The rise of Fulham

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League Table and Upcoming Fixtures

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Six points clear of Man City who have played a game more. 10 points clear of Liverpool and 14 points clear of Chelsea. We're in a very good position but the next couple of weeks could make or break our season. We face Chelsea, Liverpool and Arsenal in a space of 8 days!!

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Champions League 2020/21: First Knockout Round Draw

Here are the teams that progressed through to the First Knockout Round:
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And this is how the draw turned out:
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Dortmund are a tough team. They have a world-class manager in Joachim Low and some real talented players like Memphis Depay. It'll be an interesting couple of games. We play away first and it could work to our advantage.

Man Utd vs. Bayern and Juventus vs. Chelsea are the other highlights of the draw.​
 
London Derby

Chelsea have been in rather disappointing form this season. Ever since Mourinho left, Chelsea haven't been the same club. Their poor form continued with a loss to us.

Jimenez did brilliantly to set-up Artur. A long clearance by the defense was picked up by Jimenez on our right flank and he ran about 40 yards before crossing it for Artur to put it away. Chelsea weren't threatening much and we dominated play for most of the first half hour. However, Kovacic equalized for Chelsea from a well-worked corner. Hazard and Messi did well near the corner flag and when a low cross came in, Kovacic beat Bettinelli with a nice finish.

Soon after they equalized, Pedro did well to hold off the challenge of Chelsea left-back and floated a lovely ball for Jimenez to head. Top stuff by the ex-Barcelona man.

Chelsea started to press us towards the end of the game. Messi had the best chance of the lot to equalize. Messi's first touch let him down. Boy, I had never though I'd make such a statement. Looks like age is finally starting to catch up with the Argentinian wizard.
 
HOLY SMOKES! WHAT A COMEBACK. ABSOLUTE DRAMA AT ANFIELD!

I set-up defensively with a 4123 formation with focus on counter attack. It backfired....pretty badly. Liverpool's quick passing in the 18th minute was too good for our defense to handle and Balotelli put finishing touches to the move. And six minutes later, the Italian produced a magical moment. From 30 yards, Mario took one touch and curled one into the top corner. A contender for goal of the season, for sure. What a goal by Mario Balotelli.

2-0 down at half time and I changed things. I wasn't too harsh at the players because both Liverpool goals were great goals. Not much our defense could've done. I told them to keep pushing and a goal will come. I told them to believe in themselves!

I switched to a 4231 formation in the second half and Liverpool were immediately pushed onto the backfoot. We weren't dominating, per se but we were creating more chances than the first half. But we couldn't score. Then, I took a huge risk. I switched to a 2-4-1-3 formation. We pumped ball into the Liverpool box and it worked! Jimenez scored from a Pedro's cross. I looked at my watch..3 minutes of normal time left. Game on!

4 mins of added time. "PUSH FORWARD! PUSH FORWARD!," I was yelling near the touchline. Last minute of added time and looks like we were headed towards our second defeat of the season. Baselli chipped a ball into the box and Artur ran towards it and volleyed it. MIGNOLET WAS BEATEN. THE BALL HITS THE NET. 52 SECONDS LEFT AND WE EQUALIZED.

What a game! Anfield stunned into silence. The small pocket of Fulham fans erupted. I was going crazy on the touchline, hifive-ing and fist bumping every Fulham personnel I could see around me. Glorious comeback!
 
Finishing off the year in style

Arsenal are in disappointing position this season. They finished 7th last season and are sitting 10th at the moment. So, we were overwhelming favourites for the game. Burn gave a very early lead with a header from 15 yards out. A floating freekick from Baselli was flicked towards goal by a leaping Burn. Alexis Sanchez was leading Arsenal's front line and was threatening. He almost scored just before the half hour mark.

Artur doubled our lead from a low Pedro's cross. Pedro did brilliantly to set-up the Brazilian. Classy wing play by the Spanish winger - perfect Raumdeuter play. We tried to score more and our strikers hit the post 3 times but couldn't get it a feet or so inside the post.

