I watched the Wolves game over the net earlier, not a great result, the 5 minutes before half time finished the game. Jol seems to have made the odd decision to change around the most solid aspect of our team, and persist with the weakest. I'm not looking to make a scapegoat of Etuhu, but what is he doing on the pitch. His only attribute is his size and mobility. He can't pass- and when he makes a laughable attempt to do so, it goes sideways or backwards. Sidwell is clearly the better player. Johnson is a good runner, gives a lot for the team, and plays well down the channels - but he does not work well with Zamora, or anyone else we have up front. Johnson and Dempsey is not a good strikeforce. He must literally fly through the air in training, otherwise there is no excuse for the constant long balls up to him. We were doing it under Hughes and now under Jol - it's like a habit they have picked up from playing with Bobby for so long. What's happening with Dembele? When Jol came he spoke about him a fair bit, he's not started him once. I can see how Dembele might affect the structure of the team, but so does Kasami. I think Kasami is a good prospect and was good against Dnipro, but Dembele turned a couple games last year (Wolves at home was one of them). And finally - if we are going to play with a RW on the left, and a LW on the right we need to have the strikers on their better side. At the moment Johnson is playing on the left and Zamora on the right - if we break the players have to check back on themselves which slows everything down. If either striker gets slid through they can't take it first time. We already lack pace, this hamstrings us further. Sorry for the rant. I like Jol and there is plenty of time for him to get it right. For the most we have been good when I've attended, just need to step it up a bit now and achieve what the team is capable of.
Welcome to the fold, silk. Largely agreed, although there is a case to be made for Etuhu playing at Wolves away. But I agree, Sidley is the better player.
Evening all just returned from the Wolves match,to say we were second best is an understatement. The big problem we have had over the last few weeks is,we are getting carried away by the results in the Europa cup games,me includes,but these teams are League 1/2 calibre at best. I was sitting with a friend surrounded by wolves fans,and match prior they thought it would be a tough one, but as one said easy,"we outplayed you in every department",to which I agreed. The headless chicken was on the pitch again and apart from a couple of shots,coupled with 3 good runs did nothing. Come on Jol,a 5ft 6in no scoring c/f, as I have said before (what a joke) Etuhu,and Senderos ,not much better. Without a R/B & an established C/F we will be in deep s..t,no disrespect but teams like Wolves, and Villa at home should be 6 pointers. as one fan said why does a talent like Dempsey stay with a team like yours,you could see his frustration when his intelegent moves are totally wasted.
Well done for making the trip vaj. I can imagine the frustration - well, I can't actually; you have to be there to really feel it. On the 'Jol Guy' theme. he makes so many sound bites and contradictory statements that, frankly, I've stopped listening. He's got to start doing his his talking on the pitch (I know, terrible cliche) and begin to get his tactics, his team selection and his substitutions correct. Just as impotantly he has to demonstrate he has a Plan B during matches - something particularly invisible in the Villa game.
You are so right C58,with both observations, re: contradictory statements, & plan B, when it was implemented it seemed straight out of "dads army".
Think today hangeland was unusually off-color and when this happens our defence seems to fall apart, though I guess this is no surprise with our 2nd best CB playing RB and an in my opinion sub-standard partner for zamora at CB in senderos. Most worringly, as Valjing mentions is that this is only Wolves, who while were superb today and merit their league position, there are far better teams out there. Doyle and Jarvis are fine players but there are plenty of others out there who will be licking their lips at facing our defence on today's evidence. Other problem is as Silkship mentions, we don't seem to adjust our tactics when zamora isn't playing. AJ is not gonna hold to the ball up and we must realise this. With good attacking players like Dempsey, Kasami and Duff playing as well as Dembele coming on, I'd think we'd have addressed this issue a bit better.
Usually I am hot headed and right similar emails. Will not be this time only because it is the start of the season. Potential Jol used this game to show to the people around him that we need re-enforcement should we want to be a competitive force. That is a RB and a CF. Also experimenting at the beginning of the year is better than later. I agree on the comments which are not really any different we have been making all along since late June. As for AJ flying in the training probably true if the wind picks up a bit and someone pushes him. Come on Fulham!
