. . . as you English say. Such a bright start. Those two opening goals were beautiful. Dominating 1st half. And then. . . This is the kind of loss that could ruin a team. People will point fingers at Sa for squandering a chance in the final moments and turning the ball over, people will point fingers at Etherington in goal, people will point fingers at Jol. I hope Fulham bounces back. There's a long campaign ahead. Fulham has quality. There has been inconsistency, too. But now, character is the most important. We will now see the character of this team. Will they get back up on their feet after this? In fact, can I get back up on my feet after this? "Gutted"-- It's a good word for how this Yank feels right now.
What position are they in the Danish league ???? How can a team from greatest league in the world go out to them ?? Or is that just a myth !!!!!'
As a neutral, I must say, I've been very impressed & entertained by your boys in Europe, but the 2nd half was all about wrong decisions, & in the end its that which cost your place in the knock out rounds. On a side note, keeper looks good, rather him than Stockdale.
Let me point some fingers Sa - GET.OUT.OF.MY.CLUB. Bringing him on it was obvious we were going to concede. The guy has been honestly the worst player here since Eddie Johnson. I don't care if he is free or not, cancel the loan deal and bring back either one of Trotta or LDV. Playing him is like having 10 men. Zamora - Another no-show from the England striker. Attitude stinks. Jol - Got his selections strangely right today, apart from Zamora starting but that was probably due to the media and AJ's suspension. I personally would have had Dempsey up front instead of Zamora. Substitutions were awful. Why did Dempsey go off exactly? Think it's time he left. For all those who will go on about how Jol needs to be given time. We had an incredibly easy group and came third, we drew at home to Odense, lost away to Twente, lost away to Wisla and drew to Twente at home. Please just go. Yes this gives us an opportunity to focus on the league but when our performances and results do not improve, what excuse can be used then when there's no Europa to blame?
Gutted might be one way of putting it Cheetah, I may prefer to put it like this F##king Boll##ks to such a s##t performance in the second half. We dominated the game against a mediocre team in the first half and then sat back and let the same mediocre team turn us over. There was NO determination to get the ball forward in the second 45 minutes and we were punished for lazy football. No width and desire to support Bobby, Moussa made some lovely runs but gave us no width at all on the right and we were second best to every ball in the centre. Totally wasted opportunity at some success in Europe. I do agree that it will be interesting to see how the team performs against Bolton, I hope that Jol gives them an absolute boll##king, their second half effort was embarrassing.
Jol literally looked like he wanted to kill someone at the end. I hope Bobby and Sa have got their boots on cause they're gonna get chased.
As has been said before Bobby's attitude was awful. I really do hope he goes in January and we get somebody new in come January.
Could Bobby's performances be transformed once Jol leaves the club though? It's clear to see that he doesn't like Jol and doesn't want to perform under him. Would he perform much better under another manager?
Bandit give Jol a break. His only fault tonight probably would be that he should have brought in Etuhu for Baird to cut more of the attack. And also for bringing on Sa. Other than that Bobby was his usual self, moaning, chatting, complaining all the time. Enough is enough.the guy either he wants to play for us or bye...
If we're to continuously blame Jol for tonight, then we should be applauding him for the superb first half showing. He started Frei and Briggs which people have been crying out for. Absolutely gutted about tonight, hopefully this is a gigantic wake-up call.
I'm all for giving Jol credit for the first half showing, it was a good 45 minutes from us, but the second 45 completely wipes out the first 45, meaning Jol's credit has now long gone. If Jol was forcing the players to go forward and score a 3rd then why did the players not listen to him? Right now I am 70-30 in favour of Jol going, if we don't beat Bolton at the weekend, then I will have lost all hope of him turning this around.
Bandit, where you at the game? Probably not. The whole ground was booing the players not Jol for not moving forward. Even when we won a free kick and everyone was waiting for the delivery in the box they passed back to the keeper. Enough said!
Frogman, You are absolutely correct. This was FFC's game to win. Everything pointed toward advancement. And it wasn't even necessarily bad luck that did us in -- it was bad play and bad decisions. That's what has me so worried for the future. Can they get their sh**t together? Especially after today's performance. There will be so many questions and fingers pointed. Will they (including Jol, Zamora, everyone) learn to improve or will they give up in frustration? They could be such a good team -- like in the first half of today's game. Such a good half that was.
