On Sunday, I wrote this piece about Jonathan Greening. Unfortunately, my internet broke before I could upload it. Now that it is mended, I have seen a plethora of articles about this very subject, including one from the ever-excellent CCN. Nevertheless, here is another take for those of you who haven’t tired of the Greening debate quite yet…..
We Fulham fans tend to be a fan of scapegoating individual players. Under Sanchez, first it was Steven Davis (a player who I think would do a very good job for us now, but that’s a different matter). Next, it was Chris Baird and then Bobby Zamora, both of whom have proven themselves to be very good players and have been key to our side in recent months. Now, it appears that attentions have been turned to Jonathan Greening.
His every (rare) mis-placed pass is greeting with groans and curses; when his passes do find their target, he is still bemoaned for rarely passing forward and venturing into the opposition half. That, combined with the fact that he gives away a few free-kicks (down to not being afraid to put his foot in) and the fee that the club have supposedly agreed with West Brom for him (not his fault) have led to him not exactly being a fans’ favourite at the Cottage.
There are, however, two things that I believe need to be looked at before we lambast Greening further for his performances.
Firstly, a closer look at the role Greening plays is vital.
Who are the dangermen in our side? The players that can create chances out of nothing? Well, the front two of Zamora and Johnson, although short on goals, are key in our forward play. Most of their service has come from the defenders (mainly Aaron Hughes) passing to their feet or into the corners for them to chase, where they then bring others into the game in attacking areas. Murphy occasionally plays a through-ball, but with all of our quick strikers out injured, this part of the game is ruled out at the moment. Murphy, of course, is our other main attacking player, but Greening doesn’t play with him, only as cover for him.
Our main attacking threat, however, comes from the wide players, Duff and Dempsey. The full-backs too like to come forward and join the attack – see how key Pantsil was in our two second-half goals against Blackburn. Greening’s passes are predominantly to these wide players. If he is not feeding the dangerous, flair players in our side, then he is keeping possession in tight spaces, before switching the direction of attack, spreading play to these players in more space, who in turn can stretch and run at the defence.
My previous article about Bobby Zamora highlighted how Zamora enables us to play in the attacking third of the pitch. Greening effectively does the same – he might not play defence-splitting passes, but more often than not, he enables the side to keep possession. Gabriele Marcotti agrees with this view, referring to Greening as “technically, at least, Fulham’s best player after Murphy”.
Secondly, it does seem to take a while for new signings to adjust to Hodgson’s system. We all know that Roy uses a very structured formation, especially in central midfield – hence his willingness to let Bullard go. He likes these players to constantly be in position, and not to shirk their defensive responsibilities. Chris Baird has stepped in and done an immediate job in the middle, but he has been training with Hodgson since he took over, and knows exactly what is required of him. It took the team some three or four months after Hodgson took over for them to understand what was required of them, although admittedly there were some severe mitigating circumstances.
Cast your minds back to Dickson Etuhu’s first performances for the club. He was signed in the end of August, was promptly injured, before beginning to play at the end of December, when Bullard was injured/went on strike. His opening performances were so poor that he was dubbed by many as a “badly injured Michael Mison”. Likewise, Greening missed all of pre-season and the first couple of games, meaning that he has had to learn his very precise role “on the go”, with other key players around him missing. Even Zoltan Gera, playing in the wide roles where there is a bit more license to roam and cut infield, has only just stared to operate at the high level that we all know he can.
Greening has been improving in a very demanding role. His opening performances weren’t great, and these were tough games against decent opposition (Aston Villa, Manchester City, and the European games, plus the occasional appearance as a substitute). The turning point for me was the home match against Roma. He was excellent in both of those games, and has been a constant since, in an injury-depleted side that has only been defeated twice during his run in the team – once unjustly (Roma away) and another (Birmingham away) in which his performance was highly praised by the manager. His set-pieces too have been dangerous, although haven’t quite had the reward that they deserve (a couple of glaring misses against Blackburn in particular come to mind).
