Hi! It was never going to be an easy game against the massive club that is Leeds United, but we came away with a win. When I saw the team announced I was quite pessimistic about our prospects in this game, I thought the Midfield was going to be overrun and the defence with Kiraly in goal would be leaking goals like there was no tomorrow. But instead we produced our first Clean Sheet since the 24th October, and in general we looked defensively sound today.
Firstly, and this isn't a new occurrence- I have to praise LVC. His little run for the goal was absolutely sublime, and if one of the big Premier League players were to do the same they'd be trending worldwide on Twitter and have a Vine of it being reposted by all the sports "banter" accounts. Not to discredit Hugos finish, because it was by no means easy- but the work LVC put into that goal was absolutely sublime. Without wanting to sound like a broken record, the fact we were playing people like Ryan Williams and Stafylidis at Central Midfield when we had this gem in our reserves sums up "his" reign as manager at Fulham.
I said it in my preview, and I'll say it again now. I don't write anybody off before they've kicked a ball; and even the most hardened of skeptics have to admit Kiraly played well today. Although, perhaps his luck was in after the chance in the first half that hit the bar. Facing a striker like Antenucci I thought he'd have been a lot busier however, I don't watch Leeds every week- but from what I've seen of him he looked like a potent striker. However, today for whatever reason Leeds looked pretty toothless today.
However, I'm not solely putting the clean sheet onto Kiraly and/or the Leeds goal threat or lack thereof; our defence looked really solid today- which is probably the biggest shock of the season from a Fulham perspective. I said before the game I'd keep Burn and Bodurov for this game, however in retrospect something had to change- and Hutchinson grabbed his opportunity with both hands. Although the height of our defence is an issue, it coped with Antenucci, Doukara and late on Sharp to a sufficient level that (barring injury) I'd continue with this defence until Amorebieta is fit.
Quick Question: Does anyone know how long Amorebieta is out for?
I've seen a lot of the praise going toward Hutchinson on Twitter, and deservedly so. However I thought Bodurov played an absolute stormer today, especially in the second half. I've had a lot of goodwill toward Bodurov from the outset, he was one of the only players who I felt performed to a sufficient level under "him" and after his performance against Norwich he had a really long rope from my perspective. Although he's looked shaky against Brentford, and especially Watford- today showed why he's still deserving of a starting place. When Amorebieta is fit I think he'd fit perfectly with him as a Centre-Back pairing given their preferred foot and general quality. According to WhoScored Stafylidis was our best player from the game today, while I wouldn't go that far I did think he played well today. He's gotten some stick over the last month or so- and deservedly but I don't know if it was because of who was next to him but he looked a lot more comfortable, especially in comparison to the game against Brentford when he looked completely out of his depth. Again with Grimmer, I thought he played well enough- my suggestion of Zverotic didn't come off, and going into the Sheffield Wednesday game when it comes to our defence I'd use the attitude of "If it isn't broken, don't fix it."
I've already praised LVC for his build up play for the goal, but everything he did in the game exuded class way beyond his years. With Parker ill, LVC was our oldest midfielder on the pitch- and he played like an experienced player who's been in the team for years. Fofana also proved me wrong today, I didn't think he was ready for a starting role- and he perhaps defaulted into the team after Parker had to pull out, but he more than proved his worth to the team with the opportunity he got. Coming from City, and his general stature there'll obviously be comparisons to Yaya Toure (and to an extent Vieira)- however I see him as a more technically gifted version of Dickson Etuhu. Hyndman is a really strange player, not in terms of his ability- which I've never doubted, just the schizophrenic way in which he's been used since Kit took over. From my memory, he started against Birmingham- and with the exception of Rotherham (because we went out of our way to rest people in that game) he didn't get another start until Brighton. However hopefully his assured performance will have helped him stake a claim for a starting place, because at the end of the day thats all he can do. I thought Bryan played well all things considered, theres some games where he just doesn't show up- and going into the Winter period is when those performances usually get more frequent, however with his performance today and his performance against Brighton I have high hopes that he can help the team out at least until January 1st- where even if he does go we'll have the money to replace him.
There are some strikers who score goals when they're not crucial, and are near the top of the goal scoring charts because of that. With Hugo we have a striker who's making a habit of scoring goals when they're really needed. His now nine goal total has included two winners (Birmingham and Leeds), Two Equalisers (Brighton and Forest) and he's opened the scoring a further four times (Bolton, Charlton, Huddersfield and Brentford). If you factor in him scoring two against Charlton that would mean every single one of his nine goal total has been significant in some way or another. The spotlight was of course on McCormack going back to his former club- and with Parker ill the added ingredient of McCormack captaining us against his former side. Although he didn't do anything that'll look good for the "Key" statistics, he posed a constant threat- as he does in nearly every game- and you have to mention the class he showed at the end applauding the Leeds fans at the end of the game.
I'd also briefly like to mention the referees "performance". https://twitter.com/CauleyWoodrow/status/543853472253485056 This wasn't even a foul. Although we didn't have any massive decisions that had the potential to cost us the game go against us, there was a load of little decisions that kind of built up. Whether it was the persistent diving on the part of Leeds, or the consistent hacking at our players throughout the game- it was just shocking.
All things considered this was a really good performance, with the absence of our Captain and our first choice Keeper out of the picture for the game; to keep a Clean Sheet took a tremendous amount of team spirit and work ethic from the whole team.
Thanks for reading, as usual with no Midweek games my next Fulham blog will be Next Friday (barring something major happening), and then I'll be back to a Fulham blog almost every day with 4 Games including the January 3rd FA Cup game on top of a Year in Review blog (I'm undecided on whether to do it) and a January Transfer Window Preview most likely coming out around the same time as my Brighton Review. Thanks again, now lets get back to winning ways at the Cottage.
No comments:
Post a Comment