Arsenal tried very hard to find a way past but couldn't. Great victory to round off a tough set of games. We faced Chelsea, Liverpool and Arsenal in a space of 8 days. 2 wins and a draw - I think that's quite good!
FA CUP 3RD ROUND
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I started a XI filled with players from the U21 and U18 team. No disrespect to View attachment 263485Stevenage, but I think we should be beating a team struggling in Sky Bet League 2 easily, even with a non-regular first XI. The starting XI had an average age of 18.5.

We beat Stevenage but the goal had to come from Kacaniklic, a member of the main squad who came on as a late substitute to create the goal. The youngsters were pretty good on the day but lacked finishing. They still controlled the midfield and kept possession very well. Quite encouraging.

Kacaniklic's goal was a brilliant one as he chipped one over the Stevenage goalkeeper after being player through by veteran Bryan Ruiz.


FA CUP FOURTH ROUND DRAW:
We play Millwall or Shrewsbury away in our next game. I think we should be able to progress through given the strength of our squad.
 
World Team of the Year

The World Team of the Year was announced as soon as the year 2020 ended. And one of my players made it to the team - as a substitute. Raul Jimenez was listed among the substitutes for his prolific goal scoring form in the year 2020.

Here's the full team:
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Before the training session ahead of the Man City game, Pedro came to me and wanted to discuss some personal matter.

Pedro told me that he was feeling homesick in England after spending most of his playing time in Spain. This is his third season at Fulham after 10 consecutive season at Barcelona. He said he wanted to go home.

"Will a short leave of absence help? You can go to Barcelona and take a couple of weeks off," I asked him.

He obliged and so, I gave him a leave of absence.

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Some solid results. Great comeback against Liverpool. As much as it hurts to be down sometimes I get more excited about coming back for a draw than the actual win lol.

Also so just wondering as to why I can't see the links to the goals? Is there something simple I'm missing?
 
BlindSide said:
Also so just wondering as to why I can't see the links to the goals? Is there something simple I'm missing?
Click to expand...

Do you mean the videos of the goals? They're working fine on my end.

Is anyone else experiencing the issue?
 
This game ends a run of 4 huge games for us and I'm glad we came out on top. It was a thrilling game for the viewers as both teams pushed forward from the start till the end.
View attachment 262977Kranevitter scored the only goal of the game with a powerful left footed shot from just inside the area. The goal resulted from our corner which City couldn't clear.

City could've scored a goal towards the end by Aguero's finishing let him down. Jimenez and Artur had a couple of chances to put us 2-0 ahead but City's defending was commendable.

In the end, it was a great win for us. Man City are one of the two teams that are right behind us in the League Table and victory against them is terrific!
View attachment 262951A very similar game to the Man City game - both teams pushing forward relentlessly but it was West Brom who came out winners eventually. Roberts was back from injury after being sidelined for close to a month. And he marked his comeback with a great goal. A quick one-two with Tonny Vilhena saw Roberts through on goal and the winger made no mistake to slide one past Cican Stankovic.

However, West Brom came back as we made a mess of a corner. We simply couldn't clear it. There were six headers inside our box and none of our headers were good enough. In the end, Nabay tried to head it behind for corner but it ended up inside out own net. ****! Within 3 minutes, Artur produced a magical moment. A shot from 30 yards that hit the woodwork before crossing the line. An absolutely brilliant goal by the Brazilian.

And then it went downwards for us. Calderon produced a 20 yard shot to equalize just before the break. After that, it was contrasting attacks by the two sides. Both teams attacked but West Brom had more to their strikeforce. Out attempts all ended up wide of goal where as West Brom were incredible. Bettinelli pulled off several wonderful saves but in the end, he was beaten. A Calderon header somehow managed to beat our keeper after several magical saves.

That was the last goal action of the game and WBA ran out winners. This is just our second defeat this season, and both were by a solitary goal margin.
 
mask0991 said:
Do you mean the videos of the goals? They're working fine on my end.

