Roy “October Manager of the Month” sure caused many to scratch their heads by excluding Seol, EJ, Elm, or any other fit striker on the bench for Sunday’s match. If that isn’t waving the white flag of draw, I don’t know what is.

Additionally he started Erik Nevland who early on looked quite dangerous and had several chances just go wide or hit the post. Then disappeared until he was subbed off.

Taking his place was Zoltan Gera, which caused me to think that maybe Clint would be pushed up top and pair with Zamora? Nope; 4-5-1 to see out the last 15 or so minutes.

According to Elm’s blog he and EJ were training (and both late) on Sunday for today’s reserve game against Chelsea. So maybe Roy thought it better they play 90 on Monday against a good reserve opponent rather than 10 (if that) against a mediocre side?

YET AGAIN A FULHAM BEAT REPORTER WOULD BE NICE!

Questions aside Mark Schwarzer played out of this world as Fulham were out-shot 21 to 11. How did he fall on our laps on a free? Hallelujah.

And remember last week the chalkboards showed how well Fulham pushed Liverpool’s passing from back to front, to side to side? Well, rinse and repeat!

Okay, pardon my questioning of Woy. All hail indeed.

There was an odd sense of confidence heading into this match that normally doesn’t accompany visits from the Big Four.

Liverpool were having a terrible season up until last weekend when they defeated rivals United and Torres scored and although they were without Gerrard Fergie screwed up the tactics and so all is right in the world and Liverpool were set to march up the table.

Sorry, but that was ridiculous then as it is now.

Although still without Gerrard (and Martin Skrtel, Fabio Aurelio, Daniel Aggard) and today lacking prized offseason acquisitions Johnson and Aquilani, Liverpool’s bench looked like so: Andrea Dossena, Ryan Babel, Damien Plessis, Peter Gulacsi, Jay Spearing, Nathan Eccleston and Daniel Sanchez Ayala.

Uhm, who?

I’m not having a go at Liverpool, but how does anyone expect them to place even in the top 5 with a bench like that. Maybe I’m revealing my own ignorance, but that is the point — who are most of these people?

Oh right, back to the match.

Up until the Degen and Carragher red cards I was fully expecting referee Lee Mason to rip off his uniform and reveal a red Liverpool shirt once they notched the winning goal. But things turned on a dime once Torres was subbed off. Although tied and victory conceivably within their grasp, Rafa threw in the towel. Good for us, despicable for Liverpool.

Nevland scores, Degen sent off, Carragher sent off, Kuyt subbed out, Dempsey scores. I want to relive the second half of today’s match like Bill Murray in Groundhog Day.

It’s the next day and all the stories are focusing on Rafa Benitez. This makes sense, but greatly overshadows the efforts Roy and the players put forth.

Look at this chalkboard and think whether was it Rafa’s or Roy’s tactics that resulted in the side passing. I’m thinking the latter.

 by Guardian Chalkboards

Better yet, lets compare the total passes of both clubs.

I don’t like to swear in writing, but holy shit! It was obvious that Fulham was playing on the counter — as evidenced through the first goal — but not to the extent that the chalkboard shows. Liverpool completed 90 percent of their passes and lost; if you look at each Fulham player’s chalkboard, particularly in midfield, none look particularly noteworthy.

I’m beginning to wonder if yesterday was luck, or deserved. This is probably one (of many) reasons why statistics don’t always blend with footy.

On a tangential ending note, of the 7 goals Erik Nevland has scored for Fulham, 5 have come in the second half. Has any other striker had such a proportional second-half success?

What was truly a tale of two halves saw the likes of Bobby Zamora and Bjorn Helge Riise dictate play and Brede Hangeland rise above and score a crucial header in the first 45 minutes. On the flip side, Okaka Chuka was completely absent as were Roma’s entire midfield.

In the second 45 minutes, Fulham were all too willing to give away possession to a team that either remembered they were supposed to be playing a game or had a livid half time talk. And adding the likes of Claudio Pizzaro and Mirko Vucinic helped too.

It was really only a matter of time before they tied it up or won it. We can look at the ridiculous penalty by and ejection of Steven Kelly — who is all but gone for the rest of the Group Stage — and thank Mark Schwarzer for saving our skins, but Roma deserved at least a point. Thankfully, they did not take all three.

Yet Fulham also deserved a point in this uneven but still crackling affair. According to Bill Simmons’ “13 Levels of Losing” I’d say this was a Level XII. Tough, but fair.

We can take away several positives from this match. First, Zamora clearly has the monkey off his back. Bjorn Riise should be challenging Gera on the depth chart (or maybe he was especially just up for it considering he played against his brother?) Greening can boot it from distance. We’re probably going to be seeing a lot of Chris Smalling on defense now that Kelly is suspended. And according to the comments in Chris’ The Offside–Roma blog, we have some new fans!

View, if you can stomach it:

Fulham 1 – Roma 1.

Zamora and Kamara got on the score sheet in a match that should all but seal Phil Brown’s fate as Hull City’s manager. ESPN2 should have done a study where a non-footy fan watched that match and judged Hull City’s performance. And then tell that same person he’s won just three games since March.

