Apparently we are having our worst start ever to a Premier League season. Six matches, four points, no wins, and only Saturday's opponents WBA have scored fewer goals that our four so far. This wasn't what was expected during the heady days of the Summer when Martin Jol arrived at the Cottage promising entertaining attacking football. So, question is, how worried is everyone at the moment? I've been remaining relatively upbeat about the season ahead so far. Other than Wolves away and the first half of Man City at home we're not getting turned over, and our normally reliable defence hasn't suddenly assumed sieve-like qualities despite the revolving door next to Hangeland at centre back. Most of the new signings are settling in well and, given time, I think Ruiz will too. We're still at the stage of the season where a couple of wins can see us shooting up the table. While at times we've had all the cutting edge of a ball of plasticine, we have produced some decent attacking football. On the other hand, despite Jol's post-match comments at the weekend the table doesn't lie. We are where we are because we're not taking chances and are toothless in attack without Zamora on the pitch. In the four league games he's missed or been substituted we've managed a solitary goal. Away from home it's the same old story, which is again piling pressure on the home games and I fully expect the phrase 'must win' to appear in discussions of the QPR game on Sunday. My glass is just about half full at the moment, but I feel the team's confidence is on a knife edge and the longer we go without a win the more danger there is of it crumbling altogether.
I think you've nailed it, Fulhamish. Still optimistic, but aware that we aren't too far away from getting ourselves into a sizeable hole to dig out of. At least Zamora's absence was illness based (i.e. very short term, probably) rather than a recurrance of an injury. I still think we'll be okay, but a win against QPR will be much more important for us than it should.
Yes, you've summed it up very well Fulhamish. I feel similarly to you, ie. we are playing well just not scoring and once the goals start coming we will shoot up the table. I constantly feel as if our season is on the verge of taking off and I really do think that it will but we've at the stage now where its got to happen soon or we'll lose touch with the top half of the table.
At the moment we have a new manager, some new players, all need to bed in, so I never saw us as coming out the starting blocks. You hope from the outset that things click into place quickly, but they haven't. For me it's too early to start to think we are doomed. I think the main thing I've come on and talked about after games is that we haven't taken the chances created. If we had not been making those chances I'd be worried. The Villa game and Wolves game were the only two games that we really didn't make enough chances. The word is confidence, the manager needs confidence that his tactics are working, the players need confidence that his tactics will win games, and the fans need wins to give them confidence, it breeds better performances. To sum up I won't be worried if we start to win most of our home games starting with QPR, if we drop to many home points then that puts pressure on good performances away and picking up points, and we know that our away record is not good.
Lets face it this has been possibly our easiest start since we entered the premiership. We could be in a situation where due to our lack of ability,at the end of the season hoping others do worse than us. At this point in time,ie up to 29th of Sept JOLS tactics, or what ever you call it, does not inspire me with a lot of confidance.:
The fact that we're struggling doesn't surprise me; new manager and new players will make that happen. Plus, Bobby had been the lynch-pin of our offense for some time, so when he's out or not playing 100%, we're going to struggle. I've been encouraged so far this season by what I perceive as a steady improvement starting even before the Manchester City match. We were better than WBA Saturday and, with any luck or a good no-call from an official, we would have won the game. We didn't, but I think we're on the right track. One of the Sky presentors said it Saturday: Fulham will be OK. There's too much quality on the team for us to continue on in this position. The good news is that our defense remains strong.
I never buy the 'there's too much quality on the team to go down' argument, as I can remember too many teams going down after people said that. They said it about Clough's final season with Forest, and about the West Ham team that included Defoe, Joe Cole, Carrick, etc. They probably said it about Newcastle two or three years ago too. Nobody has too much quality to go down if they're bad run goes on long enough. That said, I'm still in the 'we'll be okay' camp. Jol's a good manager, we're seeing positives and improvement albeit without the wins to go with them yet. I'm not worrying yet, but reserve the right to join the doom-mongers at a later date!
