Posts Tagged ‘Sascha Riether’

Schalke confirm interest in Sascha Riether – still a longshot

Posted: June 18, 2013 by Kyle Bonn in Player/Manager, Transfer
Tags: , ,
0

Sascha Riether could be heading back to Germany.

Schalke manager Horst Heldt has confirmed the club’s interest in Fulham right-back sensation Sascha Riether, but warned “if the demand is too high, it will not materialize.”

The Bundesliga club wants the former Koln defender as cover for current right-back Atsuto Uchida.

Just because he’s on their wish-list doesn’t mean this is going to happen, and it seems Schalke have a very strict evaluation of the 30-year-old, but it’s a possibility.

He has just signed a new 2-year deal with Fulham, turning his season-long loan deal permanent with a €1.4 million transfer fee to Koln.

That makes this even more unlikely, but word is the two teams are already in discussions.  How serious those discussions are remains to be seen.

I believe this move is relatively a longshot, because of how cautious Schalke are per Heldt’s quote, and I would assume Fulham would wish to make a decent profit on the defender before the rid themselves of last year’s Player’s player of the year.

Therefore, I would imagine the two clubs would have very different valuations of Riether, and I can’t imagine the two come to an agreement.

However, if they do, it will be incredibly hard to replace Riether, and Fulham will have a tough time finding someone who can fill his shoes.  Let’s hope this doesn’t come off, because I can’t imagine the club will profit that greatly from his sale.

This isn’t the first time Schalke have tried to pull off a deal for a player who just signed a contract with their club.  In 2011 they purchased Austrian left-back Christian Fuchs just after he had signed a permanent deal with FSV Mainz following a season-long loan there.

Starting Early for a Change: Amorebieta and Boateng sign for Fulham

Posted: May 23, 2013 by Kyle Bonn in Transfer
Tags: , , ,
0

With the horrors of last summer’s transfer window still fresh in many fans’ minds, it’s nice to see additions taking place early on.  Not just because of how last summer’s window ended with the departure of two of the club’s best players days before the end.

But also because of how it began…with nothing.  And also with how it continued halfway through…with more nothing. Last summer’s transfer window was painful because it was so empty.  Martin Jol and the board waited ages to make any kind of moves and address obvious needs.

This summer, the signs are obvious – things are going to be different. Very different.

With the official transfer window not even begun yet, Fulham have signed one player for a fee (Sascha Riether’s loan was made permanent for £1-2 million) and now two shrewd free transfers have been confirmed.

The club confirmed that Derek Boateng will join Fulham immediately, having been released after a contract dispute with his club Dnipro, and Fernando Amorebieta will join the club on a bosman at the end of the Spanish season from Athletic Bilbao.

Derek Boateng is a household name with many Fulham fans by now, with the completion of the transfer on the fourth attempt by the club to get him.  The 30-year-old signed a 2-year deal with Fulham and is a strong presence in the midfield, reminiscent of Dickson Etuhu in years past.

Amorebieta has been rumored to be joining Fulham for the better part of 2 months now, and all you need to know about the experienced central defender is how quickly Martin Jol acted as soon as word got out he wouldn’t be resigning with Bilbao. Jol isn’t someone with a ton of contacts in the Spanish league, but he made it happen with the likes of Arsenal also rumored to be in the mix.

Amorebieta still just recently turned 28, young for a man of his experience.  He’s got 195 Primera Division games under his belt since 2005, plus another 56 in domestic and abroad cup competitions.

There are still holes, with needs at striker, more midfield, and maybe even a goalkeeper, it’s nice to see the gears moving so early.  There are reports out of Italy that Fulham have signed Maarten Stekelenburg to replace Mark Schwarzer between the sticks, so clearly they’re not done yet.

Spurs 0-1 Fulham: On A Roll

Posted: March 17, 2013 by Kyle Bonn in Postgame
Tags: , , , , , ,
3

Dimitar Berbatov scored his 11th goal of the season and subdued his celebration, showing class for both sides today.

