Hey! Its weird having this amount of a gap between Fulham blogs- but we've actually gone a whole week without a Fulham game when its not Internationals, and after last Fridays "performance" perhaps it was for the best that Kit had a week with the players to fully prepare for tomorrows game. One thing I didn't realise was Kit is still involved in the Wales setup so its hard to say what the Preparation will have been like for the Brentford game- but judging on the performance you have to assume it was quite disrupted.
Before I get into my usual stuff about team selection and positions; the loan window closed yesterday and we had few outgoings, and one incoming- with another player being recalled earlier in the week. Seko Fofana is someone I'll admit I know very little about, I'm wary of making assumptions on a player based solely on YouTube clips so I'm not going to praise him before I see him play- however purely judging from his physical stats he could be the proper DM I've been calling for, for a while. Jack Grimmer coming back is something I was anticipating after it had become increasingly clear Hooglands injury was going to rule him out for months rather than weeks, and with respect to Zverotic- he's awful so as I'll discuss later Grimmer is very much in contention to start. Matt Smith will have played for 3 Clubs in Under 6 Months when he presumably starts for Bristol City, I didn't understand this move- as its become increasingly clear we are trying to employ a long-ball tactic with relative frequency you'd have thought we'd have kept the player almost perfectly suited to being at the Top of a Long-Ball game, but I haven't been impressed with what I have seen of Smith so its perhaps understandable. Passley is a good talent from what I've seen of him, and I hope he develops at Shrewsbury- and hopefully when he comes back the Shrewsbury fans will be singing his praises as they have done for Grimmer.
If there was one positive to take from Last Friday is was Bettinelli, his performance arguably kept the Brentford score competitive and highlighted his growing importance to any success this team will have. We're of course going up against a certain Number 13 on Saturday, Stockdale is someone (in the Summer) I'd have held on to for dear life, however with the progression of Bettinelli it does raise the debate over who we would like in our goal on Saturday. I would personally side with Bettinelli, and I'm sure most Fulham fans would on the basis of current form- albeit from my limited amount of checking twitter to see how Stockdales been doing, the Brighton fans haven't been entirely satisfied with him- and with his injury the brought Christian Walton who they were in favour of staying in goal despite Stockdales recovery, however judging on the fact Stockdale started last week against Norwich those wishes have fallen on deaf ears and we'll have Stockdale in the opposite goal to Bettinelli tomorrow.
The defence is an interesting proposition for this match, I can't see why we'd have recalled Grimmer from his successful loan spell at Shrewsbury just to bench him, so I reckon we'll see Grimmer getting his chance tomorrow- and I hope he grabs the opportunity like LVC, Bettinelli and some of our other youngsters have done. With Dan Burns suspension, and no Centre-Back loan signing we're left looking pretty bare at the back- in terms of quality. The obvious replacement is Hutchinson, however his height or lack thereof could be an issue for us, especially against a team where a Centre-Back is their top scorer- so we should also be looking at Cameron Burgess who would provide a lot more of an aerial threat. Its picking the best of a bad bunch, its crazy to think we could afford to loan out a Striker who scored 10+ in the Championship last season and then we literally have two Centre-Backs who are good enough for this level. On balance I'd probably pick Hutchinson, but on the proviso he doesn't two-foot someone. The other two defence spots are less debatable, Bodurov and Stafylidis have their players close to locked in until we see people returning from injury in the case of Stafylidis, who MUST put in a better performance than he did against Brentford- because Brighton are another team whow wingers who can cause significant damage.
With the arrival of Fofana, you have to wonder how (if at all) he'll factor into the midfield on Saturday. I don't see why we'd have loaned someone to bench them, then again we did loan Giles Barnes (remember him). As I said before, he could be the DM we've been needing (in my opinion) for a while, as such he could be inserted into the first team. That will of course spark the debate over who we should take out. In my opinion if we're going to take out one of our midfield three it should be Williams, I like Williams, however if we're going to revert back to our Narrow Diamond (which I'm praying we are) he's the obvious candidate to drop because out of Williams, Parker and LVC he's the most expendable in terms of how we play in my opinion. However if we're going to stick with the Flat 4-4-2, and I'm praying to god we're not; we'll need Williams on the wing, so this is purely based on what formation Kit decides to go with. I'm hoping Fofana can fulfill the role of the midfield enforced I thought Hoogland did so well against Cardiff, and we've seen done well in previous years. As said with regard to formation, if we're going to play a Flat 4-4-2 Ruiz shouldn't be anywhere near the starting XI if we're going to employ this tactic- he showed against Brentford he simply isn't suited to playing on the Right-Hand side of Midfield, however if we're going to revert back to the Diamond Ruiz as the Top of the 4 is a lot better, and he'll be able to influence the game a lot more.
*sigh* Bents going to score tomorrow isn't he? Considering the "You're not fit to wear the shirt" chant that dogged him at Stoke, and his general mediocrity in a Fulham shirt last season ts an almost guarantee he's going to score on tomorrow- that combined with his record of scoring on his debut for every club he's played for says it all really, and will only add to my hatred of him. Another positive to take out of the Brentford game was McCormacks performance, and the continuously developing partnership between McCormack and Rodallega- and if these two can both be on their games fully on Saturday they should be able to outscore Bent.
Team for Brighton;
Bettinelli
Grimmer, Bodurov, Hutchinson, Stafylidis
Parker, Fofana, LVC
Ruiz
McCormack Rodallega
Thanks for reading, after last Friday I hope we see a much improved performance- and we'll need to if we are to take either 1 or 3 Points from the Amex. Brighton have only won 1 Game in 10, however they've only lost 2 out of their last 10 as well- and with our defence, especially now its weakened in mind we'll need to be at our best. Thanks again, as always any feedback is appreciated.
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