[Archived] Fulham 0 V 2 Blackburn Rovers

[Martyn]

I think credit should go to our full-backs. Looking at how Fulham lined up, it was obvious they were going to play Cole as a lone striker, with Malbranque and Radzinski getting forward to make it a 4-3-3 when Fulham had posession. But Nissa and Niell got forward enough to occupy the Fulham wide men with defensive duties and hence Cole was incredibley isolated up top and everytime Fulham cleared the ball it just came straight back at them.

Thought Gally and Dickov looked good, but Dickov has now missed a couple of one-on-ones that he really should be burrying at this level. Also, I think Gally's first touch let him down on a couple of occasions but his movement off the ball, both when he drifted wide and inside the box were first class.

Emo was superb, I lost count of the number of times he went past a defender in a one-on-one situation. I still think he's slightly lacking in the end product department, though. There was a couple of times he shot when a pass would have been the better option, and he didn't quite look on the same wave-length as Gally in particullar when he did opt to cross, but I guess that's to be expected.

[thenodrog]

it's impossible to not love paul dickov, isn't it? he puts the "labore" in "arte et labore"

I don't love him at all. He is not a good enough striker and tackle other players horribly in almost every game. 5 goals 2 of them on penalty in 15 games is not much. It comes to an average of 0.33 goals per game.

1 in 3..............Roughly the same return as Andy Cole's when he was here you numpty!

[thenodrog]

Fair play to Dickov. I had my reservations when he arrived yet I seriously underestimated his commitment. All we ask is for each player to give 100%. Dickov does so and that makes him a star. The end product may not always be there, but at least his efforts are last the 90 minutes. Long may it go on.

If the end product was there he would ......

1. not be here

and

2. would have cost some other club a lot more than 150 grand.

[Eddie]

Isn't 1 goal every 3 games considered to be the standard that makes you a "good" striker, and then if you push it up 1 every 2 games you are up there with the best at your level? I thought that is how it worked, and for 150k, as everyone has said, isn't bad.

[Martyn]

...and Andy Cole was playing in a much better Rovers side for at least half of his 2 year spell here. To be fair though, I thought Cole involved the players around him better, but that's certainly no criticism of Dickov.

[AndreasG]

I think Dickov is doing a great job, much better then I ever thought he would do. And he has surprised me with some great skills as well.

But he still doesn't have what it takes to be a top Premier League striker. A striker that every team in the league so desperately needs. We should demand more from our first choise striker. He should at least win one of five headers. He should at least have scored one of the missed chanses he has had the last few games (except the penalties).

[S15]

I think Dickov is doing a great job, much better then I ever thought he would do. And he has surprised me with some great skills as well.

But he still doesn't have what it takes to be a top Premier League striker. A striker that every team in the league so desperately needs. We should demand more from our first choise striker. He should at least win one of five headers. He should at least have scored one of the missed chanses he has had the last few games (except the penalties).

Are you taking the preverbial?

[soupdragon]

Good performance all round yesterday but praise for the boys should be tempered with acknowledgement that Fulham were awful - money on them to free-fall all the way to div 1, sorry, "The Championship".

Thought two of the best performers yesterday were the ones I was most disappointed in last week - Tugay and Emerton. Fulham didn't seem to realise that the way to snuff Toogs out of the game is to sit on top of him. Instead, despite having 5 so-called midfielders, they gave him all the room in the world and he thrived. Similarly, Emerton benefitted from the space and played practically a free-roaming role and was a continual danger - although, as others have said, could have done witha bit of extra class with the final ball.

As for Dickov, I am surprised at how much support he gets for "trying". Yes, that's a huge plus point and it helps to get the supporters behind him (and the team) but he is not in the same league as Cole. Yes, the stats for goals is the same, but he does not contribute to team play so much as Cole did. That, in my view, is why Stead has been struggling so much this season - last season, room was being created for him by defenders focusing on Cole's runs. That is not happening with Dickov as his partner - Dickov is very much head down, focusing on his own game.

However, we have the chance with the games up to Christmas giving us a reasonable chance of pulling away from the zone. With the performance yesterday, I am more and more confident that Sparky has a good idea of what is needed to mould the players into a team which knows what it's supposed to be doing, and are prepared to work for each other - not something I thought was the case under GS.

