Hello! Yes, Leicester have lifted the Premier League Trophy today, Boro have been Promoted, Bristol Rovers won Promotion in the last minute, Bayern have won the Bundesliga etc. but we all know what the real glamour fixture was today. It's quite funny actually, I was saying to some of the people around me once the Cardiff game was over- the one thing I wanted us to do once we'd guaranteed safety was get a scrappy 1-0 win. Just to prove that we could actually do it.
Before I start, I'd just to quickly say fair-play to the Bolton Fans today. They've had an absolutely horrid season and they still travelled well and were singing throughout.
I wouldn't necessarily call today's game scrappy, more so just one-way traffic but still. We've ended the season with a Win and a Clean Sheet. 46 of those next season and we'll be back in the Premier League, that's not too much to ask right? Today's game was a weird one, there wasn't really an edge to it- which was perhaps to be expected. But, I was surprised at just how negative Bolton's tactics were to be honest. They were sat so deep, we were just allowed to play our Football for a change. On another day, we'd have scored 3 or 4 and especially late on Amos was really good. End of the day, the 3 Points don't really matter- but it's still good to end on a win.
Cairney's Goal was definitely coming. It's funny, out of all the chances we created, all of the Shots on goal we had, our Goal came from the ball bouncing out to Cairney after a Keepers Save. It was actually a really good finish, and he'd been threatening the goal quite a few times today. Hopefully that's an indicator of things to come next season. That's it for the Goals section. I think it's my shortest one all season.
I'm pretty sure the most relieved man on the pitch today was Marcus Bettinelli. Especially when Bolton had that deflected shot around the 90th Minute the nerves started to creep in a bit, and our first Clean Sheet since he's come back was perhaps under threat. As it is, Bettinelli's ended on one, and I could be wrong- but I'm pretty sure it's his first (League) Clean Sheet all season. I don't have many doubts about Bettinelli, and hopefully with a Defence that can at least be described as "competent" for next season he'll be seeing a few more.
If ever an individual performance could sum up someones season, it's Ryan Fredericks' today. For the first 15 or so minutes, he was by far and a way our brightest spark. He was up and down the line like it was nothing, and was just generally dominating the right side. Then, I can't remember if it was Hutchinson or Burn put a pass behind him, he over-stretched to try and keep it in play and he's off with another (presumably) muscle injury. Ryan Fredericks, if consistently fit can be a big player for us next season. Especially if, as I suspect Jokanovic is going to try and sign a Left-Sided Wing-Back whether that's Ikechi Anya or someone else- Fredericks' pace as a Wing-Back could be big for us. It's hard to predict injuries of course, so hopefully Fredericks has better luck with them next season.
We saw a lot of potential "last appearances" today, especially in the Defence with Tim Ream not being good enough, and Burn and Hutchinson out of contract. I'll preface this by saying I don't want Burn to stay, but fair play to him he did really well today. Had he scored after that run he made in the 1st Half, I think I would have had to re-think my Goal of the Season. The thing with Burn is, it all goes back to what I've said a number of times with him. I'd say 85% of Burn's "good" performances for us, have been when he's been playing against Strikers of the calibre of Marc Antoine Fortune, Matt Derbyshire, Igor Vetokele and more- and today it was Heskey. I actually think in Heskey, we've actually found someone that Burn can beat for Pace. Hutchinson had a good game today. When he's not doing something stupid, he's actually an alright Defender. I doubt either will be kept on, but if I had to choose it'd be Hutchinson without doubt. Tim Ream's off to the MLS, I'm almost certain of that. I think I said it right back when he'd first signed, he's not big enough to be a Centre-Back and he's not quick enough to be a Left-Back. I believe at the time I'd said "I'm not saying we've bought a dud" well now I am.
"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."
That's from my Norwich Review after the end of last season. I wasn't wrong, was I? While I'm not necessarily expecting Tunnicliffe to be starting every game next season, he's one of the few that I'd actually want to keep on for next season. He's the old-fashioned "engine room", and his work-rate is just phenomenal. While he's not the most technically gifted, the fact we've only managed to get 2 of our 12 wins without Tunnicliffe- and our biggest dip of the season coincided with his injury isn't a coincidence. He just needs to stay off Twitter.