The telling moment for me of how the match would fare was when Fulham were attempting to walk the ball into the back of the net and Hull had 10 men behind the ball. Twenty minutes into the game.

Nonetheless its hard to find any complaints about how Fulham played. Duff looked creative and hungry, and Baird should now seriously be considered as a CM. Schwarzer could gotten more involved.

Highlights

Roma on Thursday in the Europa League. Should be a cracker.

The tantrum was Scott Parker’s reaction to the yellow card he received after instigating an altercation with The Evidence. The photo is here, and resulted in The Evidence being sent off and Fulham playing better for the remainder of the match despite being down to 10 men.

After waiting all afternoon to catch the match, the otherwise stalwart FSC feed on TVU was down. So I can only rely on what I saw on MOTD2.

What stood out most was Parker’s reaction to being booked. Sure, The Evidence needs to be held accountable for stroking Pretty-boy Parker’s face. But there’s no reason Parker should get the lesser punishment — even hockey (all things considered, the most violent sport) realizes this dynamic, and punishes all fight instigators with additional penalty minutes. Or, if the instigator wasn’t involved in the actual fight, they can still receive a penalty. Even if he truly felt he was innocent, Parker’s petulant reaction surely deserved a booking itself. Not since Ronaldo’s antics last March at the Cottage has a footballer acted like a child and not been punished.

So did anyone who watched the match recall if Parker had been chippy or vocal with The Evidence’s before the altercation? It would make sense for a jerk like him to get in a rookie’s head, and then hope he would snap and get sent off. Or send me the tape and I’ll check it out and report back.

After roaring back to life from another set-piece concession, Fulham were leading 2-1 – thanks to Zoltan Gera’s resurrection from the dead now complete and Danny Murphy with another timely penalty – and heading into an inexplicable 4 minutes of stoppage time. Then in the dying seconds Junior Stanislas’ shot deflects off Aaron Hughes and ties up the match and punches the stomach of each and every Fulham fan with a devastating haymaker.

But according to the MOTD2 statisticians, something in the match had to give. With Fulham and Blackburn, Roy Hodgson has never beaten West Ham. West Ham had yet to get a point at home this season. Fulham have yet to get a point off West Ham since Jan. 2007 and haven’t beaten them since 2001. West Ham had lost every time Carlton Cole scored.

So maybe a draw was an expected result?

Boo, another international break is upon us. Fulham return in two weeks against Hull City. Despite last year’s ridiculousness against the Tigers, I fully expect 3 points.

I honestly cannot remember. But the football gods will smile upon us, I hope.

Dan and Rich summarized the match quite well, as always.

But Vito Mannone and Zoltan Gera should both receive MOM. Mannone came out of nowhere to pull off a blinder, whereas Gera rose from the dead to put forth his best performance in the shirt. I wouldn’t be surprised to see Dempsey start on the bench next week against West Ham as a result of his performance.

What I found can be so maddening about Gera is his penchant to constantly get stuck in. And sometimes his desire to touch the ball on defense results in freak deflections straight to the opposition. And when these deflections are on the edge of our box, its beyond maddening. But yesterday Gera made several crucial tackles on defense and apt crosses on offense.

Speaking of, anyone else notice Fulham continually attempt to cross the ball into the box towards the end of the match? And also notice it never worked? It was quite a depressing sight from an otherwise uplifting defeat.

But if anything, I am excited for the match at the Emirates on season’s end. Fulham have conceded just one goal in the last 3 matches against the free-wheeling, high-scoring, beautiful football of the Gunners. And I don’t see that changing.

Or even commend, other than it did the job and saw us through.

Injuries and breathers forced Roy to make a roster and tactics fitting for an advanced-stage Carling Cup match (not a complete JV roster, but close). Without Johnson, Zamora, Konchesky and Murphy through injury and Dempsey given a rest, chances are we’ll probably never see that lineup or formation again.

Nevland started up front on his own – something that never has worked before and didn’t work yesterday either. Riise was handed his debut, and Baird moonlighted as a center-mid, a switch in position that I still can’t determine is lasting or not.

Even with Schwarzer in goal and the Hangeland/Hughes parternship intact, Amkar Perm huffed, puffed, and blew our porch down by scoring (another) late goal, but thankfully the house did not fall. A 1-0 loss but a 3-2 aggregate win.

Off to the group stages we go.

The draw for which occurred this morning, and we got Roma, FC Basel, and CSKA Sofia. Via their coefficients, Roma is ranked 3rd overall. Basel was second in Pot 2 and thus ranked 14th overall. CSKA Sofia was top of Pot 4, making them 37th overall – just one spot below us.

So although we may want to underestimate the other clubs besides Roma, we got a pretty tough draw according to the coefficients. Lets compare the average coefficient of other British clubs – who according to the news got an equally tough draw – to ours to prove my point.

Everton (with a 35.899 coefficient) drew Benfica (64.292), AEK Athens (25.633), and BATE Borisov (7.733). That’s a 35.552 average coefficient.

