With Christmas around the corner and just two league wins to our credit all season, Saturday's home game with Sunderland could be the tipping point in our campaign. Which way will it go?
The legend has it when Delta Blues legend Robert Johnson went down to the crossroads of highways 61 and 49 in Mississippi he traded his soul to the Devil in return for the musical gift of being the greatest blues performer of his generation.
Anything less than three points Saturday and Fulham fans world wide might be considering a similar pact. This is in many ways our biggest game of the season to date. Defeat will really set alarm bells ringing, while that desperately needed third win would ease the pain and move us away from the bottom three. A point gets us nowhere, and will not suffice.
Message boards and forums to my reading suggest 60/40 in support of the manager, but his followers diminish week on week. I do find the post match comments a tad trying, with 'positives' to be found from every reverse. Since our last decent performance against Wigan Hughes has been quick to say he's not worried by our form and that results will come as our big players return from injury. Er, AJ's back and has made no impact, BZ's still 10 weeks away.
Contrast that with Houllier's more honest assessment of Villa's position after their 3-0 reverse at Liverpool on Monday. The manager of the side one place above us - and two points better off - admits to being 'concerned.' Then recall how Villa's kids ouplayed us a month ago at our place.
From what I saw last Saturday the only 'positive' to take from the inevitable loss to Arsenal was damage limitation to our GD column. The Gunners could have been 3 up in 25 minutes. Stuttering as Arsenal currenty are, as with Chelsea, I always felt we were unlikely to offer enough ourselves going forward. We simply cannot expect to convert disciplined, hard-working efforts into wins on the back of one goal per game. This has been our problem all season. Why put in a solid shift at the Emirates yet play so feebly at places like West Brom?
The team does not yet have a 'relegation' look to it on the pitch. But morale must suffer when you find yourselves at the wrong end of the table. Schwarzer's decision to extend his contract tells me the internal mood at Motspur must still be OK and presumably he has been given assurances as to new player input come January. For the short term, anything less than 4 points from the home games with Sunderland and WHU - I assume another road loss at Liverpool - and MaF I sense may be handing the next transfer budget to a new man.
Enough of this negativity. Taking a leaf from Mark here's some positive Fulham stuff I've pulled together. Congrats to Brede for taking the Norwegian Footballer of the Year award. Bravo to our youth side under Kit Symonds for their thrilling 6-4 win over West Brom in the 4th round Youth Cup tie. Well done to Clint for his recent play at a time his wife welcomed a new baby into the Dempsey household, and a big shout out to the Australasian Whites for their giant new flag at the Emirates. Michiel Hageman from the Dutch supporters branch will be unveiling his own version at Liverpool next week.
Analysis of our opponents Saturday and the odds on a Fulham win to follow. Let me know where you stand on our current predicament, and where you see the goals coming from, 'cos right now I'm with Robert...singing the blues down at the crossroads.
Twitter@fulhamphil
Comments
Posted by Justin on 12/09/2010
Goals are in short supply and by the time Zamora is back it may already be too late. I just don't see much goal scoring capability outside of Dempsey and hopefully Gera. It just seems everybody went into the tank at roughly the same moment: Murphy has not looked good, Etuhu has not built on early season success, and so it goes down the line.
Hangeland and Hughes look good though. And Fulham don't leak goals like a relegation candidate, so perhaps all is not lost. 1 point per is not likely to keep us up though....
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