Hull City 6 – 0 Fulham: Don't Leap To Anybody's Defence
Article by Barnaby Mollett
After a surprising and welcomed three points against Norwich on Boxing Day, Fulham were well and truly knocked out this Saturday, when a six-pointer against Hull City had a literal meaning.
Despite managing to go in at half-time all square, anyone watching the way the floodgates opened after the interval could be forgiven for thinking that this was the latest bout of #UKStorm. Though less meteorological, the force of Hull’s clinical finishing certainly put the ball past former-loanee keeper David Stockdale, but nobody will be leaping to the defence of Fulham’s back four.
Stand-in full-back Elsad Zverotic looked daunted once Fulham went one down, and never recovered. As good a servant Aaron Hughes has been to the club, it is safe to say that this has not been his best season. Fernando Amorebieta was a questionable signing by Martin Jol, who has yet to convince me that he’s more than just the most hopelessly left-sided thing in London south of Karl Marx’s gravestone. I feel there is little need to explain the predicament of John Arne Riise to Fulham fans – but to those who have the pleasure of not mourning the Cottagers’ goal difference this weekend, Riise is slow, limited in attack, and limited in defence. He is not the same Riise who ‘unleashed the Kraken’ during his Liverpool days.
Fulham’s defence was in seasons past the main reason that the team wasn’t dragged into such serious relegation trouble. Hangeland and Hughes, and others before them, generally marshalled the defence well, such that Craven Cottage was dubbed a ‘fortress’. Goal difference was never an issue – and the one team the team flirted with relegation in 2007/08, they stayed up courtesy of a superior statistic to Reading. Currently, Fulham’s goal difference of -22 is four worse than bottom-of-the-table Sunderland, 12 worse than second-from-bottom West Ham and 6 worse than Crystal Palace, who occupy seventeenth in the table. Sure, other teams might take a thrashing or two during the next half of the season, but maybe not by six clear goals, and probably not to Hull.
There is a sense of irony watching Fulham’s defence struggle against a team featuring ex-Fulham full-back Liam Rosenior. Rosenior was seen surplus to requirements when he was sold to Reading in August 2007, and as he toiled with the Royals, Ipswich and Hull in the Championship, it always seemed that Fulham had a better option at the sides of their defence. But most definitely not today. Sascha Riether, who was presumably rested by Meulensteen against Hull to play in the right ding-dong relegation royal rumble on New Year’s Day, is the best right-back Fulham have had in years, and the model of consistency that saw him named the team’s player of the year last season. He has shades of old Fulham favourite Steve Finnan, steaming down the wing like a kettle in a sauna, before whipping in a cross ice-cream icon Mr. Whippy himself would be proud of. But, alas, Riether aside, the Fulham defence this term has had a hole as wide and gaping as that in a molar in a dentist’s worst nightmare
Admittedly, Fulham didn’t look particularly threatening going forward, but did at least offer something on the counter attack in the first half. There is no need to cherry pick excuses from the Great Magical Excuses Redwood Tree in the Forest of Grand Excuses. Meulensteen seems astute with his tactics, and I’m sure will hold up his hands after this defeat – as will the players. But without a hugely improved defensive effort, the Cottagers do not have the foundations to have a home in the Premier League next season.
© e-Football 2013 All rights reserved no part of this document or this website may be reproduced without consent of e-Football
After a surprising and welcomed three points against Norwich on Boxing Day, Fulham were well and truly knocked out this Saturday, when a six-pointer against Hull City had a literal meaning.
Despite managing to go in at half-time all square, anyone watching the way the floodgates opened after the interval could be forgiven for thinking that this was the latest bout of #UKStorm. Though less meteorological, the force of Hull’s clinical finishing certainly put the ball past former-loanee keeper David Stockdale, but nobody will be leaping to the defence of Fulham’s back four.
Stand-in full-back Elsad Zverotic looked daunted once Fulham went one down, and never recovered. As good a servant Aaron Hughes has been to the club, it is safe to say that this has not been his best season. Fernando Amorebieta was a questionable signing by Martin Jol, who has yet to convince me that he’s more than just the most hopelessly left-sided thing in London south of Karl Marx’s gravestone. I feel there is little need to explain the predicament of John Arne Riise to Fulham fans – but to those who have the pleasure of not mourning the Cottagers’ goal difference this weekend, Riise is slow, limited in attack, and limited in defence. He is not the same Riise who ‘unleashed the Kraken’ during his Liverpool days.
Fulham’s defence was in seasons past the main reason that the team wasn’t dragged into such serious relegation trouble. Hangeland and Hughes, and others before them, generally marshalled the defence well, such that Craven Cottage was dubbed a ‘fortress’. Goal difference was never an issue – and the one team the team flirted with relegation in 2007/08, they stayed up courtesy of a superior statistic to Reading. Currently, Fulham’s goal difference of -22 is four worse than bottom-of-the-table Sunderland, 12 worse than second-from-bottom West Ham and 6 worse than Crystal Palace, who occupy seventeenth in the table. Sure, other teams might take a thrashing or two during the next half of the season, but maybe not by six clear goals, and probably not to Hull.
There is a sense of irony watching Fulham’s defence struggle against a team featuring ex-Fulham full-back Liam Rosenior. Rosenior was seen surplus to requirements when he was sold to Reading in August 2007, and as he toiled with the Royals, Ipswich and Hull in the Championship, it always seemed that Fulham had a better option at the sides of their defence. But most definitely not today. Sascha Riether, who was presumably rested by Meulensteen against Hull to play in the right ding-dong relegation royal rumble on New Year’s Day, is the best right-back Fulham have had in years, and the model of consistency that saw him named the team’s player of the year last season. He has shades of old Fulham favourite Steve Finnan, steaming down the wing like a kettle in a sauna, before whipping in a cross ice-cream icon Mr. Whippy himself would be proud of. But, alas, Riether aside, the Fulham defence this term has had a hole as wide and gaping as that in a molar in a dentist’s worst nightmare
Admittedly, Fulham didn’t look particularly threatening going forward, but did at least offer something on the counter attack in the first half. There is no need to cherry pick excuses from the Great Magical Excuses Redwood Tree in the Forest of Grand Excuses. Meulensteen seems astute with his tactics, and I’m sure will hold up his hands after this defeat – as will the players. But without a hugely improved defensive effort, the Cottagers do not have the foundations to have a home in the Premier League next season.
© e-Football 2013 All rights reserved no part of this document or this website may be reproduced without consent of e-Football
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