Look, I dont care how often or how well Fulham's plays with our Johnson, they're still going down....
I'll admit it.. I didn't watch the entire game as I was watched the Arsenal-Aston Villa game instead (Fulhamerica game was in Arabic anyway ) From what I saw, EJ didn't seem all that bad - saw him make a few crosses, runs down the right, and the odd tackle here and there. He seemed quite lively actually. Considering he was playing out of his regular forward position, he didn't seem to do any worse than anyone else on the team.
I didn't see the game, but it seems EJ was much more effective when he played up top. From here on out Hodgson needs to roll the dice. To get any value at all out of EJ, he needs to play forward with McBride. And Dempsey has to be on the field. Staying up is still possible. Hell, Newcastle look incapable of winning again this season.
My definition of a meaningless game is that if we lose, it doesn't matter. If we lose a WC Qualie, it matters.
Re: 3/1, Fulham v. Man Utd. (as many as 5 YAs) [R] Yes sir. And will that be with or without novacaine? (And is this a vote for or against a main forum discussion thread or merely a general expression of discontent?) ------------------------------------------- What I'm going to do is start a thread on this topic in the main forum. If anybody would like me to move their post relating to EJ's development to it, let me know. Granted, people are frustrated with the way one poster or another is expressing a viewpoint, but I also see a fair amount of real interest in the underlying issue of EJ's development as a player, so it might be useful to have a place where that can be addressed directly. The other benefit is that it will give me a place to offload similar eruptions in subsequent Fulham gameday threads.
Re: 3/1, Fulham v. Man Utd. (as many as 5 YAs) [R] New thread is here: https://www.bigsoccer.com/forum/showthread.php?p=14011135#post14011135
Re: 3/1, Fulham v. Man Utd. (as many as 5 YAs) [R] Hey, the dick jokes were kinda fun to read... and almost mandatory for a guy named Johnson playing in an otherwise completely predictable game.
IMO, he needs to go with a true Diamond now with Andreasen as a sole D-mid and with Davies, Dempsey, Bullard, McBride, Nevland/Johnson/Kamara. Roy's been playing 4-5-1/4-4-1-1/4-4-2 hybrids but he can't sit back now. Well, if a player gets in a 3:0 game and makes it 6:0 in the last half hour when the opponent had long given up, then it's as close to a meaningless (third of a) game as one can get. That is not to say all of Eddie's goals were like that. The openers vs. T&T and Jamaica were certainly money goals.
i think 7 qualifying goals does, in fact, "mean shit". i don't know about you, but i like qualifying for the World Cup. i fail to see how just because goals are scored against teams not from Europe, they should somehow not count in discussion. you could also substitute about of the players on the rosters for the WC and Copa (save a few exceptions) into your statement about being a disgrace. did you really watch those games or were you so focused on EJ screwing up that you didn't notice anyone else? also despite being such an atrocity in MLS, he finished with 15 goals in 24 games his last season. i think a scoring rate of at least once every two games is pretty good. it seems like EJ has somehow accosted you unlike any of the other letdowns. did he cut you in line at McDonald's sometime in the past or something? yes, he is a letdown because it seemed like he had such great potential right at the beginning, but our talent pool up top isn't of the quality that we can automatically throw a guy out if he doesn't play like McBride.
Re: 3/1, Fulham v. Man Utd. (as many as 5 YAs) [R] Dude, your argument makes no sense. You want to compare one of the best players in the world with someone who plays for a relegation bound team. Dempsey would not even be able to sniff the Man U bench. Are you even serious? Your lame argument could be applied to any attacking player in the league lol. Just stop it.
Re: 3/1, Fulham v. Man Utd. (as many as 5 YAs) [R] Up until the last match, I believe I read somewhere that Dempsey was the only player to appear in every match for Fulham this season. He's also their leading goalscorer, and many of us on here feel he's been Fulham's best player all year. You don't just drop a player like that from the entire gameday roster for tactical reasons. My guess is that Dempsey was just spent and needed the rest.
