Fulham 0 - 1 Newcastle United - 15/12/07 - post match reaction from page 15

[Guest youngster]

Thought the midfield 3 of Barton, Butt and Geremi was disgraceful... all 3 were absolutely terrible....

[Cronky]

I thought we looked the better side in the first half with 4-3-3. Second half we switched Martins inside and seemed to be 4-4-2, but we were poor. Couldn't hold on to the ball.

 

Martins was terrible, in both positions. A lot of players looked a bit tired, but we stuck it out and nicked it.

[jimmymag]

I thought today's tactics were better with the emphasis on attacking the opposition not just containing like against the Mackem's and especially Derby. We started really brightly with a lot of pressure in the first 10 minutes, but were unable to sustain it because we're just not able to keep the ball, with Martin's being the biggest culprit. He just seems incapable of controlling the ball, getting his head up and making the simple pass to a Newcastle player, and the long aimless punts upfield don't help the cause at all.

 

Joey Barton seems to be running into a bit of form, and I think the goal will do wonders for his confidence and we'll hopefully see some good performances from him in the coming few weeks.

 

A draw would have been the fairest result but as Sam said, we outplayed Blackburn and got nowt, so I'm more than happy with the 3 points tonight.

[Golfmag]

Given 6 - not a great deal to do, kicked it long too much for my liking.

Beye 7 - made some great tackles and blocks and on that basis is our man of the match BUT bouazza got the better of him too many times, or was simply given too much space, and when we needed width down the right, he was never there to supply it.

Cacapa 6 - pretty good i thought, read the game well and whenever he looked like he was struggling he'd use his experience to win the foul or shepherd it out.

Rozehnal 5 - too dodgy on too many occasions

N'Zogbia 5.5 - nowt special, didn't get forward enough especially in the 2nd half

Geremi 5 - pretty poor game but no worse than a few others who have received less criticism

Butt 4 - probably the worst player on the pitch, gave the ball away many times, shocking passing, torpid movement

Barton 6 - the most energetic of our midfield three and darted forward on occasion, but despite the effort he lacks quality to be the creative 'fulcrum' as parky would say. well taken pen.

Milner 5 - put a fair amount of crosses into the box but when you compare his delivery to bouazza's you can see how much we're missing. played too deep, like an orthodox winger, never got on the inside to support smith. decent pull back for viduka iirc, sadly the fatman was too sluggish to stick it in the back of the net.

Smith 6 - didn't hold his position well enough, never spearheading the team but launching into tackles in midfield or even in defence. had one or two good flickons in the first half and did well to win the pen. almost gave a goal away with a silly piece of defending.

Martins 5 - poor game, only moment of quality was the backheel which put milner clear in the box and deserved more than milner's poor pull back. positioning was bad but almost the opposite of milner's, played centrally when he shouldve been pulling out to the flanks.

 

emre and viduka gave us a bit more class on the ball as well as vision. unfortunately viduka was brought on for martins our one pace outlet, which defeats the point of having someone able to thread balls through. emre has to play if we go for a midfield three, as he then has two beside him to compensate for his wanderings upfield and all the risks he takes in possession. as soon as he came on he beat a player and played a lovely ball down the left for martins.

 

overall a very lucky win, had we lost that we couldn't have had too many complaints while a draw would've been fair enough. i worry that sam will see this as justification for his style of football and the continual misuse of players. while bouazza was probably the best player on the pitch, we had n'zogbia who is just as good stuck at left-back, as well as milner and martins playing out of position, and our lone-striker who couldnt present a goal threat if his life depended on it.

 

That's why Barton was entirely right in his assesment of what a destructive influence we can be as NUFC fans, although fair play for such a lengthy post.

[James]

I missed seeing the first 30 mins on television, but of what I saw, Beye and Cacapa were our best players, though its a shame that every time Cacapa does something good now, the commentators are going to mention how he's been bad so far for us, even though you know that they only noticed him against Portsmouth.

 

At times, Barton looked good. I'd argue that only him and Beye looked like they were playing to win today, and despite talk about lack of fitness, I'd say he was the fittest player from 80 minutes onwards, this talk is probably due to lack of pace and sharpness more than anything now, and because of his layoff (rest period), he is currently fatiguing slower, which means that as our opponents get more fatigued, they become less sharp and less pacey, and this allows Barton to become one of the better players on the field.

