Pulses returned to normal, fingers and toes nice and warm- now lets get reviewin'. At the end of the day, a win is a win whether its a comfortable 3-0 as it was for 44 minutes- or a nailbiting 3-2 as it was for the second half. I'm honestly not sure what to make of the game tonight, on the one hand we were absolutely outstanding in the first half- although the Forest players seemingly forgetting how to play football did help and the Second Half was much tighter, but we showed good character and resolve to stay in the game and pick up the Three Points which after the First Half we more than deserved.
The last time we saw a Hat-Trick from a Fulham player was Pavel Pogrebnyak against Wolves in March 2012- but McCormack has now reset that statistic with three quality goals. The first was a really good move between Ross and Hugo and it was a really good finish into the corner- this could even have been his second if De Vries hadn't made a good save a couple of minutes earlier. The Second was another curling goal- if I'm honest I thought he'd missed when it hit the post and went almost the full way along the line before nestling in the Right-Hand side of the goal. Our old friend the dubious goals panel might have something to say for the third, it was definitely on target but the deflection is definitely what put the ball in the back of the net and wrong-footed De Vries. The foul for the Free-Kick was a bit dubious in my opinion, I can see why it was a foul- but at the same time Antonio definitely threw himself into Stafylidis for the foul. I'm not sure who was at fault for the ball ending up in the back of the net- I saw Bettinelli acting as if the wall should have been slightly more to the right, but I'm not sure if that was Bettinelli's fault for lining the wall up wrong or The Wall's for not being where they should have been. I'm honestly not sure how the ball got in the net for the Second Goal, I've only seen it once at the game but it looked like Bettinelli should have done better just from my perspective.
Speaking of Bettinelli, he had a few shaky moments in the game- not all of them his doing considering some of the decisions Stafylidis made, especially in the first half. But he coped really well with almost everything- but as I said I think he should have done better for the second Forest goal. However, he stayed a very cool head throughout and looked really assured in Set-Piece situations where he sometimes hasn't previously.
As I've said in previous blogs, although we've been conceding goals- the defence hasn't necessarily been to blame; and it does seem weird to be praising a defence after conceding twice but here we are. I thought Bodurov and Hutchinson were outstanding today, they coped with everything remarkably well- and they made Assombalonga look awful; and although he isn't necessarily a Top Draw Striker his goal tally this season is proof he most definitely knows where the back of the net is. I thought Stafylidis in the First Half was absolutely top draw, he was causing Forest's right-hand side problems just with his runs as well as when he was on the ball- and when we get to the Wider Pitch at the Stadium of Light I'm hoping he can cause similar problems. He did seem to be getting a bit complacent toward the end of the half- nicely exampled when he nearly got a headed assist for Forest midway through the First Half. The same can be said for Grimmer, he coped with the threat Forest posed really well and for the most part dealt with everything.
The Back 5 we're currently playing is far from perfect, there are of course the links with Robert Huth that have come out this week- and while Huth wouldn't necessarily be a bad signing I think we need to be thinking long-term and put together at the minimum a 3-Year Plan as such I'd wait until the summer before we make any defensive additions- especially considering we'll have the further options of Hoogland, Amorebieta- and even Kavanagh coming back from injury in the near future.
In the first half, the Midfield played as well as I've seen any Fulham Midfield play in god knows how long. The play we put together was really expansive, and we looked dangerous everytime we got on the ball. The balls we were putting in behind the defence were causing no end of problems for Forest- and between Tunncliffe, Parker and Fofana they shut down most of the attacks Forest tried to put together. I love Kacaniklic in the Number 10 Role he was playing in the first half, his link up play with McCormack and Hugo was sublime and him rotating with Hugo and McCormack and sometimes shifting to the central role kept the defence on their toes- combine that with making good runs in behind the defence which you can't always rely on Bryan to make. Parker went off because he had a knock, but I'd like to think he was going off around the time he did with an eye on Sunderland- and that meant we had to change formations, with Kacaniklic playing on the Right-Hand side and that left Forest with more room to maneuver in the midfield and that was when they started to get on top of us.
The Striker area was a mixed bag today, on the one hand we had McCormack scoring a 35 Minute Hat-Trick and looking like the Striker (Key Word) we spent 120 Billion Pounds on- and not just because of the Hat-Trick. As I've already said his interchanging with Kacaniklic in particular was sublime especially in the First-Half, when McCormack is playing like he was in the First Half every single player around him plays ten times better as a consequence. However, in the second half we shifted him out to the Left-Hand Side- which I wasn't necessarily against because his work-rate definitely helped us in the second half chasing down on the Left-Hand side, its just in the type of game we found ourselves in during the second half McCormack playing centrally would have given us a much sharper edge on the Counter. I'm starting to think Hugo is playing with an injury- he just looks a step off the pace at the moment, and considering how sharp he was looking roughly a month ago it begs the question. In the First-Half I thought Hugo looked alright- his link up play with McCormack was for the first goal was great and in the sort of game we found ourselves in during the First Half he played his role well. Second Half he simply wasn't what the game needed from our perspective- even if Hugo was on the form of his life he can't really hold the ball up which was what we desperately needed just to slow the pace of the game down, and we looked much more assured once Woodrow came on.
The Subs we made were necessary, even though in the grand scheme of things they didn't have a huge impact. As I've already said Parker had a knock, and Bryan was the best option we could have brought on given how limited our options off the bench were with regard to style of player. As I've already said Woodrow was the player we needed just to see the game through and slow the game down.
I said it with the Reading game, and I'll say it again now- we're not in a position to pick how we win a game, and despite the fact it should have been more comfortable than it turned out at the end of the day it'll go in the record books as a win and lets be honest when it comes to being a football fan- if it weren't stressful and taxing, the good moments wouldn't feel quite as good.
Thanks for reading, we're now headed to Sunderland for the FA Cup- which as you'll know if you read these regularly what I believe should be our priority, especially given our current points tally of 10 Points off the Playoffs and 11 off Relegation we're about as Mid-Table as its possible to be; despite that we're more than capable of putting together a Cup-Run and our bad start is as much a reason as anything else as to why we're not closer to the Playoff spots. So anyway, thanks again- and lets hope we're in the hat for the 5th Round Draw when it comes around.
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