[krislu]

He should at least win one of five headers

If you are disappointed that a 5' 6" tall player aint winning at least 20% in the air against big 6' 2" centre backs, then I put a serious questionmark to your footballing knowledge!

Edited November 28, 2004 by krislu

[AndreasG]

He should at least win one of five headers

If you are disappointed that a 5' 6" tall player aint winning at least 20% in the air against big 6' 2" centre backs, then I put a serious questionmark to your footballing knowledge!

Are you serious? Should we lower our demands just because we have crappy players? Should we be happy just because he's trying hard and say: - Oh, he missed again, but that's okey, at least little Paul is working hard.

This is not some school boy club. This is Premier League!! Strikers are there to win headers and score goals. Dickov is not doing that. He's simply not good enough. How hard is that to understand? I would be happy with him if we were in a lower division, but this is Premier League where 5'6'' players aren't players you build your team around.

[bellamy11]

He should at least win one of five headers

If you are disappointed that a 5' 6" tall player aint winning at least 20% in the air against big 6' 2" centre backs, then I put a serious questionmark to your footballing knowledge!

Are you serious? Should we lower our demands just because we have crappy players? Should we be happy just because he's trying hard and say: - Oh, he missed again, but that's okey, at least little Paul is working hard.

This is not some school boy club. This is Premier League!! Strikers are there to win headers and score goals. Dickov is not doing that. He's simply not good enough. How hard is that to understand? I would be happy with him if we were in a lower division, but this is Premier League where 5'6'' players aren't players you build your team around.

But he is scoring goals! Sod the headers! Goals are what matter at the end of the day. Not headers. You would be far from happy if we signed Peter Crouch.

[Exiled in Toronto]

He should at least win one of five headers

If you are disappointed that a 5' 6" tall player aint winning at least 20% in the air against big 6' 2" centre backs, then I put a serious questionmark to your footballing knowledge!

Are you serious? Should we lower our demands just because we have crappy players? Should we be happy just because he's trying hard and say: - Oh, he missed again, but that's okey, at least little Paul is working hard.

This is not some school boy club. This is Premier League!! Strikers are there to win headers and score goals. Dickov is not doing that. He's simply not good enough. How hard is that to understand? I would be happy with him if we were in a lower division, but this is Premier League where 5'6'' players aren't players you build your team around.

But he is scoring goals! Sod the headers! Goals are what matter at the end of the day. Not headers. You would be far from happy if we signed Peter Crouch.

Seems obvious to me that in this argument both viewpoints are right.

5 goals by the end of Nov from a $150k buy is excellent. He runs around like a butchers dog not letting defenders get composed on the ball, and I have been very impressed with some of his assists: the step over for Matt, the reverse pass to Emo foy Jay's goal. And his goal against Manure - brilliant.

However, there have to be some reasons he only cost that much, and they are plain to see. Lack of bulk and height is the reason he is always going down complaining rather than shrugging players off - he should have held off the Brum challenge and put in Gally's goal himself; way too many hopeless shots into defenders from hopeless positions; and an unreliable finishers technique: 2 pathetic one on ones, the "header" against Norwich even though it went in, the should-have-been-winner at City, and so on.

So I am glad he's here, we'd be in worse shape without him; but I also agree with the concerns about him leading the line. If he's our #1 striker, we're never going to get out of the bottom 1/3rd of the table.

[brfcshabba]

What about the header against Norwich

[McClarky]

I don't know how anyone could possibly slag Paul Dickov off after his performances of late, he has been superb. If Gallagher can keep improving and Bothroyd comes back either of these 2 should make up a good partnership with him.

What kind of reception did Andy Cole get before the game? We missed the kick-off after misjudging the length of the walk from the 8 Bells.

[krislu]

He should at least win one of five headers

If you are disappointed that a 5' 6" tall player aint winning at least 20% in the air against big 6' 2" centre backs, then I put a serious questionmark to your footballing knowledge!

Are you serious? Should we lower our demands just because we have crappy players? Should we be happy just because he's trying hard and say: - Oh, he missed again, but that's okey, at least little Paul is working hard.

