Posts Tagged ‘Matthew Briggs’

Newcastle vs. Fulham: First PL Goal On The Way?

Posted: August 27, 2011 by Kyle Bonn in Previews
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Former Newcastle winger Damien Duff will be key in the attack for Fulham

Well, after a wild first day in Week 3 of the Premier League, Fulham and Newcastle are up tomorrow.  There were lots of penalties, but don’t look for Fulham to be giving up any, seeing as they conceeded one all of last season, and it was saved.  They travel to Newcastle, looking for their first Premier League goal and victory of the young season.

State of Fulham:

Injuries have knocked this Fulham squad around a bit at the moment.  John Arne Riise is out and may be for a decent amount of time with a leg injury suffered Thursday early in the Dnipro match, so look for young Matthew Briggs to get the start.

Fulham are coming to Newcastle on a 2-match goalless streak, and will most likely also be without Bobby Zamora again, who is still out with an ankle knock and that broken hand.  It’s going to be a striker-less bench once again, and just like we saw at Dnipro, things didn’t go so well on the attacking end.  However, the defense played their hearts out, and sent them through to the group stage, so look for another strong defensive performance at Newcastle as well.  But even with that, Fulham need SOMEBODY to step up and score or they won’t be able to get their first 3 points of the season.

Fulham has history on their side, as the last time the Magpies beat Fulham was back in the 07/08 season.  Also, Fulham have kept a clean sheet against Newcastle in their last 3 ties.  Martin Jol’s thoughts:

“We have to do better. We have to play to our strengths and of course we could say we have got a lot of defensive qualities. The second half against Aston Villa and Wolves showed we are capable of scoring goals. But you have to do the business – score the goals and get the results. If you don’t do that, you play for a 0-0. Thursday, of course, was over two games so we were okay but to lose a game away from home was not what he wanted. For the confidence of the team, it is always better if you score a couple of goals and win these games. But we didn’t so it is still a worry but hopefully we can score against Newcastle because that is what we need. We need a result.”

That result could be a tough one to pull off because…

State of Newcastle:

…Newcastle haven’t conceeded a league goal yet this season, and their defense has been really solid, keeping Arsenal and Sunderland off the scoresheet.  However, Newcastle needed extra time Thursday to beat Scunthorpe in the Carling Cup, and they lost defender Mike Williamson in the process.  Williamson banged up his ankle pretty bad and will be out for 6 weeks.  Also a doubt is Shola Amoebi, who missed Thursday’s match.

Joey Barton’s transfer to QPR has opened a spot in Newcastle’s midfield, and Alan Pardew has also brought in Erik Pieters from PSV Eindhoven, so a few squad shifts will be necessary.  I wouldn’t expect to see Pieters in the lineup this weekend though, it’s a bit too soon after his transfer.

Newcomer Demba Ba was frustrated Thursday at Scunthorpe but has been a great aquisition overall for Newcastle up front, and look for him to be the one to get Newcastle on the score sheet if they indeed do.

For your enjoyment, here’s a quote from Alan Pardew from an interview on this match. I broke it down into two pieces:

“It is very important not to concede goals.”

Well…..no sh*t Alan.  Thanks for the useful tip. Part 2:

“We will get more creative and flamboyant as we go on, but the first priority is to stop goals going in.”

Out of context, that’s horrifyingly dirty.

Anyways, moving on…

Here’s an interesting stat from BBC Sport before I get into the predictions: Newcastle’s Cheick Tiote had been booked in 6 straight matches before their last match with Sunderland.  He did not receive a yellow at Sunderland, but has never in his Premier League career gone more than 3 matches without receiving a yellow card.

Fulham will win if: They score a freakin goal or two. Enough said.

Prediction: The offense is struggling right now. With play-finisher, not play-maker, Andy Johnson up front along with play-maker, not play-finisher, Moussa Dembele up front, you’d think the two would form a good partnership.  However, it hasn’t happened yet, mainly because Dembele has failed to find Johnson open, choosing instead to pass the ball off to the other midfielders most of the time.  We’ll see if they can get these 2 going, but until Fulham either add another striker via the transfer window or they get Zamora back, I’m going glass half empty here.  Fulham drops this one on the road 2-0, and they fall to 0-2-1 in their first 3 league matches.  Your predictions are welcome, so throw em in the comment section.