The stars aligned for the Whites to grab an upset at White Hart Lane today, and they pounced.

Dimitar Berbatov’s tap-in on the counter provided all Fulham needed, and the defense stepped up and did the rest to grab an enormous 3 points that will provide a much-needed boost in the table.

It was mistake-free football that allowed Fulham to take all the points, along with a few last-ditch saves by Mark Schwarzer which have come at a time when the Australian is playing at top form.  Not only that, but they got a little help as well.  Spurs exerted all they had for 2 hours against Inter in the Europa League, pulling it out and advancing on away goals, but using up all their energy in the process just 2 days ago.  Today, it was obvious that had an effect, even if AVB refused to admit it. Then Jan Vertoghen pulled up lame in the first few minutes.  Then Gareth Bale injured his ankle without contact. Neither was substituted out, but neither contributed (until Bale’s superb cross on the should-have-been equalizer).  But it doesn’t diminish what the defense and right wing accomplished today.

The good:

Sascha Riether – I don’t ever want to stop putting him in this section. Ever. He was fantastic again on the right side, which as a whole is shaping up to be extremely dangerous, especially on the counter (which is where we scored).  His run down the right side was instrumental in the goal, and fed Berbatov perfectly (that’s surprisingly easy to mess up) for his 5th assist of the season.  And, more importantly, he kept Gareth Bale in his back pocket.  The only time he lost Bale, Schwarzer saved the day.  Granted, Bale obviously wasn’t 100%, but he stayed in so obviously Villas Boas thought his star was healthy enough to make a difference, and to that Riether deserves all the credit.

Philippe Senderos – I’ve been incredibly critical of Senderos, and one game won’t sway my overall opinion of him, but I have to give credit where it’s due.  Senderos didn’t make his quota of one massive mistake a game, and instead played rock-solid in the middle. He was particularly great on crosses, which actually isn’t anything new.  He’s not the tallest or most imposing of center backs like his partner the captain, but he does enough in the air to put off attackers, as shown on a header by Adebayor off a corner in the second half.  The striker beat him handily in the air to the ball, but the header was way off thanks to Senderos being glued to his hip.

Brede Hangeland – Hangeland has shown his age on more than one occasion this season, but today was also superb next to Senderos.  His only mistake was on the offensive end, when he had a wide open header off a cross that took a deflection straight to him, but he put it just wide.  At the back, Hangeland was a cog in a fantastic defensive performance, adding 4 more interceptions to his pregame total of 122 on the season.

The bad:

-1st half Berbatov: I was afraid in the first half that Dimitar was going to have one of THOSE games where he just stood there and sulked that he wasn’t getting the ball.  Thankfully he turned it around and not only was active on the break, he was good in possession and actually helped out on the defensive end as well.

What this means:

Fulham now move back into 10th, and have a game in hand on the 4 teams above them as well as the 2 teams below them.  The win also means they cut the monster gap between 10th and 9th down to just 4 points.  The schedule doesn’t get any easier with April consisting of an improved QPR side, Arsenal, Everton, and a fixture with Chelsea still to be rescheduled, but that makes these 3 points even more important to possibly brace for a difficult stretch.

The next 3 matches (QPR, Newcastle, Villa) are a big opportunity to jump further up the table now that the deficit from above has been reduced.

Solid Sascha: The Right Right-Back

Posted: February 5, 2013 by Kyle Bonn in Player/Manager
Tags: ,
0

Riether ranks up with the best defenders in the Premier League, including Manchester United’s Rio Ferdinand.

It’s been a while since Fulham has had any consistency at the right-back position. Think back through the last couple years. Stephen Kelly, John Pantsil, Fredirk Stoor, Moritz Volz (could The Electrician have restored power during the outage at Craven Cottage???), Elliot Omozusi. Then you remember Steve Finnan. Finnan is a name in the minds of all Fulham fans as probably the last established right-back at Craven Cottage, playing 5 stellar seasons and 172 matches in White, helping them blast through the lower divisions into the Premier League, before moving on to bigger and better things at Anfield.

