Hello! Well it's finally over, it wasn't an ideal result but at least we didn't end with a Boring 0-0. The big news for Norwich isn't that they overtook Boro to take 3rd and make their Playoff Semi-Final be against their arch-rivals Ipswich- they finally broke the Fulham Curse. Also apologies if there's any typos in this post but my Netbook died on Wednesday so I've upgraded to a proper Laptop with a much bigger keyboard which I haven't really gotten used to yet.
This is going to be a Mini-Rant, which at this stage of the season- and with nothing really to play for it's the last thing I want to do because quite frankly it isn't worth the energy. That said, Kit's Team Selection was stupid today. Just quickly running down the team;
Bettinelli (Hopefully Staying)
Hoogland (Out of Contract)
Hutchinson (Staying)
Burn (Staying)
Richards (Going)
Tunnicliffe (Staying)
Guthrie (Going)
Kavanagh (Lightweight- and not good enough to be 1st Team next season)
Ruiz (One in a Million Chance he Stays)
Rodallega (Most likely Going)
McCormack (Hopefully Staying)
By my reckoning that's 6 of the starting 11 that won't be starters for us next season without a shadow of a doubt- and then I have major doubts over Burn as a Starter, and to a lesser extent Hutchinson- who I do like as long as he keeps his head straight, but I'd still doubt he'd be considered either our #1 or #2 Centre-Back this Summer and for me that's the key area that needs recruitment *cough* Aden Flint *cough*. Even if we didn't do the full academy graduates team I wanted in an ideal world we could have at least done an Eleven of players who'll be here next season. Last Week was a perfect send off for Hugo & Bryan- while Hugo didn't score he had an alright(ish) game- and Bryan had a good game with which to seemingly end his Fulham career. So why both of them started today was beyond me. Then we get to the Full-Backs- while Hoogland was subbed off because of injury- Kit saying Grimmer was fit for the game today, and then not playing him is just beyond me.
Anyway, onto the goals, and the usual long paragraph when it comes to the goals. The first goal of Bradley Johnson's Hat-Trick was as simple as it comes- and that was mainly because of our largely non-existent defending, sound familiar? Then we went on to do what we've done a few times this season- especially under "him" and we had a mini collapse with Redmond bending one in a few minutes later that was in all fairness a really good strike. The third goal from Dorrans once again came about from pretty non-existent defending- ugh. Our first goal from Matt Smith was I suppose you could say was a very "Matt Smith Goal" in that the way we utilise him- despite him being capable of playing differently the goal coming as a result of a Long Ball before Matt Smith volleyed it in. The second goal of Bradley Johnson's Hat-Trick was an absolute screamer- Johnson is one of the best midfielders I've seen this season, so it's no surprise that upon a very minimal amount of research (1 search on Twitter) that he was Norwich's player of the season- and he's one of the reasons I'd make Norwich favourites for the Playoffs. Then Johnson capped off his Hat-Trick off the back of a McCormack Free-Kick, it might not have been the result we wanted- but at least we ended our season being the last team to score.
Bettinelli didn't have his best game, but he still made a few really good saves to keep the score from being embarassing. Now the dust has settled on the season and we can say for definite with regard to points, positioning etc. we've ended the season conceding 83 Goals which is only trumped by Blackpool who with respect to Blackpool were doomed from the first whistle. The fact we've conceded 83 Goals- of which Bettinelli has conceded I'd estimate around 65-75 (EDIT: 62) of them, and he's still thought of so highly as one of, if not our player of the season says a lot for him- and very little for the players in front of him.
As I've already said, the defence was fairly non-existent today- and it annoys me more that the defence was largely non-existent when you consider the team selection and we wouldn't have done an awful lot worse if we'd used Grimmer at Right-Back and even someone like Tayo Edun or Jordan Evans at Left-Back which would have been my massive preference because crucially they're our players. Hoogland didn't really get into the game before he was off again, and while I still think he holds some value as a DM- at Right-Back he isn't worth the renewal which is a shame because while he did have his limitations before he was injured in Late-October he was looking like a real force for us- especially when it came to his Goals Scored Column. While I'm not blaming him for this, Jazz Richards joining almost directly coinciding with us properly falling off the rails hasn't been ideal for us or him- he's shown signs of being a good player- but injury has stopped him getting a proper run in the team and when a Loan Player (who's a fringe player as opposed to a Young Player) comes into a team and the team start declining that Loan Player doesn't get a chance to get back into the swing of things fully and reach their best performance levels. As I've already said, more so with Dan Burn I'd be incredibly surprised if they're getting a start in August and to a lesser extent Hutchinson.