Dnipro 1-0 Fulham, Fulham 3-1 Dnipro Aggregate: Someone Hand Me An Oxygen Tank

Posted: August 25, 2011 by Kyle Bonn in Postgame
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First things first: hats off to Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk.  They played their freakin asses off.  They were organized, energized, and relentless.  Their attacks were heart-pounding.  Fulham’s defense was frantic, jumbled, disorganized, and messy.

But, thankfully, adjectives don’t win soccer matches, goals do.  And Fulham, thanks to their 3-0 win at home, had more of the goal things.

Quite frankly, if I’m Juande Ramos, my first stop on my way home is a private detective’s office to find out who kidnapped my soccer team during the away leg in London, because the side that played today in the Ukraine looked completely different.  I have a very less-panicky take on this match than it may have seemed from watching, so take a read, because there are some important points I’d like to make.

Before I get into this……..breathe……in…..out…..in…..out…..ok that’s better. Haven’t done that for about 70 minutes.  Now on to the breakdown.

The good:

-Matthew Briggs: Something lost in all this was John Arne Riise’s injury that occured right before Dnipro scored their goal.  Let’s hope he’s ok.  But it may have been a blessing in disguise, because it brought on Matthew Briggs, and he was one of the saviors of the day.  He made countless vital blocks, and his tackling skills are plentiful.  He didn’t go in way too hard like many of the midfielders did, rather he stays controlled and collected while trying to wrench the ball from the opponent.  I’m excited about his future.

Update: Martin Jol says John Arne Riise could be out for “some time” after suffering a “serious” leg injury.  If that’s true, we’ll be seeing a lot more of Briggs not only in Europe but in the Premier League as well.

-Aaron Hughes: My man of the match.  Quite frankly, if you pick anyone else you didn’t watch the same match.  Hughes was the only defender who consistently beat his man one-on-one every time.  And not only that, his clears actually went far and away from the people in blue shirts (*cough*Chris Baird*cough*Brede Hangland*cough*).  He is a stud in this Fulham defense.  The rock, if you will.

-Damien Duff: The guy hates playing defense, I think that’s obivous after this match.  He was frustrated beyond belief.  But when given the all-out defend order, whether he likes it or not he did it, and did it pretty well for a winger.  And he created the only real Fulham opportunity; with about 10 minutes left, he brought the ball down beautifully, then instead of rushing a shot, he held and waited for help, which he got in Kasami.  The kid horribly missed the target, but Duff’s lay off was about as perfect as you can get on that disasterous pitch.

The bad:

-Chris Baird: I think Baird knows just as well as we do that this match was his one shot at impressing Martin Jol before he’s potentially sold.  He actually got better in the last 15 minutes or so when the pressure was absolutely pouring on, but before that he was dreadful.  His clears went nowhere, his crosses were dreadful, he was constantly out of position, and he was beaten one-on-one multiple times.  I’m not sure who’s more disappointed in his performance, Baird himself, or the fans (like me) who were begging Jol to play him.

To be honest, that’s all that was truly bad to me.  Sure, you can point to the possession (which actually ended up 56-44 surprisingly; it was 69-31 with about 8 minutes left to play).  Sure, you can point to the many misses by Dnipro.  But when you play all-out defense, you don’t want possession, you just want to spoil as many opponent’s chances as you can, and they sure did just that.  Sidwell played surprisingly good defense, and so did Etuhu, Dempsey, and the rest of the midfield (when not lunging in to challenge).  The defense itself, save Baird, was spotty but held strong when in dire straits.

You can point to how many times the club gave away the ball, and it was pretty frustrating, but I really think it’s because they weren’t really concentrating on keeping possession.  If they got it, sure.  But they completed the task they were given after the surprisingly strong start and goal by Dnipro.  I’m content, and we’ll move on from here.

I need a nap.

Busy Week at the Cottage: Baird, Duff, and European Delight

Posted: August 19, 2011 by Kyle Bonn in Opinion, Player/Manager
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Damien Duff was pretty pumped about his new deal, too

Things are starting to pick up in the London borough of Hammersmith & Fulham. Got a few things to cover.

First, the easy part: Fulham have agreed with Damien Duff to keep the winger at the Cottage until the summer of 2013, an excellent deal. Not too long, since he will be 34 at the end of the deal, and yet it keeps him happy and locked down for another 2 years, while he still has a lot of spunk left in those 32 year old legs and body. Great signing. Duff’s thoughts:

“I’ve enjoyed every minute of my time at Fulham since joining two years ago and I’m delighted to be staying at the Cottage until at least 2013. This is a fantastic club with great supporters and it’s a very exciting time to be part of the team. I feel in great condition and I’m hungry to achieve more success for this club. We’ve had some great moments together so far and I believe there’s more to come from us in the Premier League and Europe this season under Martin Jol.”