Re: 3/1, Fulham v. Man Utd. (as many as 5 YAs) [R] tevez was on a relegation bound team this time last year no? And now plays for ManU, right?...so being on a relegation bound side is not really an argument. the argument was more leaned towards the fact that Dempsey would like to play the same style as C.Ronaldo. He just doesnt have all the goods. That and the fact that the two games Demps played against ManU his lack of defense was exposed. I believe he allowed Ronaldo to blow past him last year after cookie put him in, hoping to maintain a lead.
Re: 3/1, Fulham v. Man Utd. (as many as 5 YAs) [R] And Tevez CARRIED that team to survival during March, April and May last season. If he wasn't there, West Ham would be playing QPR this season.
Re: 3/1, Fulham v. Man Utd. (as many as 5 YAs) [R] You obviously didn't watch Dempsey beat Liverpool last season... Or watch him quietly carry the team this season... Without Dempsey, FFC would be even on points with Derby. Or more importantly, if FFC had a defense that didn't give up goals in the last 30 minutes so much, FFC would be a mid-table team, largely due to Dempsey's skill and work ethic.
Re: 3/1, Fulham v. Man Utd. (as many as 5 YAs) [R] Before I go on with this post, I want to point out that this analysis was done without bias, and only done to get an idea of just what Clint Dempsey's current form is. I am a USA fan, and while I've never been a great admirer of Clint's game, I respect that he's a talented player and wish nothing more than he fulfills his potential and becomes our best player. This was my thought process, I read here that Clint is Fulham's leading scorer, but then I couldn't remember when he last scored a goal for his club. I looked it up, and his last goal was in a 5 - 1 defeat to Tottenham on Christmas boxing day (Dec 26th). Now I was wondering just how he played in the matches since that day. Obviously I haven't watched them all, so I needed an unbiased source. So I used the SkySports rating (I realize this is still subjective, please understand I'm not trying to draw definitive conclusions, just trying to get a handle on Clint's current form), and took every match he started (7 of the 8 matches he played, not including the FA Cup matches which Sky did not rate), and ran an analysis on it. What you see below is the results. Code: FULHAM RATE POINTS 42.72 DEMPSEY RATE POINTS 41.00 RATE POINTS DIFFERENCE -1.72 AVG FULHAM RATING 6.10 AVG DEMPSEY RATING 5.86 AVG RATING DIFFERENCE -0.25 % DIFFERENCE -4.04% Rate points are the total points "won" in ratings from Sky over the course of 7 matches. Average rating is self-evident. While I haven't a clue how Fulham's management feels about Clint's form, from the matches I've seen I didn't think he was playing that well, and from Sky's point of view appears to agree with my admittedly non-expert opinion. The simple reason that Clint hasn't been doing as well as he was earlier in the season, and possibly worse than the team on average, might be the reason Hodgson has put him on the bench. I don't know to be honest, but it's interesting to look at.
My lineup of choice, with all current players available for selection: McBride - Healy Bullard Dempsey Davies Andreason Konch - Hange -Hughes - Stalteri Niemi BENCH: Keller, Bocanegra, Volz, Johnson, Kamara I have to be honest... I was going through some clips of earlier in the season, and the Healy - McBride partnership seemed to be working well early on... they combined for, what, three goals in the first three matches? Healy, I think, is a pretty smart player... and he played off of McBride's ball winning ability and knack for getting beat up pretty well. Healy's goal against Bolton is indicative of this... a big muck up off of a corner, and, somehow, the short, unfit player gets the ball at his feet in the middle of a fracas and fires home hard. So, I doubt few people will agree with me on this... but, I thought the two had some potential together. Of course, you could argue anyone else up top with McBride and I could be persuaded to drop Healy... especially since he hasn't had a match in, like, a month. I like Volz and Bocanegra on the bench for their versatility on defense... Johnson and Kamara for pace, and bit of versatility in attack. BTW, if the season ended today, Fulham would qualify for the UEFA Cup due to sporting play.
