Posts Tagged ‘Liverpool’

Liverpool vs. Fulham: Let’s Make This Trip to Merseyside a Little Better

Posted: May 1, 2012 by Austin in Previews
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So our last trip up to Liverpool on Saturday didn’t go so well, but hey – Everton is the better side in the city right now.

Just as a side note before we get started, can I mention how entertaining the fact that Everton are above Liverpool in the table is? 35 mill on Andy Carroll, 20 mill for both Henderson and Downing, and 7.5 mill for Charlie Adam. Compare that to Everton’s total lack of finance. Loanees and cheap buys have been the answer for them this season, as well as the mid-season pickup of Jelavic, and I’m happy to see a cash-strapped club doing well, especially when it means the table-jumping of an intense rival.

That being said, I don’t dislike Liverpool as a club and, truth be told, I’m a bit jealous of Everton for their success. I sometimes feel as if Fulham could and perhaps should be doing something similar. But I digress, there’s a preview to be made.

State of Fulham:

Could be better. The thrashing at the hands of Everton was unexpected and a bitter pill to swallow. I wasn’t expecting a result from one of our bogey away teams but we could have made a much better effort than we did. It was another limp away performance, and doesn’t bode well for the rest of the season. However, I think the players will go into this game feeling optimistic for two reasons:

1. They beat Liverpool at the Cottage, and it could have been by more than one goal. That’ll give them encouragement and hopefully they’ll play with a little less fear than otherwise.

And 2. Anfield has fallen from a fortress to not much more than a playground. Liverpool have won just five home matches this season, drawing nine and losing three. We only lost by an own goal from The King of Own Goals, John Paintsil (may his Fulham career be remembered for better reasons) last season, and I think a decent result is there for the taking.

Overall, Fulham really have nothing to play for, but neither do Liverpool, and I think Jol should hope and try to improve away performances (as Kyle talked about in his Everton preview). With Sunderland at home and Tottenham away coming up (what a hilariously capitulatory season Spurs have had as well), any sort of result would be welcome to build confidence ahead of two tough fixtures.

State of Liverpool:

Basically, who knows? They’ve been terrible at home this season, decent away, but overall incredibly disappointing in the league when compared to the Cups and when their monetary outlay and pre-season expectations are considered. They’ve just come off of a dominant performance against a fading Norwich side – it seems like the end of the season can’t come soon enough for them – and will be confident heading into this match. However, they have the FA Cup Final this weekend, and hopefully will be resting many of their key players. And by that I mean Steven Gerrard and Luis Suarez. I watched a lot of the Norwich game and those two seem to be the only players really trying on offense – the rest looked to be saving themselves for the final I guess. Overall, they’re in decent form but will be distracted by what’s to come.

Prediction:

I’d love to say that Fulham will upset the Reds and cause another day of misery at Anfield, but with that tragic Everton performance and the general away-day hoodoo around the club, I don’t see three points on the cards. A draw, however, isn’t asking too much, given Liverpool’s troubles at home and their rather large and trophy-shaped distraction on Saturday. I’m calling a 1-1 draw, with either Dempsey or the Pog scoring (brave I know), and hopefully an assist for Dembele. I’m keeping my fingers crossed for an unlikely win, but I don’t see it happening. Also, I hope Suarez won’t play. He’s terrifying.

Thanks for reading and please comment with your thoughts!

The New Guy’s New Guy: John Arne Riise is Martin Jol’s First Signing

Posted: July 7, 2011 by Kyle Bonn in Player/Manager
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John Arne Riise, from AS Roma, is Martin Jol's first signing at Fulham

So, Jol says he wants to get younger, then promptly signs a 30 year old defender. Guess that’s how the sports world works.

At first I was upset he payed £2.6 million for the Roma defender, but then I warmed to the idea a bit. He is experienced, and adds to the ranks of experienced defenders that guys like Matthew Briggs and Chris Baird can learn from. And we do need a left back, with the exit of Carlos Salcido imminent, if not soon.

