Hey! Well that was a weird one wasn't it. Yes, we won 4-0 but there were long periods of the game where we were second best and ridiculously frustrating to watch. But as I've said in previous blogs when we've won, and won as we have done its no use breaking down every single detail and analysing how we could have scored 5 rather than 4.
I'd also like to preempt this by saying the Sheffield Wednesday fans were quality all game, they could have easily faded away but if anything they got better the more goals we scored- yes during the game we want to wind them up, but once you sit back and reflect on the game you have to respect the 4000 (approx) Wednesday fans being as they were.
At the time McCormack was lining the Free-Kick up we were second best and didn't really look like making much happen. Then McCormack proved why we spent 50 Billion on him with an absolute peach of a Free-Kick, I was expecting Bryan to take it because of where it was located- but obviously I'm not complaining. Speaking of Bryan his delivery for Hutchinsons goal was inch perfect, Ruiz's deadball delivery is somewhat questionable most of the time- but you can't argue with his delivery today and Hutchinson took the header well and got his first goal in a Fulham shirt. I'm sounding like a broken record as of late, but HOW GOOD IS LASSE VIGEN CHRISTENSEN! The move for the third goal started and ended with LVC tucking the ball away and effectively killing the game, I'd also like to briefly touch on how unselfish it was of Hugo to lay the ball off to him when he could have easily shot- and with the form and confidence he currently has I wouldn't necessarily have been angry with him if he had. Speaking of unselfishness (see how I'm tying all these together) the Penalty was another example of what I've been talking about nearly all season- McCormack is so much more than a goalscorer, that much has been established but the fact he let Woodrow have the Penalty spoke volumes for him as a personality, and a man. I didn't see the foul for the Penalty from a clear angle- sitting in H2 relatively near to the pitch you sometimes don't get a clear view of stuff going on, on the other side of the box, what I did see clearly however was a clear penalty not given to Woodrow not long before that decision, and I have to assume that decision was weighing on Andre Marriners mind when he gave the Penalty late on.
Bettinelli came back in today, and despite all of the pressing Wednesday did he was never bombarded- I don't even remember a save that made me go "Wow", which Bettinelli has made a habit of- mind you I'm not complaining that Bettinelli wasn't kept busy. The thing that rankles a bit about the Penalty not being given against Westwood was it was a carbon copy of the Penalty Bettinelli gave away to Watford two weeks ago (albeit a bit further out).
We've kept our first set of consecutive clean sheets this season- and god knows how long ago it was when yo consider how woeful some of our defending has been in the past few seasons. I thought this was Grimmers best game in a Fulham shirt, he looked relatively comfortable given he was up against Helan- who was causing problems for the whole of our defence all of the first half and he's really staking a claim to remain in the team when Hoogland is back fit and that could turn into one of the more interesting debates to be had in the near future. Stafylidis (who with his new haircut made me mistake him for Chris David when they were warming up) was really good today. Firstly, his Yellow Card wasn't a Yellow Card- not only did he get the ball but it was an absolutely brilliant tackle. As I said I sit in H2 relatively close to the pitch- close enough to see that Maguire was smiling after he saw he'd gotten Stafylidis booked. He managed to win a lot of his 1-on-1s and is starting to show he has a really good head on him, I was convinced he was going to get a 2nd Yellow in the Second Half. I'm back to my Bodurov love-fest again this week, as I said in my Leeds Review I've had a lot of time for Bodurov since the Norwich game, so even when he put in a few iffy performances I wasn't going to call for him to be dropped or anything drastic- even after Watford and he proved his mettle again today, his performance was summed up at roughly 30 minutes when he put in an absolutely inch perfect tackle on Stevie May (I think) to break up an attack. Hutchinson on top of his goal also had a really good defensive display, to be fair Wednesday looked pretty toothless despite their wing play from Helan and in the second half Drenthe but I thought Hutchinson dealt with everything quite well, and when we keep a Clean Sheet theres not much more you can ask for.
Broken Record time, Lasse Vigen Christensen is an absolute gem. He's playing confidently and is really influencing the game in a way that is miles beyond the number of appearances he's had for the first team, and if the voting were to be done tomorrow for our Player of the Year he'd win by a mile in my opinion. I was also really impressed by Seko Fofana today, excluding the Watford game (as everyone was bad that game) he's been more impressive every time I've seen him play, he played like a proper Box to Box midfielder today and if he hadn't have picked up a stupid yellow card and then looked in danger of getting another he might have gotten a goal before the end of the game. I wasn't convinced by Parker today, he lost the ball a bit too easily for my liking- and slowed the ball down a bit too much for my liking. I accept that is the way Parker plays, and just wish we'd diversify a bit and rotate the player linking the defence and attack so we can attack with a bit more pace. I thought Bryan had an alright game, you're not expecting him to be a workhorse type midfielder- what you want him to do is do exactly what he did and link the play up and have some good interplay with McCormack and Rodallega and put in a good Free-Kick delivery for the second goal.
We had a rare occurrence of a McCormack goal at the Cottage today (just his second) and its a strange one because I've see him play a lot better and not get a goal, I thought he was quite hit and miss today- he was drifting out wide a lot and perhaps because of the speed of our build-up play he didn't get into the game as much as he usually does, and in turn didn't have as much of an impact on the game as he usually does. But, in games where he doesn't impact the game as much he's shown he can score goals (and quality ones) and that can be even more vital when it comes to tight games where 1 Goal will settle it. The only massive thing wrong with todays game, and its something I've been saying since Kit came in really- HUGO IS NOT A TARGET MAN. We've consistently persisted with hoofing long balls up to Hugo since Kit came in, and Hugo has probably won about three of them. As I've said there is no way we should drop Hugo in favour of someone else, we just need to rethink how we're going to play our game- and hopefully with January around the corner we can sign people to either adapt to a more "appealing" style of football with would suit Hugo or sign people to adapt a bit more to a long ball type of game.
For once the subs we used actually had a substantial impact on the game. When Williams came on for Fofana, perhaps out of necessity I was hoping we'd use his pace to launch proper Counter-Attacks and although the Counter we did score from was started by Christensen we definitely looked a lot more dangerous on them once Williams came on. Woodrow of course scored the Penalty, and should have won the Penalty which is a reminder that we do have options if we need them. Roberts won the Penalty and in his very limited appearance he showed why he can still be a danger to the opposition.
Overall that was a weird game, we looked pretty weak in the first half but still found ourselves 2-0 up and that kind of summed up the whole game. We don't need to perform amazing for every minute of every game as long as we pick the three points up at the end of the game and keep climbing that table. Of course with the 4 Goal winning margin we've gone above Wednesday in the table and we're on the cusp of the Top Half. If we can scrape into the Top Half before 2015 comes around I'll be over the moon and it'll leave us with a good foundation to launch a push for the playoffs.
Thanks for reading as per usual, This is of course my last Fulham blog before Christmas so I want to thank all of you guys for reading this- and any of my other blogs I've done since I started in the Summer and want to wish you all a Very Happy Christmas.
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