BPL:RD 17- Fulham FC v Newcastle United 12-15-07 [R]

[Dirt McGirt]

http://www.footballcrests.com/FulhamCrest1.GIF

--vs--

http://www.lycos.co.uk/graphics/sport/newcastle-united-transfers_imageL.jpg


TeamAmerica is on deck and frankly we need to give this team a proper beat down. Unfortunately we're a team in transition and we still don't do too well on the road. My prediction: 1-1

TV:
USA - FSC 12:00 p.m. ET
UK - Live on Setanta


Team News

Injuries

Owen: Thigh Returns: 23rd December
Ramage: Cruciate Returns: Season

Doubtful

Faye: Calf
Duff: Fitness
Caçapa: Knee
Carr: Hamstring
Butt: Flu :)

Suspensions

None

Cards

Smith 7 Yellow
Butt 7 Yellow
Beye 3 Yellow
Barton 3 Yellow
Geremi 2 Yellow
N’Zogbia 2 Yellow
Faye 2 Yellow
Milner 2 Yellow
Taylor 1 Yellow
Given 1 Yellow

Formation

Slight changes to formation took place during last week’s game but these were due to injury (Butt), tactical (Emre) or time-wasting (Enrique). Sam has a habit of being a bit more compact and defensive away from home although I’m not convinced that’s necessary here.

I would like to see Sam go with: Given, Beye, Taylor, Caçapa (if fit), Charlie, Butt, Emre, Barton, Milner, Smith and Martins

Bench from: Harper, Edgar, Geremi, Viduka and Jose Enrique.

Player Form

Milner was superb again in the Birmingham game and was supported well by Charlie. Viduka provided a clear physical impact when he came on but for me man of the moment has been Habib Beye. Beye has been excellent over the last couple of weeks and long may it continue. On the flip side, Rozenhal is clearly struggling at the moment and would probably benefit from a spell on the sidelines to recover his (clearly) shot confidence.

Expectations

Point. Minimum.

Opposition Danger Man

Dempsey has been playing well for Fulham so far this season and will need to be expertly marshalled (clichés welcome, I’m running out!)

Love to Hate

Nobody springs to mind but on the flip side we should give a tremendous welcome to model professional and ex-Toon favourite, Aaron Hughes

Referee

Howard Webb. Last seen officiating our 2-0 away defeat in the Carling Cup game at Arsenal, Webb has so far dished out 51 Yellows and 0 Reds in 16 games this season.
http://www.true-faith.co.uk/html/Features/0708_preview_fulham_a.htm

[Crazy Man Michael]

We are in the second round of the "Matches From Which We Should Get Points" section of our December schedule. I'm encouraged that Capaca looks like he's ready to come back to strengthen up the back four and look for more of the positive overall play that we have seen in the last few games.

By the way, is it just me or does it seem like we are getting a lot of goals out of defense? Beye last week, Taylor against the Arse, Zogs with a few early from the back too. Based on that I"m predicating a goal for Capaca this week to match Viduka and possibly Smith.

[Zaphkiel]

2-1 to the toon, need to keep trying to push up the EPL table.

[NonbelieveR]

1-0 Toon
Who else, but Oba to net the goal.

[JayRockers!]

Via Soccernet.

Fulham Newcastle
29 Antti Niemi (G) (G) Shay Given 1
3 Carlos Bocanegra (D) (D) Habib Beye 21
18 Aaron Hughes (D) (D) Claudio Cacapa 6
22 Elliot Omozusi (D) (D) David Rozehnal 4
6 Dejan Stefanovic (D) (M) Joey Barton 7
25 Simon Davies (M) (M) Nicky Butt 22
10 Steven Davis (M) (M) Geremi 20
23 Clint Dempsey (M) (M) James Milner 16
27 Danny Murphy (M) (M) Charles N'Zogbia 14
24 Hameur Bouazza (S) (S) Obafemi Martins 9
9 David Healy (S) (S) Alan Smith 17
Substitutes
12 Tony Warner (G) (G) Steve Harper 13
34 Chris Baird (D) (D) David 'F*cking Mint' Edgar 30
7 Seol Ki-Hyeon (M) (D) Sanchez Jose Enrique 3
8 Alexey Smertin (M) (M) Belozoglu Emre 5
14 Shefki Kuqi (S) (S) Mark Viduka 36

Thx,

Jay!

[mdfc]

Newcastle in the light blue change kit.