We've got a way to go before we're in the bottom three at Christmas - having lost to the club at the bottom at home - like we had last season. I don't think we'll storm back into Europe, but I reckon we'll be safe come the business end of the season. They key thing is we're not losing every game - we're still tight at the back. If we were getting beaten and playing well then I'd be very worried, but we're not. All we need is a couple of wins and we'll get going. But we still need to start getting some goals, and fast.
Not worried, nor complacent - since we have plenty of opportunities to get some wins under our belt. It will take a little time (but not too long, I hope) to get things together, especially in the goal-scoring department. And after all both MOTD pundits were positive in saying were will not be in the relegation zone at the end of the season. COYW
If you rely on what the MOTD pundits say we could well be in trouble, was it not these 3 wise men, who, at this time last year said WHU had to much talent to be relegated. The end of October for me could give a much better idea to our seasons fortunes.
Agreed: QPR, Stoke, Everton, Wigan - there should be points in those for us. Although there's no such thing as 'too good to go down', clubs that do get relegated despite having enough quality on paper to be ok tend to have other problems - Newcastle were in turmoil after Keegan walked out and West Ham had the wrong guy in charge. The team spirit at Fulham looks to be as good as ever, the chairman's still committed, and while it remains to be seen how well Jol will do he's no Avram Grant. I think we'll be alright although I might be readjusting my expectations from a top-10 finish to 13th or 14th.
It's worrying. It's especially worrying that we were doing better under Sanchez than we are with Jol. Not so sure anymore that he is the man for the job and that Mo may have made a mistake. His tactics don't seem to be working, he rotates players into positions they don't seem to be that comfortable in and he spends millions on strikers who can't score from the spot let alone from open play. I'm not so worried about losing touch with the top half of the table, it's losing touch with the bottom half that we want to avoid and if we don't start winning soon those teams in the heady heights of 15th will start to be out of the reach of a couple of wins. Having said this, there are, on paper, several teams - Norwich, Swansea, Sunderland, WBA, Wigan - who are weaker than we are so I don't think we are doomed just yet, but lose (or draw) to QPR & Stoke and we are in a hole.
Just remember last seaon- 18th at Christmas. We then came 8th. Far to early to be panicking. However, if we do not sort ourselves out soon, we could well find ourselves in a worse position than last year come Chistmas. Keep the faith
Fulhaman,agree with your comments,its better to be in a win loose situation than keep drawing. as said earlier the end of October could give us a clearer picture. Regarding the bringing on of subs,baring injuries,it no good sticking them on for the last 5 minutes or so.
That's exactly what I've been saying all along, nice one Gilly. I think the negativity from some members on this board is a little over the top, considering we've only failed to win, not pick up points. We're not in complete disarray, our team is still compact. I'd hate to think of the backlash if we were in Bolton's position (lost 10 out of 11 PL games is it?). Once all the changes click (and there was a lot of them), we'll be fine.
The glass is definately half full for me. Yes we are not progressing up the league with any pace but it is still close enough and unpredictable enough this season that 2 or 3 wins in a row and we could be top 10. As others have said ' Fulham will be alright '. What should be giving us hope is that we are playing some really good quality football. It will not be long before the pundits are praising our attacking football ............. hopefully
It's a shame that expectations are being adjusted to 13th or 14th. Given how we have established ourselves in the premier league we should really now be kicking on to get a top 10 finish (and in a good season a top 7 finish) every year. Look how Stoke have started to do this, even getting to a domestic cup final but then they have a sound manager and have sold well and brought decent players in, strengthening each year - maybe not pretty football but it's effective. Or Everton who have done it for years with no money at all but a brilliant manager. Fulham finishing to 13th or 14th is really not acceptable even with a European run.
Yes, good point. And, had we retained Woy, where would we be now? Had we got BMJ, first time round, what would he have achieved in a first season without EL distractions? We are (and in my opinion, will continue) doing well. Glass half (and only half, so far) FULL