Here’s a little about who we’re signing:

Obviously he’s the brother of Fulham fringe player Bjorn Helge Riise.  Roma was smart to sell Riise, as he had a year left on his contract and they wanted to get something for him before he left (I assume they knew they wouldn’t re-sign him after he reached 31).  In the words of our fearless leader:

He’s coming for a medical. If that’s okay we’ve got ourselves a very good player

So, how good is he Marty? Well, we took to the internet to find out exactly.  His resume is pretty darn good.  Riise made his professional debut when he was 18 for the Norwegian club Aalesunds FK. Wanna know what’s kind of funny about that? They were one of the 3 clubs (along with Fulham of course) to receive a Fair Play bid to the Europa League this year.  Incase you’re wondering, they won their first qualifying tie with Welsh club Neath F.C. by an aggregate of 6-1, and will face the Hungarian side Ferencvárosi TC next.  After a year with Aalesunds he went to the French club Monaco and played 2 years there.  After his first year Fulham and Leeds United both offered £4 mil for him.  In fact, rumors swirled that Fulham were going to sign him, but in the end Monaco wanted £6 mil. He collected 68 appearances for the 2 clubs and 9 goals.  The next summer he was sold to a little club known as Liverpool for that £4 million amount.

He has 234 appearances under his belt for Liverpool, as well as 21 goals in those appearances through 7 years.  He is in the Top 50 in Liverpool history in appearances.  His competative attitude there was excellent.  In fact, after some comments by players such as Jamie Carragher and Pepe Reina in 2006 that they were out of the league title fight, he said “We never give up. Cowards give up.”  In 2008 he said he wanted to stay at Liverpool for the rest of his career, but in the 07-08 season, he was replaced in the first team by Fabio Aurelio.  He signed with AS Roma in 08 for €5 million.  At Roma, he scored goals against Inter, AC Milan, and Juventus. He has recently surpassed the 100 appearance mark for Roma.

So what kind of deal did Fulham get for £2.6 million?  Well, for starters, according to transfermarkt.co.uk (which isn’t spot on – who is ever - but is a great tool to get a ballpark range for a player’s value) has him rated at £7.48 million.  So there’s that. Also, it’s the lowest he’s ever been sold for in his career (which is generally how it works when you reach the 30′s).  For an experienced left back, I think Jol could have done a lot, lot worse.  I was annoyed at first, but now I’m happy.  It’s good for depth and fills not our biggest but certainly an obvious hole.  Still waiting for that youth in the front Jol is promising (I’d be 100% for the recent rumors saying Gael Kakuta could come back for another spell), but this is a great start to Jol’s signing tenure.

I have received mixed reviews on Twitter to this signing, but mostly positive responses.  What do you think of Jol’s first signing?

Here’s a view of him all the way back in 2001.  You can see Danny Murphy with him in this video as well. In fact, Murphy gives him a few kisses after the goal. There are a few of these videos on YouTube, so clearly he has a special free kick ability.  This one’s absolutely dirty.

Also, because it deserves a play, here’s a 45 yard goal against Spurs. Wow.

Murphy Praises Reds, Says to Keep Focus

Posted: May 10, 2011 by Kyle Bonn in Player/Manager
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Danny Murphy is a fighter, one of the leader qualities that make him Fulham's skipper (courtesy Sky Sports)

I’ve been hearing everything from the team I have wanted to so far after this drubbing.  The manager said we played like crap, which we did.  The captain said we played like crap, which we did.  Then the captain said the other team was better, and that we need to move on. Here’s some stuff from Danny Murphy:

“Even though you could be critical of mistakes by our own  players, sometimes you have to hold your hands up. Some of their  play was quality, I thought Luis Suarez was electric, he was tricky and caused  us all sorts of problems. Maxi has been on fire lately and some of their one touch football was like  the Liverpool of old. With Kenny in charge, Steven Gerrard to come back and  investment from the Americans, then they will be pushing for the top four. They are playing under very little pressure at the moment and it will be a  different ask for them to go out and win if they are fighting at the top. It is  looking healthy for them. The one thing you know with Kenny is that there  will be backing from the supporters. When you are a player on the pitch, you know the pressure is on, but with  Kenny you can feel that the supporters are right behind the  players. Earlier in the season when certain players got the ball they had  the fans on their back, but now they are playing with confidence because they  have the fans behind them.”

