once I've got over the huge shock of the equaliser there is light at the end of the tunnel. I can safely say that in dembele dempsey and frei behind hopefully a good replacement for zamora, we have a side that is genuinely capable of pushing up the table, plus with Ruiz available in the league as well. Valjing to say that losing the bolton game and keeping Jol will get us relegated is a huge overstatement, as there are at least 4 or 5 teams significantly worse than us this year. My main concern is central midfield, with murphy's age and gecov being frankly being not good enough on tonights evidence, a decent creative midfielder should be a priority in january. As far as I can tell however, Jol is the still best man currently available to get us through this.
I thought Gecov (along with Baird) was all right in midfield. What neither of them has is the creativity of Murphy. Either one of them alongside Danny would be fine. I agree with whoever it was above who said people are over-reacting. Yes, the second half was a huge disppointment and there are signs that something is wrong in the camp, but there are also numerous signs that some things are going right, not least the first half performance. We were unlucky away to Wisla, losing a game we should have won due to a wrong dismissal, but that's not the point. We blew it tonight by ourselves, with no 'help' from the ref. Both goals were the result of inexperience, and the younger players will learn from that. I still believe in what Jol is trying to do, and while some of the established players are unhappy with him, there are plenty of others who seem to buying in to his approach. We've been saying for the last couple of years that the team needs rejuvinating; all this is just bringing that need to a head. I'll say it now: Jol will stay, we won't get relegated, next season will see us camped in the top half of the table. I was going to type 'and we'll all be smiling', but I've been around these boards to know that whatever happens, someone will have something to moan about!
If we don't beat Bolton, Jol is a dead man come Monday morning. That's the Cottage rumour this morning.
FFC4L probably will be the case. But what will be the outcome of that? Two things: 1. No good manager available to take the team 2. Spoilt brats (players) get their way. The club needs to come strong to the players an pull a few ears who don't seem to listen!
At the time of their first goal I wondered how they scored that free kick as it seemed from where I was seated, that it was just stroked into the net to easily with no pace. Now I've watched CH5 recording, I've seen that the ball was moved. Not sure why there was a gap between Dempsey and Briggs? for the ball to go through. To me that was the turning point in the game, confidence was hit, and they thought they could just sit back and soak up the poor attack of Odense. What are the 3 officials near it watching. So much for the extra pair of eyes on the goal line. Odense just didn't trouble us, and Etheridge had hardly anything to do in both halfs, but the 2nd half performance was diabolical football. They need to bounce back from this, and we need a reaction to this game for Bolton, otherwise Jol will be treading on thin Ice. But is that what some players want ?
SBMB didn't see the free kick incident but apparently was commented immediately by BBC and commentators on TV... Who knows what the players want... May be they think that they can have their Fulham spring revolution against the tyrant MAF... Little they know. Time for the club to expose them and do it hard now!
Summed up brilliantly captain. On saturday I'm far more interested in the performance than the result. If I see a group of players who look like they genuinely want to turn it around for the fans, managers and themselves then I will be happy to keep backing Jol. I haven't seen it but apparently hangeland was close to tears in the post-match interviews. Time for senior players like hangeland to step up and help get beyond what has happened.
As much as I love Brede, he isn't a leader. We need Danny, who is the closest thing to a leader we have. Jol isn't a leader either. Lee Clark for manager. The only reason I see Jol staying is the high cost of getting rid of manager and coaches.
If you read Hangelan'd interview on the official FFC website you can see how much it obviously means to him that we are no longer in the Europa. The guy sounds completely inconsolable. I for one definitely see him as a leader, can you see Zamora being 'devastated' that we're out?
Bandit, spot on. BZ does not give monkeys if we are in Europe or not. He is already looking at his new pay-check cashing in to the England call-up. The reason being at Fulham is because was second choice at West Ham and Roy game him a chance and a style of play that suited him.
My thoughts:- 1. one big issue, as far as I'm concerned, is why we were so good in the first half and so rubbish in the second. At half time my friend and I were taking about who we'd like to get in the next round then a few minutes later their first goal went in and I thought "Oh no, I know how this one ends...." Whether its Jol or the players or both or neither something just isn't right 2. We missed Danny (as others have said) 3. I think part of the BZ problem is that he's just not as good as he used to be. The last few games he's been well marked and where once he would have shrugged off his marker now he seems unable to (yes, I agree with you all its partly attitude, but I don't think that's all it is) 4. FA Cup run, anyone?
Yes, we were unfortunate, Captain. But I found it strange that Jol did not immediately make the sacrifice of a forward and bring on a defensive player. Instead he kept the same format for what, 80 minutes but with one man fewer - not terribly sound, tactically. Despite that and the inept performance away to Twente (who were very much there for the taking but for negative tactics), where do you start about last night other than to quote D Murphy before the game - "Not to qualify we'd have to shoot ourselves in the foot" Out of the mouths of babes and wise men ....
It is one thing loving the team, and another being the strong voice needed to kick your troops into line. Brede just isn't that aggressive character. Danny is though (We have a couple of others)
I agree (with you, Cottager, and by implication Danny Murphy) that we've only ourselves to blame for going out. It's been much reported that Jol wanted the team to push up more, rather than sit back. Taking off a forward for a defensive player would have been an unusual way of achieving that. For what it's worth, I think his instinct to keep pushing forward - which the team didn't really follow through with - was the right one. The bigger problem was that with AJ's sending off against Twente, we just didn't have reliable forward options, hence Bobby staying on for as long as he did despite not looking right. We blew it because of naive mistakes from inexperienced players. As discussed on other threads, Etheridge will have learned a valuable lesson about checking and rechecking the placement of his wall. I've got less confidence in Sa making the step up, but the rest of our youngsters will possibly learn more from this game than from any other they've had so far this season. Penguin, Bobby may well not be as good as he was, but that's in part due to carrying an injury I think. Not that the injury explains everything away. There's certainly something wrong in his attitude. Even if that stems from playing at less than 100%, he's was always ready and willing to do that in the past.
I'd love one, Penguin, but I've got a horrible feeling - which I had long before last night - that Charlton may just do us. We'll have to wait and see, but I think it may be a long, cold winter with lots of concentrating on improving our league position and preparing for better next season. I hope I'm wrong about Charlton. Ah, what the hell. If we get past Charlton, I'll probably start banging on about how we're going to win the thing this year.
I agree that Murphy certainly has that leadership about him, he is a fiery character on the pitch and off it, but sometimes that is not what is needed. Zamora has a fiery attitude too, would you want him as captain? Hangeland has been at FFC longer than most of the players here and loves this club inside out, he could have gone to Arsenal, but always came out and said he was loyal to us and wanted to honour his contract. I for one would love to see him as captain, I think he wears his heart on his sleeve like Danny, but both do it in very different ways.
Froggy, sorry your daughters had a bad trip to The Cottage. Generally I agree. Players who should know better played poorly at times, and the juniors were a double-edged sword - refreshing, but the inexperience showed. Yes everyone can blame MJ, but that's an easy option. I suspect that they seeds of this are from Mark Hughes, and MJ is picking up the pieces. Yes, he seems to have made mistakes but firing him is not the answer. We have to tough it out! Yesterday could be a catalyst - good for some players, but maybe bad for others. Still, I will not be booing on Saturday (do we want to look like Blackburn?). So, despite the despondency, 3 points on Saturday is doable / necessary / expected. C O Y W
