The rise of Fulham

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View attachment 279715A resounding victory. Woodrow scored our first with a volley from Kacaniklic's cross. Kacaniklic dribbled past two West Brom players inside their box and set up Woodrow beautifully.
The second goal was a very good team goal with short and crisp passing. Kranevitter started the move in midfield and brought Hyndman and Baselli into play. Baselli played a nice one-two with Woodrow which saw him beat the last West Brom defender and through on goal. He slotted it coolly into the bottom corner.

2-0 up within 25 mins and we never looked liked losing for the remainder of the game. We had a few more chances to score but none of them resulted in goals.

That was Woodrow's 130th goal for the club and takes him within 4 goals of our 5th all time leading scorer, Graham Leggat. Daniele Baselli won the Player of the Match award after yet another dominating midfield display.
 
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PREVIEW:​
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EVERTON V FULHAM:
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I called Baresi from the hospital and told him to use the 4231_wide tactic and which starting XI to use. It's the same thing we discussed in training leading up to this game.
A draw against a high-flying Everton at Goodison. Roberts gave us an early lead with a powerful left footed shot. But Romelu Lukaku resuced a draw for Everton in the dying moments of the game with a pin point header that just beat Bettinelli. A bit disappointed to concede the late goal but Baresi did a commendable job in managing the team.

Why the hospitalization?
When I managed the team against Everton, the game ended 2-2 and I had already posted it here. But my game crashed before I could save. So, I loaded the game, went on a holiday until the game produced similar set of results for the 'big' clubs to the unsaved fixtures - a draw for us, a loss for Man United, Liverpool winning against City etc. It took me a while to generate similar results but I felt it was the best way to resolve this.
 
ECC Group Stage 2018/19: vs. Real Madrid

Preview:
I was released from the hospital just one day before the Madrid game. I asked the doctor to give me a bunch of tablets to keep me fully functional for the next couple of days. I hopped onto the next plane to Spain with all my medications and was very eager to join my squad for the game.

I went with the intention of getting a draw. We set-up quite defensively with a 4123 formation. The back four, Kranevitter (DM) and Hyndman (CM) were all set to defensive mentality. Baselli, Roberts, Kacaniklic and Woodrow were given the freedom to create in the opposition half. Atleast 4-5 players were asked to stay back at all times to avoid Madrid from counter attacking.

The Match:
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A valiant performance, despite the loss. Real Madrid were unable to break our defense and the two full backs kept Ronaldo and Bale quiet. Top notch defending by the full backs. It took them 52 mins to take the lead when James Rodriguez scored from 30 yards. I was cursing my luck in the dug-out and Baresi kept telling me to calm down and not to stress myself following my illness. After brave defending, going down to a 30 yard goal is very hard to digest.

But Roberts equalized for us just 10 mins afterwards. Stafylidis' freekick took a deflection off the wall and fell into Roberts' path, who slotted it into the bottom corner. "Concentrate. Don't lose focus," I was yelling at the touchline.
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We almost came away with a point until Cristiano Ronaldo scored in the 84th minute. **** it! What a late goal to concede. So infuriating. It was the only time in the game Lustig didn't keep tabs on Ronaldo and the Portuguese found himself in some space and unleashed a powerful shot. Bernabau erupted and our dugout was stunned. Lustig and I saw each other and gave each other a look, and it spoke more than words.

Madrid kept hold of their lead. It was a really sad way to lose. But we put on a very good performance. Yes, we did play quite defensively but it had to be done - can't leave ourselves open against Madrid's pace.
 
Frustrating performance

Sanchez opened the scoring with a 20 yard free kick but Pedro equalized before the end of the first half with a lovely finish, cutting in from the left wing. It was Pat Roberts' dribbling and vision that set-up the goal. Superb assist. Despite going 1-1 into the break, the midfield display was very worrying. There were several sloppy passes by the players even when they were less than 10 yards apart. I told the midfield to put on a better performance at half time.

Sanchez restored Arsenal's lead in the 56th minute and I was absolutely angry with it. I was shocked at how Sanchez (5'7") beat our defender Burn (6'7") in the air. The cross from Chamberlain was good but it was silly defending. I was yelling obscenities at Burn from the touchline. I wanted to take him off - I was that angry. But Luiz Gustavo took his second yellow and left the pitch a minute after that goal.

Just what we needed! I told the players to push forward and brought on Finnbogason for Baselli. And he scored minutes after coming on. Williams shot at goal from 20 yards and Finny deflected the off-target shot into goal. 2-2 with 10 mins left. The players pushed for a winner but it never came.

Ya, it was a good comeback but some of the defending and passing absolutely ****** me off! Another game where we drop points. We haven't made a great start to the Premier League this season with only 8 points from 5 games. We are in 11th place in the league after this game.
 
As always, the players took a rest day after the Arsenal game. View attachment 279455They all returned the following day and they were all instructed to meet me in the dressing room before the regular training sessions. It took about 10 mins between the first and the last player arriving to the dressing room.

