As of writing this blog Felix Magath has not been sacked. I'm praying to Jeebus that he is sacked ASAP, however one question you have to ask is; How did a Manager who's won multiple Bundesliga Titles manage to lead a long established Premier League team to the Bottom of the Championship?
In February we announced the appointment of Felix Magath as our new manager, which seemed bizarre to pretty much everybody after two positive results against Man Utd and Liverpool- combined with the fact Meulensteen was allowed to break our record transfer fee (if quoted fee is true) just weeks earlier. However after the abomination that was the two games against Sheffield United I was willing to give a new manager a shot. The warning signs should of become apparent much earlier than they actually were; specifically Cardiff away. It was just 3 games into Magaths reign but a very stupid team selection crippled us;
Stekelenburg;
Riether-Heitinga-Hangeland-Richardson
Dejagah-Sidwell-Holtby-Riise
Mitroglou-Woodrow
Cauley Woodrow making his Premier League debut in a vital relegation clash was bad enough, but using Riise as a Left-Midfielder with Richardson as a Left-Back was frankly stupid. Richardson was coming into his own as a Left-Midfielder scoring against Liverpool and playing a vital part in the Man Utd game, but he doesn't have a defensive bone in his body, this combined with Riise (more later) who is possibly the worst left sided player we've had ever doomed us to fail before we kicked off- which is a regular occurence with Magath. However we went on to beat Newcastle the week later, and had a positive display against Everton, although it didn't yield any points. Things were looking up, and two consecutive wins against Aston Villa and Norwich meant we were now in a good position to stay up. We even had a decent number of chances the following week against Spurs despite losing, but this is when it really started going wrong for Magath.
We were playing Hull where a Three Points would of been priceless given the situations of teams around us, So we started a ridiculously defensive team;
Stockdale
Heitinga-Hangeland-Amorebieta
Riether-Parker-Diarra-Sidwell-Riise
Holtby
Rodallega
This team had at a stretch 3 offensive players, and it took two substitutions at Half-Time to rectify this line-up. We then went two goals up, and were seemingly coasting to a victory- however with the addition of Darren Bent just before we scored the first of two goals, we couldn't make any kind of defensive substitution to try and see the game through, and especially after they got one goal back a defensive substitution was definitely required. However because of the imbalance created by both the starting line-up and substitutions it wasn't meant to be and Shane Long hit what would of appeared to be the final nail into our coffin. What happened the following week was unforgivable
Dan Burn is a very competent young Centre-Back, and should (still) be starting regularly as a Centre-Back. He is not a Right-Back and never will be, so why Magath decided to play him there- especially against a tricky wnger like Assaidi is completely beyond me, and that was the day we went down with a whimper and were relegated. However a promising last day against Crystal Palace where two young players (Woodrow and David) scored in a 2-2 draw I personally was filled with a sense of optimism.
I believed with a year left on his contract Brede Hangeland (with a summer resting his back-as much as you can under Magath) would be captaining the team alongside Burn which had shown so much promise under Meulensteen. This combined with players who had shown promise in Stockdale and Sidwell and (especially in Stockdales case) had shown a willingness to stay and fight our way back to the Premier League. So naturally Magath got rid of all three and in Sidwell and Hangeland's case were allowed to leave on a free transfer. This was what I thought would be the core of our team going into the new season and the team would have a sprinkle of youth players to achieve a balance which we were lacking so badly under Martin Jol and subsequent managers.
However instead Magath went for route of ripping up the team and starting again, which wasn't inherently wrong- however the team we've been left with is incredibly naive (a reflection on the manager) and the only two experienced players we have Parker and especially McCormack aren't being used at all in the way they'd flourish, and we've ended up with players like Cameron Burgess being fast-tracked straight from U18s to Senior Football and being held in higher regard by Magath than Dan Burn and Amorebieta- both of which would offer a more calming influence in defence, which in my opinion is key for a young Goalkeeper like Jesse Joronen who seems very unsure of himself- and the lack of clean sheets (especially the Derby game) will of done little to help him settle.
Magath also seems to have an aversion to playing anybody who he hasn't given a break to in Football. The only player who was playing consistently for us before Magath came in- and is still playing for us is Scott Parker, who is the typical Magath player in that he has plenty of graft and works very hard- but has very little in the way of creativity, which wouldn't necessarily be bad for us if Magath hadn't of given up on the Creative Midfielders we do have in Chris David and Thomas Eisfeld (too a lesser extent) and favoured Mark Fotheringham and Kostas Stafylidis for a place in Central-Midfield. He also has appeared to of fallen out with Kostas Mitroglou, who despite his fee and lack of starts is still very much a goalscorer and as long as he was still at the club and fit should be the first name on the teamsheet alongside Ross McCormack. Bryan Ruiz hasn't been the most pleasing signing Fulham have ever made, however (especially in the Millwall game) he could of used his undoubted ability to pick a pass out and improve the final ball we've been lacking for all 4 games so far.
We've also seemingly gone quiet on the transfers front, despite Shahid Khans insistence that this season wasn't about breaking even (which we have done at this stage) and about promotion (which is looking incredibly like a pipe dream after just four games). Aside from Ross McCormack I don't believe we've spent over a Million pounds on any other player, and have gone down the typical Fulham route of Bargain Basement reserves and free agents in order to pad our squad out. I don't know who has control over transfers and as such don't lay the blame solely on Magath, however in the signings of Mitroglou and McCormack Shahid Khan has shown a willingness to spend big in order to get a player we "need" which makes me believe its simply Magath's stubbornness which is the reason we've not brought in any other high value signings. The appearance of depth- or lack thereof is also of Magaths own doing. For example I've seen multiple people saying we need a Central-Midfielder, yes we do. But we've got a perfectly good, Championship ready Midfielder in Ryan Tunnicliffe being wasted in the reserves as of this moment, who is infinitely better than Fotheringham who has amassed more minutes than him this season.
The Team which I perceive to be our strongest XI with our current squad (Minutes Played this season)
Joronen (360)
Hoogland (337)-Burn (0)-Bodurov (360)- Stafylidis (330)
Parker (360)
Tunnicliffe (0) Kacaniklic (30)
Ruiz (0)
McCormack (282) Mitroglou (0)
This is the team I (and I'm sure quite a few others) would liked to of seen as our starting eleven- at least until Mitroglou was sold when we'd bring in Rodallega or Woodrow, and if Ruiz were to go we could use Chris David. I've left Patrick Roberts out of the starting eleven because I believe he is (currently) best suited to a role as an impact sub.
Brede Hangeland said in an interview with Sky Sports News Magath "mentally and physically battered" the Fulham players last season, and whatever you will say about us, this is not a "Fulham" way of managing and is most definitely not the way to nurture young talent of which we have in abundance- as such he's been the wrong man from the word go. As I conclude this blog at 20:22 PM on the 24th August Magath has still not been sacked, however I hope for the future of this club and its supporters he isn't in charge for another minute.
Thanks again for reading, Magath Out.
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