The rise of Fulham

  • Thread starter Thread starter mask0991
  • Start date Start date
  • Replies Replies 1K
  • Views Views 286K
I have given up on the League to be honest. We're letting in too many soft goals. It's just criminal defending at times. Unless we can notch up some away wins, Chelsea will win the League given their form at the moment. Thorgan Hazard gave The Hammers the lead. How he found enough space and time to control the ball and finish it from 6 yards is beyond me.

Jiminez equalized from a Pedro's cross. He beat his man in the air to leave Begovic stranded. And Hazard won it for West Ham with a late goal, which is certainly proving to be our undoing this season.


Post Match Team talk: "You idiotic, moronic, ****heads! I gave you specific instructions and you ****** just went out and blatantly disregarded everything."

Burn, Baselli and Hyndman were the worst offenders. They completely ignored instructions. I specifically instructed the first two to close down less and not leave position, yet they were running around all over the pitch. Hyndman is another culprit. 'Pass it shorter and dribble less' were the instructions given to him. And yet I see him attempting fancy dribbles in our half and trying long balls.
Two days later, I called Hyndman into my room and told him in no uncertain terms that if his performances doesn't improve, I'll transfer list him. Time and again, he ignores team instructions and personal instructions. There are a lot of talented young midfielders coming through our academy and I won't think twice if he continues this. He has an average rating of 6.64 in the last 5 games, and his average rating this season is 6.73.
 
Last edited:
Ouch some tough times but lets hope you can bring them back round!
 
Team talk

Our recent run has been quite patchy. Losses to Chelsea and West Ham have given Chelsea a slight advantage in the title race. We're still alive in the Champions League but the second leg performance vs. Juventus was a bit far from pleasing.

So, I decided to have quick chat with the entire team. Before they started their training, I asked Baresi to assemble all the players.
View attachment 275251
 
View attachment 834443
UEFA CHAMPIONS LEAGUE 2018-19: QUARTER-FINAL DRAW

​
All four English clubs are still alive in the competition. Liverpool, Chelsea, Man City and ourselves are among the eight teams left at this stage.

Three La Liga clubs have made it to this stage as well - Barcelona, Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid.

The last team is the French club Paris Saint-Germain.

Here's how the draw turned out:
View attachment 275250
 
View attachment 275065
We simply had to win this game to keep up with Chelsea. It was a very good win but it was solely down to the second half performance, which was terrific after a telling off at half time.

We took an early lead through Woodrow after about 20 passes. It was lovely. But after a very dominating opening spell, we conceded from a corner, which reminded me of how awful our defending has been at times this season. At half time, I was angry and told the players to sort themselves out and put a better performance.

It took about 20 minutes into the second half for us to take the lead and Woodrow scored again. This was his 100th League goal for us (incl. Premier League and Championship). What a player! However, a 2-1 lead is fragile and Villa came close to equalizing a couple of times. They hit the woodwork once as well.View attachment 275064
However, right back Lustig produced a moment of brilliance as he sidefooted a 20 yarder to beat Guzan. Top stuff from the defender. That pretty much settled the game. But George Williams scored our fourth to complete an awesome second half.
We are 4 pts behind Chelsea at the moment with a game in hand. We have to keep winning to push Chelsea. If we slip up, it'll be out of our hands.
 
Last edited:
March 31st 2019: Injury free

We have a 2 week gap before we play the next game, which is against Liverpool (away). The players were on an international break, with 13 of my 20 first team players travelling to join their national sides.

I took a few days off myself and travelled across the continent. I returned after a 6 day break to work on tactics ahead of our next game and discuss training regimes with the coaches. Mark Taylor, the head physio was in a cheerful mood, which is not a common thing.

To my delight, he revealed some good news. "The whole squad is fit for the Liverpool game," he said.

I made no effort to hide my joy. I need my full squad fit if I want to challenge Chelsea at this point. Kranevitter, Vilhena and Bettinelli are all back in training, and should be back to full fitness before the Liverpool game in six days.

View attachment 274895Everyone in my first team is available for the Liverpool game except Dan Burn, who is suspended after reaching theyellow card limit.
 
Last edited:
Another set-back

We had to get something out of that game, instead we came away empty handed. The first half was pretty even, with both teams dominating in phases.

We started second half brightly, and took the lead with a beautiful counter attack. A Liverpool corner changed into a chance for us in a matter of seconds. Roberts slipped a lovely pass into the path of Vilhena, who finished it off neatly.

Daniel Ankersen equalized for them and 3 mins later, gave them the lead. The first Liverpool goal was from a counter and the second one was a bit unlucky for us to concede. Balanta's headed clearance hit the back of an unsuspecting Stafylidis and fell into Ankersen's path for a tap-in.

Then, the game changing moment happened. Woodrow made a mess of a glorious chance. He really should've scored (see below) but with just the keeper to beat, View attachment 274864he skewed it high and wide.

We created a few more chances but out finishing was far from good. In fact, we only had one shot on target out of 14 the entire game.

Stirling finished any chances of a comeback with an 84th minute goal. It was another counter attack by Liverpool. I pushed all but 3 players forward and we were made to pay by Liverpool.

This is a really bad result in terms of out title ambitions. After the weekend's fixtures, we are 7 points behind Chelsea with a game in hand, and Liverpool are 2 points behind us with a game in hand.
 
