It's Fulham, anyone who thought we'd get two straightforward wins in a row was lying to themselves. That said we got the Win which given how we've started the season was an absolute must, however comfortable or otherwise it may have been. It's actually turned into quite a good day for us between our Win and Brentford going down to Reading and Orlando Sa and some of the off the pitch stuff that's come out Today on the Transfer Front. I won't say I'm "happy" going into the International Break, but if we'd have gone into the Internationals after blowing a 2 Goal Lead Away to Rotherham I'd have been next level angry.
The big off the pitch stuff from today is that Richard Stearman appears to be on his way to us. I'm all for it, while I'd have preferred Mancienne it really is just that- preference. Stearman is still without a doubt an improvement on the Centre-Back options we've currently got, and as I'm writing this I've just seen that Kenny Jackett has confirmed they've accepted a bid from us for him. Today's actually turned into quite a good day, which is a good thing- because I can tell I'm coming down with something and I'll be ill for the next week.
Onto the on the pitch antics, and the goals. It was written that Ben Pringle would score today, and he won't have had many easier goals to score in his whole career. It was great work from Dembele to direct the Header and after the Save it was just a simple goal for Pringle to put home. The Penalty was a definite Penalty, and as I'll get onto a bit later on with Husband it's already looking like Husband has been a quality get for us down the Left-Hand side. I think I made this point at some point during last season as well, we always seem to have a player who can score Penalties with ease. Just going back recently we've had Murphy, Berbatov and now McCormack. The Rotherham goal was just so stupid on our part, it was a complete gift from Burn and Clarke-Harris left Lonergan with no chance. The Third Goal for us should have come a lot sooner, but when it did it was a good one. O'Hara was great in the build-up and it was a good finish from Woodrow.
I thought Lonergan was good today, he didn't really deserve to concede- and I thought it would be his day after the great Penalty Save. That said, it wasn't to be when it comes to Clean Sheets but on the whole Lonergan was good when called upon and that Penalty Save may well have saved us the 3 Points.
I'm not going to get massively worked up on the Dan Burn front because the seemingly imminent arrivals of Stearman and Kone on top of Ream will at least hopefully mean I won't have to talk about him that much from the Blackburn Preview and beyond. It's not even that Burn overall was bad, but his role in the Rotherham goal can't go unnoticed. Also, my point about Burn playing against Strikers that aren't Championship quality- see Matt Derbyshire today. I thought Ream was generally solid today, I still have my reservations when it comes to his aerial ability and that impacting his ability to play Centre-Back. However, considering he's a naturally Left-Sided player being asked to play as the Right Centre-Back he was fine today. On the Centre-Back front with the seemingly imminent arrivals of Stearman and Kone I think it's pretty safe to assume at least 1 of our current Centre-Backs are off. I think Burn will- or at least he should get Loaned Out, Bodurov will most likely be sold now given he's 5th or 6th Choice if both Stearman and Kone come in. On the Centre-Back front if we head into September with Stearman, Ream, Kone and Hutchinson as our four Centre-Backs then I'm happy.
Jazz Richards was generally fine, it was such a stupid and unnecessary foul for the Penalty- but Lonergan bailed him out on that front. I don't know if James Husband looked so good today because we're comparing him to Voser, or that Husband was actually just amazing today. Out of the Three for the MOTM voting thing I'm torn between Husband and Lonergan, but I'd lean towards Lonergan just because his Penalty Save- at least in my opinion saved us the Three Points today. Although the MOTM was Tunnicliffe for me. However, Husband was just all around quality today- and in one game he's proven that he was worth the Loan move however short it may be. Also, and I may well be wrong- but I think we're going to be signing a Right-Back fairly soon. The Ryan Fredericks news that he's leaving Bristol City and going to a "London Team" has obviously left us as an option. As I said, I don't know- but it's something to keep an eye on.
It seems judging from the reaction to his performances today and on Tuesday people are finally realising, Tunnicliffe is needed in the team! It's not a coincidence that we've had a marked improvement in performances since Tunnicliffe's came into the team. It's not just what Tunnicliffe does on the ball, he knows his role perfectly and it allows the players around him to play to their fullest. As already said he was MOTM today for me (again), and it's weird and annoying that he wasn't on the Voting thing. I thought O'Hara was good today, it wasn't his best game in a Fulham shirt- but he was still good and he most definitely showed his quality in the build to Woodrow's goal. Overall I thought this was Pringle's best game in a Fulham shirt, First-Half in particular where we hardly gave Rotherham a sniff I thought Pringle was outstanding. Pringle was always going to score, and the sub with a Minute left was a nice touch from Kit. Cairney was quite wasteful today, it wasn't his best game for us by a long way- but it doesn't really matter because we got the win.
I'm not saying McCormack was amazing today, but he without a doubt looked infinitely more dangerous today than he has done so far in the League. He of course scored the Penalty, but just his overall play was better today- and on another day his shot that hit the Bar in the 2nd Half would have gone in. Dembele as said/predicted yesterday was an absolute handful for the Defenders today. If we hadn't have tried to play the "Smith Tactic" against Huddersfield we probably would have been going into this International Break with 7 Points and not 5. His energy and just overall play was good today. This isn't necessarily a criticism of Smith, but Dembele is by far the more mobile and it shows in how we play as a team.
The Subs were good for different reasons, as already said the Pringle sub in the last Minute was a nice touch. Woodrow's sub was clearly a good move because he popped up with a goal. In the space of about 2-3 Minutes we saw why Woodrow is getting called-up into the England U21s and is clearly rated by people at the club, and also why Woodrow isn't quite ready yet and is unbelievably frustrating at times when he should have buried another one. The Christensen sub for McCormack was smart on Kit's part given McCormack was booked- as shown when Christensen "took one for the team" with his yellow card in the later stages it was definitely needed so credit to Kit on that front.
Overall today's game was a weird one. First-Half we looked about as consistently dangerous as I can remember since the First-Half of the Forest Home Game in Mid-January- and then much like that Forest game we either got complacent or just ran out of steam because our performance levels completely went off a cliff. We're still quite a naive team at the moment, we should have killed this game by Half-Time and then Second Half we let Rotherham get back into the game when we really shouldn't have. That said there's definitely some promising signs on the pitch now, and with the Stearman and Kone signings we're finally shaping up to look like a complete squad- although I still want another Striker in, whether that's Vydra or someone of a similar style.
That's where we turn our attentions to now, with the Window and specifically Deadline Day. As said in my Preview I'll be doing an All-Day Deadline Day Live Blog (which isn't actually all-day), so I hope you stay tuned for that. Without knowing I think it's going to be a pretty busy few days for us both on the Incoming and Outgoing fronts. Let's face it, it can't be any deader than the Winter Window one.
Thanks for reading as always, obviously after the Deadline Day stuff these Fulham posts will be on the International Break as well- so I hope you stay tuned for that one at various points during Deadline Day. Then we'll be back with the Blackburn Preview where we get to do it all over again, I'm actually optimistic at this stage heading into the Blackburn game- and with some of the games we've got in September a win to kick off the Month really is a must. Thanks again for reading, WE ACTUALLY WON IN THE LEAGUE! IT'S A MIRACLE!
No comments:
Post a Comment