Welcome to my blog, after what was by far our best performance in the Championship this season. We had our best half of the season in the first half of todays game but the end result raises a lot of questions about our ability to convert pressure into goals.
Firstly I'd like to point out I am still firmly in the Magath Out camp, however when I see positives I will highlight these positives- and there were many today.
Firstly the team selection was bang on in my opinion, its become increasingly clear that Mitroglou and Ruiz are either refusing to play or Magath simply doesn't like them. So in my opinion with the exception (maybe) of Woodrow the team we played today was by far the best we had available to us;
Bettinelli
Voser Burn Bodurov Staflyidis
Parker Hoogland
David Hyndman McCormack
Woodrow
I'll discuss Mitroglou specifically. but also Ruiz amongst other absentees like Amorebieta more tomorrow in my Fulham Preview of Deadline Day which I'll be doing. But briefly I still think we should of taken the attitude of if we're paying their wages we should MAKE them play, and if they're interested in getting the most amount of money should they move on they'd put 100% for us in order to attract teams to them.
Ross McCormack playing Wide-Left isn't inherently wrong, he has enough speed to cope with Full-Backs and he isn't a "Target Man" so he wouldn't be suited to a lone striker role considering the way we've played, however when Chihi came on for Woodrow (a lot more later) I assumed McCormack would go into the striker role vacated by Woodrow, however he stuck to the wide left role until very late in the day which left us with a lack of a cutting edge for large parts of the second half. However I think at this point we need to stick with the same system and once McCormack adapts to it and cuts in a lot more I think we'll see more from him.
I spoke quite a bit about the need for continuity between the two Centre-Backs and the Goalkeeper, and with Burn, Bodurov and Bettinelli I think we have a very strong foundation on which to build a team around. Thank Jeebus we started Dan Burn today, he provided a very assured presence in the back four and dealt with pretty much everything really well. Bettinelli I felt coped really well and (I haven't seen the Cardiff goal from a "TV" angle) I don't think he could of done much for their goal, at least from where I sit it looked like a really composed finish from Jones. Bodurov dealt surprisingly well in my opinion with the aerial threat of Kenwyne Jones who for this level is a great player, and this back three (barring injury and jogging bottoms) should in my opinion be the first three on the team sheet for every game this season.
The Midfield also looked a lot more comfortable on the ball today, the addition of Hyndman provided us with enough work ethic, creativity and determination which provided Parker with a necessary relieving agent- as in prior games without Hyndman it seems Parker has HAD to be the epicentre for everything we've tried to do both defensively and attacking wise. David showed once again why he's a must for us, as he looked dangerous- and in doing so created space for other people as well as himself.
I felt Woodrow worked well in the role he was given, and increasingly in the second half before he was taken off he was required in his role as a Target Man to hold the ball up, however he's still squandering chances- summed up by him blowing a chance Sky High from no more than 10 yards away which would of made it 2-0, and relatively comfortable for us. I don't care who scores as long as they do it in the opposition goal but I was happy for Hoogland (who looked a lot like Xabi Alonso with his new haircut) to carry on his scoring ways and take up his rightful place on top of our goalscoring chart.
However there were still some negatives primarily, we didn't convert a very, very good first half into more than one goal. We went into half-time with a 1-0 lead but it could easily of been 2 or 3 with a better final ball, which is a must- especially against teams like Cardiff who will punish you with their goal scoring prowess. I also REALLY didn't understand the use of Chihi when we had Roberts on the bench and Kacaniklic god knows where. He looked god awful, I don't think he connected with a single cross and he gave the ball away seemingly at every opportunity- he also looked really overweight and for a winger thats criminal. After Woodrow went off as referred to earlier it didn't look like we were playing with a striker until Dembele came on, and when he came on he didn't look like he wanted to run- and provided very little pressure on Hudson and especially Connolly who looked very volatile and prone to mistakes.
Overall this was a very good performance but in typical Fulham fashion we failed to convert our chances and take all three points when on the strength of performance we really should of done.
Thanks again for reading, after Tomorrow and Deadline Day there'll be a lull of Fulham related blogs whilst its the International Break- but I assure you when we're back against Reading (which'll be my first away game this season) I'll be here too. Thanks again feedback is very much appreciated.
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