Some players like lots of time and space, others can operate in crowds.

To play in central midfield you need to be at one end of what we'll call the space-time continuum; if you are not at the right end you may struggle in that role. In that case you need to find somewhere else where you will get space and time.

Bah. Just as the Odense fiasco represented more than just another defeat, so too did last night's pathetic exit from the FA Cup. Nobody's pretending it's easy to go to Everton and get a result if it was we'd manage to get points there once in a while but there's something horribly wrong about these disjointed farces.

Bah. Just as the Odense fiasco represented more than just another defeat, so too did last night's pathetic exit from the FA Cup. Nobody's pretending it's easy to go to Everton and get a result if it was we'd manage to get points there once in a while but there's something horribly wrong about these disjointed farces.

Will need to step up tonight

What a wonderful night of football yesterday was, if only for the one game which mattered. Nicklas Bendtner did us no favour as he squandered an early chance to put his team ahead but Sunderland won it right at the death to beat Roberto Mancini's Manchester City.

Mais um jogo das eliminatórias da Eurocopa de 2012, foi realizado no dia 10/08/2011, na cidade de Belfast-NIR, onde jogaram as seleções da Irlanda do Norte (62º no ranking da FIFA) e a seleção das Ilhas Faroe (112º no ranking da FIFA).
Antes desse jogo, as 2 seleções jogaram:
Toftir 12/10/2010 FRO1:1 (0:0)NIR 1992Landskrona 11/09/1991 FRO0:5 (0:3)NIR Group matches1992Belfast 01/05/1991 NIR1:1 (1:0)FRO Group matches
O árbitro desse jogo, foi: Emir Alekcovic-BIH
O primeiro gol foi de Aaron Hughes, aos 5 minutos do primeiro tempo, seu primeiro gol pela seleção nacional.

I'm not trying to make one of those posts that exist solely to generate pageviews, but I'm seriously wondering if it's time for Riise to start the next game on the bench.

What is he offering at this point that is so unique that different looks through Briggs or Baird or Kelly can't provide?

Bah. One of those annoying games that you wish hadn't happened. A decent looking encounter was spoiled by the needless dismissal of renowned hard-man Moussa Dembele, whose wayward arm sent Wisla's Nunez spiralling into deep agony. That Dembele barely touched Nunez, that the touch was on his shoulder, not in his face (as suggested by Nunez in his distressed state), perhaps suggests a mistake by the referee, and with that mistake went the game: we lost 1-0 to a team that lost to Odense.

This seems to have flown under the radar a bit with all the hand-wringing about Sunday, but our squad for the Europa League group stages has been announced. Not too many surprises, except one.

Goalies
1 Mark Schwarzer
22 Csaba Somogyi
38 Neil Etheridge*
41 Marcus Bettinelli*
44 Jesse Joronen*

Defenders
2 Stephen Kelly
3 John Arne Riise
5 Brede Hangeland
6 Chris Baird
14 Philippe Senderos
18 Aaron Hughes
26 Zdenek Grygera
28 Matthew Briggs*
39 Stephen Arthurworrey*
40 Alex Smith*

Midfielders
4 Steve Sidwell
10 Pajtim Kasami
13 Danny Murphy
15 Marcel Gecov
16 Damien Duff
20 Dickson Etuhu
21 Kerim Frei
23 Clint Dempsey
37 Courtney Harris*
43 Josh Pritchard*

Forwards
8 Andrew Johnson
9 Orlando Sá
25 Bobby Zamora
30 Moussa Dembélé
35 Richard Peniket*
42 Marcello Trotta*

No, the surprise is not Ruiz.

Fulham 3 - Dnipro 0 A big night at the Cottage for Clint Dempsey, who scored twice in a three goal shutout of Dnipro. Aaron Hughes opened the scoring for Fulham in the 39th minute. Dempsey's goals came in the 43rd and 49th, with both goals coming off of crosses. Mark Schwarzer kept the clean sheet for Fulham.

Fulham vs Dnipro Highlights 3-0 Goals Video Europa League 2011 is a post from Soccer Blogger. Follow Soccer Blogger on Twitter

Fulham vs Dnipro Highlights 3-0 Goals Video Europa League 2011 is a post from Soccer Blogger. Follow Soccer Blogger on Twitter Fulham vs Dnipro 2011 ( Fulham FC vs Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk) Final score and result:- Fulham vs Dnipro 3-0 ( Aaron Hughes, Clint Dempsey*2) Europa League Play-off Round First Leg, Craven Cottage- 18 August, 2011 [.

With distance comes perspective, and from the very back of the Putney End the view was... well what was it? Despite my best efforts the game entirely passed me by. There they were, 22 men in white and sky blue, back and forth, up and down, then we all went home after an hour and a half of watching them run about.

