Wishbone Formation
Fulham FC supporters surely noticed it. For the rest of us, though, there’s certainly been a change of fortunes at Craven Cottage in this new year. Since it’s New Year’s Day loss to Tottenham, FFC have only dropped one other league match–an own-goal loss to Liverpool at the end of January–and taken full points in 4 out of its other 8 fixtures.
Victories over the likes of West Brom, Newcastle United, Stoke, and Blackburn have seen the Cottagers move up to mid-table–although still only 4 points above a relegation spot. Still, Fulham are besting the clubs near them in the table while giving those near the top a tougher time. While Tottenham has done the double over Fulham, Mark Hughes’ side reversed previous losses to Chelsea and Citeh with respectable draws.
What has gotten into Sparky’s lads? Part of it has to do with better away form–4 draws and only 1 loss in the last 5 matches away from the Cottage helps. Being stingy at home defensively typically bodes well too–the two goals allowed to Blackburn last weekend were the first ones since Fulham allowed 3 from West Ham United on Boxing Day.
Further, a return to form by Damien Duff has benefited the side and the winger attributes the success to Hughes’ attacking philosophy. Wait–what? Mark Hughes has an attacking approach to his management philosophy?
Did he find some nugget of inspiration scribbled on the back of a draw chest he was moving recently at his home?
Looking at the squads Sparky’s been putting out there since January, it seems one of the biggest changes has been moving Clint Dempsey back from the forward position and having him maraud in from the left wing of Fulham’s usual 4-4-2 formation. The primary reason why Deuce has been allowed to move back to the midfield and thus bring a forward thrust to Fulham’s offensive movements from the back appears down to the healthy return of Moussa Dembele.
While the Belgian was out with an ankle injury near the close of 2010, Fulham suffered a poor run of form and edged close to the relegation fray. Granted, having gone without Bobby Zamora for a time hurt the Cottagers too, but Dembele’s play since his return seems more influential and he might be keeping Zamora on the bench as a role player a bit longer.
Reviewing the heat maps and average positions over Fulham’s last three league matches, Dembele tends to play a bit further back–level with Dempsey–while fellow forward Andy Johnson works closer to goal. While both Deuce and Dembele overlap often on the left side of the pitch, Dembele more so positions himself out wide of goal, allowing Dempsey to cut inside. In short, Dembele acts more as a screen against the opposition’s defenders, freeing up Deuce to make his runs on goal.
Where is this all going? For those of us who support some of the bigger clubs and complain at times about the loss of players like van Persie, Bale, Gerard, Cesc, Ferdinand, Modric, or Nani due to injury, we might need to pause mid-whine. For the larger clubs, there usually exists a depth of talent that–while not always world class–can see our sides through.
United haven’t come close to losing at least a Champions League spot because Rio’s been out, Spurs won’t be sniffing relegation because Bale’s back gave out after playing every minute since pre-season, and Arsenal has role players on its bench most Prem sides would be fielding every week in their starting XIs. For a club like Fulham, however, the availability of one young and relatively unheralded summer signing has apparently made a massive difference between relegation and another season in the Prem.
It appears that sometimes it takes a kid to raise a cottage.
I haven’t had much of a chance to sit down and watch Fulham lately, but the bits and pieces I’ve seen I’ve been pretty impressed with Dembele. Between him and Duff rounding into form, it’s really helped the offense.
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Duff has scored 3 goals in two games to move to 4 for the season. Before that, our second leading scorer was a Hangeland on 3 (he’s still 3rd). You can’t really expect to stay up if Dempsey is on 9 in the league, then a central defender in second, then all your other MF and F on 1 or 2.
Dembele has been fantastic since he has returned from injury. With that said, it will be interesting to see what Sparky does once Zamora is fully healthy. Neither Dembele nor Andy Johnson really plays with their back to the goal and sometimes Fulham misses having a target forward to hold up the ball and relieve pressure. Then again, the Johnson/Dembele combo has been quite effective. Good problems to have for the Cottagers and a far cry from the striker situation two months ago…
I can’t remember where I read it (maybe on The Shin Guardian), but the point was made that Fulham basically plays a 442 when defending, but a 433 when attacking as Deuce is given free reign to pinch in and interchange with Dembele. From watching Fulham, it’s also interesting how much of the offense is starting to run through Deuce. He often provides the link between Murphy and the two forwards.
It’s also amazing how integral Deuce has been. Hughes was using him as a sub at the start, but Deuce has now supplanted Davies.
I think that Zamora will eventually come in for Johnson with Johnson used a 60 minute sub for Duff, Murphy, or Deuce.
@ Corky: Spot on. A 4-3-3 formation seems to be the way Fulham attack. Again, the starting line is the 4-4-2, but if you take a look at their average positions for the match, Deuce plays nearly level with Dembele with Johnson just slighty further up. And no, as long as Dembele’s on form, Zamora’s best chance is to come on for Andy instead and work the right.
I’m amazed at Duff’s ability to keep his shirt tucked in the entire game.