With the type of game that it ended up being, and us being on the back-foot pretty much from the start it wasn't an ideal game for Bryan- but he still showed signs of the quality he's capable of- never more so than his ball for Rodallega just before Half-Time where he should really have had an Assist to cap off his (most likely) last game in a Fulham shirt. It wasn't really a game for the Midfield from our view- we rarely got on the ball long enough to make the Midfield really count. I think I've made my views on Kavanagh more than apparent over the last few weeks so I'm not even going to get into him again- I'll just say if Kavanagh's a consistent start as he has been for most of the back-end of this season I'll be massively surprised. One player who I do think has a part to play next season is Tunnicliffe, he's almost the polar opposite of Bryan- but he's also similar to Bryan in that he'll divide fans quite a lot. I come down on the side of he is valuable to us- his work rate and team ethic is needed in any team and I think people will only realise how key he is to the balance of the team if he gets injured. Guthrie was a bit "meh" in his most likely to be last game for us- he does have a good passing range on him- but with respect to him there's hundreds of Danny Guthrie's out there and the majority of them will be younger and less expensive because while I don't follow Reading astutely I would take a guess he's on Premier League wages- or something close to that level.
I've said it numerous times this season that a) Hugo isn't a Target Man and b) He isn't clinical- that was never more apparent than today, the one chance in particular set up by Bryan was a golden opportunity to get us back into the game just before Half-Time and he fluffed it. I like Hugo- but as with Guthrie we can get someone a lot like him for a helluva lot cheaper next season. McCormack didn't get across the 20 Goal threshold- which as I discussed yesterday might have been as good- if no better news for Leeds than it would have been for us. I'll say it again, the fact McCormack has gotten the Goal Tally he has, and the Assist tally he has when for the large part of the season he wasn't scoring- rather assisting Hugo speaks volumes for him as a player, and it doesn't take a brain surgeon to realise we need to hang onto him over the Summer, his performances have been put a bit into perspective when you consider he's been playing with a Knee Injury for the back end of the season- so hopefully with a Summer under his belt- he'll be fresh for the start of next season and he's scoring goals that'll mean a lot more next season.
This game annoyed me more than it had any right to- but that is mainly down to Kit's Team Selection. I've said it repeatedly now that Kit just isn't the right guy to take us forward (and up), and I picked up on it Yesterday- how Kit could say he was planning for next season with that Team Selection is truly beyond me, and it stinks of short-termism from Kit's point of view who has to know his time is numbered- and he was hoping to put a couple of wins together to give Khan something to think about.
It's that time of the Season- and it's the First End of Season Awards from this Blog; But this would be nothing without you lot reading- and the fact this has grown so much from effectively a standing start to where I am now is great- and all I can say is Thank You. Anyway, the categories I want you to Vote On are;
Player of the Season: http://t.co/Wpfg1fUdjS
Game of the Season: http://t.co/CohaklfLPU
Team Performance of the Season: http://t.co/8eWFvOwBi2
Individual Performance of the Season: http://t.co/emdKSMcwtH
Signing of the Season: http://t.co/vAOI6PAa6j
Goal of the Season: http://t.co/5dGpRK20HF
Spread these Polls around as much as possible, the voting will close some time during Thursday Afternoon- and Thursday will be the day of my Fulham Posts for the Summer- it may seem like a weird day but it's the best day to fit around my other posts.
As I've already said, It really is great to see how much this has grown over the First Season I've been doing this- I always say "Thanks for Reading" and some people may see that as empty formalities- but I truly mean that, when I started this with a Millwall Preview Last August it was primarily an outlet because I was getting isolated to an extent- especially on the Football Side of things, and it's grown into something which surprisingly people actually read- so when I say Thanks for Reading I genuinely mean it. Anyway, the season is now over (Thank God) and we can look ahead to the Summer, I've already worked out a few of the posts I'm going to do over the Summer- but if you have any suggestions feel free to share them either on here or on Twitter and I'll look at all of them. Thanks again for reading as always, Don't forget to vote and if you just come here for the Fulham Posts I hope you come back here every Thursday during the Summer. Again, Thank You.
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