The new 2011/12 Premier League season is finally here! It's the battle of the new managers at Craven Cottage today, although Martin Jol does have several competitive games under his belt in the Europa League.

Here are the confirmed line-ups for both sides:

Fulham Aston Villa 1 Mark Schwarzer 1 Shay Given 18 Aaron Hughes 2 Luke Young 14 Philippe Senderos 6 James Collins 5 Brede Hangeland 5 Richard Dunne 7 John Arne Riise 3 Stephen Warnock 16 Damien Duff 10 Charles N'Zogbia 20 Dickson Etuhu 16 Fabian Delph 13 Danny Murphy 19 Stiliyan Petrov 23 Clint Dempsey 18 Emile Heskey 8 Andrew Johnson 11 Gabriel Agbonlahor 25 Bobby Zamora 9 Darren Bent Subs Subs 38 Neil Etheridge 22 Brad Guzan 2 Stephen Kelly 21 Ciaran Clark 6 Chris Baird 7 Stephen Ireland 28 Matthew Briggs 17 Jean II Makoun 4 Steve Sidwell 12 Marc Albrighton 10 Pajtim Kasami 25 Barry Bannan 30 Moussa Dembele 14 Nathan Delfouneso Probable Formation: Castrol Football Prediction Today's other Premier League fixtures:

• Blackburn vs Wolves
• Liverpool vs Sunderland
• QPR vs Bolton
• Wigan vs Norwich
• Newcastle vs Arsenal (1730)

Listening to the Guardian's Football Weekly's EPL preview podcast at the gym last night, I figured to hear a sentence or two about our season outlook. Instead, we got the last word.

As in, only the final few words spoken in the entire 45 minute podcast.

I don't have the transcript but the last 30 seconds or so go something like this:

James Richardson: Well that should wrap things up
Barry Glendenning: I bet we missed a team
Gregg Roughley: Haven't mentioned Fulham
Sean Ingle: Or Wolves
Barry Glendenning: Fulham and Wolves!

Our first View from the Enemy of the day is from Kris Balkin from Cottagers Confidential, who has shed some light on that awful Michael Jackson statue and Mark Hughes' ridiculous departure.

Scott the Red: Were you happy with your Fulham's performance last season?

Kris Balkin: More than.

Today Aaron Hughes paid for 25 kids to become Fulham FC members.

You had to keep an eye on twitter, then at 12 o'clock, retweet the club's announcement of the competition. The first 25 people to do so got free membership for their children, courtesy of Aaron.

Well I'm off this week andwas on the spot when it mattered, so managed to sort out a membership for Stan.

There was an interesting comment on Twitter today from Tor-Kristian Karlsen, a football scout. Karlsen noted that while Premiership clubs do have an overview for the world's footballers, most are, I quote:

Tor-Kristian Karlsen
karlsentk Tor-Kristian Karlsen
many people (justifiably) puzzled that few premier league clubs were seriously in for arturo vidal (no idea if arsenal interest was genuine)

personally i think the reason is lack of contacts and connections.

By Chris Wright

Decked out in their new, all-white home strip, a near full-strength Fulham team successfully got both their Europa League campaign and their 2011/12 season off to a winning start with a comfortable victory over Nes Soknar Itrottarfelag Runavik at the Cottage last night with goals from Damien Duff, Danny Murphy and Andy Johnson giving Martin Jol's side a 3-0 advantage going into the away leg against the Faroese part-timers.

Liverpool may be about to be knocked off their perch by Manchester United, but they showed at Craven Cottage they might just mount a serious challenge for a 19th league title of their own next season by destroying Fulham.
The Reds made it 13 goals in their last three games and Maxi Rodriguez completed his second hat-trick over the same period, with Dirk Kuyt making it 12 goals in his last 13 matches for club and country and Luis Suarez wrapping up the rout.

What to make of that? First, we must always remind ourselves that playing away to the champions elect is not an easy thing. Against that, Fulham turned in one of the more empty performances of recent times. It was as if United were playing against their own U18 side at half pace on a Tuesday afternoon.

King Kenny's magic is rubbing off at Anfield as Liverpool beat Fulham 1-0 to move up to seventh place in the Premier League. An own goal from Fulham's John Pantsil was enough to give Liverpool a 1-0 win over Fulham at Anfield and its second successive victory.

Liverpool are unbeaten in their last three games and a big reason is the resurgence of Fernando Torres.

King Kenny's magic is rubbing off at Anfield as Liverpool beat Fulham 1-0 to move up to seventh place in the Premier League. An own goal from Fulham's John Pantsil was enough to give Liverpool a 1-0 win over Fulham at Anfield and its second successive victory.

Liverpool are unbeaten in their last three games and a big reason is the resurgence of Fernando Torres.