Yesterday, Fulham beat Dnipro down 3-0, and will head to the Ukraine with a comfortable lead.  Few things to note, since I didn’t do a full postgame wrapup.  First off, the creativity from just about everyone was so refreshing.  There weren’t the usual near misses and awful attempts at goal that we’ve become somewhat accustomed to.  Guys from all angles tried to get the ball into the box, and tried innovative crosses that ended up working out.  Hughes’ first headed was an incredible ball into the box from a practically impossible angle all the way by the left post, but somehow the youngster Matthew Briggs angled it across the face of the goal and Hughes put the finishing touches on it.  Just great creativity.  The only disappointment on the pitch to me was Bobby Zamora, and I give the guy a pass because everyone has bad matches here and there, plus he’s got a freakin broken hand.

The one thing that did bother me was that Stephen Kelly was starting while Chris Baird was nowhere to be found, not even on the bench.  Now, Jacob Murtagh is reporting that Baird is being linked with a £1 million move to West Brom.  Baird is our best option at right back at the moment as far as I’m concerned, and Jol has refused to give him any playing time.

This is my official petition to Martin Jol: DON’T SELL CHRIS BAIRD! He’s a perfect combination of defense and forward ability you want from a right back, and he needs to get a chance to showcase his abilities before you offload him.  It says something about a player when he’s out of a lineup for one day, and already being linked to a former manager.  Clearly that former manager knows something you don’t, and that should be a red flag to maybe not sell so fast.

Anybody have thoughts on this? Should we sell Baird, or does Jol need to give him a chance?

Fulham 2-2 Arsenal: What a Difference 10 Minutes Makes

Posted: May 22, 2011 by Kyle Bonn in Postgame
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Steve Sidwell puts home the first goal of the match (courtesy Guardian.co.uk)

70th minute: Fulham are leading Arsenal 2-1, Tottenham are beating Birmingham City 1-0, and Everton had Seamus Coleman sent off, giving them a man disadvantage against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge.

80th minute: Zoltan Gera had been sent off for a stupid tackle, possibly taking a Europa League spot away from Fulham. Tottenham had let up an equalizer. And 7th place Everton had scored a man-down goal and was up 1 on Chelsea.

What a difference 10 minutes makes.

Spurs ended up beating Birmingham City, sending them down. But Arsenal ended up equalizing later, and Everton beat Chelsea, securing 8th place for Fulham instead of tying their best ever finish, and Zoltan Gera may have destroyed the Cottagers’ chances at a Fair Play bid into Europe.

In his last acton in White, Gera slid hard with both spikes up into Thomas Vermaelen, and totally deserved a red card for his actions. Something I mentioned on Twitter is the thought of him doing it on purpose. I don’t believe it at all, but I did want to bring it up as a possibility. Some players as well as Mark Hughes in the past have expressed their displeasure in the thought of a Fair Play bid, and I’m sure it’s somewhat possible that Mark Hughes told Gera to get a red card. Do I believe it? Absolutely not. But a lot of the pieces fit. It happened just 4 minutes after coming on, it wasn’t anywhere close to the ball (Vermaelen had kicked it away a second or so earlier), and coming around all the questions of if people wanted Europe or not, it seems to be plausible. But Gera and Hughes are just not the types of people to do that at all to me, so I don’t believe it.

We’ll find out in a few days if we’re playing in the Europa League or not. Reports are that Blackpool have taken the Fair Play spot from us, but I find it hard to believe since we have better scores than them in all but one category in the table released April 30th. Red and yellow cards are just one of 5 categories. We’ll have to wait and see what UEFA decides. Let’s break today down.

The good:

-Andy Johnson: He was really fun to watch, especially in the first 20 minutes or so when everyone else was lollygagging around the pitch.  He was lively, and played with a creativity that I frankly haven’t really seen from him before.  Loved it.

-The midfield: They played with a lot of action, instead of sitting back, they often attacked the opposition, both when they had the ball and when the Gunners had it.  Sidwell got the first goal in a beautiful flash through Szczeney’s legs, Danny Murphy was all over the place even after tweaking his ankle, and Greening didn’t have his Birmingham City magic but still put a few really good balls in the box.  Dempsey was a bit invisible the first half but in the 2nd he had a few buildups that could have been better if the through balls were more accurate.