Sascha Riether has brought back some fond memories for the home fans at Craven Cottage, and his no-nonsense attitude on the touchline has been a bright spot in an otherwise porous and aging defensive line. On loan from FC Cologne, Riether looked for a way out after their relegation to the German second division 2. Bundesliga, and found his respite in SW6. At first glance, bringing on a player from a relegated German club brought a few fans to question the decision, thinking back to the revolving door the right-back position had typically been for Fulham. However, when you look a little deeper, you also see Riether had won a Bundesliga title with Wolfsburg in a dream season where they at one point won 10 straight matches, including beating Bayern Munich 5-1, and the right-back also registered two vastly important goals. He banged in the winner at Borussia M’gladbach and also found the back of the net in a road draw with Hertha BSC.

At Fulham, it’s been no different. Although not the fastest player on the pitch, he’s brought an attacking flair down the right side, bringing pace to the touch and swinging in some fantastic crosses, as well as developing an immediate partnership with Damien Duff and his old Wolfsburg teammate Ashkan Dejagah.

However, it’s been his defensive ability that’s not only caught my eye, but been his most valuable asset. Riether’s ability to track any winger or striker on the dribble down the touchline is more than impressive, and he displays a tackling precision that allows him to take on just about anyone one-on-one, something that’s been missing elsewhere in the back 4 this year. As Lydia Campbell pointed out in her fantastic Hammy End article on Riether, I can’t remember an incident where I saw Sascha out of position, despite sometimes being in attacking positions. On the flip side, we saw just last week Philippe Senderos make a fatal mistake staying too long for a header he had no chance at winning, causing him to be horribly out of position for Manchester United’s only goal.

Thanks to the great work of the folks at EA Sports, I’ve gotten some Player Performance Index numbers on Riether, and they’re just as fantastic as you’d imagine. I mentioned his tackling precision – he has a 76.6 tackling success percentage, highest of anyone on the squad with regular playing time (Matthew Briggs is the only player with a higher percentage, and he has too small of a sample size to be in the discussion). In fact, that tackling percentage is 2nd among all right-backs in the Premier League. He has 16 clearances and 83 interceptions, both third highest on the squad behind our two regular center backs.

In fact, according to the EA Sports Player Performance Index, Sascha Riether is the 4th best right-back in the Premier League, behind household names Rafael, Branislav Ivanovic, and Pablo Zabaleta; he’s also the 12th ranked overall defender in the league. That’s high praise when you notice names behind him such as Per Mertesacker, Gael Clichy, Robert Huth, Kieran Gibbs, and Martin Skrtel (who’s having a horrible season). Don’t forget, this is Riether’s first season in the Premier League.

I’ve pulled his dossier from possibly Fulham’s best defensive performance of the season, their 0-0 draw at Stamford Bridge at the end of November. Statistically Steve Sidwell was a defensive machine, but Riether was all-around our best defender that day. Here’s his dashboard:

Riether vs. Chelsea
Legend

Obviously this was a fantastic defensive display by Fulham as a whole, but aside from a few failed clearances and some incomplete long passes up the touchline, Riether was virtually perfect. Also, he took a Torres to the face:

LOOK OUT, A FLYING TORRES!

