The rise of Fulham

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Injury woes for Fulham

George Williams, who got injured during the City game could be out for up to 2 months. I told my head physio, Mark Taylor to send him to a specialist and make sure he recovers faster.

Mark also sent me a full report on the injury situation. Not going to lie, it looks horrible.
  • Kacaniklic and Williams are my first and second choices for the left wing position and both are out.
  • Matias Kranevitter, my first choice defensive midfielder/ball winner is still undergoing treatment for his hamstring.
  • My first choice advanced playmaker Vilhena is also out.
Firstly, I rejected Yeovil's offer to extend Ruiz's loan as I need him to add some depth to a squad that is down to bare bones at the moment. Jermaine Jones is not even close to the player he was last season - his stamina and defensive abilities are both on the decline. He's 36 yrs old and I don't expect him to get better.

So, I placed a loan offer for a certain Manchester United player to cover for us this season. More details to follow once United management get back to us. I only put in a loan bid because I don't need a new player for the next season (atleast I don't think so).
 
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Both left wingers out for at least a month - that sucks! Hopefully you can stay within touching distance of Chelsea and round them up when you have your full compliment of players back!
 
Done deal

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And that's the signing I was talking about - the 'afro' man. Only on loan though, till the end of the season. I needed someone versatile in the midfield who has a physical presence and Fellaini, who is presently unhappy at Man Utd looked a good choice.

Further, he was transfer listed as well which made the deal go through without much of an issue.

Jermaine Jones is very likely to leave us at the end of this season as he wants to go back home to Germany. If Fellaini proves himself at Craven Cottage, I may put in a bid for him and do what Arsene Wenger did with a lot of his 'older' players - yearly contracts. But it's too soon to talk about that now.
 
FA Cup third round replay

Now, that's more like it. Good dominance right from kick-off. We may have scored just one goal but we saw more of the ball, created more openings and chances.

Woodrow scored the only goal of the game but it was Finnbogason who set it up with a lovely dribble that left two Leyton players in his wake. I gave my full backs a lot more freedom this game and they played more like wingers. And it clicked. Lustig and Stafylidis made several marauding runs into the opposition area and whipped in several crosses. Most of those crosses were of top quality but the Leyton defenders were very good in the air.

Despite leading narrowly, I was never worried. The performance so far has been excellent and I knew they would win it, and they did!
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We face Man City in the fourth round.

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Cauley Woodrow!!

Cauley Woodrow has been simply brilliant for us and he has been the main goalscorer for us during my time so far. So, I got a bit curious as to see how he compares with some of the top scorers for Fulham.

And this is what I found out:

Fulham's top goal scorers in all competitions
1. Gordon Davies - 178
2. Johnny Haynes - 158
3. Bedford Jezzard - 154
4. Jim Hammond - 150
5. Graham Leggat - 134
6. Arthur Stevens - 124
7. Cauley Woodrow - 119

Fulham's top goal scorers in the Premier League
1. Cauley Woodrow - 54
2. Clint Dempsey - 50
3. Brian McBride - 32

I should've mentioned this sooner. When Woodrow scored his brace against Swansea in the 3-1 win at home, he went past Dempsey as the club's highest Premier League scorer. That is quite an achievement for a 23 year old!
Fulham's top penalty scorers in the Premier League
1. Danny Murphy - 12 (13)
2. Cauley Woodrow - 10 (10)
3. Dimitar Berbatov - 6(6 )

Woodrow has a perfect record from the spot for us - not just in the League but overall as well. Brilliant statistic for a 23 year old.

The future:
If Cauley Woodrow stays with Fulham for a few more seasons, he has a great chance of getting past Gordon Davies' 178 all time goals for the club. Given his present scoring rate, it'd just take him at most three seasons to beat that record. If it does happen, he'd only be 26! Wow.

May be I am thinking too far ahead but it's incredible.
 
A bore draw. Neither side were able to create chances. I went with the 41311 formation as I couldn't go with my usual 4231 formation due to Kacaniklic and Williams' injuries. We were a bit toothless against a well organized Newcastle defense without our wingers. I tried to play with an asymmetric 4231 formation with Pat Roberts as the only winger (who played on the right) but it was too late.

Newcastle had the better chances in the game but just like us, their attack seemed rather blunt. Bettinelli wasn't even tested.
Chelsea slipped earlier in the day as they were held by Southampton and we could've leapfrogged them and moved to top spot in the League with a win. But, we could only get a point at St. James' Park and still remain second, one point behind leaders Chelsea.
 
Great stats! He's obviously already a Fulham favourite but it looks like Woodrow has a chance to become a legend!
 
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FA Cup 2017-18: Fourth Round

View attachment 282038A hard-fought win against a good team. Higuain gave them the lead with a good finish after wonderful off the ball movement that caught our defenders our of position.

