Evening all Firstly, this is less of a rant and more of a realisation. We seem ti have replaced West Brom as the yo-yo club in the Premier League. Play well one week, awful the next. Win/draw one week, lose badly the next etc. Man Utd were on fire tonight, and I doubt there are many sides who would have been able to cope with them, but my God did we shoot ourselves in the foot. Senderos, Riise and Baird were all below par, hopefully this gives Jol the incentive to bring Hughes back into the team and allow Briggs a go at left back. Had Schwarzer been in goal, maybe we wouldn't have conceded five, but I don't blame Stockdale for the goals, none were glaring goalkeeping errors. There were very few players who came out of tonight's match with any credibility. Every player who managed to do something useful cancelled it out almost instantly with some poor play (Dembele, Dempsey, Ruiz) This may actually shock a lot of you, but I actually want Jol to remain in the job, not because he's doing such sterling work, but because there is literally no-one out there in my opinion who could turn it around. We can all see what Jol is trying to do with the club, gradually weed out the ageing players and introduce younger ones, this is of course difficult when the vast majority of the team are in the 30's. Jol gained no fans tonight with his strange use of substitutions and negative first half play that he set his team to go out and perform, but until a worthy candidate becomes available to replace him I'm afraid we must keep calm and carry on.
Bandit lets not talk to much about who we can bring back to the team ,but who can we get as replacements, who are committed to playing and putting in a decent shift.
Whatever happens in January, a complete overhaul will be needed in the summer. Before the start of next season I can see us offloading the following: Schwarzer Murphy Duff Hughes Zamora Johnson Davies Kelly Sa Personally I would keep Hughes but Jol seems to prefer Senderos, God knows why. I think Schwarzer may lose his place to Stockdale and may seek a first team move elsewhere. Murphy will retire. There are a lot of names there that will need to be replaced, I just hope the new signings and the youngsters like Frei and Trotta can make the step up.
Personally can't see a better moment to introduce the young players. Have huge respect for Baird but he is not a right back and playing him against Nani was sending him to a death squad. Riise's speed is gone. Briggs must come on. He didnt have a great game against Odense but at least he can run the pitch a few times. Murphy was ball watching all first half. Literally walking on the pitch. Great respect for him too and a great captain but can't continue. He can only play 45 min. May be between him and Duff and have a game. Dembele and Ruiz, followed closely by Dempsey hold the ball too much... I AJ must be sold. BZ must make his mind. Otherwise to be sold too. Senderos is good but was left exposed by Baird and Riise too much last night. Etuhu, solid performance. Run miles, tackled, won the ball. A couple of misplaced passes but it is expected from him. Stockdale needs to learn from Jones and shout to his defenders. Otherwise good to have him back. Hangeland the next captain. So Mj that's Martin Jol, and not Michael Jackson, think hard and put the knife in. If you believe there are players who can't cut it anymore just drop them. As for subs please do something earlier. Other than that thank you to all for the great Christmas present. More like a present made by goblins rather than elfs.
The first 45 minutes was just about the most inept display I think I can remember from a Fulham side at home. We've been cut to ribbons at the Cottage in the past (Liverpool/City last season, Man Utd in the cup a few years ago) but on those occasions the opposition have been on fire. That wasn't the case last night - United were controlled, clinical and efficient but we let them dominate the game and allowed them far too much space. Why did it happen? Well, these things do. We didn't become a bad team overnight, and it doesn't mean we now need to sack the manager. However, I'm not sure about the wisdom of playing 4-2-3-1 against a team you know will attack down the flanks. We were far too narrow at times and Riise and Baird were badly exposed and neither has the pace to deal with Valencia, Nani, or Young. It's easy to say with hindsight, but we'd probably have been better with Duff playing instead of Ruiz as he might have provided Baird with a bit more protection. Strangely for a night when we lost 5-0 I thought our best player was Etuhu, who did his best to protect the back four and looked a lot more comfortable on the ball than he sometimes does. Ruiz seemed to struggle with the pace of the game again, and gave the ball away too often - once or twice after he'd done the hard part in winning it. Dembele was the only player in a Fulham shirt who looked capable of hanging onto the ball. That we need a striker and a right back in January is pretty obvious. For all his movement and work rate, it's got to the point now with AJ that I hardly bother getting out of my seat when the ball falls to him in a goalscoring position. Zamora should have come on with more than 5 minutes to go, but I doubt he'd have made much difference.