 

Meanwhile, Viduka and Emre dont currently have good enough fitness levels to offer more than 30 minutes of a good performance, but their introductions when others are fatigued are beneficial for us, and with Barton as well, plus the immense fitness levels of Beye, we can be very dangerous towards the end of matches, especially during the more hectic parts of the season.

 

Butt and Geremi were poor today, but I thought the midfield were outnumbered and exposed by the atrocious performance of Martins, who was totally undisciplined and lacked any goal threat whatsoever. Certainly Allardyce recognised this, hence taking Martins off for Viduka to create a very slow strike force that we haven't seen when Sam has made past tactical adjustments.

 

Hopefully Martins will be out of the team next game. I doubt Sam will change a defence that kept a clean sheet, but I would bring in Enrique, play Milner in Martins' position and play N'zogbia in Milner's position.

[Sparks]

Johnny pretty much summed it up, Butt's passing in particular was horrific today. It is truly amazing how someone of his experience can continue to give so many easy balls away.

 

Very encouraging from Beye though, another really good performance.

[Crumpy Gunt]

I thought we looked the better side in the first half with 4-3-3. Second half we switched Martins inside and seemed to be 4-4-2, but we were poor. Couldn't hold on to the ball.

 

Martins was terrible, in both positions. A lot of players looked a bit tired, but we stuck it out and nicked it.

 

They might have looked it but how the fuck can they be tired?

[Mick]

 

They might have looked it but how the f*** can they be tired?

 

Christmas isn't too far away, they've probably got 2nd jobs to bring in some extra income.

[Ridman]

http://www.skysports.com/story/0,19528,11096_2978541,00.html

 

Shay Given in sky's team of the weekend...............

[Yorkie]

Did Given have a save to make?

[Menace]

Yes.

[rocksammy]

im happy for cacapa and the 3 points

[Karjala]

Just hope todays result is not another papering overing of the cracks.

 

We are in 10th position, and thats about where we'll finish.

[Karjala]

Did Given have a save to make?

 

Not that i remember, couple of corners to gather but that was it.

[Yorkie]

Did Given have a save to make?

 

Not that i remember, couple of corners to gather but that was it.

 

Hmm, not knocking the guy especially; strange choice for team of the week, though. Fulham were shite in every prespect including attacking-wise.

[Ronaldo]

Given is perfect fodder for those who claim playing in net is 'a hero's position'

 

he made one decent save ffs

[gonufc]

Barton and Geremi were f***ing shocking today. Germei was just anonymous and every Barton got the ball he gave it away. We desperately need more creativity in midfield. You might say Emre is the answer....but he only ever seems to have an impact coming off the bench!!!

[merlin]

A poor game between two very mediocre sides.

Was able to fast-forward large parts of the recording without missing anything worth watching.

NUFC were the better in the first half, and it was about 50/50 in the second.

Cacapa made a decent return to the side and the defence looked in little trouble. mainly due to Fulham's inadequacies.We got the win because of Smith's battling qualities, nothing more...

 

Last night, I watched a good part of the Championship game between WBA & Charlton - a far better game, and both sides played better football - passing to feet, but when crosses were put into the box, the quality of them surpassed anything we usually see from Milner & N'Zogbia - probably because the players delivering them were on their preferred side of the field...!!

I watched that game because I have been keeping an eye on the development of Tony Mowbray as a manager ; did a great job at Hibs(which John Collins has carried on) and is building a good side at WBA ; they are now the top scorers in all 4 leagues, incl Prem, and I can see why...Mowbray has signed a couple of players, but has organized the side so he gets the best out of the ones who were there before he arrived.

Those who say we have no decent British managers apart from Fergie may have to eat their words soon - both Hughes(at Blackburn) and Mowbray are showing signs of being able to reach the top - it will be interesting to see how WBA do if they get promoted(they are currently top of the Fizzy Pop).

As a North East lad, I reckon Mowbray knows all about the potential at NUFC, AND, more importantly, what the fans like to see from their team - there needs to be more improvement from what we are seeing this year if Allardyce is to convince me, and, I suspect, many others.

 

[jep]

Last night, I watched a good part of the Championship game between WBA & Charlton - a far better game, and both sides played better football - passing to feet, but when crosses were put into the box, the quality of them surpassed anything we usually see from Milner & N'Zogbia - probably because the players delivering them were on their preferred side of the field...!!

 

 

If you wouldn't mind, I'd like to hear the reasoning behind your argument. Not taking the piss, I genuinely want to know what would make our crosses better if they came from the right side of the field (in Milner's case).

