Fulham 1, Shooting 0

Don’t usually trumpet my own predictions, but on the FUSA site I knew Fulham would take three points against Sunderland. The Black Cats were a rather awful 1-1-5 on their travels heading into yesterday with just 5 goals for and 11 against. At home we were 4-1-2, with 11 for and 6 against.

Form is everything, no?

But for a team that doesn’t usually shoot from outside, these chalkboards are quite interesting.

To me it shows how terribly off target Fulham were, and how nonexistent their offense was in the second half.

Because its a screen shot you can’t get interactive with the chalkboard but here’s the timing of all four second half shots : 51, 62, 72, 93. On average that is one shot every 12 minutes. In the first half, the timing is one shot every 4 minutes or so. Excluding the goal, only one shot was on target all game: Nevland’s sitter.

So what to make of this. Happy the club is showing offensive prowess (even if just in the first half) after they started the season appearing as if they had no interest in scoring or shooting? Or does the shooting need to be addressed?

As always, it is a little of both. As alluded to elsewhere, Clint Dempsey assumed the role of 2008-09 Jimmy Bullard in taking and shanking all the free kicks. Add the rips from up top and about half of the shots are accounted for through Dempsey’s efforts. Duff basically ran the offense last weekend against Bolton, but only took one shot on goal yesterday. Nevland really had a bad game, despite known for being so proficient in front of net: of his 5 shots, 3 were off target. Like, really off target. And that sitter…

But alas, it was 3 points earned and Fulham see themselves sitting pretty at 8th. A tough string of fixtures begin on Saturday, but the club is right where they should be.

What concerns me heading into this run is Fulham in the second half. When the season started, Fulham often played good half/bad half football. Lately Fulham have been taking their chances in the first half and then sitting back in a bizarre 4-4-1-1 (with Gera or Dempsey as the attacking mid/withdrawn striker) in the second half. I’d imagine it is because of injuries to our front men, but this strategy won’t be paying dividends against Spurs, United, Chelsea, and even Burnley at Turf Moor.

Come back Danny, Dio, AJ the unpotty-mouth Zamora!

Category: Transfers, match report