There are so many things to talk about last night. Fulham’s rip-roaring start where we really went for the throat of the opposition, Shakhtar’s mesmorising passing and Bobby’s thunderbolt that rocketed in off the crossbar. What fascinated me was the tactical battle between the two sides.
Shakhtar adopted a formation that is rarely seen in these parts. The only thing you could recognise from an English point of view was a back four, although that was hardly a standard British back line. The full backs pulled out regularly to the touchline and the centre backs were ball players. In front of them were two central midfielders, but neither were anchors, stoppers or holding midfielders. To describe Fernandinho, who seemed to have the ball glued to his feet at times, as anything like that would be ridiculously insulting to his outrageous ability.
The South American rhythm of the side was evident from the fact that Mircea Lucescu’s team included an all-Brazilian front five. Ilsinho showed his quality with a remarkably perceptive searching pass to release the deadly Luiz Adriano, who seems a snip at just £2m, for the equaliser whilst we can expect a higher quality performance from Jadson in the second leg. At times, it seemed as though Shakhtar were passing through us at will, although on reflection that doesn’t really do justice to some diligent defensive work, including a couple of terrific saving tackles from Aaron Hughes.
Hodgson’s tactics were constrained by the ineligbility of Stefano Okaka and injuries to our other forwards. The flexibility of Fulham’s formation allowed Zoltan Gera to line up just behind Bobby Zamora and the Hungarian revelled in the space he found. The goal Fulham worked inside the opening minutes was a think of beauty. Bobby might have benefited from a missed interception from Kucher and Pyatov might have saved Gera’s shot, but it was a slick move worthy of Shakhtar.
It’s clear that Gera benefits from playing in advance of a set midfield rather than wider in an orthodox midfield. He has greater scope to influence the game than when he is restricted to a particular flank and, when closer to a centre forward, the flicks and tricks he brings to the party have the potential to be much more effective (see Zamora’s stunning winner). Gera’s been much more influential in Europe playing in this role (see his goals against CSKA Sofia and FC Basel) and I’d be tempted to try him here with a little more regularity in the league.
It would be interesting to gauge Zamora’s thoughts on his role as a lone striker. The number of times he lifted his arm and gesticulated to Schwarzer or a defender to play the ball in his direction suggests he thrives on being the target man and the interplay between him, Gera, Duff and Simon Davies was excellent at times. The confidence is coarsing through Zamora’s veins and his finish was absolutely astonishing. There’s every chance Roy Hodgson will have to set a higher target than 20 goals before the season’s out at this rate.
The only thing that troubled me was the disappointing distribution of Dickson Etuhu. The Nigerian looks good against the likes of Portsmouth and Burnley – and would be particularly useful for some of the pitched battles we seem to fight away from home – but he seems frustratingly limited at this level. When he wasn’t nervously turning away from goal and sending the ball backwards, Etuhu placed an alarming high number of passes straight to the opposition. He might just be coming back from the Africa Cup of Nations but we’ll need a more disciplined performance from him in Donetsk next week.
With regards to Gera, I mentioned earlier in the season that the formation we play with him in the hole behind the striker should be the default setting for away games, and I too would love to see him tried there more often.
As for Etuhu, I think it was the pressing of the Shakhtar midfield that really undid him, he seemed never to have time on the ball and was forced into some silly errors. Hopefully he will put in a better performance in Donetsk.
It works at home because our mindset is to go forward. When we’ve tried away in the league, Zamora’s been too isolated – personally I prefer the two up front away from home, but there’s no doubt Gera’s best used there.
On Etuhu, I just thought he was poor. Shakhtar were pressing Murphy, Davies and Duff just as much but Dickson looked a little too flustered for me.
Beyond the difference in skill levels, I thought the big difference was in width and options. In the long spells of the first half when Fulham were chasing the ball, they kept to their usual narrow shape. Shakhtar exploited this well with numerous quick balls to the wings in an attempt to stretch play and create space in the middle. On those occassions when Fulham won the ball, they were narrow. There was no quick movement to create space and get to ball away from the opposition, to create time and reshape for possession and attack. This lack of movement made it easy for Shaktar to close in and pressurise. Defence and midfield were immediately under pressure – and Etuhu didn’t cope well, Duff grafted, and I thought Baird looked composed. The second half was better, which suggests perhaps an issue of attitude. Although I think superior skill also helps.
As much as Shakhtar impressed in their passing, they didn’t create so many clear chances.
It did have the feel of an Ali fight though, where they were trying to draw us in (up the field to their defenders) before letting loose with a couple of one-twos in the space behind.
That said, they lost, took risks, have a dodgey keeper and didn’t always look good at the back. Which brings hope.
you got it working! Nice one.
Interesting thoughts there James. I have been frustrated at times with how narrow Fulham have been, particularly with the width that’s waiting to be unleashed when we have Duff and Davies in the side. It was noticeable that we didn’t really get down the flanks too much in the first half – and that we got a lot more joy from these wider positions after the break. It might have been a subtle change of emphasis at half time, but Duff especially saw a lot more of the ball out wide in the second half.
A couple of different threads have given us two great analogies this afternoon. First there’s the Ali fight, which is a great description of what we witness and Andy’s idea that we were almost watching a chess battle between two different types of football team.
For the reasons you outlined at the end (the unimpressive defence and error-prone goalkeeper), I think we can score over there.
ha, I was going to base my report around the Ali – Foreman fight but thought that might be stretching things a little too far….