(After the Villa game, when we've come to a decision about the number of stars used, I'll update this as the official Fulham thread if that's OK with everyone)
[center]Fulham Scouting Report[/center]
I was fortunate enough to attend the DW Stadium on Saturday (courtesy of Wigan’s commendable £20 buy one get one free offer on tickets) and get a glimpse at our next league opponents.
The first thing I can say if these reports work I won’t be venturing across Europe on my own dime to produce more but if City (or anyone else) wish to foot the bill I’d be more than happy. Second is that I’m glad I forked out 3 notes for a programme as I needed it to work out half the players on each team were!
Fulham were sporting a lovely black number with a white and gold sash which will surely win the (fictional) kit of the year awards.
Fulham lined up in a 442 with Schwarzer in goal only 2 years after he was supposed to be off to Arsenal. Brende Haneland partnered Aaron Hughes at centre back with German Sascha Riether right back and the long forgotten John Arne Risse at left back.
Centre Midfield was the odd pairing of Chris Baird and Steve Sidwell, Damien Duff standing still on the right hand side of midfield and Alexander Kacanikilic anonymous on the left hand side. Up front they had the goalless Hugo Rodallega and fresh from a hat-trick Dimitar Berbatov.
The noticeable difference to Fulham’s style of play is that it’s a lot more direct. They passed the ball almost half as much as Wigan (not unexpected for the away team) but the aim was to get the ball up the field as quickly as possible to the strikres.
Wigan note: Wigan have build up play similar to City where they bring it out the back four slowly and build up through midfield but struggle in the final third and getting the ball into the area.
Defence
Schwarzer is one of the league’s most solid goalkeepers, a good shot stopper (a standard tool for a professional goalkeeper) and his size and solid frame means he’s pretty reasonable in the air.
Wigan’s game plan was to get the ball wide on the left to Jean Beausejour and try and exploit right back Sascha Riether, on loan from Koln, and cross it into the middle for Kone. The theory was sound in theory but Beausejour, whilst getting himself into good positions, had a poor end product. At left back Wigan’s three man central midfield meant that left back John Arne Riise had a reasonably quiet afternoon.
Fulham’s central defensive partnership of Brende Hangeland and Aaron Hughes had to contend with the lone front man of Arouna Kone and Shaun Maloney playing just behind him. Kone gave them both trouble all afternoon, if Franco Di Santo had been fit and played instead of Shaun Maloney, then the result might have been different.
Hangeland is known by all now as someone who’s terrific in the air, chips in with the odd goal, but he’s about average on the ground. Aaron Hughes is a more all round centre half but he can be pulled out of position. If the opposition have two strikers with excellent movement, and City do with Tevez and Aguero, they can be exposed.
Midfield
I think a lot of people were surprised when Fulham allowed Dickson Etuhu and Danny Murphy leave in the summer, Murphy was the club captain and still performing at a high standard at 35 and Etuhu had become a Premier League class strong midfielder, so it was strange that they’ve dropped down a level to play for Blackburn Rovers.
In their place, its clear that Fulham have failed to replace the pair as they’d like as probably one of the strangest midfield partnerships in Premier League history has seen Steve Sidwell, not much money from Aston Villa reserves, partner full back, Chris Baird, £3m from Southampton’s academy. Add Demebele’s late transfer window sale to Tottenham and Mahamadou Diarra’s knee injury Fulham are pretty light in the centre of midfield. It was a good tactical decision by Martin Jol as it was an end-to-end game with chances at each end, and Wigan crowding the midfield with Ben Watson, James McCarthy, Jordi Gomez and Shaun Maloney.
The real battle was between Ben Watson and Steve Sidwell which was a real old fashioned midfield battle that Lee Probert was even on the receiving end of a tackle.
[youtube]TQRQwCZsRWM[/youtube]
As you can see from the charts, Watson had a lot more possession and plenty of passes. Sidwell made a lot of tackles in the defensive third.
To read the rest (and hopefully not kill the thread) visit the link below:
http://mancramble.blogspot.co.uk/2012/09/fulham-scouting-report.html
All feedback is appreciated, thanks