Now while his defense is by far what I’ve been most impressed with the German about, his attacking ability has also been incredibly positive to the club. With such a weak attacking midfield, Fulham have relied heavily on their ability to stretch the field to the touchlines and use their wingers to provide creativity. The club isn’t a very good crossing team, so often they use the wing-backs or wingers to serve as the link between the back and front through the middle third, and then players like Bryan Ruiz and Dimitar Berbatov take it from there, feeding the strikers up top. Just look at Riether’s dashboard again from Chelsea. He doesn’t cross the ball much at all. He provides passes just beyond the midline, usually to someone like Damien Duff or Bryan Ruiz who bring it up through the middle from there. Let’s look at one of the most recent positive attacking matches Fulham played, their 1-0 loss to Manchester United. They didn’t score, but the club put on some real pressure, especially late. The clean sheet kept by United had mostly to do with a few factors at the end product up front. The buildup, Riether’s role, was fantastic. Take a look at the progression, and you’ll see exactly what I’m talking about:

He takes the ball from the central defense over to the wing:

Senderos to Riether

Riether brings it up over the midline and then it’s off to either Dejagah or Ruiz. In fact, Riether to Dejagah was the most common passing combination for Fulham, happening 13 times.

Riether to Dejagah
Riether to Ruiz

As you can see, Riether is a major link up the right side, taking the ball from the back and feeding it into the middle from the wing. Even passing to Dejagah, a winger, is more into the middle of the pitch than up farther along the touchline.

Finally, there is one more attacking number I’d like to give you from the gracious people at EA Sports. Riether has connected on exactly 400 passes in the attacking half of the pitch – 2nd most on Fulham behind only Dimitar Berbatov. That’s how much they trust Sascha to be the connective force on the attack for Fulham. It’s also a product of the fact that he’s the only player on Fulham to have played in all 25 matches this season, so he’s seen more playing time to accumulate those passes. But it’s still a very important number to understand the trust Riether has developed from Martin Jol. Thanks in large part to this, the EA Sports Player Performance Index has Riether the 2nd most valuable player on the club behind Berbatov.

That trust didn’t come right away either. Check this out: Riether, in our season-opening match where Fulham dominated Norwich 5-0, Fulham held the ball 60% of the time, and Riether passed the ball 49 times, but only 6 of those 49 were in the attacking third. In the second game of the season, at Old Trafford, it was the same story – Fulham only held the ball 40% of the time, limiting Riether’s passes to 38, but only 2 of those 38 were in the attacking third. Now, fast forward to Saturday’s match with Manchester United, where Fulham only possessed the ball 45% of the time, and Riether only had 36 passes as a result…but 16 of those 36 passes came in the attacking third. He’s touching the ball much more up front now as opposed to dumping it off to the midfield way back in the defending half like he did in his first few forays with the squad. The trust has developed.

Now, we shouldn’t jump to conclusions with Sascha, because remember, he is 29. I wouldn’t start comparing him to Steve Finnan just yet, because he may not have the window of opportunity to play for as long with the club as Finnan did. We’ve all seen how age can break down our beloved center back pairing into shells of their former selves. But if Martin Jol can secure a permanent deal for Riether, we may have a bit of security for a few years in that corner of the pitch.

And that part is the key: securing the deal. There is a very strong argument for Sascha Riether for Fulham’s Player of the Year so far this season, and he absolutely needs to be back next year. In fact, I’d argue that if Martin Jol does not secure a permanent deal for Riether after the season and he goes elsewhere, it is quite possibly a fireable offense. He talks all the time about keeping our players, including recently being happy to keep all our players through the January transfer window. So this time, we absolutely need to keep this particular player. I don’t expect it to be a problem, especially at age 29 I doubt any bigger clubs will come calling, but you never know.

Keep up the fantastic work Sascha, it’s a wonderfully bright spot for the present and the future of Craven Cottage.

Fulham 0-1 Manchester United: It’s Not The Size Of The Dog In The Fight…

Posted: February 2, 2013 by Kyle Bonn in Postgame
Tags: , , , , , , , , ,
0

Bryan Ruiz battles for a dribble

Just a week ago, this was 4-1. Just a week ago, it looked like it was 22-on-11, it looked like nobody cared, it looked like 11 players rather than 1 team.

Not anymore.

A week after the most boring 4-1 match in history, we had the most exciting 1-0 match in history. 5 posts hit in the first half.  32 shots overall.  49 crosses overall. 13 corners.  What a game.

