posted by
MST (Guest)
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posted on
Tuesday 21st May 2013, 10:20 AM
Summary
A deeply unsatisfactory season; the sale of Mousa Dembele and Clint Dempsey in the final week of August knocked us for six. Very nearly sleep-walking into relegation, big questions need to be asked of both the board and Martin Jol. A repeat next year would almost certainly guarantee Championship football.
Top 3 players
Sascha Riether: a rare and constant bright spark in an otherwise sparkless team. Tireless running, often our biggest attacking threat, he has become a real fan favourite.
Ashkan Dejagah: bought on transfer deadline day from Wolfsburg, injuries meant that it took some time for Dejagah to settle in. When he did, though, he provided excellent and direct wing play, as well as some unheralded defensive work.
Giorgios Karagounis: a 35-year old who arrived as a free transfer in September; yup, that basically sums up Fulham's season. Yet Karagounis has been brilliant and provided the much-needed leadership and calm head that our central midfield required in the absence of Dembele.
Top 3 flops
Steve Sidwell: in the so-called peak of his career, Sidwell totally failed to capitalise on the exit of Dembele to make central midfield his own. Lacking in leadership qualities, the Ginger Iniesta's season was perfectly summed up by his back to back red cards in April. At least he gets a long summer holiday.
Mladen Petric: I'm not so much blaming Petric but Jol; why on earth did we sign him in the first place? A very good finisher but totally lacking the dynamism and physicality to influence the Premier League. He'll go on to score goals elsewhere; he just shouldn't have come to Fulham.
John Arne Riise: if it weren't for Kieran Richardson's injuries and Matthew Briggs' ineptitude, Riise wouldn't have played half as many games as he did this season. He has though, and he has been a shadow of the player we saw last year. Careless in possession, weak defensively; it has not been a good season for the Norwegian.
Highlight of the season
The 5-0 victory over Norwich City on the opening day. That says it all.
Manager assessment
It's really hard to judge; are the team's failings down to Jol's management of the board's lack of leadership? I think it's a bit of both. While the board's failure to decide what, exactly, Fulham's plans and ambitions are, Jol has not helped himself. Having announced his desire to lower the average age of the squad when he arrived at Craven Cottage, all he has done is add older players on short-term contracts or loans; this lack of longevity and forward thinking cannot help the atmosphere within the dressing room.
Furthermore, he has been remarkably tactically inflexible given our weaknesses in personnel. It's taken him all season not to realise that playing counter-attack football without any pace doesn't work. Hopefully, one day the penny will drop. With speculation over his future, I can't say I'd be upset should he depart. A poor season all round.
Hopes for next season
My one hope is for greater leadership, at both the managerial and board level. What are the club's ambitions? Is Mohamed Al Fayed still interested? If we are to become 'self-sustainable' then we need a manager who can work under those circumstances; Jol is not that man.
With greater leadership will come stability and improvement. We need to stop thinking from season to season (which ends up being from transition to transition), we need a longer-term plan. If that happens, then there's no reason why we can't challenge regularly for Europe. If it doesn't happen, we may find ourselves slugging it out in the Championship before too long.
Published by: Henry Hoare
Read more: http://pickourteam.com/premierleague/fulham/news/20-05-2013/end-of-season-review-fulham/831878#ixzz2Tuw2bpvP
Replies
Been really dissapointed with Petric this season. In Pre season he looked class and against Norwich i thought here we go we have a goodun here.
Then he got an injury and thats it. He comes of the bench but isnt an impact player, he is lightweight, quite slow and not prepared to play through any kind of injury.
Would be one of the players i move on.
As for Sidwell - There is a case for and against.
Yes he has been reckless but when you are the only player who isnt a defender that can tackle then you are going to have to go in tough, Karagounis is always diving around, Ruiz couldnt tackle his way out of a soaking wet open paper bag and Berbatov doesnt even attempt so he probably feels he has to really go hard.
On the negative he hasnt improved as a footballer this season, his passing is poor (1st minute of cup game vs Utd for example) his shooting is poor and he doesnt seem to have the same enthusiasm he did, i think Moussa Dembele made him look good for the past two seasons and he has been found out a bit because the quality isnt alongside him.
I would give him another chance though, i think he has it in him to be a good player for us as long as the right player is alongside him.
posted by Adam (Guest) - Tuesday 21st May 2013, 11:49 AM
This season has been a very frustrating time for all, it's low's out-number the highs, 9 home defeats is not a record to be proud of and the defeat at QPR was not a performance I wish to remember. Our downturn in form was mirrored by the 3 red cards and the games which followed them.
After a promising season start we the supporters suffered many anxious performances.
Regardless of the constraints Martin Jol has been working under, he showed his inability to use or organise his squad correctly to the benefit of the team's results. He also kept reiterating the loss of Dembele and Dempsey like a broken record. He may have had control of the team but it didn't come across that way to the fans, it seemed that they were in disarray.
posted by martinwatson (Guest) - Tuesday 21st May 2013, 1:03 PM
Top 3 players and you dont name Berb? Dont get that unless you are deducting points for not running around. He kept us in this division by himself. I agree your 3 are next best
posted by Phil (Guest) - Tuesday 21st May 2013, 3:28 PM
If you have read any of my other posts you will realise that I am not a Berbatov fan. I find him gifted but the wrong type of player for FFC. He absolutely did not keep us in the division on his own - although one or two of his goals were what you could say were pure class not all were and if he hadn't been there someone else would have.
In addition what about the times when we broke at pace only to await Berba's stroll up the pitch to catch up? You have to ask yourself - did Zamora get us to the Europa League final on his own or did Dempsey keep us in the division last season? If the answer is yes then my feeling is that, with respect and in the nicest possible way, your binkers need to come off - sorry.
posted by MST (Guest) - Tuesday 21st May 2013, 4:14 PM
Sidwell was the player who kept us up when he was not there we went down hill sending off yes out of order but up till then he was our best player some steel maybe too much we missed him
big time
posted by longtrotter (Guest) - Tuesday 21st May 2013, 8:25 PM
Sidwell is an interesting case - Pretty sure he was in the premiership top ten this season for number of tackles despite the 6 games he missed, plus his ommission coincided with a stinker of a run - so maybe the disappointment is he got sent off twice which is harsh as to a certain extent he was unlucky
posted by Snakey (Guest) - Tuesday 21st May 2013, 10:25 PM
Don't know about Sidwell's tackle count but he was actually out a good deal longer than 6 games. & for the red cards plus injuries earlier in the season. He was certainly an important part of the team structure.
posted by Al (Guest) - Wednesday 22nd May 2013, 12:45 AM