I think FFC_Madness may have something. Two EPL games without a goal puts pressure on Al-Fayed to crank open his wallet and spend a little money. Fulham is so used to playing with a target man to knock down the balls for Duff, Dempsey and Murphy to run onto, we can't seem to function when he's not there. Same thing happened last year during Bobby's long injury. We can't change our playing style over night so I think the only solution is to find another target man to carry the team. We can't realistically expect Bobby Zamora to take that kind of punishment twice a week for the next eight months and not pick up an injury. I wished we have kept Eidur Gudjohnsen. He was good for us last spring and could have filled that role for us nicely.
truthfully i think that is Jol's tactics. he doesnt want us playing the long ball up to Bobby all the time, he wants us to play nice attacking football,
Valjing, well done for making the trip - sorry you and such a rubbish time, and Silkship welcome to the board. I am torn between the "ranters" (why break up H&H, why play Etuhu?) and Madness and DR - if Jol was setting out to demonstrate what we are lacking he could hardly have been more effective. Certainly not playing H&H in the centre and not playing Baird at all is weird but other than that Jol's decisions do make some sense - Etuhu is (in theory) better defensively than Sidwell but he had one of those games where he apparently gave the ball away ALL the time, Dempsey and AJ don't work up front but in the absense of Bobby who else is there? And as for Dembele I think he is still getting back to full fitness and we will see more of him as the season goes on. Even when I try to rationalise it though, its still a depressing result.
I've been thinking the same thing. I know there's the average age of the squad argument, but so far this summer we've been linked with Cameron Jerome and Carlton Cole as back up for Bobby. Gudjohnsen did that job perfectly well towards the end of last season, and would have been a free transfer if he'd stayed rather than spending £3-4m. As for yesterday, I only saw the highlights but we looked poor. Both the goals were avoidable, and we hardly seemed to create anything until the last ten minutes. I'm hoping the fact that Etuhu came off at half time means that Jol's finally seen what we all knew already - that Sidwell's a much better player. Hopefully Dembele's ready to start next Sunday - which will be another tough one as Newcastle will be on a high after beating Sunderland. No reason to panic, though. It's still early days, and we started slowly under a new manager last season let's not forget.
Fulamish I think Jol knows that Sidwell is better going forward than Etuhu but he can't have one box to box midfielder for 50+ games. Either he needs to work on Etuhu or needs to get Baird back on. Hopefully Ray can help on the second by putting a few words in.
To my mind it was the midfield that didn't perform against Wolves. No one in midfield had a good game. If you don't create many chances, then the chances you do make, better be taken. Wolves had 17 shots at goal to our 6 attempts. With Riise given the license to push forward that left 3 at the back against the pace of Jarvis and Hunt. OHara won the midfield, and Doyle and Fletcher always looked dangerous, while Johnson and Dempsey didn't. Wolves played well, and Fulham didn't. It's early days and remember both Hodgson and Mark Hughes took time to settle in. Obviously Jol knows we need a decent RB, and striker(s).
Evening all, Agree with what you are saying Silk. We have to take some things into consideration though. Jol is still trying to figure who should be playing where. H and H will return to their defence duties soon, their understanding of each other will prevail. What I am confused by is that we have so many players who can play in the hole, but they are all of similar stature. This will come with time, and hopefully fairly soon. As for Etuhu, he was very effective under RH but for me is struggling under the more attacking style. He is required to do more running and to be a bit more creative. Unfortunately I am not sure he has this in his locker, he could a useful sub if we are looking to shore up the defence to protect a lead. He cannot start. As for AJ, I do not understand how I feel about him. He does not score too many but his effort up top is enviable. He needs to be played on the shoulder of the last man to get him effective but once again who do you then in the hole ? Bobby, Demps, Dembele, Kasami, Duff ? My general feeling is that the players Jol is using are so comfortable with Roy Hodgson's style of football that we cannot fully engage a new more attacking style. I think it is time to drastically change the face of the team. We need to start scoring goals and lots of them. We have a really solid defence so let's let them do their job. If I had my way this would be the line up: Schwarzer Riise Hangeland Hughes Duff/Baird Briggs Murphy - playing deeper Kasami - attacking mid Demps/Duff Dembele - when fully fit Zamora / new striker Murphy is still very important for us, as I have said in the past, but I will put my hands up and say that he cannot run so much now and he certainly cannot be our attacking in the middle. We need to stop protecting him with Etuhu or Sidwell and get him doing his thing, providing for others. I have not seen the highlights of the Wolves game but at a guess they probably stiffled Demps and shut off Sidwell. This will be done week in week out unless we start taking the game to the opposition.
I too went to the Wolves game and I echo most of what everyone has said above. We were more attacking for an away fixture at times, and this was pleasing to see in the first half (though we never looked like scoring) - but then in the last 10 minuties of that first half we were all over the place, panic stricken and simply awful. Game over. So many poor passes straight to Wolves players, Hangeland included. Frustrating to say the least. As many have said it is early days. Jol can't judge too much on the performances in Europe against minnow opposition and it is only now he can see where our strength and weaknesses are. All booked for Newcastle this Sunday - If I can get up early enough to catch the train !