This is not some school boy club. This is Premier League!! Strikers are there to win headers and score goals. Dickov is not doing that. He's simply not good enough. How hard is that to understand? I would be happy with him if we were in a lower division, but this is Premier League where 5'6'' players aren't players you build your team around.

I agree that he hasn't got the best finishing skills, but to make a point that he doesnt win alot of headers is just plain stupid IMO!

lower our demands? What are you on about?! Dickov has been a bargain signing so far and no-one can question that! But surely there will always be complete muppets like you who will complain that he doesnt win a huge amount of headers....HEADERS! For Gods sake the guy is 5' 6"!

Btw, I didnt know we were "building" our team around Paul Dickov, I just thought he's picked because he is the best we got atm..

Lets hope we sign big Dunc, Hartson and bloody Peter Crouch in january..

Edited November 28, 2004 by krislu

[thenodrog]

Dickov has been excellent DESPITE not having a big man alongside him. I dare say that he would be brill next to a Shearer of Niall Quinn type player. Maybe an extended run with Bothroyd will reap dividends. Keegan and Toshack were as good as it gets in the 70's yet KK was only about the same size as Dickov.

Just a thought but why would any player with half a brain punt a high ball to a 5ft 6 centre forward who's being marked by a 6ft 2 centre half anyway?

Just another thought...... Henry is a tall bloke but how many balls does he recieve in the air? None! He cant head a ball so Arsenal do not pass it to him in the air. Simple game innit?

[Tim Southampton Rover]

Dickov is a disgrace, he works his heart out for the team, he scores wonder goals (man utd), he scores penalties (2 in 3 games), he scores headers (norwich) he runs non-stop for 90 minutes (probably runs more than Paula Radcliffe did at the Olympics). He cost £150,000 - waste of money and at 2ft tall he doesnt win headers.

What a crap player!

Dickov has been our saviour, how anyone can question anything about this player is beyond me.

Will you be saying these things when he keeps us up in the Premier League

[Big A]

did anyone reading this manage to get a pie ??

i was offered a bacon buttie or a frazzled burger or a hot dog, i took the burger and broke bits off the edge to use as missiles, but the onions tasted ok

Nope, the ground may have been refurbished but the catering was shocking. As for the game itself most things have been covered. Fulham were pretty dire and we were pretty good, the two were connected but Rovers must take credit for the performance. I thought if Boa Morte had played Fulham might have a bit more of an attacking threat down the wings.

Nisse must take a lot of credit for his performance at left back. Remember this was the player who lost all confidence when Souness played him there out of position last season, however the run at centre back has obviously given him confidence to perform this role as well. He got forward and looked solid.

Emerton was also outstanding yesterday, never stopped running and Tugay was at his best. I was in favour of starting Thommo in place of Tugay but our number 8 came up with the goods yesterday.

One thing that did dissapoint me was Gally playing wide a lot, meaning we only had Dickov in the centre and a lot Gally's crosses were poor. I'm not sure whether this was intentional or not, it certainly gave Reid a bit more freedom to come inside and rough up the Fulham central midfielders.

Btw Cole got polite applause and no boos from the Rovers fans, which was the right response in my view. However to me it seems that most of the media attention from last week is focussed on Yorke rather than Rovers, it seems they've appreciated that it was a very small minority.

Edit: Really good to see some attacking width and verve with Emerton today. I thought sometimes we were great at keeping possesion but couldn't find the killer ball to set someone free and shoot or people got into good shooting positions and passed.

Edited November 28, 2004 by Big A

[stuwilky]

Lovely to meet StuWilkey and his glamourous girlfriend. Good work fella!

Wife mate!!!

Just got in after making a weekend of it, went down friday night! Id encho the comments about flying. piece of cake, and £34 return!!!

Really enjoyed the game yesterday. The players once again played out of their skins, ran rings arounda very poor Fulham side. How we didnt score more than 2 I dont know, and our goal difference could sure do with the help!

Finally got to meet some message board member, Scotty, Jordan, Manc Blue, Ricky and anyone else I missed. Shame we had to get to the London eye so couldnt come for a post match celebration in the 'Three Bells' (no wonder I couldnt find the place!)

Cant get to Palace so Bolton next away game.