I mean, he’s right. Then he added this:

“We have a big fight up at Birmingham and we have always said a top-10 finish  was our aim. We still have a good chance of that as over the past  three or four months our form has been very good so we have to make sure that we  do not let one blip get us down too much. For me personally, it was very disappointing because you always want to do  well against your old team and tonight we did not did not do it. Since January we have been on a good run and our home form has been great.  We certainly did not see that coming. The last time we had a performance like  that was Manchester City, that was a similar scenario with us two or three down  in the first-half. It is hard to find the right words to say why it happened. but I think you  can look at certain individual mistakes on the night. When you are 2-0 down  after six minutes against anyone, then you are giving yourselves a mountain to  climb and against a side playing with confidence, then you are asking for  trouble.”

It’s really nice to hear this from the captain, the leader of the players.  Glad to see he is upbeat about the last 2 matches.  Hopefully this will rub off on guys like Schwarzer who may need some picking up after that dismantling.

I will be doing a recapping of the transfer rumors that have been swirling midweek, before the Birmingham City preview, so stay tuned. In the meantime make sure you check out the Fulham’s Finest Facebook page as well as follow me on Twitter for up to date news and other tidbits.

Fulham 2-5 Liverpool: Disaster at Craven Cottage

Posted: May 9, 2011 by Kyle Bonn in Postgame
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Least painful picture I could find. Luis Suarez celebrating with Kenny Dalgish. Blah

Yes, the title sounds like a murder mystery for a reason.

Murder Victim: Fulham
Cause of death: Blunt force trauma to the ego
Suspects: Maxi Rodriguez, Luis Suarez, and Glen Johnson
Location: Victim’s home

I can’t believe I’m having to do this. It’s hard to do a recap post when you are left speechless by your team. Liverpool came into this match on a great run of form, but so did Fulham. The Whites coming into this had won 8 of their last 10 home matches, and had allowed 3 goals in that run. So much for statistics.

The good:

-Clint Dempsey: The midfielder actually had a decent match, passing the ball effectively, getting around defenders, and even doing some defending himself. Was a nice showing for the American

-Moussa Dembele: Also passed the ball effectively. Looked to be running a little sluggishly out of the gates, but he ended his goal drought and seemed to really seem lively, especially in the 2nd half after being switched to midfielder.

The bad: (where do I even start? Oh, I know where)

-Mark Schwarzer: Awful. Out of position constantly, made extremely poor decisions all day, including one disasterous clear in which he easily could have picked up the ball or at LEAST kicked it out of play. But instead he kicked it right to Maxi Rodriguez who put home the first goal of the day. He whiffed another relatively weak shot by Dirk Kuyt that just kind of kicked off his hands a la Robert Green, and then got schooled by Luis Suarez that, although it was a one-on-one, still made himself look like a complete fool.

-Brede Hangeland: Was taken out back and beaten senseless by Luis Suarez. Over and over, in the first half and the second, he was caught out of position, fooled on ball tricks, and even simply blown by. Horrible day for the tall center-back

-The rest of the defense: Chris Baird was bad, and also saved a goal with his arm late in the game, which luckily wasn’t called. Carlos Salcido started off relatively well but got burned by Suarez on his goal. Aaron Hughes was pretty much invisible. The defense has a lot of regrouping to do next Sunday at Birmingham.

Man of the match: Tempted to pick Suarez here or even Glen Johnson, but have to go with Maxi Rodriguez for his hat trick. Basically given his first 2 goals, but the third was a beauty. Hats off to Maxi.

Fulham now sit in 10th place, 1 point ahead of Newcastle and Sunderland and 1 point behind Bolton and Stoke. Will be a cluster of teams finishing in the middle of the table. Anything could happen.

I’m done discussing this one. The defense and goalkeeping was a joke, but that’s nothing you couldn’t figure out, nor was there anything earth-shattering in this post. Maybe Hughes will rethink resigning Schwarzer after. As much as I love the guy, and I know he’s not this bad (everyone has their stinkers), I’ve said before and I’ll say again, David Stockdale is the future, and if we don’t put him in soon he’ll go elsewhere. It’s not worth letting him go for another year or two of Mark Schwarzer.

One final note, hats off to Kenny Dalglish at Liverpool. Man has totally turned things around. Roy Hodgeson leaving was the best thing to happen to a lot of people. Dalglish has made rhings right for him and Liverpool and Hodgeson has found a better fit and kept West Brom up. Those men in red have a legimiate shot at lots of silverware next season.

