We're now 7 games into the 2007/08 season, and Fulham is sitting 17th in the table, just outside the relegation zone. Despite this standing, there have been plenty of positives. We've held the lead in every game. Most of the new signings have shown promise. And we're second in the Premiership in scoring!

So whats wrong? Well, in addition to standing second in the league in scoring, we're also second in goals conceded. Watching the games, our back four doesn't seem terrible. Paul Konchesky looks great, and the latest centre pair of Carlos Bocanegra and Aaron Hughes has been mistake-free. Chris Baird has been criticized for his lack of pace and occasionally playing too far off the ball, but its hard to argue against his skills and potential.

There has certainly been some questionable goalkeeping at times, but as long as we can keep Tony Warner's hands a safe distance away from the #1 shirt, things should get better. Yet, even with Antti Niemi back, we've still conceded 7 goals in 3 games. Could it be that our midfielders just don't defend all that well? One way to measure this is to compare each player's goal differential during their time on the pitch. In ice hockey, this is a widely accepted statistic called "plus-minus" (generally abbreviated "+/-"). It isn't perfect, but it is still useful when comparing players on the same team, particularly those playing the same position. That said, here is how our midfielders have done:

Before I even added up these numbers, I thought to myself that left winger Hameur Bouazza really has done a nice job helping out defensively. Aside from a questionable challenge (which led to a penalty) against Wigan, he's been the only midfielder with at least a full 90 minutes to come out positive.

Similarly, I've noticed that our primary right winger Simon Davies has spent quite a bit more time on the attacking end, to say the least. Is it any coincidence that Konchesky (with Bouazza in front of him) has looked much better than Baird, playing behind Davies? It's hard to quantify how much or how often a player tracks back (at least with the numbers available to me), but there are a few things we can look at. When you play defensive football, you generally make tackles. When you make tackles, you occasionally commit fouls. Using the number of fouls committed as a measure of defensive contribution is crude, but in this case the numbers are interesting:

Fouls per 90 minutes, 2007/08

Going back to last season, we see more of the same:

Fouls per 90 minutes, 2006/07

Again, this may not mean anything, but it seems to support what we've all observed. No doubt Simon Davies is a quality attacking player, but attacking doesn't seem to be much of a problem for this team. What is the answer? Seol Ki-Hyeon has impressed a lot of fans early on, albeit in a very small sample. I haven't seen enough of Seol to give an opinion on his defence, but we gave up a good player to get him, and that alone is reason to give him a run out. Next saturday is the SW6 derby. Let's see how he does against a good attacking side. If Chris Baird magically looks like a whole new player against MP3search.ru FC, then it may be safe to pin our defensive troubles on a new scapegoat.