Last edited:
Fantastic win. This was the game we had in hand and I told the players that we needed a win to keep the fading title hopes alive.

The lads put in a first half performance of highest quality. Baselli's freekick in the 14th minute hit the bar and fell right at Vilhena's feet, who made no mistake in putting it away. Woodrow doubled our lead within 5 mins with a powerful shot from a tight angle, after Roberts played him in.

Everton tried to push forward but were pegged back once again. A Kacaniklic cross was very poorly dealt by John Stones who put it into his own net. The game was all but sealed within the first 45 minutes.

The second half was a lot more even but Everton lacked the final pass and Balanta and Amorebieta, playing in the central defense had a pretty easy time with Lukaku.
View attachment 274750
 
Preview: Fulham v Tottenham

So, Arsenal did us a huge favour by defeating Chelsea 2-1 at The Emirates. We could get within a point of Chelsea if we win against Spurs at The Fulham Stadium.

Man United holding Liverpool at Old Trafford is fantastic news as well since Liverpool are catching us pretty fast and a win against Spurs would give us some breathing space.

View attachment 274682
 
Oh, come on! We spurned a great chance to get within a point of Chelsea. It was another late goal that screwed us over. Woodrow gave us the lead with a well-worked team goal. It was Woodrow's 150th goal for Fulham in his 238th appearance.

The lads kept possession well and the passing and link-up was really good. But Foket, in the 87th minute scored a goal and leveled the game. My reaction was something that sounded vaguely like the Tottenham player's name. Yet again, we let in a late goal and drop points.

Tottenham certainly didn't deserve the goal as we were clearly the better side but that's football. Could we have defender better? Could Bettinelli have done better to save it? So many questions but I think we played well and a bit unlucky to only come out with a point.
Post-match reactions:
View attachment 274679
 
League table

Chelsea are at the top, 3 points clear of us in the second spot. LiverpoolView attachment 274678 are two points behind us, but with a game in hand. Man United are in fourth and they are well behind us three.

Chelsea have to slip up atleast twice and Liverpool have to slip up atleast once for us to have any chances of winning the League.

Liverpool can win the title if Chelsea slip up.

Looking at the three clubs' run-in, I'd say Chelsea are most likely to win the League. They have two home games against teams in relegation zone. Their two away games don't seem to be tricky either. We have a relatively easy run-in as well but QPR and Watford away can be a bit tricky. Liverpool certainly have the hardest run-in among us three. Everton (Away) and Arsenal (Home) are not going to be easy fixtures.
View attachment 274677
 
So tight, so tense! Fingers crossed those relegation candidates Chelsea face can make it tough for them!
 
ECC 2018/19: Quarter Final (1st leg)

This wasn't a very good performance, and Atletico completely dominated the game. Luckily, our defense held strong to deny them. Woodrow was absolutely pathetic, getting bullied way too easily and lost the ball way too often. And of course, Atletico countered everytime Woodrow lost the ball. View attachment 274671

Mandzukic scored very early and it was a clear indication of things to come - a lot of Atletico dominance. Our best spell of possession and attacking play came in the last 10 minutes when Roberts and Pedro started to cut-inside a lot, leaving their full backs in their wake. Atleast, it was encouraging as it gave me an idea for the return leg.

All things considered, 1-0 in an away tie is not all that bad. We can turn it around at home. Woodrow (rating: 6.1) got a lot of criticism in our final team talk. In fact, I singled him out and he was a bit stressed, but I felt it had to be done.
 
Jiminez out!

Raul Jiminez will be missing the return leg against Atletico. This is bad news because we are 1-0 down in the tie and I wanted my strikers to be fit, especially our top scorer this season. It'll be upto Woodrow and Finnbogason (and may be Artur) to lead our line.
View attachment 274670
 
ECC 2018/19: Quarter Final (2nd leg)

And we turned it around! This was the exact opposite of our poor performance in the first leg. We weren't at our best technically but the intensity was mind-blowing. Even I was surprised with the intensity the lads showed. Atletico were pushed into their own half in the first 45 minutes. Kranevitter's long shot in the 29th minute hit the post and the rebound fell to Finnbogason, who cancelled out Atletico's lead.
View attachment 274663
Till the 83rd minute, we looked very much likely to score but things changed when Kranevitter got possessed and recklessly brought down Mandzukic. It was a red card, without a doubt.

Atletico started to create a few more chances but our energy levels didn't drop. The players kept their intensity going and closed down all chances Atletico created. Roberts' gave us the aggregate lead with a tap in after a Stafylidis cross in 92nd minute.

We kept playing with intensity, closed down Atletico and stopped them from scoring. We held onto our lead and progressed to the semi-final. A really good performance. All the players are really tired but I am so proud of them.
Quarter Final results:
View attachment 274662
In a surprising set of results, Spanish giants Barcelona and Real Madrid were eliminated by PSG and Man City respectively. City overturned a 4-1 deficit with a 4-0 home win. Chelsea came close to doing the same to Liverpool but fell short by one goal.
PSG was the third team to overturn the deficit. They won 3-0 at home to make-up for the 2-1 loss at Nou Camp.

Seeing Barca, Real and Chelsea bow out makes me really delighted as I have a pretty decent head-to-head record against the other three teams.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

FMBase

Beta

Resources

Back
Top