The good:

The creativity – I put this here because no one single person stood out to me.  At any point, new players stepped up to make fantastic passes or runs.  Ashkan Dejagah was a joy to watch, although he needs to improve on his first touch.  Bryan Ruiz’s passing was poor in the first half, but he played so much better in the second and was a key player in the crazy charge in the final minutes.  Damien Duff also reappeared in the second half.  Hugo Rodallega ran things from the front, and made some fantastic cutting passes in the box and just outside it.  Sascha Riether played a key role on the right, especially after Rooney scored.  Urby Emanuelson came on in the 68th minute and showed his pinpoint long passing.  Nobody stood out to me, but everyone certainly contributed. Just ask Sir Alex Ferguson:

“I think it was really determined performance. It wasn’t easy because Fulham played their part”

Sascha Riether – Once again, the man stood out in defense.  Many are saying he’s our clear-cut player of the year, and I can’t disagree. A must-buy for Jol after the season.

Chris Baird – Also fantastic defensively in the midfield, with Sidders out Baird filled in admirably.  Happy he didn’t go to West Brom, yes? I know I am.

Mark Schwarzer – We’ve said here for a while that this may be Schwarzer’s last season as Fulham’s first choice keeper, and deservedly so.  But today, he matched David De Gea in quality, as both were fantastic between the sticks.  He made a ridiculous save inside the first 10 minutes, and kept up the performance the whole match.

The bad:

Philippe Senderos – I honestly don’t have much to put here, so I have to single out the man who made the mistake that led to the goal. Maybe I’ve been too harsh on Senderos this season, but he’s flat out not good.  He stayed too long under a header he had no chance of winning, and by the time he realized he’d been beaten, it was too late to recover, and Aaron Hughes was no match for Rooney that close to goal on his own.  Brede Hangeland left at halftime, and I hope he’s ok because I don’t know how much more of Senderos I can take. He’s good off corners, that’s about it.

The lights -

Some of the best jokes on Twitter included MAF forgetting to pay the electric bill despite pulling the club out of debt, Peter Odemwingie trying to tunnel into Loftus Road and hitting a main, and blaming David De Gea because everything’s his fault anyways.  Well done folks.

Man of the Match: This is tough for me, because like I said before, nobody really stood out to me.  I would have gone with Hangeland because he was doing excellent at the back before getting injured.  I’m going to go with Sascha Riether because he once again proves how valuable he is on the right, making tackle after tackle and providing lots on the attacking end as well.

What now?: This result was expected, just not in the way it happened. Of course it’s frustrating to not get anything from this match, but after last week, who honestly expected points here? It’s a great match to build from, and Martin Jol’s tactics were spot on.  With the added players from the transfer window into the ranks, it’s promising looking ahead.  We have Norwich away, Stoke home, Sunderland away in our next 3, and that’s a bit tougher of a stretch than it may sound off the bat given this team’s away record.  However, if we can manage at least 5 points from those 3 fixtures and not lose, it will be a successful period to me ahead of back-to-back games against Chelsea and Tottenham.

Remember: No points were earned from this match.  So the only way the valiant effort benefits us is if we build on it in the future.  If we take a step backwards in the next few games, this effort is all for nothing.  If we can build on this, it becomes a stepping stone and possibly a turning point in the season.  That all depends on what the club does going forward. COME ON YOU WHITES!

Martin Jol postgame:

“According to Jol, Brede Hangeland’s Achillies tightened up, nothing to play around with. Said it’s not serious, but may miss a few weeks”

UPDATE: Jol also said Brede Hangeland’s achillies tightened up, and although it’s not serious, he may miss a few weeks.  That’s a massive blow to a team with just 3 center backs on the roster, although Chris Baird can play back there in an emergency.