Is anyone else experiencing the issue?
Click to expand...

Yeah sorry mate videos of the goals all I've ever seen is text saying "here are the goals" or something similar. I'm usually on my phone but I'll try from my laptop after work tonight. See what happens.
 
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Goal glut!!! Jimenez was the hero once again.
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The game started frantically as Harry Kane's powerful volley was cleared off the line by Amorebieta. Then, Roberts hit the bar after QPR's goal keeper was well beaten.

The goal was coming and it was an own goal by QPR keeper Alex McCarthy. Jimenez's shot from the edge of the box was deflected by McCarthy onto the post but the ball bounced off McCarthy's back and into the net. How unfortunate!

Jimenez then put on a show on how to play a poacher's role. Artur's shot was not held cleanly by McCarthy and Jimenez pounced onto the ball after it slipped out. McCarthy was having a horrible time in the middle. Jimenez scored two more before half-time to complete his hat-trick. Roberts cut-in from the right and passed it to Jimenez for his second and a Vilhena's lobbed pass in the added time saw Jimenez get his third.

The second half started in a way similar to the first with Jimenez getting his fourth! Vilhena, who was creative in the first half produced a moment of genius. It was a pass that would've made the likes of Pirlo and Scholes proud. A 50 yard pass from deep inside our half while being closed down was nicely controlled by Jimenez who had an easy task at hand.

5-0 up, I gave some of the young players like Joe Weeks (17) and Gary Waldron (17) their first taste of the derby!
LEAGUE TABLE:
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This is my sixth season in top flight and this is the first time we've been so dominant in the middle of the season. 13 points clear of second placed Liverpool and third placed Man City. Chelsea are 18 points behind and are really starting to miss The Special One.
 
Comfortable win for us in the fourth round of the FA Cup. Woodrow, making his first start after his return from injury scored a brace within 5 minutes. Both goals were typical of the man, and something I've been missing. Absolute belters, from the edge of the area. The goal keeper had little time to react!

Williams scored our third in the 22nd minute with a tap-in from close range after Nabay's shot was deflected by the Millwall defense. Hayden White's sending off didn't change much as Millwall were already 3-0 down and we were very comfortable.

The highlight was Joe Weeks' goal. The 17 year old was making only his second start and third appearance and scored his first ever Fulham goal. A corner by Hyndman was headed powerfully by Weeks into the bottom corner.

IN OTHER NEWS:
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Two fantastic results! The boys definitely have an eye for goal right now

and just a side note the videos showed on my laptop. So that's solved.
 
This was a game with lot of drama. After a dull opening 25 minutes, the game burst into action when the referee gave us a penalty for a foul on Jimenez. It was a 50/50 decision and Crystal Palace were understandably frustrated. The Palace players protested and one of them was Jordan Mutch, who was already booked. The referee produced a second card for Mutch - he was sent off! We were a bit lucky with the penalty and the red card was, well, a strange one!

After that Baselli converted the penalty, and we controlled the game very well. Kranevitter, Artur and Jimenez all got on the scoreboard. Artur scored one in either half and Jimenez continued his impressive goal scoring form.

I told the press that Palace were a bit unfortunate with the penalty decision.
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View attachment 261242And finally we drop points at home! Nottoo disappointed by this though - there's not much we can do when West Ham decide to play like Barcelona and their midfielders suddenly turn into Xavi and Iniesta.

Thorgan Hazard, Eden Hazard's brother was a pain in the **** for our side. In the past, he always furstrated us and he continued to do so. He made a good run into the box and was totally unmarked to put them ahead. For some reason, our midfield couldn't cope with theirs. As I said, they looked like Barcelona in disguise - almost all their midfielders had close to 90% passing rate.

Dan Burn equalized for us from a corner and then we pushed on for the winner. Our best spell of the game came towards the last few minutes of the game but we couldn't find a winner. After 12 home wins this season, we finally drop points!
 
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