-Bobby Zamora: I think it’s obvious at this point that Fulham are at their best when Zamora is in the lineup.  He seemed to get quite stiff towards the middle of the 2nd half, but especially in the 1st hafl and even in the 2nd when he got his goal, he continues to make things happen.  He’s a chance creator (assisted Sidwell’s goal) and a chance finisher (headed in the 2nd one).  Heck of an asset to have for sure.  Just gonna have to get a good attack mate for him in the summer.

I would have included Schwarzer in here, because he played great, and had an incredible save in the first half when it was still 0-0, but the final goal should have been stopped, I believe.  He got a hand on it, and tapped it wide, but not wide enough.  I think he had enough time that he should have gotten it farther wide.  I know some won’t agree with me on that, but I do think he could have gotten it.  Otherwise though, he played great.

The bad:

-Zoltan Gera: 4 minutes, 1 tackle, 1 red card, 1 Europa League bid in danger. What an awful way to end a great run at Craven Cottage.

-Matthew Briggs: The kid actually played well, but at the end he got incredibly tired and was having trouble keeping up with the Gunners attack.  This led to the equalizing goal.  I’m not going to totally throw him under the bus because another defender played worse, and he was solid for most of the match, but missed a few assignments and in the end had athleticism troubles.  I still think he’s going to be solid in the back in a year or two.

-Philippe Senderos: In the match against his old team, Senderos missed a lot of assignments and was most to blame for Arsenal’s first goal.  Nobody played horrifically bad, but I would say Senderos played the worst of any of the Fulham members.

Man of the Match: Gonna have to go with Zamora here. He really energizes the club.

So where do we go from here? We’ll just have to wait and see if UEFA gives the Fair Play bid to Blackpool or Fulham.  If Blackpool get it, there will be 2 teams in the Championship next year playing in the Europa League.

As far as this season goes, 8th place is certainly an acceptable finish.  Fulham finish with 49 points and a +6 goal differential.  They finish with 8 wins, 7 draws, and 4 losses at home, and 3 wins, 9 draws, and 7 losses away for a total record of 11-16-11.  Given the injuries Mark Hughes had to deal with, he did an excellent job bringing this club up the table from the relegation zone. Here’s what I think we learned about the club:

1) Mark Hughes is the right man for the job. End of story.

2) Bobby Zamora is essential to this club’s success.

3) The club needs a good strike partner for Zamora in the summer and they can really go places.

4) Fulham are based on solid defense and creating lots of chances.  They’re not the best finishers (albeit not the worst either), but if you create enough chances one or two are bound to go in.

5) If this summer goes well, I think the club has a legitimate shot to contend for a regular Europa League bid next season.

6) This summer is incredibly important.

Any other things you think that are important that I left out, feel free to leave it in a comment.  We’ll go through some more rumors throughout the summer here on the blog, and I’ll be giving you breaking news on Twitter as well as it comes in so make sure to click that follow button!

A little bit of news that I’ll get more into later is John Pantsil is not going to be returning to Craven Cottage as expected.  The two sides were clearly at odds but for a bit were thought to be making progress.  But Mark Hughes confirmed today Pantsil will be leaving.

On The Team’s Age

Posted: March 21, 2011 by Kyle Bonn in Opinion
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We all know that youth in soccer is a tree that bears incredible fruit, if invested in, developed, and carefully managed properly.

Unfortunately, the current Fulham squad isn’t very deep on age.  And an excellent post by ESPN Soccernet Fulham blogger Phil Mison got me thinking.  After this season, no matter what happens, where do we go from here? Who stays, who goes, and who do we say our tearful goodbyes to?  Disecting the whole roster, many of the players are on the wrong side of 30, but each position has one bright young player that gives the club at least some hope.

The attack, which has been our weakness, is aging as follows: Andy Johnson is 30.  Gudjohnsen is 33.  Zamora is 30.  Johnson is showing it much more than Zamora, but both must be taken into consideration.  Hopefully our only sign of youth on the first team at the moment, Moussa Dembele at 24 years young, continues to show improvement.  Gael Kakuta isn’t ours, so he doesn’t count (but boy does Chelsea have a gem in him).  Kamara is 31 but I don’t count him because he’s not really going to be a long term option.