Fulham 3-1 West Ham: Winning the First “Must-Win”

Posted: January 30, 2013 by Kyle Bonn in Postgame
Tags: , , , , , , , ,
0

Hugo Rodallega provided the winner as Fulham grabbed a massive 3 points at home

Martin Jol said 5 or 6 wins are going to be needed to guarantee we stay away from the relegation zone, and the club are 1 win closer to securing not only safety but a respectable finish.

The birthday boy headed home the first goal of the night (he was offsides, shhhhhhh), and Hugo Rodallega, who’s got 3 massive goals this year, banged home the winner just after West Ham equalized.  It was a very exciting back-and-forth match, but showed the weakness in defense for both clubs.  Fulham are going to have to weather poor defense for the rest of the season, and it isn’t going to be fun against better clubs.

That being said, this win is massive in terms of confidence.  It got Berbatov back on track (on his birthday, no less), it slotted Fulham up to 12th in the table for the time being, and picked up some kind of points ahead of a challenging stretch of 6 games or so.

The good:

Hugo Rodallega – The offseason transfer has been a statistical nightmare this season, but Rodallega provided pace, cutting edge, and fantastic passing as he led the charge up front for Fulham.  He seemed to dictate terms with the West Ham defense, and made some excellent runs that the Fulham midfielders mostly were able to pick out.

Dimitar Berbatov – The birthday boy picked a great game to bounce back from a run of poor form.  He’d probably have been better had he not been hampered by a hamstring problem most of the match, and he pulled up lame at the end to cap it off.  Hopefully this gives him some more confidence as well. Confidence is going to be a huge thing for more than just Berbatov going forward.

Sascha Riether – By far Fulham’s most consistent defender this season, he’s making a big case to be made permanently a Fulham player at the end of the season.  His tackles are spot-on, and he provides pace down the wing.  Most importantly, though, he’s made so massive tackles this year, and that’s what Fulham are lacking at the back.  It’s hard to beat him one-on-one.  Fulham absolutely need to throw everything they’ve got at keeping him beyond this year.

The bad:

Bryan Ruiz – This one’s not on Ruiz.  It’s solely on Martin Jol.  Ruiz isn’t a winger, and clearly can’t perform well in that position.  Ruiz has played out of position since Dembele’s departure, stuck farther back in the midfield than is suited to him.  He was stuck out of position today even worse, as Jol tried to stick Berbatov in more of Ruiz’s spot.  Dejagah came on for Ruiz and played very well in his spot, so I wouldn’t expect to see the Costa Rican on the wing much more, if at all.

Philippe Senderos – He made a few good plays, but mostly he failed miserably at his job again, and even got away with a blatant handball towards the end of the match after Fulham’s third goal had been scored.  Aaron Hughes has slipped mightily, but he’s still a much better option than Senderos.  Then again, so is a cucumber.

Man of the Match: Damien Duff, without question.  His passes were incredible, crosses were on point (something Fulham’s been missing this season), and even took a few great strikes on goal, coming just wide/high on them.  Alex Kacaniklic, who was left out of the side altogether today, is going to have a real struggle to get back into it, with Duffer now at 7 assists in 19 matches, and Urby Emanuelson – who will most likely slide into either left back or left wing – heading to Craven Cottage imminently.

Last words: Fulham were lucky that West Ham were somewhat off target today and Andy Carroll only played 15 minutes, but they got the job done, and 3 points in the bank.  We’re now in 12th place and 8 points ahead of the drop, which by no means is safe, but it’s a good enough distance for a slip-up or two against the top teams, which is probably bound to happen, especially this Saturday.  West Ham, meanwhile, are in a real troubling position in 13th, just one point below Fulham but their defense looks extremely poor and attack not as good as advertised.  Getting Carroll back will be huge.

There’s also word now that not only has Tom Huddlestone’s name popped up again, but Andre Villas-Boas has confirmed Fulham have spoken with the midfielder and he’s at Craven Cottage to discuss a possible transfer.  We’ll see where that’s headed.  Happy 3 points everyone! COYW!

Older Entries