I think part of the problem is that he is NOT a Danny Murphy type player – he is by no means a match-winning or a match-changing player. What he does do, however, is keep the side ticking over in midfield, often starting our attacking moves (our goal against Bolton originated from a good forward pass from Greening), and breaking up opposition moves.
I admit that when Murphy returns, he should take Greening’s place in the team, even though he wasn’t great this season before his injury. However , I am more than happy to have a player like Greening as an option on the bench – he is a proven Premiership player, and think how many of those we could call upon last season, when our only midfield option was Olivier Dacourt.
What we do now have is somebody who we can call upon to do a good job, one who will do better and better the more he gets accustomed to Roy’s system. It’s a sign of how far we have come under Hodgson when we can complain that somebody like Greening isn’t good enough – and perhaps also a testament to Chris Baird’s improvement and the potential that Hodgson has spotted in Kagisho Dikgacoi. Once we have a fully-fit side once again, our squad will look as strong as it has ever been in our time in the Premiership. And that can only be a good thing.
The thing everybody seems to have missed about Greening is that he started as a winger – and at West Brom stated that he preferred to play on the left side of midfield. Given that he won’t displace Duff or Dempsey any time soon, he’s been thrust into the Murphy role and asked to create. It’s not going to happen overnight but I think he’s started well. This article is a welcome addition to an interesting debate.
I think Greening is getting better with every game. He has close ball control skill, works hard and is very strong on the ball. He will prove to be a good signing.
can u imagine if we didn’t bring him in? we’d have major problems in center midfield. he’s not great, but he has the experience to play at this level. i think he’s done exactly what roy’s asked of him. let the creative players create, and he can sit back, maintain possession, and defend.
It’s not as if having Murphy in the team automatically leads to more goals. We’ve scored more goals in the seven games w/ out Murphy (aston villa and every game after hull) than we did in the seven games w/ him. the difference isn’t massive (2 goals). I think this shows that the key to our offensive success has been the play of our wide players, duff and dempsey. in the first 8-9 games of the season they were good but could have been better. In the last 6-7 games duff and demps have been playing very well and have been on form which is why we’ve scored more.
So if greening is not causing us to leak goals and if he is helping us keep possession, which i would say he is, then he’s a positive influence on the team.
our key question is: what happens when dempsey and duff aren’t creating goals? most likely fulham will draw or lose. however if that’s the case it requires players like zamora, gera, and davies to step up and create/score goals. both zamora and davies have been prone to injuries, and while i think gera has improved tremendously from last year, i still don’t think he’ll score too many goals.
if anything i’d be concerned that after dempsey and duff we don’t have enough of a goal threat. zamora can be great/create when healthy, but he goes a month healthy and 2 weeks injured. davies 07/08 can create goals. davies 08-10 looks a little off the pace because of his foot injury. aj, kamara, and nevland can definitely finish, but they need service. so the only other player on our squad who previously had managed to stay healthy and who could create was murphy. now with him injured we seem to lack creaters/scorers.
thus i think the key is that we need one more creater from any of the two forwards or the two wide players other than duff/dempsey who create on a regular basis. or we need murphy. aj/zamora when healthy fit this role, which is why we are better when they’re healthy. thus if anything i think we need gera/davies to be a more consistent creator/scorer, or for riise to step up or for us to get someone new in the transfer window to cover for these kinds of injuries.
Greening has improved no doubt, his free kicks against Blackburn were good to see, however if all of our midfileders were fit then he would not make the starting lineup.
Our squad is showing positive signs of strength in depth. With Greening being a part of that along with Baird, Gera, Davies (although I think he could make it back to the first team) and Smalling.
Good points all round. L in particular raises a very interesting point about the need to sign a more creative midfielder. We do need to start finding and/or grooming a replacement for Murphy. The trouble is, we are very unlikely to find a young version of Danny Murphy who will be willing to come to us – the young Danny Murphy himself was winning cups aplenty at Liverpool. Our only real chance of getting a replacement for Murphy is looking for somebody around the 30-year-old mark just as Murphy leaves. Either that or break the bank on an unproven youth player.