If that's Scott Parker's last game in a Fulham shirt, fair play to him. It was the typical Parker performance, on another day he'd have probably been booked for the number of fouls he gave away- and he was out on his feet by the end of the game. I think it's widely accepted that Dembele and Hyndman are off, as such Parker's Contract situation is going to be the one to keep an eye on in the coming months. Christensen didn't really offer much today. Next season really is make or break for him. I believe it's the last year of his Contract, and unless he can at least get close to where he was performance-wise when Kit first came in I can't see it being renewed. As I said after the Cardiff/Ipswich game though, a whole Pre-Season under Jokanovic, with no Youth Tournament (unless he gets picked for the Olympics) he'll be a lot better off for it.
There just ain't nobody like Tom Cairney. Granted against very poor opposition, but Cairney just ran things today. If Jokanovic does one thing not including completely re-making the Defence, I hope it's him engineering it so Cairney can consistently play as a #10 next season. He of course got his Goal, and were it not for Amos he would have had another. Cairney can be a massive player for us next season, just not on the Right.
It wasn't McCormack's best game today. But I think he can be forgiven given the fact his Goals combined with Dembele's are literally the only reason we're not going to Bristol Rovers, Oxford and Northampton next season. For those of you wondering why Smith wasn't starting, and I've seen some. Mainly on the Fulham Facebook Page. Today is exactly why Smith hasn't been starting. He missed a golden chance around 60 Minutes (although I could be wrong on that considering the Big Screen was broken) and just generally lacked the finesse to convert any of the chances we created for him. I'd expect him to go to another Championship Team were he to leave, he's still only 26 after all- and his height is always an asset. However, as a consistent starter for where we want to be? Nah.
We were always on top today, but when Hyndman came on we definitely shifted up a gear. Complete break-out seasons like the one Dembele's had are hard to come by, but Hyndman really isn't far off doing it next season were he to stay on in my opinion. It's just a shame that we're most likely going to lose him, and I hope wherever he ends up he doesn't end up being a Stockpiled player- because it'd be a shame to see his talents go to waste. Stearman came on for Fredericks, and generally did pretty well- albeit as I've said already against pretty limp opposition. Garbutt came on just to give us a bit more width, and I think Jokanovic was hoping to stretch the game a bit more in the search for the goal that obviously came not soon after.
Even though we've finished 1 Point and 3 places worse off than we did last season, I'm a lot more optimistic for next season than I was this time last year. To be blunt, I've actually got faith in Jokanovic. Both in-terms of his managerial/tactical ability and ability to attract players.
"I like Kit as a person- but as a Manager he simply isn't good enough to take us where we need to be going in mine- and I'm sure many others opinions."
While I take no joy in this fact, I was right about Kit- and now I just genuinely believe we've got the right man in Slavisa Jokanovic to take us forward. I'm not expecting overnight success, and especially on this day of all days I can only compare him to Karanka in the sense that they've got the ability and just need the time to build something. After Karanka's first game at Boro (which McCormack scored in) Boro were 18th and only 5 Points above the Relegation Zone. They also went on a run of 1 Win in 3 Months and ended up finishing 12th in Karanka's first half-season. In short, Boro's success under Karanka didn't happen overnight. He was given the time and the funds to build a team in his image and it's all paid off as of today. We need to do the same with Jokanovic. There'll be bad days next season, but hopefully as we progress as a team under Slavisa the good days will start to outweigh the bad and we'll be a properly competitive team going forward.
Right then, that's the season officially over. I've done it to an extent in this Review, but for one of the Post-Season Blogs I'll be lining every member of the squad up and pulling the proverbial trigger on probably about two thirds of them. That's basically because as I was thinking about doing the "Outs" Blog I realised it'd be easier to just say who's going to stay. Then we've got the "Ins" where I turn into the best Scout in the world and the End of Season Awards, Spoiler Alert Ross McCormack is going to win a lot of them.
Hopefully you'll keep an eye out for those over the next few weeks. In the meantime, thanks for reading as always. For those of you who have stuck with these throughout when these Reviews have been as disjointed and sporadic as our good performances, all I can say is Thank You. Hopefully these Reviews can get back to being a regular thing next season, and hopefully the performances will be something worth reviewing. Thanks again for reading, I hope you have a good summer, can recharge the batteries and we'll all be back here again in August where we can do it all over again.
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