You'll never see a more comfortable game than that one. Seriously though, I think this game was one of- if not our best performance of the season. I understand some people would say Bolton, or even Forest despite us losing. However todays performance spoke volumes for the character of the team, and the belief that Kit has instilled into the players. We rode our luck yes, but we were due some luck this season and I have always believed you make your own luck- and we (in a Fulham Fans opinion) deserved the three points today.
I'd like to start by saying... What do I know eh? In my Preview for this game I said I wouldn't start Sean Kavanagh. It surprised me to an extent he was starting, but when I was watching the warm-ups I had an inkling Stafylidis would be at Left-Back because he was warming up with the defence, so I thought Kit had went the way of Penfold and gone off the deep-end! However, credit where its due, Kavanagh had a very good game in Central Midfield against a very strong midfield he also took his goal very well. Kit has obviously seen a lot more of him than I have, and in his post match interview he said Kavanagh has a good left peg on him- so hopefully that isn't the last goal we see from him this season. I don't know if Norwich didn't expect him to play, or simply like 99% of people at the ground today thought Kavanagh simply couldn't shoot- but he had acres of space, and he took the chance well.
It would be a disservice for me not to talk about all 4 Defenders in the game today, they were sublime. Nikolay Bodurov was outstanding, simply outstanding. When he first came in I thought he would be a "squad depth" player, and his height definitely deterred me knowing how physical and "Route One" oriented some teams in the division can be, however he has taken the Championship in his stride. This isn't me saying this after one good game, if you follow me on Twitter- or even look at the Fulham programme against Blackburn you'll see that I've been singing his praises for a while now. He reads the game extraordinarily well, and his anticipation of what is going to happen- almost before it happens means he's seldom caught flat-footed and it makes me wonder what the outcome would have been against Blackburn if Bodurov had started instead of Hutchinson and Bodurov is much more disciplined. He also surprisingly given his height, has coped with the aerial threat of players amazingly. He as a great spring and he was winning headers against Jerome quite frequently today which definitely helped the defence as a whole. Overall he was my MOTM today, with only LVC really challenging him for that.
Stafylidis and Kavanagh almost as a Double Line of defence on the Left-Hand side for us wasn't what I expected, but it worked very well as they limited Redmond to just a few opportunities and he has the potential to change a game. I thought Stafylidis played very well, and his pace was a definite advantage today as I thought it would be against a Norwich team who have (slightly) an imbalance between physicality and pace in my opinion. Hoogland going off was unfortunate, however Kit has said he's fine concussion wise and was taken off because he was ill in mid-week, but didn't want to miss the game (tell me about it Tim). Zverotic coming on makes me wonder what Kay Vosers role at the club will be, as I didn't think he was "awful" in any specific game- and I know people were slating him after Reading but we were ridiculously stretched in every area during that game, so I don't think its fair to flag up any specific player as a bad performance in that game. Zverotic was "ok". He didn't do an awful lot of things wrong, or right- He was just kind of there. He looked really uncertain on the ball, and Neil Adams definitely picked up on that because for the last 15 minutes of the first half (roughly) he switched wings to have Redmond play up against Zverotic, but thankfully he was ok- and he had good cover in LVC so he wasn't completely shown up like i feared he would be once I saw they'd made the switch. Dan Burn was another good performer today, and he will be crucial to us in "these" games where we won't necessarily run away with it like we did against Bolton and we need to dig in and cope with all of the balls being launched into the box etc., which we did today surprisingly well in my opinion given the number of aerial threats they had in the box. Something also has to be said for Bettinelli, and something (surprisingly) that I said has come true, in that I said we needed a consistent back three pairing and it would be B Cubed. I know Norwich only had one shot on target today, but that can also paint Bettinelli in a positive light as I felt he came for balls really well- and the relationship between the Back Three is a very solid foundation for Kit, or whomever should take charge one would presume in the near future.
This is going to be a long blog, that was just the defence!
