Fulham 2 Everton 2 - Moyes' Change Backfire

An exciting game indeed and Everton will feel aggrieved not to have left Craven Cottage with all three points as they were the better team for much of the game. They were only saved as Moyes went on the defensive and changed to a 5 man defence, with Fulham scoring as Everton tried to adapt. For this game, I wanted to take a long at Fulham's attack. With 19 goals before this match, Martin Jol must be doing something right with the team's attack. This match though, Fulham did not get much chances to attack as Everton put them on the back foot for most of the game but what I glimpsed from their limited opportunities were quite interesting and defining.

It is well documented that Fulham likes to push their full backs Riether and Riise high up the pitch to support the attack and this was apparent throughout the match, especially on the left flank. Kacaniklic tended to dribble into the middle and that opened up space for Riise as he dragged Coleman out of position. Riether on the other flank advanced just as much. One instance in the 13th minute when Berbatov was holding the ball up alone after a long clearance and the first sign of support was Riether who had dashed forward to aid the attack. Having the full backs push high up the field is exciting to watch and is a reason for the number of goals Fulham score but one drawback is that they are prone to counterattacks, which Riise did not manage to cope as well with as his counterpart. Coleman's constant forays into Fulham's third proved too much for Riise and he was hauled off due to a yellow card and the danger of a red. This tactic can work but only if Martin Jol delegates the central defensive midfielders to help out more on defensive duties on the flanks.

Another interesting aspect of Fulham's attack is how the two central forwards, Bryan Ruiz and Berbatov, stay out of each other's way. One of them tended to drop deeper and it was usually Ruiz who stayed at the border of the penalty box while Berbatov moved closer to the six yard box. This provided extra options for Fulham's attacks, with the flank players having an available option to send  a short pass to. It also allowed Fulham to pick up the loose balls that dropped outside the box and continue the attack if Everton did not clear properly. One limitation of this is that when crosses come into the box as they inevitably do seeing the reliance on the flanks, there was often only one lone man in the box and Everton dealt with the threat comfortably all night. The one exception came at Fulham's second goal, where their chase for an equaliser led them to throw men into the box and this paid off with a scrappy goal as Everton was unable to deal with the extra man in the box.

standard Fulham's attacking positions

A third route of attack, the more direct one, was to pump the ball high up to Berbatov. Mark Schwarzer did this all night long and I suspect he did not make a single short pass from goal kicks but the move did not pay dividends as he often over hit the ball. Everton's defenders were able to easily head back to Tim Howard and Berbatov understandably voiced his frustrations quite a few times.

Fulham's attack is potent and they showed their attacking capabilities in this match. They need to make a balance between the flanks and central attacks though as teams will soon find them out and devise a plan to stop their full backs from playing.