[chris]

Freidel: Genuinely great save from cole, but must catch a cross this season. Come on Brad, come off your line,

Neil: best performance this season. Never looked in too much trouble altho we were lucky that Boa Morte wasn't playing (ditto Johansson),

Johansonn - good perfomance, altho could have been booked in 1st half. Must tckle harder - probably 9 or 10 times he could have won the ball with tackle, but ended up losing it to a Fulham guy who was probably 2 stone less,

Short - Godlike, although when you kick it out, you can kick it forward more than 1 yard.

Todd - solid, altho Cole had a good game and Papa Diop won every header (applies to Short, altho Todd was marking him more).

Emerton - good, but 1st time shots wd have won us the game.

Reid - odd: great most of the time, but 1st touch cost us 2/3 goals surely.

Tugay - training means he's 50% fitter. No invisible friend.

Ferguson - tidy. Looked great when we're attacking. Tried hard when we weren't.

Dickov - looked good, but really not a clinical finisher.

Gallacher - good goal, but depressingly ducked out of every 50-50,

good post sums it up for me, although, still Tugay is under pressure to perform like that every week now with Thompson getting fitter, can he do that?

Still not sure exactly what Gray has done wrong, I'd put it down to playing with Matteo and Amo maybe?

And is that 2 goals in 2 games for Gally, at last we could be seeing some competition for places up front in the following few weeks, that will be interesting.

[Eddie]

Well if you look, 4 out of our 5 strikers have been on the score sheet within their last few appearances, with the only exception being Stead, so obviously something is starting to work.

[Ewood Dream]

I don't see how some fans here can still criticise Paul Dickov... He gives 150% (if possible) and only has one goal less than Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink...

[broadsword]

Paul Dickov may not be the most gifted of finishers, but I am very glad we have him.

Undoubtedly we would still be on the bottom if it weren't for him.

Things appear to be looking up for us. We were lucky to escape with a clean sheet, and should've scored more, but there's been an obvious improvement under Hughes, and we just need to sustain this now.

Brett Emerton for one is unrecognisable. I wonder what part Mark Bowen has had to play in this improvement?

[joey_big_nose]

One thing that did dissapoint me was Gally playing wide a lot, meaning we only had Dickov in the centre and a lot Gally's crosses were poor. I'm not sure whether this was intentional or not, it certainly gave Reid a bit more freedom to come inside and rough up the Fulham central midfielders.

Edit: Really good to see some attacking width and verve with Emerton today. I thought sometimes we were great at keeping possesion but couldn't find the killer ball to set someone free and shoot or people got into good shooting positions and passed.

Now that is actually something about him that really impresses me. He can dribble, he can cross (although that was relatively poor yesterday) has a bit of pace and simply awesome movement (the best bit of his game IMHO). Our domination of the first half came down partly to him with his movement behind the fullbacks and dropping off to hold up te he ball making him exceptionally hard to mark. It allows the midfielders to maraud into the space he leaves behind and gets them involved in moves up front. As he builds up experience and hopefully keeps his feet on the ground he could become a world class player. Some of his passing can be sublime too and his work rate was incredible yesterday.

Dickov had a better match overall, how anybody can advocate hime being dropped from the team is beyond me, and Gallagher certainly was not exceptional- but there is that sort of Henry spark to Gallagher's game that is inspiring. I have never really seen a British player play that way. Im not saying he will definately be anywhere as good as a player like Henry, only time will tell, but there is potential for him to become the fulcrum of the side.

Bothroyd's height and power leads you to think that maybe there could be a real long term partnership there for future seasons. The main issue would be that Bothroyd also has a penchant for dropping off and going wide, although not in the same way as Gallagher, which would leave us without a target man. Arsenal get by with Henry and Bergkamp though......

Anyhow, with Dickov in his current astounding form, lets not make any bones about it, we will just have to wait and see.

If Gallagher is not a first team regular and the darling of the Blackburn End (perhaps even Scotland) by this time next season I will eat my hat.

[tonygreenbank]

Interesting statistic from Saturday. Which striker has scored most goals in the premiership away from home in 2004?

Shearer has 1

Henry has 4

Van Nistlerooy has 7

Rooney has 6 ..........the winner is....

Dickov has 8!! 8 out of 10 he has scored have been away from home.

Not too bad for someone taking a bit of stick after our tremendous performance.

Perhaps I owe Mr Hughes an apology.