The Midfield as I've previously alluded to when talking about Kavanagh performed well given the circumstances, and the players facing off against them. Parker can frustrate me at times because of his complete lack of a creative spark and ability to play an accurate pass once its out of his 5 Yard Perimeter, however today he really dug in and fought which is what we needed from our captain- and was definitely needed in this type of game where we had little possession (38%?). The same can be said for LVC who I thought was great today, once again he fought for every ball and showed determination and spirit- a reflection on the man at the helm. He's surprised me, in that when he started against Blackburn I wasn't necessarily opposed to it as it was another "New Beginning" but the absence of Hyndman and/or Chris David in the Starting Eleven surprised me. However as I said in my preview blog for this game, he's more than earned his place in the team with his performances- and as long as he performs to the level he did today I don't have a major issue with him keeping Hyndman out of the team. I was surprised to see statistically (WhoScored) that Ruiz was rated as one of our better players today, however I realised that "statistically" Ruiz will always be rated highly because of his pass completion, touches etc. so I don't mind it now as much as I when I got home from the game and saw it. He didn't seem up for it today, perhaps understandably after coming back from where ever Costa Rica (presumably a CONCACAF region) so I'm not writing his performance as the Bryan we know and got frustrated with in prior seasons is firmly back.
The Strikers were the only major concern for me, they weren't even bad. McCormack has shocked me, in that I thought he was "just" a goalscorer- which was why I was questioning why we didn't go after Jordan Rhodes who prior to signing a new contract was available (allegedly) for £8 Million. What we've bought is a player with a sublime work ethic, and a team ethos that really embodies what Fulham is about in my opinion. His run to free space up for the goal was great, and showed how unselfish he is- which is something I thought he would be given the number of goals he was involved (Goals or Assists) at Leeds, I thought he would be desperate for the ball and seek it out at every opportunity. However instead he's proven himself to be a very smart player, and he understands (which some strikers don't) that it doesn't matter if you're not on the end of the cross to finish as long as someone is- and if he can draw a man away from the person in order to make it easier for him to finish he should do that. Rodallega was so frustrating today. I know why he's in the team, and he is one of- if not our best "finisher" in the team. However the one thing he most definitely isn't is a Target Man. Launching Balls up to Hugo didn't work the first time, so lets just keep trying it! This is not to say I don't value Hugo's work ethic and general team play- which is something Kit seems to value highly. However if we need a Target Man on the pitch, which is clearly a part of our game plan why don't we play Woodrow (was he injured or tired to not even make the bench?) or Smith who despite his tackle against Reading still has some value to the team because of his height, and especially in the last 15-20 Minutes we definitely could have used a player who could of held the ball up a bit more and give the defence (and me) some time to breath. Dembele's cameo was decent enough, he's still a bit too selfish on the ball for my liking- and from where I sit (H2) I felt he should of buried the chance he got from roughly 6 Yards.
I'm not completely full of positives however. The Ref was abysmal today. He didn't seem to realise that Football is still a contact sport (I know right) and what I call battling for the ball- the ref called foul play. I haven't seen the Dan Burn tackle for the penalty properly, and will look out for it on the Football League Show- however from where I sit it looked an awful decision, which I think the linesman gave given the amount of time between the "foul" and the Penalty being awarded. In a weird way I think his awful refereeing may have actually helped us though, the crowd were really riled up especially in the time period directly after the Penalty and I think that weirdly got everyone more behind the team and generated a better atmosphere, which can sometimes dwindle in these types of "gritty" games.
Overall, as I've said previously I'd rate this as one of our best performances of the season- and we learnt so much about the team ethic, and belief that Kit has instilled into them in this kind of game rather than a much more comfortable game.
Thanks for reading, any and all feedback is appreciated on these blogs as I'm always looking to improve on my writing style- so if you see anything you think I should change just tell me. Thanks again. KIT SYMONS BLACK AND WHITE ARMY!
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