Stay tuned for some transfer news and a Birmingham preview plus anything else I think of during the week. Gonna be a rough week sitting on this one. Still very optomistic about the final 2 matches for this club.

Fulham vs. Liverpool: Playing With House Money

Posted: May 6, 2011 by Kyle Bonn in Previews
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Well, now that the club is safe and in the Premier League, the rest is all gravy.  We’re playing for finish now, and it’s a tight race in the middle of the table.  After 2 straight 3-0 wins, including one rare one on the road, the club is bringing its run of good form back to the Cottage.  This is an important match since Fulham are attempting to catch Liverpool in the table.

With a Europa League draw from Fair Play on the horizon for Fulham, the match draws referee Lee Mason, who despite being 11th out of 18 Premier League referees in matches, has given out the 4th most yellow cards (90 yellows in 21 matches) and ranks 4th in card points (1 for a yellow, 2 for a red).

I would hope that Mark Hughes would use these last 3 matches not only to maximize his spot in the table, but also to learn as much as possible about the club in order to get the best possible read on where they need to improve next season.  I believe that next season is an incredibly important season, as it has the potential to be a big one for Fulham.  Between another Europa League bid and a possible top 10 finish despite missing the team’s best goal scorer for most of the season, there is the potential for a lot of success.  But this summer has to go right, and that can only happen if Hughes is able to evaluate his team as much as possible to find the biggest holes and the important players.

State of Fulham:

Fulham received an injury blow with news the other day that Damien Duff would be out for the rest of the season after Achilles surgery.  However, the last 2 matches which Fulham won handily were both played without Duff, who was attempting to recover from said injury.  So it shouldn’t be too big of a blow.  On the flip side, Clint Dempsey is returning and so is Brede Hangeland, so the side should be stronger still.

The two 3-0 wins were excellent, but they seem like a ways away now with a very good Liverpool side on their way to the capital.  The last time Fulham hosted Liverpool, the Reds finished with 9 men after Philipp Degen and Jamie Carragher both were sent off and Fulham grabbed the win 3-1.  In fact, the last 9 times these teams have met, one side has walked away with 3 points every single time.

If Fulham were to pull out wins in their last 3 matches (which I don’t see happening but certainly isn’t out of the question) they would finish with their all-time highest points total.

One last thing, I really hope that Mark Hughes starts Andy Johnson and not Eidur Gudjohnsen.  AJ has played exceptionally well the last few matches he’s come on as a sub and Eidur, despite Sparky’s affection for him, has done nothing in my view.

State of Liverpool:

Kenny Dalgish has his biggest decision to make involving newcomer and newly fit Andy Carroll coming into this match.  Dirk Kuyt and Luis Suarez are both playing extremely well, and Dalgish sat Carroll (who came on in the 70th minute for Maxi Rodriguez) in the win against Newcastle on the 1st of May, in which both Kuyt and Suarez had goals.

As far as knocks go, Daniel Agger (knee injury, out for season) and Stephen Gerrard (groin surgery, out for season) are both long-term injury misses, and Martin Kelly is a doubt with a hamstring injury (tore it against West Ham in March).

Fulham will win if…

…they play good defense and keep Suarez and Kuyt frustrated.  There are a few dubious statistics I would like to share with you that don’t bode well for the home side.  First, Fulham have failed to score in 6 of their last 7 league matches against Liverpool.  That’s not the one I’m worried about though, since historical data doesn’t bother me as much.  The one that I am focusing on is the following: we all know how good the Fulham defense has been this season, especially at home.  However, something that I found today that shocked me was Fulham on average give up their first goal in the 31st minute, FASTEST IN THE PREMIER LEAGUE, if you can believe that.  If we get a goal down to Liverpool that fast, I believe it’s over.  However, if we can keep it at 0-0 for a while I think we have a chance.

Prediction:

I have gone against this team the last few matches (besides Sunderland) and it’s (happily) come back to bite me in the you-know-what.  Both these clubs are on a run of good form and I believe this will be an absolute heck of a match.  It certainly could go either way, especially being at Craven Cottage.  It’s Fulham’s run of good form plus the fact that they’re home plus the fact that I’ve wrongly doubted them a few too many times this season that lend themselves to my 2-1 victory for Fulham in front of the home crowd.  Would certainly be an exciting and promising win.