With United being in top form they were last night in the first half we needed our players to be on top form, sadly there were lots of players below their best. Letting in the early goal didn't help, it gave United the confidence, but the defending was woeful for all 3 of their first half goals. Again it's about confidence, we are missing the consistency of performance from players, who seemed to give up too easily when we went a goal behind. Letting the 3rd goal in just before half time gave them a chance to ease off in the 2nd half. We let in late goals again, that has hit our goal difference, again it will knock confidence to hold onto a lead in games if this keeps happening. Against top teams you aren't going to get the same amount of chances to score, so when you get them, like Johnson did, you have to take them.
AJ can't offer us anything else. Working hard, runs as much as he cans. He is getting slower. But the problem is end product. 3 goals in 15 league appearances (10 as a start). 26 shots in total, just 18 on target. As fulhamish says I am not excited any more when he gets the ball. BZ the big ego. 13 appearances (11 starts) has scored 3 goals with 22 shots, 14 on target. That sums up our strength up front. Nothing to do with Jol, nothing to do with the system. Also one comment on BBC's highlights. You are entitled to be partial but not that extend. We had 3-4 chances in the second half to score a goal. None was shown, this is pathetic if not suspicious.
The next 3 games are crucial 0 points from these 3 games JOL out with at least 5 others led by BZ & AJ, Billy mac untill end of season. No experience many of you will say,qualified coach,motivator,knows ins and outs of club. What did Coleman have when appointed . S F A.
Valjing, thus why I think Jol needs to be direct and kick those lazy gits out of the team. Otherwise his head is on the line potentially. I think MAF has faith in Jol and would like to see him succeed which means that BZ, AJ et. al. will be on their way out. Personally not scared of loosing them both as they offer nothing this season. I am not an advocate of stats in football as the only method for decision making but these guys have taken then road of no return. May be Danny is the source of the problem as he thinks he is as good as any manager Fulham will ever get.
As mentioned before, I would prefer Jol to remain in the job, but if he doesn't get points over the Christmas period I can see MAF pushing the button. Would anyone care to name some suggestions as to who could replace him? Clark? Martinez? Collins? Poyet?
Martinez would be a good shout. Could we even try and lure Moyes, if he is getting frustrated with the Everton situation.
Sven? Hahaha Seriously I don't think we will be out for a new manager. Most likely for new players!!!
I expect Mo to back Jol in January as he did Hughes last year. When he's sacked managers in the past it's tended to be when our survival in the Premier League looked in imminent danger, and at the moment I don't think that's the case. Yesterday was a bad night at the office for manager and players alike, and the manner of the defeat was alarming. However, we can't lose too much sleep over defeats against Man Utd and - potentially - Chelsea and Arsenal. It's only if we get turned over by Blackburn, Newcastle, and West Brom in the following three matchs and go out of the cup to Charlton that it might be time to panic.
Don't panic everyone. Jol is a good manager, trust me. Have faith in him. Lets not forget Hodgson was useless with substitutions and Hughes as well. There was no way we could compete with United last night, no amount of substitutions would have changed the course of the match. I agree with Fulhamish and would urge everyone to get behind the team at Chelsea on Monday. COYW.
I do not wish to be a doom merchant bu tour next 3 games Fulham 0 Chelsea 3 Norwich 2 Fulham , Arsenal 3 Fulham 1, lying 2nd from bottom,Jol goes,new man, big clear out. Hope score predictions wrong.
It was always going to be difficult for him last night, playing up front on his own. However he had 2 exellent and 3 good chances to score when just 1 would have given us a glimmer of hope. Frankly it was pathetic to see him on one of those occasions claiming a corner (which to be fair it was) when he had all the time and space to give the goalkeeper no chance. The bottom line is he cannot shoot. I'm afraid it's time to get on yer bike son.
We need to improve the squad with more energy in transition and a better finisher. Maynard and Noble would do fine I think. Not the best, but probably the best we can do on our budget.