[mdfc]

All Newcastle in the 1st 9 minutes...a series of corners and deep throws - we need to make our pressure count!

[JaredSS07]

Great defending by Beye. I am really impressed with him.

[tigerdave]

Geremi's played the same corner every time. You'd figure he might want to change it up a bit. Predictability ftw.

[servotron]

....AND the win in stoppage time with a clear cut penalty brought on by Smith, who had a so-so game really.

Cacapa I think had a very good game defensively and is MOTM for me.

[Shameus]

Barton put away the penalty for the win, but to be honest our attack sucked all day long. If not for the penalty, this game would and should have been 0-0.

To quote the announcers during the game "It looks as if either team really has no idea how to score."

Now I know he was talking about both teams, but that really summed up the Newcastle attack today.

Sky Sports in their player rankings had this to say about N'Zog:

"Not suited to Left Back."

Ya Think!

[Dirt McGirt]

No player ratings from me as I only watched the last 60 minutes. I will say that winning 1-0 on the road after playing as poorly as we did is a step in the right direction. The team will be full of confidence and this is exactly what we need going into the Festivus fixtures.

Sidenotes- The away strip is hideous. Butt and Geremi lack the quality to start everyday for an aspiring club. Deuce is not a center forward.

[ToonUSA]

I'm glad I woke up at the crack of dawn to watch this mockery.

At least Barton was able to make up for the 2 chances he mucked up earlier.

[tigerdave]

1-0 to the Barcodes, is the new anthem. >.>

I have no other comments than it was a stone-cold penalty, and a win is a win.

[Zaphkiel]

Atleast we kept a clean sheet.

[colinh9]

Well just finally go to watch the match and what is there to say really? We're fortunate to win, and it was not a very good match to watch, but 3 points is a big result regardless. I thought we came out at the start of the match with real intent to win and actually had a go at them, but we fell into a long ball shell and it just didn't work all game. I think at some point you have to give zogs a go on the left and milner on the right because I thought we lacked width down the right the entire match. Geremi and Butt just simply isn't a great combination, and to throw Barton in there as well is starting to irritate me. I understand you want your best players out there, but sometimes you have to consider your best XI.

This will ease the pressure of of Sam and the players a bit which is a big plus.

[Jimbo Asprilla]

We were every bit as bad as Fulham who are arguably as poor as Derby at the moment, yet more misery for us Newcastle fans due to the ineptitude of Sounadyce.

Martins wide right - WTF !!!

Geremi on the pitch at all -WTF !!!

Smith who's not scored in the league in 2 years - WTF !!

Zoggy at leftback -WTF !!

Milner on the Left - WTF !!

4-3-3 - WTF !!

We are crap and its all Sounadyce's fault.

[colinh9]

For the love of god stop saying Sounadyce.

[Dirt McGirt]

Ex-Mag and Setanta sports pundit Les Ferdinand added:

I think every time we have watched Newcastle use 4-3-3 it hasn’t worked, because of the simple reason that Martins is not comfortable playing out there and if you are going to play that system your players have to be very comfortable and disciplined, and Martins is not. He is drifting inside all the time, so when you want your spaces out wide and leave the man down the centre and join him, he is there too early.

Sam Allardyce has not got the personnel to play 4-3-3 at the moment, not the way he wants to play and with the players he has got. Maybe in the January transfer window he will look to change that.

They have grafted in the last few games, and if you graft eventually your quality will come out. Okay, we didn’t see too much of it today, but they were away from home and their away record has been pretty poor, so what they had to do was graft out a result today, sometimes you have to.

Newcastle a month ago would have lost that game, or they wouldn’t have carried on until the 90th minute when they got the penalty, and I think that is the difference, that is the positive thing he will get out of it.

The team are looking a lot fitter now, he has got the likes of Joey Barton back, Michael Owen to come back, Viduka, and it is all about getting time on the pitch. He is still struggling with injuries because he has lost Taylor now for a few weeks, he has had to rush Cacapa back, but the rest of the team are getting some time on the pitch and the training ground.

[ottoman]

Ugly game. Still dont get what people see in Barton. Emre comes off the bench again and brings instant offense. Given worried me earlier in the year but he is begining to look his old self. The last two games we were Bolton. We need N'Zogbia as left mid, but at the moment we need him at left back more. When Duff returns I would like to see him play behind N'Zogbia. Maybe then we could line up 4-4-2 and our midfielders could be more than spectators.