Re: 3/1, Fulham v. Man Utd. (as many as 5 YAs) [R] You mean the match that Liverpool didn't care about? Do you recall who were on that Liverpool team and when it was played?
Re: 3/1, Fulham v. Man Utd. (as many as 5 YAs) [R] That’s fair enough. I haven’t been able to watch Fulham much since Hodgson was put in charge, so I can’t comment much on how his play has been recently, and those Sky Sports ratings are certainly a surprise to me since I seem to recall Dempsey having the best average rating of any Fulham field player about a month ago, when I last checked. From the lineups I’ve quickly scanned through, though, it appears that Dempsey's drop in form coincided with a period where he was playing a lot as a lone forward, as opposed to earlier in the season when he was usually partnered with Kamara or Healy. I still would be very surprised, though, if this supposed drop in form would keep the leading scorer and leader in appearances off the gameday roster when he had still been starting nearly every other game since Hodgson came in.
Re: 3/1, Fulham v. Man Utd. (as many as 5 YAs) [R] Agree it's a bit unfair to him to ask him to be a lone striker. He's a player that works a lot better with the ball at his feet, going at defenses from the midfield, with options in front of him. When you are doing the same stuff over and over, and it's not working. Change something up. It very well might be as simple as that. Hodgson might just be trying to jig things up*. Sorry, I've been watching too many Bones commercials on TNT.
Re: 3/1, Fulham v. Man Utd. (as many as 5 YAs) [R] It might not have mattered to Liverpool, but it sure mattered to us. And he was the one that stepped up. The fans aren't going to forget that.
Re: 3/1, Fulham v. Man Utd. (as many as 5 YAs) [R] Jose Reina Sami Hyypia Gabriel Paletta Alvaro Arbeloa Emiliano Insua * Xabi Alonso Mohamed Sissoko Mark Gonzalez ** Robbie Fowler Craig Bellamy Jermaine Pennant *** Subs Used: Steve Finnan (74) * Harry Kewell (76) ** Nabil El Zhar (64) *** Not their best but, I'm sure Fulham wouldn't mind borrowing Pennant, Bellamy, Sissoko, Alonso, Hyypia, etc.
actually it wouldn't have mattered. we still would have advanced. we were up 2-0 in the second half when he scored those 3 goals. If you were watching the same game I was you would have clearly seen a panama side that just gave up. It was all garbage in front of the net. He just happened to be in the right spot at the right time on all 3. He didn't help win the game. The game was already dead before he even scored. Then his fifth goal was the next game against Jamaica which was an absolutely worthless game for us since we already clinched 1st place that round. So there are 4 goals that were worth nothing.
Re: 3/1, Fulham v. Man Utd. (as many as 5 YAs) [R] Dempsey's tweener skills are catching up with him. As a forward, his finishing isn't polished enough to convert enough chances - his primary scoring skills are those of a midfielder late arriving in the box ala Tim Cahill and not as the primary option. As a central midfielder, he is often dispossessed and does not control play. He makes the odd semi-brilliant pass and can occasionally beat players one-on-one, but he's not the type of player who can make an impact just by virtue of frequent touches and having play run through him. As a wide midfielder, he doesn't sit out there on the wing and doesn't provide width Fulham often needs and doesn't cross basically because his natural inclination is to get in front of the net. It hasn't helped that the coach du jure has decided to play with all central midfielders overlapping each other randomly. From either midfield position, Dempsey's defense though better than before is still shaky particularly late in games when Fulham needs to suck it up. From all positions, Dempsey's off-the-ball positioning and runs are often good or useful, but I'd put that down to turmoil in the coaching and player selection that has been basically non-stop this year at Fulham. His best skills for Fulham have been winning the ball as a target forward (from which he is looking exhausted) and a few goals early in the year (headers, tap-ins, front of the net scrums). Since the beginning of the year, I'd say his contributions are average at best because positionally he doesn't fill a clear void for Fulham at any position. He would be at his best for them if Fulham had a go-to goal scorer that Clint could play off as the second forward - alas, Fulham doesn't have one.