Jermaine Jones scored the equalizer for us. It was something we worked in our training. We focused on set-pieces before the game and the corner worked just as planned. Halilovic was instructed to whip in corners to near post and Jones was told to make a near post run. It worked out just as I thought. Sweet!

Halilovic's wing play in the first 30 minutes was fantastic and he deservedly scored giving us the lead in the 32nd minute. Bryan Ruiz, playing his first game after being back from loan slipped in Halilovic with a nice through ball, and the young player, on loan from Barca scored with a nice finish. 2-1 up after going down - nice comeback.

We were hanging on a bit nervously until Victor Wanyama got sent off just before the hour. It helped us tighten the grip on the game. We won the game 2-1 in the end. The red card really hurt City as we made our one man advantage count in a big, big way.

FIFTH ROUND DRAW:
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This is looking good. I fancy my chances in the FA Cup. Man City, Chelsea, Liverpool, Arsenal are all out and United are the only 'big' team in the Cup.
 
Preview: Fulham (2nd) vs. Sunderland (12th)
After the win against Man City, it was time to focus on the Premiership. Chelsea were held by Norwich while we battled against City. So, Chelsea are now five points ahead of us with two more games played than us.
So, I told the lads to give it their best in training. Sunderland visit Craven Cottage for our next game. The Black Cats have been poor defensively, letting in 41 goals already in 24 games and only two teams have conceded more this season. Furthermore, we have beaten Sunderland each time in our last four encounters. Obviously, our training session focused on attacking.

A chat with Mark Taylor
Mark Taylor, our physio was approaching me wanting to have a chat. He is our head physio and I hate it when he walks up to me to talk. I was mentally prepared for bad news.

But for a change, he came bearing good news. Alexander Kacaniklic and Tonny Vilhena were back from injury, and will be resuming full training starting tomorrow.

You can guess my reaction - I was delighted. I gave Taylor a pat on the shoulder for his efforts in the duo's speedy recovery. "E-mail me the reports, will you?", I told Taylor as he was about to leave. He gave a firm nod with a resounding 'Yes' before leaving.
 
Can't catch a break

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I simply cannot catch a break. The good news of Alex and Tonny's return was short lived as three more are injured. Fellaini will be getting an extended run in the team now as Jones will be out for 3-4 months. Halilovic's versatility will be missed as I can play him anywhere in the attacking midfield. I am not too concerned about Lustig though as he'll be back in 2 weeks. And the rest of my defense is fully fit.
 
Sunderland's defense may be leaky but their offense is not half bad. Despite us getting simple goals with a Woodrow tap-in and an own goal, Sunderland offense threatened to score several times. Surprisingly, Sunderland had more possession but couldn't make it count on the day. Baselli's cross in the 24th minute should've been cleared by the Sunderland defense but they let Woodrow in who scored his 120th goal for us.

Our second goal came when Finnbogason's powerful shot hit the post, rebounded off Pantilimon's back before crossing the goal line. The stoppage minute goal gave us some cushion for the last 1 minute.
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Disappointment against North London teams

One point at The Emirates is not too bad as a result but the performance was disgusting. Several of my players were trying ridiculous long balls forward when there were players near them. And Woodrow and Finnbogason, who have been really good at putting away chances made an absolute mess today. Woodrow squandered a one on one and Finnbogason shot wide twice from six yards out.
Our goal was scored by Fellaini, who scored from 20 yards with a left footed volley. Woodrow and Finnbogason were both given a serious lecture at the end of the game.
For the second game in a row, our strikers failed to take their chances. Woodrow ended with a rating of 6.2 and Finnbogason with 6.1. Our midfield was sub-par as it was against Arsenal but almost every single chance we created was wasted by Woody and Finny. We only had one shot on target our of 11 attempts.

And we concede from the penalty spot again. We didn't deserve anything from that game, so I don't have any complaints with the late goal or the penalty.

League table
We missed our chance to put pressure on Chelsea by only getting one point out of a possible six. Highly disappointing. Unlike last season, we haven't been able to really put together a string of good results in a row. Everytime we put in a good performance, we followed it up with an equally bad performance soon.
 
I mentioned this before but I'm not a big fan of issuing formal warnings and slapping fines on players. But after two bad performances in consecutive games, I fined both Woodrow and Finnbogason one week's wages.

As expected, both came complaining to me.

I told them exactly why I fined them. There were certain expectations and they simply didn't fulfill them. A few days ago, I was all praise for Woodrow but I like to live in the present. His performances in the last 2 months were good but in the last 2 games, he was disappointing. And I let him know exactly that. Same deal with Finny.
 
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A decent result after the recent disappointments. We went 2-0 up very quickly. Roberts has been training hard trying to cut inside and place his shots rather than blasting the ball into goal and his efforts seem to be paying off. He placed a lovely shot into the top corner for his first. It was assisted by Woodrow.
Baselli scored our second from a direct free kick from 25 yards. Another curler into the top corner. So far, both goals have been of top quality.

