And that's another team with YA presence flirting with the relegation zone. I know it's early, but this is depressing.
Having watched the game now, it seemed to me that Fulham was the victim of some fairly uneven calls throughout the game. The first goal in particular came off of a pretty dodgy decision in my opinion. That said, Fulham needs to start making their own luck. Their weak points in the defense seem to be an obvious lack of quality in the center. Boca and Volz seem the only quality players in the back. Not only is the backline weak in the center, but I get the sense that they have no defensive midfield whatsoever.
Watched much of the game, especially 2nd half (missed first 20 minutes). 3rd game I've seen of Fulham, and Boca has looked like their best defender. Volz has slipped from last year's very good form (Volz gets beat constantly and badly 1v1. Knight/other center player are not as strong either. Boca looks good to me. He had one bad action (that I saw) at the end of 1st half, which Solano almost turned into goal. 2nd half, Boca totally controlled his side. I disagree about his speed. He is not the fastest, and sometimes it costs him, but Volz is looking worse. Boca looks very comfortable on the pitch to me, and positions usually well. Had a nice save in box near end of game. Good go-to-ball instincts. Malbranque is still Fulham's classiest and most creative player. John, Cole, and Boa Marte looked terrible in the box today. McBride's standing should rise by default. Again, the first 3 were horrible. Did nothing right all day. Great goal by Hendrie (2nd). 1st goal was savable (even Van der Saar does not look as good as last year). 1st goal due to an unnecessary bundle over by Zak Knight- who looks far from National Team material to me. Boca was not at fault on either goal. Today's game was good for our Yanks in that they looked very good by comparison. I don't think Fulham goes down. They are struggling, but Aston Villa looked no better to me, except in good finishing. Fulham was awful taking chances/half-chances today- of which they had enough for 1 or 2 goals at least (with good taking). Jensen also seems like a useful player (for Fulham)
Lets take this a bit further and look at the front... Boa Morte looks like he's looking for the call, rather than attacking the goal when he's got a clear path to it, and you have Andy Cole who's disappeared every game this season, with or without injury. I think I'll echo what the announcers were kinda hinting at toward the end of the match.... you've got others on the bench who have shown pretty well when given the chance. Why does Coleman keep going back to the old stand-by's when they're not getting the results? This is something that I remember was an issue last year, and only because of taking chances with players like McB because of regular starter injuries, did they put themselves in 5th in the Prem. Unlike most other teams, you would have to say, Fulham wont get off the bottom, unless one of two things happen.. 1, Coleman is replaced, or 2, Injuries start piling up, especially up front.
FWIW, McBride did wear the captain's armband for the last five minutes of the match once he replaced Cole. Just a useless bit of YA trivia.
Well this is seriously bad for Fulham. Now they are fighting relegation and there next 3 matches they will most likely lose. Here is their next 3 Tottenham,Newcastle,Chelsea.After that they get Everton and Blackburn so if they can get a win and a draw out of the next 3 then they wont be in big trouble.Anyway Boca was ok he was their best defender but, that isnt saying much because Fulhams defense is terrible. Mcbride well Cole is way better so Mcbride probably wont get to much time on the field any more. That was a horrible call on Fulhams free kick that was a handball and it wasnt called(of course do they ever call a penalty?). Well Fulham probably wont be relegated but, they seriously need a win against Tottenham and then go to Newcastle get a win lose to Chelsea and get 2 easy wins against Everton and Blackburn. Fulham have the talent to do that they even have the talent to challenge for Europe but, its just not working right now happens to every team during the season its still early still have 28 games left they can still do well.
I agree with you premise that this is bad. But jeez, why is there blind faith in a player who's best days are behind him, while so many others are peaking, but left on the bench? I've seen quite a bit of Fulham this year. Andy Cole has four goals from early in the season, but he's been disappearing more and more as the season has gone on. Don't get me wrong, Cole was great to watch at his peak, and he helped Blackburn a bit while he was there. But he's done. Done. And Coleman's going to lose his job if he keeps hanging onto him like he is.
Everton are getting lucky they arent as good as 3rd in the Premiership. Cole isnt done. He is better than Mcbride. Cole scored 4 goals this season and has helped the team alot this season.He was out for 3 matches until yesterday. He still can score goals and coleman only wants 10-15 goals from Cole. Sure he isnt going to score 30 goals anymore but, he can still get the 10-15 goals and maybe 20 goals.
To my eye, Boca has contracted a touch of Cherundoloitis. Plays very well for 89:50, but makes one really bad error every match. I know that's basically the lot of defenders, but to me, it's more pronounced in Boca than is typical. Maybe that's because I focus on him so much, I dunno.
You can talk all you want about Johns, Boa Morte etc. -- but what it comes down to is Cole versus McBride. McBride has been improving and helps the team in a lot of ways other than scoring. But Cole does too and is simply a better finisher. So don't expect to see McBride in more than spot duty unless he convinces Coleman he is better than Cole -- that would require more performances like this one with Cole on the field and McBride scoring a goal.