Other interesting notes:

-Fulham are the only Premier League club yet to concede a goal by penalty this season
-Fulham have won 6 of 7 at home, drawing the other.  During those 7 matches, only Blackburn has scored against Fulham.
-Liverpool are the only Premier League club to score in all of their 2011 fixtures
-Andy Johnson and Daniel Murphy are both 2 goals shy of 50 career league goals
-Fulham need 1 more draw to tie the all-time club mark for draws in the PL (16 in 1999-2000 season)

Finally, still trying to get more likes on the Fulham’s Finest Facebook page! So be sure to hit it up and hit like to get updates, polls, and to post your thoughts!

Fulham 3-0 Bolton: Dempsey To The Rescue

Posted: April 27, 2011 by Kyle Bonn in Postgame
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Clint Dempsey celebrates after scoring one of his two goals (courtesy ESPNSoccernet)

If you’re sitting there, and you can honestly tell me when the lineups were announced for this match and you DIDN’T put your head in your hands and go “here we %*$*&# go again” you’re not a real fan.  Because I’m pretty sure that’s what every single Fulham fan did.  But…instead of a page-long Mark Hughes anger rant, thanks to Clint Dempsey and everyone else on the pitch I’m sitting here talking about a blowing out of the 8th place team, and how we won’t be relegated.

I’ll take it.

Also, I’d like to point out that by the transitive property, Fulham are now better than Arsenal.  Bolton beat Arsenal 2-1, we annihilated Bolton. Boom baby.

Finally, before we get into it, a big congratulations to Clint Dempsey for becoming Fulham’s new Premier League all-time leading goalscorer with 33 career league goals.

The good (can I just put “everything?”):

-Clint Dempsey: Finally, someone can finish! There’s an unteachable talent for being in the right place at the right time, and he has it.  Both his goals he was in the right place at the right time to have a great chance, and he took advantage of both.  Also, he was awful against Wolves.  Credit to him for turning that completely around.

-The defense: I wrote in my preview post that Fulham would win if they played lockdown defense.  Well, they did just that.  Every single member of the defense ball-hawked so well today, and it paid off.  They made Bolton rush their shots, and their finishing was a disaster because of it.  Hughes and Hangeland were INCREDIBLE in the middle, and Hangeland even picked up a set-piece goal.  Baird and Salcido were both excellent in the attacking half as well.  Salcido has had 2 shots whiz just over the goal from exactly the same spot on the left side in 2 matches  now. One day, he’s going to put that top shelf and it’s going to be a goal to remember. Extremely well played match by the whole defense, particularly the center halves. Schwarzer also played on point.

-Set-piece/approach play: The guys I’m including in this section are Chris Baird, Moussa Dembele, Danny Murphy, and Steve Sidwell.  All those guys had a great game in the approach play, and all 3 goals were scored off set-pieces.  Part of that was Bolton’s inability to clear or to man up, but the approach play was methodical, accurate, and skillful.  That’s exactly how Fulham plays.

The bad:

-Mark Hughes: STOP BENCHING ZAMORA.  Gudjohnsen has done nothing and shouldn’t be on the pitch, and he’s too old to be effective for 90 or even 70.  Zamora should.  Get him in the starting lineup NOW. Dempsey let you off the hook this time.  Otherwise you’d have a LOT of angry Fulham fans calling for your head right now.

Not much else bad to be honest.  Gudjohnsen was still not good but at least he was lively in the first half.

Man of the Match: Dempsey, no doubt.

One more note, Fulham have never lost a match with referee Anthony Taylor.

Fulham are now bumped up to 9th place in the table with 42 points. With 4 matches remaining, that should be plenty to stay up.  Above them are Bolton with 46, Everton with 47, and Liverpool with 52.  Think Fulham can catch Liverpool? Going to be tough with Sunderland, Liverpool, Birmingham, and Arsenal remaining. Going to have to beat Liverpool for sure to catch them, but at least that one’s at the Cottage.

Sunderland coming up.  Anything from Mark Hughes I will throw on Twitter and put in a post.  Same as any news.  Preview for Saturday will most likely come tomorrow as Friday is basically get drunk day here at Syracuse University, so I will most likely be out of commission. Can you blame me? COYW!

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