[Zero]

I would say the approach was wrong but FS was too lucky to get all 3 points.

I understand that we have the strongest defensive power in midfield when playing Barton/Geremi/Butt,

but that's only Fulham ffs.

I would have no complaint if our opponent is any other top 6 teams which we'll play a counter-attack style football like what we did vs Arsenal,

but now it's only Fulham, a match which we should have at least half of the possession.

FS should play Emre instead of Geremi/Barton, or in extreme cases, N'Zogbia in middle is also a good idea.

 

Too lucky to have 3 points, but we really need them. Sorry Fulham.

[Cronky]

I thought we looked the better side in the first half with 4-3-3. Second half we switched Martins inside and seemed to be 4-4-2, but we were poor. Couldn't hold on to the ball.

 

Martins was terrible, in both positions. A lot of players looked a bit tired, but we stuck it out and nicked it.

 

They might have looked it but how the fuck can they be tired?

 

The player who I was really thinking about was Smith, who has put a lot into the last two games, and wasn't quite at his best yesterday. In the second half, we also seemed to be losing a lot of the 50-50 challenges, and allowed ourselves to get pegged back. It might have been mental tiredness as much as physical.

 

It might also have been the change of formation to 4-4-2, which maybe weakened us in centre mid. I prefer the 4-3-3, and this changing around does more harm than good anyway.

 

The real worry for me was Martins. He's a bit limited at the best of times, but yesterday, and for the first time that I've seen, he looked half-hearted.

[Tsunami]

We got 3 points we didn't deserve, kept a clean sheet & have taken an extra 4 points from goals in stoppage time in the last 2 games - let's just take it.

 

Sam will look at those 2 games & see that we didn't play well in either & that had Beye not scored against Brum & had Fulham taken either of the chances we presented to them (as a decent team would have done) we would be sitting with 1 point instead of 6.

 

The defence is going to take some sorting out; the lack of understanding between players is painful at times - somebody has to take charge back there. When you see that we had Cacapa & Beye - both captains at their previous club - playing it is all the more worrying. Roze desperately needs someone to keep him on his toes.

 

We must now go on and beat Derby.

[Minhosa]

Thought Geremi and Butt could've influenced the game far more with a bit more ambition in getting up the field rather than being so content to sit and break up play.

 

If Geremi could improve his corners we could have been one or two up inside the first ten minutes.

 

I really hope our set pieces improve.

 

On a positive, and as everyone else has already said, Beye looked good again and it was nice to see Cacapa come back and look so assured.

 

That game, personal performance and clean sheet will do him the world of good. Well done to Big Sam for leaving him out until a (relatively) simple test against Fulhams forward line, away from home and without a noisy set of opposition fans to give him stick. Really good man-management for me.

[merlin]

Last night, I watched a good part of the Championship game between WBA & Charlton - a far better game, and both sides played better football - passing to feet, but when crosses were put into the box, the quality of them surpassed anything we usually see from Milner & N'Zogbia - probably because the players delivering them were on their preferred side of the field...!!

 

 

If you wouldn't mind, I'd like to hear the reasoning behind your argument. Not taking the piss, I genuinely want to know what would make our crosses better if they came from the right side of the field (in Milner's case).

 

The reason is that if you are right-footed, you naturally have more control over delivery of crosses, esp when on the move(which is when they SHOULD be sent in in order to wrong-foot defenders running towards their own goal) IF you are delivering from the right - likewise if you are left-footed, like Zog - the ball is best delivered into the box with your better foot(i.e. the left in his case).

If you are playing out of position, the tendency is either to mis-hit the cross or deliver it into the wrong place(because you are using the weaker foot) OR to check back, turn, and try to get the ball on to your stronger foot(which Milner does all the time..!).

Either way, the danger created by these type of crosses is far less than if done properly - some players are skilled enough to hit a cross in accurately with BOTH feet, but I don't think either Milner or Zog are good enough to do this.

Hope that answers your question.

[Kev]

got back at 6am this morning...

very average match with no real quality, we had the ball nearly all the first half, if a team deserved to win it was us, which we luckily did win 

 

that was the worst ground ive ever been too in my life

i was the second row from the front next to the corner flag and i couldnt see a thing in the opposite corner and could only just see the goal nearest to me

stood on my chair for the pen so i was ok for that

 

fat sam still needs to sort it out