Lauri Dalla Valle has been superb in his stay with Bournemouth, scoring 2 goals in his first 4 matches (courtesy fulhamfc.com)

That leaves our one diamond in the rough.  Our replacement for Andy Johnson when his time has come (which is looking sooner and sooner in the more recent weeks).  Lauri Dalla Valle.  He is one of two promising 20-year olds we received for Paul Konchesky from Liverpool (I will get to the other later), and one can only hope management is smart enough to keep him around for a long time to come.

Dalla Valle has been tabbed as a Fernando Torres – esque player (one can only dream) and the Finnish prospect brought the Liverpool Youth team to the FA Youth Cup Final in 2009 in one of his many highlights in the last few years.  In fact, he scored 8 goals in that FA Cup run.

But, I digress.  The real reason I’m writing here is to talk about the more bleak side of things.  Back to the team’s age.  We’ll leave the midfield for last, for logistical reasons.  Moving on to the defense.  Here, 3 of the current starting 4 are over the magical number 30.  Hughes (32), Hangeland (31), and Salcido (30) aren’t getting any younger.  And the only starter on the other side of 30, Chris Baird, is creeping ever closer at 29.  The reserves at the moment consist of John Pantsil, who’s 30, Philippe Senderos who provides a bit of a bright spot at 25, and other inconsiquential players.

The real gem of the defense, however, is Matthew Briggs.  The 20-year old is the youngest player to ever appear in a Premier League match at the ripe young age of 16 years and change.  He’s been mostly getting valuable experience on the reserve team, but there have been rumblings of a call-up with the 4th defensive spot (currently belonging to Salcido) occasionally in question.  The team is very high on Briggs, and being very versatile, he should have no problem replacing whichever of the aging current starters is to leave first.

The goalkeeper situation is obvious, and for the most part taken care of, so I won’t spend a lot of time on it.  For now, Mark Schwarzer, at a ripe young age of 39, will most likely be replaced by David Stockdale whenever he chooses to leave (which could be this summer if Arsenal comes calling again) unless Stockdale is swooped away from someone like Manchester United, who’s shown interest.  But Schwarzer is an exception because he’s clearly able to play on top form even at his age, which is not so atypical for goalkeepers.

On to the midfield.  The situation looks a little better, but not by much.  There is a little bit of youth in Clint Dempsey and Steve Sidwell, both at 28.  But that’s about it. Etuhu is 29, but we all know he’s (hopefully at least) not more than an injury replacement at this point.  The rest are cashing in at 31 for Simon Davies, 32 for Damien Duff, and the squad’s highest number, 34 for Captain Danny Murphy.  This is another bigtime question mark after this year.  A lot of people are calling (with some merit) for Fulham to say its goodbyes to the skipper after this season, as his ship has certainly sailed at least to within sight of the Port of Retirement.  So the question is, does the club force him to retire, push him out in what could get ugly, allow him to continue to start, or put him on the bench as a sub?  Obviously if the final choice is any other than keep him in the starting XI, his captainship most certainly would be stripped.  I’m incredibly thankful for what Danny has given this club, no doubt.  But I know I have also at least had the thought cross my mind about replacing him.

Alexander Kacaniklic is a wonderful young midfielder/winger option (courtesy live4liverpool.com)

But with who?  The most obvious choice would be through the summer transfer window.  But, there is an in-house option.  At the ripe young age of 20, the other half of the Paul Konchesky deal could also bear some pretty wonderful fruit.  Alex Kacaniklic (pronounced kah-kuh-NIK-lich) came with Lauri Dalla Valle, and has been described as having a pretty sweet left foot, and is strongest at either center mid or left wing, both of which sound like perfect replacements for either aging Murphy or Duff.

The bottom line of this post is this: we have some impressive young talent on its way up, and it provides a bright spot for sure.  But right now, this starting XI has some serious age issues, and many of them will have to be sorted out before the talent is ready for a call-up.  This summer, Mark Hughes will have some heavy decisions to make as far as the fates of many of the older players on the club, most notably Andy Johnson and Danny Murphy.  And I’m not so sure they will end in everyone being happy.

But, because I like to stay optomistic, here’s a video I’m sure you will enjoy.  Check out the finishing ability of Kacaniklic, from when he played with Dalla Valle on Liverpool’s youth squad.  It’s certainly promising. (Depending on the video’s status on YouTube you may have to watch it in a new window)