Celtic (40.575) takes on Hamburg (67.339), Hapoel Tel-Aviv (18.050) and Rapid Vienna (8.565) – an overage opponent coefficient of 31.318.

Again, our Fulham (15.899) have Roma (78.582), FC Basel (51.050) and CSKA Sofia (14.250). Despite our coefficient being much lower than Everton or Celtic, our opponents average coefficient is still 47.96.

Poke holes all you want in the whole coefficient argument, but it still proves my point: our group is not an easy one on paper. But like that overused, obnoxious cliché: they don’t play games on paper.

The stage begins September 17 against CSKA Sofia.

Oh, and we take on Aston Villa Sunday. It’s a big match, and they’ll be out for revenge from yesterday’s humiliation against lowly Rapid Vienna. Can’t wait.

After cruising to a 3-0 lead, Amkar Perm rescue a crucial late away goal to blemish an otherwise respectable 3-1 result. And then we learn AJ will be out for 8 weeks with a dislocated shoulder/collarbone.

No wonder other managers throw in the towel in this competition at a certain point?

Roy is as incensed as ever, and for good reason. There isn’t any video footage of the match or assault from Dmitri Belorukov anywhere, but from what I understand it was a body check. A 5 minute major in hockey, plus suspension. A red card in footy, suspension in tow.

But instead Amkar, and Belorukov — only receiving a yellow — get to live on another day. Jerks.

And its interesting to note that Roy prepared the lads quite well without having seen much of them prior to today, according to the Daily Mail.

Hodgson’s side did not know much about their Russian opponents, who were founded just 15 years ago and are named after an ammonia-based fertiliser. F
ulham had relied on three matches of video footage after their manager had been unable to secure a visa to travel to Russia.

One positive about today is Duff’s triumphant arrival, assisting Zamora a mere 30 seconds into the his substitution appearance. Hope to see more good things from him, as Gera’s reviews have been consistently woeful.

Not really sure how much AJ’s injury screws up our plans for Sunday. I know long term Roy will have something figured out. But if its good news for anyone its good news for Eddie Johnson. Kamara is above him in the depth chart, but has not been as active during the preseason as EJ so its a little unclear who is our #3 now. Time for EJ to step up, finally.

Oh, and the Greening saga rekindled and then ended rather abruptly, again. But this time he’ll be joining us on a season-long loan. Huzzah!

And Adrian Leijer is going back to Australia. In his two years with the club made 6 total first team appearances — on the bench. While with Norwich for the second half of last season, he made just 4 actual playing appearances. Things can only improve for the lad.

Dempsey’s deflected shot off Zamora was enough for Fulham to win 1-0 over Pompey in a rather uneventful, if not typical away, match. Standard Hodgson.

Portsmouth occasionally threatened, attempting to stretch our defense with crosses from the wings but Schwarzer gobbled them up while Hangeland and Hughes smacked them away.

The only jaw dropping moment came when Pompey defender Marc Wilson whiffed on a header leaving little AJ a clear chance on goal. Either misjudging the bounce or hitting too hard, the gift sailed wide right.

For those wondering why I didn’t preview the team and season before today, I did it on purpose. I’m going to write a season preview once the transfer windows ends. Sure, it may be cheating as we’ll have played three matches — all against good opposition — and may be in or out of Europe by then.

But its sort of silly to write season previews before the window closes. Why? Because everything could be completely dated as of September 1. Look back at ManCity previews last year, or even Tottenhams — they were old news within a week. Not because they were over/underrated, but the actors changed.

Although I don’t see mountains moving for us before September 1, Duff is reportedly coming to town, KG is still stuck in a tribunal — I think — and may not be able to sign for us, and Arsenal could lodge a successful 15 million quid bid for Hangeland. Or Dempsey may even receive a similar deal from Everton. There’s just too many variables to be accurate or lasting.

No midweek Prem action, as the lads host Perm in the Europa League. Derby next weekend — should be a good one.

But yeah, Fulham won away and I’m not completely stunned. Strange days, indeed.

But then today the offal announces this:

Supportes should note that the Reserve Team match against the Uzbekistan U20 national team at Motspur Park, Kick-Off 1pm, is a behind closed doors match.

And then the match disappears from the Reserves page.

Hmm, thats sorta fishy… Word is there were a number of trialists (KG, Magnus from Denmark, hell even Uche may have been there) on display.

Switching gears, I haven’t said much about this year kits. And I gotta, say — not a big fan of either. I don’t like the black sleeves and the oddly if not misplaced stripe on the arm. And the away kit looks more like a training shirt than a uniform. Fingers crossed on the third kit.

I guess the run of decent uniforms must come to an end though. The Airness kit — particularly the black away — from three years ago is one of my favorites. And the sleek class of last year’s home kit grew on me.

It seems many clubs this year are going back to the late 80s/early 90s trend of making things complicated if not schizophrenic. Normally clubs who have minimalist home kits (United, Chelsea, Bolton, Tottenham) are getting all loopy. Only Burnley is keeping it simple.

Five days and counting…