One way or another, I think we'll look back on this game as a turning point for the team. On one hand, the players might start pointing fingers at each other, or at the manager, and begin pulling apart as a unit. Or perhaps they'll pull together as a unit and decide they like winning more than losing. We deserved to get knocked out of Europe. I don't think this is Jol's fault. There's an attitude problem on the team. Mark Hughes couldn't put his mark on the team, so he let them play their own way during second half of the year. Then at the end of the season threw up his hands and said, in effect, "let someone else managed these people ..." It's not Jol fault. It's the team. If Jol and Al Fayed are smart, they'll clean house starting in January. There's a cancer growing in this team and it needs to be cut out, starting with Zamora and anyone else who won't play for the fans and their teammates at 100 %
SHOCKING. Whatever was said at half time? I'm inclined to give Jol the benefefit of the doubt since he told Sky (about the second half) - "They dropped deep and they tried to protect the lead, but you have to score a goal and try and get in their half." So it was all the players fault, folks. But even if you accept that, Jol surely needs to question himself about the substitutions. Again I'm going to give him the benefit and assume Dempsey came off to save him for Saturday (after 72 minutes). But for another winger when the midfield wasn't coping and nobody was pushing up? Was it just to give Duff a run out? If so, Jol was presumably content. The second substitution was just plain baffling - and it matters not a jot what your opinion is of Bobby's performance - at 89 minutes? Again it matters not a jot what you think of Sa; it's absurd to expect a player, especially one with no experience and one who hadn't even warmed up properly, to come on for 4 minutes and fit in. And arguably it cost us qualification. So yes, it was shocking as is Jol's distancing himself from the players - note the constant reference to they in his comment. So am I lying about giving him the benefit of the doubt? Probably, unless of course if he was telling the truth and it was solely the players who decided to play that way. Shocking as well because bang goes our chances of attracting some quality in the January window. With no Europe, just a premiership dog fight, what ambitious player would risk more than a 6 month contract. On the bright side our European home record stays intact and at this rate is in no danger of being threatened.
Cottager, on tha same boat as you and DR. Have my doubts but can't see Jolnasking Baird to do a back pass on Foul that should have been delivered in the area with most of the players in the box... Shocking and disrespectful to the fans and the club. I am waiting for an apology from the players but don't think there is anyone brave enough to do that as they were all shocking collectively. Even the clearances last night were awful!
Feel sorry for you guys, harsh way to go out so late like that especially after what, 14 games in it already???
Interesting observation, Cottager58. about how Jol phrased his explanation ... THEY I know there are people advocating for Jol's replacement as manager, and I completely understand why. I was suggesting the very same thing last year as Mark Hughes struggled to get control of these team, but I'm not convinced that it's not Jol that's the problem - it's the team, or at least a faction within the team. Just from the body language and the effort put out, I suspect it's Dempsey and Zamora, but one can't be sure. Zamora signalling in the 35 minute that he wanted to be replaced was a bad sign. Clean house, I say. I'd rather see Fulham lose as a team than win as a group of prima donnas. Chelsea ... thanks for the kind words. It was great to see Chelsea fight back against Man City Monday ... great win for you guys.
I have been a stern critic of Jol's but last night I didn't feel inclined to blame him at all. It appeared that the bench was urging the players forward and they were ignoring the instructions. Sa was very culpable. If he had just hit the thing instead of trying to run along the box with it then the resulting Goal kick would have been in mid-air when the whistle blew. Even I cannot blame Jol for that. The main problem now is attracting players in January - we need a clear out but I honestly cannot see MAF putting his hand in his pocket. Jol has done nothing to prove his ability in the transfer market and most of his signings are below par. As has been said above we now have nothing to offer any decent players - "Come to Fulham and try and avoid relegation for the next 5 months" is not a great slogan for recruitment. And we must all now recognise that we will be in deep trouble come January. There are worse teams than us, but they are playing better than us - they are playing as teams. If we don't get a result against Bolton on Saturday and play like we did last night then I will be seriously worried. As a sligh aside - Sunday Suppliment on Sky last Sunday - download the podcast if you can. They talk about Fulham and believe that we are a club "about to explode". They are very critical of what is happening under Jol.