As for L’s point about us scoring more goals this season without Murphy than with him, that is very interesting. Although could it be argued that we have played poorer teams than we did when Murphy was fit? Or perhaps a recurrence of last season, when we started the season poorly, and improved as the players got more and more used to the system again and the players around them? Certainly worth thinking about.
I just wish Greening would stop shooting.
Excellent Post. I would also like to heap praise on Dikgacoi, whic the press/website seems to have not given any emphasis too. I thought he looked really good in his brief appreance vs Bolton. Any thoughts on where he could be accommodated in a fully fit midfield?
Well the two best defenses we played, statistically, and g-keeper wise are a-v and them lot. dm wasn’t at a-v, but was against chels***. arsenal was a bit of an odd ball b/c manone had a blinder, yet proceeded to have bad games every other time he played.
Zamora helps us play in the final third of the pitch? How can that be said ? He stops the forward flow of the ball, when we need speed of movement of the ball & players to cause induced errors from the opposing defences. He & Greening give away too many free kicks, as they are not capable of making a clean tackle, so giving the ball back to the other team. Greening is not the most aware player when it comes to following a player, who is trying to make
a break through out defence.
Greening is too long in the tooth to have his game changed drastically, & we need younger blood to take his place, as the £4 million quoted as his transfer fee is way too high for such a moderate player.
Ray – read my article in which I explain why I believe Zamora does help us to do so: https://hammyend.com/?p=3567
Much of our play originates with a ball played up to Zamora, who in turn lets the midfield get the ball in advanced areas. He’s not somebody who gets the ball and simply runs forward, trying to beat five players in the process – that’s not in the nature of his game, nor the type of thing that Hodgson demands of his players. With our midfield sitting deep when the opposition have the ball, we need somebody who can hold it up until the midfield advance up the pitch. We will create more chances this way, and can build sustained pressure.
In addition, when he doesn’t play, we do lack an “out-ball”, and frequently this simply invites wave after wave of pressure, as we struggle to make the ball stick in the opposition third – it just comes straight back. Look at the home game against Roma as an excellent example of this. He has been superb for us this season, and in my opinion really missed him against Blackburn.
As for Greening – yes, he does give away the odd free-kick, but that’s bound to happen when you make tackles. Saying that he “is not capable of making a clean tackle” is utter balderdash IMO – you have to tackle if you want to get the ball, and you are bound to give away the odd free-kick if you do so. Would rather have somebody like that than somebody who shirks making tackles in the midfield.
In addition, like I said before, the transfer fee reportedly agreed for Greening is not his fault, and it is therefore unfair for us to use that with a stick with which to beat him. Much like Steve Marlet – he certainly wasn’t worth £12m, but he was by no means a bad player.
I admit that he is perhaps not the greatest player in our squad, and yes, we perhaps could have got better for that kind of money. But we have him now – criticising his every move is only going to be counter-productive. He is doing a decent job, and certainly keeps the ball much more than he gives it away.
Coming or Cohen – Dikgacoi did look impressive, although he certainly gave me a fright when he nearly got tackled which would have resulted in a clear run at goal!
He also looked pretty impressive in the little that he played at Manchester City and West Ham. Reckon that he will get an outing against Sofia tomorrow, especially as Murphy is certainly not going to play the full ninety minutes.
I am, however, very much looking forward to seeing how a Baird-Murphy combination works tomorrow. Baird has really impressed me so far this season, and I think I am right in saying that he is not suspended for tomorrow’s game. But if he is, then that gives Dikgacoi more of a platform to show us all what he can do.
(Ray is “Dad’s Army” from Tiff, Nick. Which may explain the views!)
Thing is, how much does a centre-midfielder who can step in and keep things going quite well cost? £4m seems about right to me. Yeah, you could’ve paid less, but there’s a certainty with Greening because he’s done it before.
Nick W – Don’t think Dikgacoi’s registered for Europe so we’ll have to wait until Sunday to see a bit more of him. Maybe a chance for Milsom?
I think Greening’s solid – and does a decent job. There’s scope for him to improve as he gets more games under belt too. Nobody knows what the fee will be but, as Rich says, I’d make him pretty good value.