Fulham v Wolves Review "..."

I Did not sing "Felix Out" tonight.

I simply don't understand out team selection tonight, it doesn't feel like rotation it feels as though we're ripping our team up and starting again every game. I (unlike others it seems) didn't come into the Championship expecting us to 46 out 46 storm the league and we'd be playing a Stamford Bridge next season, I wasn't even overly expecting us to be promoted- at least not automatically. However tonight was truly awful.

If we are to mount any kind of promotion push we need to win our home games, and make Craven Cottage the fortress it was under Roy Hodgson, and to an extent Mark Hughes. Especially tonight, Wolves were playing like the home team. They were well organised, everyone knew their roles within the team and had good powerful runners combined with a good core of a team, something which we seem to be lacking immensely.

I don't claim to know the goings on behind the scenes of Fulham, purely from a fans standpoint I saw Stockdale as a guaranteed starter this season and judging from tweets from his wife and interviews Stockdale gave at the time I believed he was going to stay. Sidwell is another one whom I saw as wanting to stay, and I don't know if it was negligence on the part of Magath, MacIntosh or Sarah Brookes but for whatever reason we allowed a Midfielder who had just had the season of his life to go on a free transfer. Hangeland is an interesting one; We've heard two sides of the story and I don't know whom to believe, however one thing I can say for definite is Hangeland will of commanded the most respect from every single player at Fulham, I don't know if Magath didn't like the respect he commanded and wanted rid- or simply Hangeland asked for his release. This is what I thought would be the core of the team we rebuilt in the Championship alongside Scott Parker.

Now onto the players we do have at the club. We've got a multi-million pound striker on our books in Mitroglou who we know is still definitely at the club because I saw him outside the ground tonight. Ruiz is an interesting player, and one who could provide us with the extra dimension we need to be a legitimate threat. If I were Magath, I'd take the attitude of "Well he's on our books, we're paying the wages. Why not play them". Then we move on to players with proven Championship experience who are being shunned like Lepers. Dan Burn given our current defending situation would be a guaranteed starter in "my" Fulham team, he's got experience at this level and is a physical presence- Something which we were incredibly lacking in today, and were shown up by a much stronger, FITTER Wolves team. Ryan Tunnicliffe isn't a world beater, what he is a solid centre midfielder who can also offer a degree of creativity, but instead we were treated to a Mark Fotheringham special. These are four players who wouldn't look out of place in ANY Championship team searching for promotion, but we also need to look at players like Amorebieta and Kacaniklic.

Now onto a certain player who shouldn't be anywhere near a Fulham shirt in the history of mankind. Mark Fotheringham, I didn't understand the reasoning behind the signing to begin with- but I wrote it off as him being a useful squad player who would frequent the Capital One Cup and FA Cup depending on the depth we had. I did not in a million years expect him to be playing in the first team, especially in favour of Emerson Hyndman who (to my best knowledge) was simply dropped out of thin air after being one of the positives of the prior two games. Magath saying he's going to rotate if we lost isn't inherently wrong, but it is when you start dropping the players that played well in said defeat.

I was talking to my brother coming back from the Millwall game and said to him "We should just start David and Eisfeld, especially in home games". So of course we started neither tonight in favour of Sean Kavanagh (who I had to look at the programme to even seen which position he was) and Kostas Stafylidis, who I viewed as not getting forward enough in the Millwall game as a Left Midfielder.

Patrick Roberts is clearly more at home as an Impact Sub in the "Dejagah" Role at this stage in his career. So naturally we started him up against Bakary Sako who bullied him all night. I understand some people expecting seemingly our "best" young player to be starting, however we need to acknowledge that he isn't yet ready for a consistent 90 minute game. We also don't seem to know our best strike partnership, which leads me back to Mitroglou- Magath claiming he isn't the right man for English football doesn't wash with me. I don't understand what basis Magath had for this, as Mitroglou is a proven goalscorer; and a proven goalscorer will score goals whether he's at Fulham, Barnet, Olympiakos or Bayern Munich. With the seeming absence of Mitroglou we need to pick a strike partnership and stick with it. Woodrow, Dembele, Rodallega and McCormack have all played a similar amount of time off the top of my head and- especially in McCormacks case they seem very unsure of themselves. Something which would come if they had a trust level and knew how the other person thought.

Now onto the "If I was manager I would" bit. There is basically 11 days left of the transfer window left. If I was Magath or MacIntosh or whoever seems to make the signings at Fulham I would prioritise a Central Midfielder, a Creative Midfielder with some more experience of the Championship, and a Striker who is in essence a Target Man (a role which Mitroglou could fulfill) which would hopefully develop a partnership similar to Zamora and Johnson, a winger would also be on the shopping list- but wouldn't be a priority given we still technically have multiple wingers at the club.

Shopping List (in an ideal world); Oliver Norwood (although it seems he's going to Reading), Matt Ritchie, Chris Wood, Albert Adomah (maybe)

The team I would pick if the transfer window closed tonight

Joronen

                            Hoogland                  Burn                        Amorebieta                 Stafylidis

                                                                           Parker
                                            Hyndman                                         Kacaniklic
                                                                            Ruiz
                                                             Mitroglou       McCormack                                                            Used Subs; Tunnicliffe, Roberts, (if leading) Burgess- (if behind) Woodrow

However that team is far too logical so the team I expect us to be playing by the end of the transfer window (assuming there is no injuries)

                                                                 

Joronen

                          Hoogland              Bodurov                         Burgess           Stafylidis

                                                                            Parker
                                                      Eisfeld                            Hyndman

                                                                            David

                                               Woodrow                                 McCormack

Even this team would (in my opinion) be a very good, and competitive Championship team and if played consistent with Roberts coming on for One of the three more attacking midfielders after 60 minutes, we would at the very least win a game.

However "Felix Bingo" doesn't seem to be stopping any time soon, and as such I'm half expecting Liam Donnelly (who I rate but thats another article), Ryan Williams, George Williams and Dino Fazlic to come in for Bodurov, Parker, Roberts and Kavanagh for Derby

Thanks again for reading, If you've made it to the end well done- tweet me to collect your prize. I promise my blogs won't always be this long and negative.