The Tanner Report: Fulham 2 Rotherham 1
Given our uneven home form (wins over Newcastle, the thrashing of Huddersfield and Reading, both play-off contenders, and losses to QPR and Bristol City) I was pleased to take 3 points off Rotherham. Most teams coming to Craven Cottage will get 10 men behind the ball and hope to get an early goal and this was the Rotherham game plan. There is a lot of talent in this Fulham side: Soon Aluko is the best ball playing midfielder I have seen since Steed Malbranque, Johansen looks the complete deal and Cairney a sweet left foot. Up front flying winger Ayite has now scored 3 goals in two games, oddly enough all with his head. So when all this became a cohesive force after an early set back of a Rotherham goal we came out worthy winners notwithstanding a Chris Martin missed penalty.
Not everything in the Cottage Garden is rosy however. Coach Slavisia Jokatovic changes the defensive unit every week. Scott Malone and Tim Ream were the victims this week. Malone in particular though he had a poor game at Wolves has really developed after a shaky start and I would have thought you could forgive him one bad performance. In came 16 year old starlet Ryan Sessegnon who performed well enough. Defender Michael Madl who has impressed last season but this one was sometimes not even on the bench got an outing. The best Fulham teams had a consistent central pairing, recently the Thames Barrier of Aaron Hughes and Brede Hangeland and before them Chris Coleman and Kit Symons and before them Tony Gale and Roger Brown. So on one hopes that SJ can find the perfect pairing and not rotate every week. Up front he definitely needs another striker. Chris Martin cannot play against Derby and Floyd Ayite will be away playing for Togo in the Africa Cup come January. I hear that we are also looking for another midfielder which seems a bit strange given that Christensen and Tunnicliffe who would start for many a championship side don’t even get on the bench and aside from this we have in reserve Scott Parker and Jezebed, though Kebano will be on Africa Cup duty too. Matt Smith can score goals but rarely gets on the pitch but that only leaves Cauley Woodrow, a skilful link player but no reliable scorer. We have some testing games ahead against Derby, Brighton and Reading and victories over these should secure a play off position.
One of the sides in the play-off positions Birmingham City have just sacked their manager Gary Rowett, once linked with Fulham, and Gianfranco Zola looks the likely replacement. This is a typical marquee signing of an owner ignorant of the demands of the division. Leaving aside Rafa Benitez who has managed at the highest level, though I think does best just off it, almost all of the managers of the top sides have winning experience in the division. Chris Hughton for example has managed promoted Norwich and Newcastle and achieved a play-off with Birmingham. The exception is Japp Stam at Reading but lets see if they stay the course. Aston Villa made the same mistake with appointing Roberto di Matteo but Steve Bruce now at the helm has 2 promotions under his belt. Our own SJ coached Watford to promotion and after some distinctly poor appointments our owner finally ssems to have got it right.