But Burnley, as well all know are very hard working. They kept closing us down a lot in our own half and to their merit, they forced us into committing some errors and one such mistake cost us a goal. Hyam pulled one back.

It took us 15 mins into the second half for us to restore the 2 goal lead. It resembled our first goal. Woodrow played Roberts in again, who placed another shot into the top corner. Bojan, the ex-Barcelona player pulled one back for them with a poacher's finish.

The final 15 mins or so were close but we showed some composure and came away with 3 points. Not the most dominating performance but given our last two performances, this was a welcome result.
Other matches:
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Arsenal did us a favour by holding Chelsea at Stamford bridge. We are 2 points off the top but with a game in hand.
 
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Looks like the title may go down to the wire, hopefully the tough stance with your strikers results in a bag full of goals!
 
FA Cup 2017-18: Fifth Round

Good result at the Molineux. Everytime we get drawn against a lower league teams, we tend to put in a sub-par performance. Not today though. The first half was a bit balanced between the sides until Lee Evans got himself sent off after a crazy two footed tackle on Stafylidis. A moment of madness by the midfielder, which let his team down.

We slowly tightened our grip on the game. Several of our players came close but it was Cauley Woodrow who gave us the lead just before the hour mark. A Bryan Ruiz cross was well turned in by the striker, who put his strength to good use.

We came close a few more times after that but the woodwork and a few good saves denied us. But the win didn't come without a few heart in mouth moments for us. Wolves threatened a few times but didn't score. Wolves had to sacrifice a striker to switch from a 442 to a 441 formation after Evans' red card. It hurt them.
FA CUP SIXTH ROUND DRAW:
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Kinda happy to get Man United here. They knocked us out of the League Cup at Old Trafford and I want to return the favour. More importantly, if we can get past United, we have a fantastic chance of lifting the FA Cup.
 
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CHAMPIONS LEAGUE PREVIEW: FULHAM VS BARCELONA
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It's finally time for the big game against Barcelona. Arguably the biggest match in my managerial career so far. The first leg will be played at Craven Cottage. Let's take a look at what some of the media are saying:
That cracked me up a bit. Barcelona are slight favourites? They must be heavy favourites. We may be good in the Premier League but I doubt that we are a match to a team that has the likes of Suarez, Neymar and Adama Traore.

The good news for me is that Messi and Rakitic are out injured. Barcelona have too much quality to let a couple of injuries hamper them but Messi's absence is wonderful news for any opposition. I will try to get a goal at home and ask the players to keep their shape and defend well. Not focusing on the second leg at Nou Camp at the moment.

I'm pumped up and nervous at the same time. Whatever the result, this is going to a special game for the lads.
 
A fantastic performance. If I were to be critical, I'd say that we were a touch unlucky towards the end of that game.

I started with a 5221 formation with 3 center backs to thwart Barca offense. But in the 11th minute, Kostas Stafylidis took a heavy first touch close to our box and lost the ball in the process. The move that followed caught us off-guard and Suarez gave them the lead. Goddammit. The 5 defender formation couldn't really do much about that goal.

In the 25th minute, Lustig (our right back) got injured and it was a blessing in disguise. I brought on Vilhena (AMC) for Lustig and switched to a 4231 formation. It really paid dividends as we started to see more of the ball and dominated play. It paid off in the 35th minute as Baselli scored from a direct freekick from 20 yards. Superlative strike. 1-1 at Craven Cottage.

We had our stroke of luck in the 38th minute as Suarez got injured. He has been **** for us in the first 30 mins and I was happy to see him leave the pitch.

At half time, I told the lads to keep going and play without pressure. We really played well in the second half. Neymar came close twice just before the hour. But it was all Fulham after that. We had 2 good chances towards the end.

Having said all that, I am a bit disappointed at not creating more chances. It's not often that a team has more possession than Barcelona. We had good possession in their half as well but didn't make it count. We probably should've taken more shots but oh well. 1-1 is a good result.
 
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Blackburn may be 20th in the Premier League but as they say, there are no easy games in the Premiership. We took a 2-0 lead in 28 minutes. Ruiz's shot took a deflection off Blackburn defender Szukala and beat a wrong-footed Jason Steele in goal. Woodrow doubled the lead with a good header from Lustig's cross. Blackburn hit us back immediately with a goal that was very similar to Woodrow's goal at the opposite end.

Blackburn came at us strong in the second half and pushed us back. Their energy levels were really commendable. Such intense pressing in our half during the second 45 minutes takes something special. We made it through but only narrowly. There were several close moments in the second half where Blackburn threatened us.
Other games and the League:
Burnley held champions Chelsea at Turf Moor. So, we went on level on points with our bitter rivals with a game in hand. We face Chelsea next at Stamford Bridge, and if we manage to win that game, we give ourselves an excellent shot at the title.
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