Ok who saw tonights friendly,and what did you think of our performance. For me a complete lacklustre effort ,definatly nothing to inspire confidence Berbs good in flashes desperatly needs help. Steck in goal looked confident Reither not match fit Ruiz woul have been better staying at home, team rating out of 10 5 at best apart from rodelega -5. Jol walked off looking very crestfallen maybe something to do with the comments directed in his direction Lets hope we can get some quality signings before the start of the season Final score 1 1 Sidwell for Fulham.
Bit like last season slow build up and too much passing the ball back from attacking positions all the way back to the keeper. Possession football, still no end product. Betis two wingers kept exploiting our fullbacks, Riether was knacker by the end, when Hughes came on for him (hope he's not a solution for RB sub). Not sure why in the 2nd half Jol subbed Dejagah only minutes after finally putting him along side Riether for the first time in the match. The highlight was the Karagounis shot at the end of the game that their keeper did well to push round the post. Boateng had a good game, Amorebieta also played well. We fell foul of the new offside rule when Rodallega had a goal ruled out for Berbatov being offside without touching the ball in the 2nd half, and apart from Ruiz being bundled over in the penalty box, that was it for the second half, Betis controlled the game without finding a killer touch. Ruiz was a passenger all game, Rodallega needs to learn to shot at goal and not make a more difficult pass. Conclusion still no creativity in the midfield.
No disagreement with either of you guys. When the teams lined up my son said, âOh well same as last seasonâ and how right he was. Okay a couple of new names but every otherwise it was the same old, same old. No creativity, no link up play, no shots on goal (it was 85 minutes before we could claim one legitimate shot!). Jol did start by trying to play two up front but why it took him an hour to understand that it wasnât working fails me . Or why it took him the same hour to realise that Bryan a) is not a winger and b) by playing him on the right and Dejagah on the left made us impotent. As in the Bremen game his substitutions , certainly the timing of them, was baffling. Thereâs no question that Mesca was an improvement on Hugo (who by this time had gone to outside left) and Kasami on Ruiz (who by this time had moved to the centre) but why leave it so late? I donât mean in terms of getting a result but in giving the new pair a chance to get into the game properly and show what they were capable of. As SuperBri has already mentioned why on earth take off Dejagah when he had only just moved to his correct right hand side ⦠And just as bizarre was bringing Hughes on at right back for Riether with 5 minutes to go; Riether wasnât injured, Hughes is not a right backâ¦.so why?? [I donât agree that Riether was âcream crackeredâ SuperBri - well not such that 5 minutes would have mattered - and he genuinely looked surprised when he heard his number being called.] Then there was this substitutionâ¦. please log in to view this image â¦. that wasnât but should have been. Yes, good downward header for the goal but throughout the game he was, yet again, a yard off the pace and one prime example illustrates his lack of a football brain. About half way through the first half Riether (I think it was ) cut the ball inside to Sidwell who was just outside the box with no Betis player challenging in front of him, Sidwell first reaction was to look sideways and not seeing a Fulham player passed it 20 yards back to Hangeland. And as for Richardson .. we need a new left back badly. Lessons from tonight? Nothing new - itâs not a new striker we need but one, preferably two, link men. Positives from tonight? Seeing Berba relax and enjoy playing in the last 5 minutes when he had players (Mesca, Kasami and Duff) close to him and buzzing about, So at least I got five minutes worth of football for my fiver.
I thought their no 20 and Boateng looked good tonight. Ruiz was reallly poor, can't understand why Jol would put Dejegah on the left and Ruiz on the right- must have been to protect Richardson
I was impressed with Boateng he looked like a beast. I was also impressed with Stekelenburg who looked confident in goal and Amorebieta looked good too. We desperately need a creative midfielder and another striker. I was hoping Rodelega and Ruiz would be better but both were as disappointing as ever. Rodelega just isn’t good enough. You can’t fault his effort but he doesn’t have the ability. Why were persevere with him I have no idea. I would much rather Jol tried Trotta as even if he had played and had a shocker he would have impressed more than Hugo. Ruiz has proved to be a complete waste of money. In his first season he was disappointing but you can put it down to adapting to the PL but after 2 years he is just as ineffective as he has always been. He shows glimpses of brilliance but they remain glimpses and the remainder of the time he is ineffective. Looks like Taarabt is having a medical today. I’m not too sure how I feel about that as he is either going to be outstanding or useless. I’m hoping he’s outstanding but have concerns about when games aren’t going our way him Ruiz and Berbatov are going to get into a group sulk rather than rolling their sleeves up and getting on with it. I still hope we sign Darren bent as I recon he is just what we need. He has his drawbacks but is so much better than any alternatives we have.
Agree on Rodalegga - im rooting for him to do well, partially because he was immense on pro evolution about 7 years ago (you had to develop him in the master league - was around the time he was rated on par with Messi) but he just doesn't have composure. He would probably do well in the championship. Was good to see Shad there last night
Morning all. It sounds that we are going to be debating about the same things this year... Ruiz, Hugo, tactics, etc.
It was, albeit a fairly anonymous and subdued introduction to the crowd. Not sure he enjoyed the match from the serious look on his face in the various pictures around. Nor did Jol, who took some stick at the end from the Hammyend faithful who chose the ticketing arrangements to move behind his dugout for this game. And I guess that was also evidenced in Jol's post-match comments - that is, absolutely nothing about the game but instead the news about Taarabt's medical. It's absolutely unprcedented for Fulham to make that kind of public statement in advance of a signing being confirmed, isn't it? Was it because something positive had to be said in Shad Khan's presence?
Here are the video highlights - [video=youtube;kd7SpReH2EI]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kd7SpReH2EI&feature=player_embedded[/video]
Clicked to watch the highlights, saw Roda's freekick and realised, having been at the game, that there wasn't really much to show as highlights from the match. On the point of freekicks- I've seen Roda step up to take them a few times, he must be doing something special in training because I've never seen anything to indicate he is the right man to take them. I'd genuinely rather see Brede have a go. Given the position that should have been Ruiz, or even Richardson.
Noticed in the video clip they missed some important incidents, Ruiz was bundled over in the area and Rodallega's disallowed goal, and a couple of penalty claims by Betis. Who was the Ref, I recognised him but didn't get a programme? Oh by the way the programme was £3 but someone in the ground said the normal matchday programme will cost £4.
I think as friendlies go I think this was a good test and run out for the squad. I was impressed by Real Betis who were good at passing and finding space. Possession wise they won it my a mile. Yes I suppose there was a bit of same old but on the positive side our new signings Boetang, Amorebieta and Stekenlenburg looked good additions and it was good to see Kasami welcomed back in the side. There was positive play from Dejagah and in fact most of the squad (save naming them all) The only two I thought didn't play well were Rodallega and Ruiz. I'm staying positive on the Ruiz front though. I believe he has a good pre-season it Costa Rica and there is undoubted skill in there somewhere and he needs the encouragement. We definitely miss a Murphy type player that can dictate the play and lead. The fact that Real Betis controlled the game with ease from the start is a bit worrying. I watch Berbatov and he really does show his frustrations to the players when they do not make the pass he wants or they make a mistake. Nothing new in this and I suppose the players are used to it by now but I did note a furious tete a tete between Berbs a Reither that lasted a good 30 seconds with neither giving in. I don't like to see such rants. I hope it is all forgotten when they leave the field. Good to be back at the Cottage last night !
