Saturday's win did many things but most of all it reminded us that, while the current Fulham squad does need a bit of tweaking, it contains a number of good players and making moves in January for the sake of making moves in January is probably not something we need to get too involved with.

Take the AJ situation.

Have you ever seen anything like it?

One of the worst first half performances in memory. Newcastle were very impressive, well drilled, pressurising perfectly, timing their confrontations and ganging up on our players relentlessly. We couldn't keep the ball. They could, spraying it around and running us ragged.

Following on from yesterday's post about space, watch this a few times (Messi scoring last night against Real Betis).

The Betis defence is mainly on the far side of the pitch. Barcelona who habitually station a man very wide on either flank move the ball quickly to the other side, stretching the play and making the pitch big.

szólj hozzá: Fulham vs Arsenal 2:1 MOTD

Depressing. Very depressing. As bright and incandescent as Arsenal were the first half, the second half was an absolute blight. The Gunners looked drained, bereft of ideas, and they let Fulham walk all over them. It was an reversion to many a game last season where Arsenal showed distinctly no ambition other than to run out 90 minutes.

As we gnash teeth, but before we point fingers and burn Jol in effigy and point out that was our 100th goal conceded in the final 15minutes this season and make excuses such as the following...

Where in the blue blazes did 5 minutes in stoppage time come from?!?

In July I wrote a post about Jol's pledge to youth-en-ize the squad, but it contained many asterisks. Mostly the fact that Dempsey had yet to feature for the side, and I thought Salcido had a role to play for the team.

Now that we are well on a third through the season (ugh, really need to make that awards post.

• Kop That: Fulham 1-0 Liverpool: Late Goal Sinks 10-Men Reds http://t.co/4kBBIAa6 23:38:55, 2011-12-05
• Kop That: Luis Suarez gives Fulham fans the finger http://t.co/Kw1jUphn 23:38:49, 2011-12-05
• Kop That: Dalglish queries Spearing red http://t.co/KmYxZYDd 23:06:56, 2011-12-05
• Kop That: Liverpool want Gaston Ramirez http://t.

Fulham 1 Liverpool 0: Christmas comes early for Jol as Reina gifts Cottagers win

Clint Dempsey took advantage of a glaring error from Pepe Reina as Fulham grabbed all three points at home to Liverpool. Jay Spearing was sent off for the visitors.

View the full story here: The Mail

A news article on 2011-12-05 21:54:18 from: The Mail

This news item has been reproduced from today's media.

Via the Daily Mail:

Fulham players have been hit with a gagging order to stop tales of dressing-room unrest leaking to the media.

Players face a fine of two weeks' wages if they speak publicly without the club's permission.

Fulham sent all squad members a letter outlining the possible punishment — which could cost the club's highest-paid stars more than £100,000 — after it was revealed Pajtim Kasami was fined £500 for missing a penalty against Chelsea in the Carling Cup in September.

Some follow-up observations:

The team was hell-bent on keeping shape, which gave us some perhaps surprising (but perhaps not) tackling information. Etuhu and Murphy, and the entire back four, really didn't go for many tackles. Instead Dempsey, Dembele, and to a lesser extent, Ruiz, were doing a lot of the actual harrying.

There are stats that could make Fulham's visit to the Emirates look like a walk in the park for Arsenal. The Cottagers haven't won away against Arsenal in any competition, losing 22 of the 25 games played. They are currently just 2 points above the relegation zone and have won only 2 of their 12 league games.

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?

Eloping with Yossi Ep.7 Smokey Jol by Off The Post on Mixcloud It may not have been a classic weekend of Premier League action, but the Off The Post Podcast is back to scrape what we can from the bottom of the footballing barrel. Ben is currently serving a one Pod suspension for comments made [...]

he did not reveal to Ruiz that he was cup-tied before he had secured his signature from Twente on transfer deadline day. Ruiz is ineligible because he played for the Dutch side in the Champions League before they were eliminated earlier this season and dropped into the Europa League.

"He thought he could play but he couldn't.

Football's managerial grudge matches: Jol v Ramos, Fergie v Wenger, Benitez v Mourinho and more

The dugout duels that spilled over into animosity

View the full story here: Talksport

A news article on 2011-08-18 17:52:56 from: Talksport

This news item has been reproduced from today's media.

Well, we're off to Dnipropetrovsk. Rather than this be some random trip to the heart of The Ukraine against a side with a really cool badge, there's actually some levels of familiarity amongst the two sides.

First, the coaches.

Just about four years ago, after a few months of flirtation, Ramos was plucked from Sevilla to succeed Jol as manager of Spurs.

Piggybacking off Rich's post from the other day, I've been looking at the average age of our squad over the years. Remember learning mean, median, and mode, along with standard deviation from math class? Well, it's back Fulham style!

We all know that the side is in some (not dire) need of youth, and that our stalwarts aren't just getting older, they're nearing the end of their careers I for one would not be surprised to see Danny Murphy and Damien Duff hang up their boots after this season.

Mais um jogo do Mundial Sub-17, foi realizado no dia 26/06/2011, na cidade de Morelia, no Estádio Monarcas, onde jogaram as seleções da Coréia do Norte (115º no ranking da FIFA) e a seleção do Congo (121º no ranking da FIFA).
Antes desse jogo, as 2 seleções jogaram:
2009Le Mans 13/10/2009 CGO0:0PRK
O árbitro desse jogo, foi: Pavel Kralovec-CZE
O primeiro assistente do jogo, foi: Martin Wilchekc-CZE
O segundo assistente do jogo, foi: Miroslav Zlamal-CZE
O quarto árbitro do jogo, foi: Jafeth Perea-PAN.

SPECIAL ANNONCEMENT
Please join all your soccer friends in the Twin Cities for a special Fund Raising screening of Rise & Shine: The Jay DeMerit Story
Sat Jun 11 at 4:30pm - The Sweetwater in St Paul
USA v Panama game kicks off at 7pm
The movie is still a work in progress and the filmmakers are on a mission to raise funds to finish it.

Putting the snippets together into a small home-made blanket:

It appears that Mark Hughes very nearly didn't survive 2010. After the West Ham defeat he was in big trouble, but senior players persuaded MAF to put his axe away. This was partly because they understood how important Bobby Zamora was to the team, and partly because of a general belief in what they were doing under the new manager.