No coaching staff were present for this meeting. It was just me and the players. I took my morning tablets as prescribed by the doctor for my mild heart condition. And then I started the meeting.
"OK. 8 points in 5 games. We haven't started well this season. Lets go around the room and listen to everyone's thoughts."
They all told several things - things that went wrong, things we could improve upon and such.

"Good. So, I am not the only one who thinks our defending and passing has been sloppy off late. I don't want to take names but our whole midfield has been misplacing passes a lot. You are not picking up fullback's overlapping runs and our strikers are rather lonely upfront. You lads need to start playing like a team and perform like a solid unit. The one that won the League last season."

"Now, onto defense." I asked our defensive unit comprising of Balanta & co. to tell me ways of improving our defending. Specifically, I asked them for training routines we should practice.

They came up with some ideas, most of which sounded good. "That would work. We'll start working on that. Further more, Naylor, Bellamy and I have devised specific defending regimes that will help us stop conceding."

"As for the rest of you guys, the focus will be on team cohesion, ball control. The midfielders will focus on passing. I want you five to link up well with each other," I said by pointing out Baselli, Vilhena, Hyndman, Ruiz and Kranevitter, "as you'll be the primary creative force in this team."

"Anything else?"

Some of the players had a few questions and the meeting went on for another 15-20 minutes. After that, they all returned to training.
 
Capital One Cup 2018-19: Third round

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This was strange, to say the least. This is my fourth season in the Premier League and I've never seen Tottenham play with such a lack of energy. What's more surprising is the number of long shots they took considering they have Pep Guardiola at the helm.

After a powerful opening by us, the players sealed the game in a space of 8 minutes. Roberts opened the scoring in 18th minute with a lovely finish after dribbling past 2 defenders. He's now scored 3 in his last 4 games.

Jiminez scored two in the next few minutes - one from a Hyndman through ball and the other from a Lustig's cross. This was the first time he scored for the club after his move from Atletico. He found very good positions inside the Spurs' box and applied finishing touches to two good assists.

Spurs did try to push for a goal in the second half but they didn't produce anything of great quality. Unlike Man Utd and Real Madrid who scored long shots from over 25 yards after being unable to break open our defense, Tottenham didn't possess that quality to produce such magic.
 
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Argh! More points dropped. And we needed a 90th minute penalty to secure the draw. Once again, there were quite a few sloppy passes which let Burnley counter attack us. One such incident led to Lens' goal, which gave Burnley the lead. Everytime we tried to push forward, our passing was sloppy or the crosses were tame and it those worked out, the finishing was lacking.

We got a bit lucky in the 90th minute when Raglan pushed Woodrow inside the box. Penalty - it was an easy decision for the referee to give. Woodrow converted the penalty to level the scores. In the 92nd minute, Woodrow had a glorious chance but his header grazed the post before going out of play. So close, but we didn't deserve a win after that performance.

I think that the sloppiness in passing and poor play upfront is because I am giving too much freedom for the attackers. I see way too many risky passes that have no way of finding their intended target. I should ask the attackers to stick to team tactics too. I don't particularly like telling attackers what to do but if this continues, I see no other option.
View attachment 279360LEAGUE:
As for the League, we haven't made a great start to the season. Our last 3 games have all ended in draws. Luckily, it's still early in the season and are only​ 4 points behind the league leaders at the moment. If we can string together a few wins, we should start our climb to the top.
 
ECC Group Stage 2018/19: vs. Zenit

View attachment 279137A much better performance after a few winless games in the League. And it was a fantastic victory. We totally dominated the game and didn't let Zenit create many chances. They only had 2 shots on target our of 5, compared to our 12 out of 17. I decided to pick two inside forwards instead of winger Kacaniklic on the left, to give us more force in the opposition box.

And it paid dividends. Woodrow set-up Williams with a lovely pass just after the half hour mark. Woodrow scored a brace in the second half - one with a powerful shot after turning the defender and the second from the penalty spot after Williams was tripped inside the box.

After the game, I congratulated the players but also told them a few additional words - "That was a good performance. I am very pleased. This is the quality we have at the club and performances like these make me wonder why you lot can't play like this every week." All the players responded positively except a couple, who weren't really in the mood for my lecture after the game.
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"The Fulham Stadium"? >.> Ugh this game generates AWFUL names for the new stadiums.
 
Good start in the new stadium!

View attachment 279104Off to a winning start in the new stadium. This was a good result and a good performance. I tweaked my tactics for the last two games and it seems to be working. The players were given a bit less freedom to avoid trying audacious stuff on a regular basis.

The goal came just before half time when Balanta, who stayed ahead after a corner, controlled Hyndman's through ball neatly before turining a defender and tucking the ball into the bottom corner. A really good finish from a center back!

Norwich created a few chances and tested Bettinelli 3 times or so in the opening 10 mins of the second half, when our players seemed to have switched off a bit. I yelled at them and asked them to concentrate. Then, we got our act together and Norwich had no way back.
Our new stadium details (top) and the League table (bottom):
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