© S'land Echo
Let's be brutally honest, once Dembele blazed his shot straight at Sunderland's third choice keeper after five minutes, we surrendered the initiative and never threatened until Etuhu's firm header was cleared off the line right on half time. We improved marginally in the second half, although Bruce was forced to re-jig his front line, and created three further chances. Danny was furious with himself for putting a tame shot straight at the keeper from 18 yards, The same free-kick routine we saw against Spurs saw Westwood get down well to Baird's low effort, while at the death Dembele fed Dempsey on the counter only for the Texan to drag his shot across goal and wide. It would have been very harsh on the home side, but last season's Player of the Year should have scored.
Before I get stuck into Fulham's effort, please don't think me negative. The Mackems are screaming for Bruce's head, they had a number of key players missing, are woefully short on confidence, yet were twice denied by the bar and a miraculous diving block by Mark off Sessegnon's deflected shot at the end. Yes, as in every match up on the road so far this season, Fulham failed to turn up.
Here's how the Sunderland Echo saw it. Sunderland suffered an afternoon of frustration after completely dominating the game against Fulham. Kieran Richardson and Jack Colback both hit the woodwork in the first half as the unambitious Londoners set out to defend in numbers throughout. Which all leaves us hovering just above the relegation zone and facing some fearsome fixtures in the next six weeks - Arsenal twice, Liverpool, Chelsea and Man Utd. Oh yes, an awayday to Swansea will no doubt yield nothing, so you could say only for Bolton at home on Dec 17th will Fulham start favourites between now and the New Year.
My, but the coming weeks are really going to test resolve inside the club. If he's looked at the calendar Jol must know he's about to face the severest test of his credentials to still be considered a top flight manager. Bottom three going into January and the board will be looking around for a replacement...come back Roy, all is forgiven???
We are one third into the fixture list but since we opened with that 0-0 against Villa the side has actually gone backwards. I don't think Jol has embraced the Fulham ethic, sold the players on his tactical vision, nor really worked out his ideal starting eleven. We cut Hughes some slack this time last year because he had two weeks to prepare the side and then lost Zamora just as the transfer window shut - the focal point of his attack. Jol had all summer, and the Europa League minnows to lay out his plans and deal in the market. And where has it got us? That your £10 million pound top transfer target from the summer is barely getting game time when the team is struggling surely indicates something has gone drastically wrong. Why didn't we go out and re-sign Helguson for 25 grand???
It's becoming redundant to keep criticising individuals, because I sense the problems are inherent from what takes place during the week at Motspur in terms of tactics, training and team bonding. Jol's in danger of adopting a bunker mentality. Unsure in himself, he'll be reluctant to draft the kids into a side playing so poorly. Hence, the law of diminishing returns means keeping faith with the ageing legs now struggling to stabilise the good ship Fulham.
How can the vibrancy we saw against Poland's champions Wisla - a team certainly more skilful than Sunderland - fail to materialise for bread and butter games in the league? Duff only seems capable these days of playing one decent game in three. Both he and Danny would have been hauled off after an hour in my book. AJ's energy suggests he should be starting over Dembele (who had the whole goal to Westwood's right hand to aim at with that snatched early shot). As for Clint, was he in a trance? OK, I've been in Paris, Ljubljana, London and now Sunderland in the past 8 days...er, hey guys, anyone seen my mobile, I don't know who I am anymore...
Had our manager wanted to show real ambition to win the game, Alexander Kacaniklic would have been sent on for the last 25 minutes. Just to remind you, he is that forgotten breed at the club, a winger. So bizarre is our imbalance in building attacks only up the right we offer no threat whatsoever from the opposite flank unless BZ drifts out there. Why construct play across just two thirds of the playing surface?
Honest defenders they may be, but neither Hughes or Baird are specialist full-backs. If they are the chosen pairing for Saturday at the Emirates we are in trouble from the off. Etuhu actually didn't have a bad game. Being told to push forward more, as in the 2nd half, unleashes the beast in him, and at least he shows some aggression. The centre back pairing did OK after some poor early positional play, and the opposition were pretty feeble up front, but for me the biggest collective crime were so many misplaced passes. We've built our reputation on being a passing team. If that goes out the window we are stuffed! Saturday we repeatedly gave the ball back, seemingly incapable of finding another white shirt with routine 10-15 yard passes out of defence.
I'm struggling to remind myself that we've garnered another point on the road, and that surely Wigan, Wolves, Bolton and Blackburn have even bigger issues than us. But unless there is a major sea change in attitude and approach we are going to start taking some beatings from the top teams. And there's me with my four tickets for Man United dropping onto the doormat last week...I know one thing, it's no fun seeing QPR win at places like Everton and Stoke, where we count ourselves lucky to force a corner - and all three promoted sides currently show far more gusto than us.
Right, your turn to tell me I'm right, wrong or just plain pessimistic. Enjoy your week, and try not to let that image of van Persie in full flight keep you awake...
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