Hello! We're here with another Preview, and what will be my last Preview Blog of 2014 and we're coming up against a Brighton side who have seen a managerial change not so long ago with Sami Hyypia departing and unless something drastic happens they'll be coming into the game with Nathan Jones as Caretaker, however coming off the back of scoring 2 Goals in a 2 Goal comeback from Boxing Day this Brighton team is looking like a different, and more threatening proposition than they did just over a week ago.
We are of course welcoming some familiar faces back for the first time, with David Stockdale and Aaron Hughes likely to start tomorrow- and I'm sure they'll receive a very warm reception. Unfortunately or Fortunately depending on your point of view it looks as though Darren Bent will miss out on the game tomorrow, on the one hand I was looking forward to giving him a "special" reception tomorrow- but he was likely to score because of that very reason so it does work both ways.
Coming into the game we're the only Monday game, which again can work both ways with regard to knowing results and the permutations of those results. As a result of the results today we've dropped to 17th, however any kind of win would take us up to 14th and in a very unlikely event a 3 Goal Winning Margin would take us up into the Top Half of the Table (provisionally) for the New Year, and I'm sure we'd all agree after the first 8 Games that will be a good accomplishment and give us a good foundation for 2015. Speaking of foundations, we're now beginning the second half of the season, and a very important half at that- as I briefly touched on in my Bournemouth Review the factors surrounding our first 23 and the teams we had to play away- combined with giving all of the other teams in the League an 8 Games head-start effectively has meant I'm quietly confident with regard to the second half, but we need to start off the second half of the season by setting a precedent and winning our home games will be a must.
Now onto the game itself, After another great performance Bettinelli will continue in goal- and it'll be a very interesting game with regard to Goalkeepers as we'll see another direct comparison between Stockdale and Bettinelli as they both sit behind two relatively mediocre defences and are sure to be busy tomorrow- hopefully more so in Stockdales case.
As I've just said, we'll both be facing and fielding a pretty mediocre defence tomorrow- but the past three games have given me hope with regard to keeping a third clean sheet from our last 4 games. Aside from the defending for Bournemouths first goal I was reasonably happy with our defensive performance on Boxing Day- although Bournemouth created chances they were largely half chances and I thought we restricted them quite well given our defensive weakness and their potency in front of goal. Using Nathan Jones' only game in charge as a basis it looks as though Brighton will be playing a Traditional 4-3-3 tomorrow as such we'll have to deal with the width Brighton possess and can create with players like Bennett and Colunga. However, I thought Stafylidis copes reasonably well with Elliot Bennett a month ago so I don't see a reason to change things around- we were let off the hook somewhat a month ago with LuaLua going off injured relatively early and again using the game on Boxing Day as a basis it looks as though he isn't back yet as such I don't see any reason as to why we should change our formation as I did for Bournemouth- and in turn we should stick with the game defence.
The Midfield is an interesting proposition tomorrow. I'm not sure whether to work on the basis Christensen is injured after he was subbed on Boxing Day, and due to the congested nature of the fixtures Kit hasn't had a Pre-Match conference to tell us one way or the other. As such I'm going to talk about other options we have, but still have Christensen in my team with an "*" next to his name. With Christensen's status in doubt we of course need to look at other midfield options, the obvious name would be Hyndman who started in the reverse fixture a month ago- and he would provide a similar style to Christensen just not necessarily as well, however coming into a home game against a team who are in the Relegation Zone I think we should be a bit more offensive. I'd start George Williams and use his pace similar to the way he was used against Sheffield Wednesday when he came on, and in the absence of Christensen- Williams would be a good player to launch counter-attacks with. The other two midfield spots are pretty straightforward in my opinion I don't see a reason why Fofana and Parker would be dropped unless it was for tiredness- which would affect Parker more so, however I would hope Kit had this game in mind when naming the team for Bournemouth and would have acknowledged that having Parker in the team as often as possible was a must. Tomorrow is also likely to be the final chapter of the Bryan Ruiz-Fulham saga, unless Kit surprises me (and I'm sure others) I can't see Kit playing Bryan in January unless he has a commitment from Bryan that he is staying as it isn't worth the risk of Bryan getting injured when he should/could fetch us in excess of £4Million pretty easily. As I said, I don't see Bryan being rested for tomorrows game- because of his complete lack of exertion on Boxing Day- and hopefully he goes out on a high.
The Striker debate has definitely opened up again after Hugo had a baron game against Bournemouth, but in my opinion there is no debate. Yes, Hugo has now gone two games without a goal- but one of those games I thought he did really well in (Sheff. Wednesday) and the other he (and the rest of the team) were completely strangled by a very well organised Bournemouth team who restrict most teams. As such I'd persist with the Hugo-McCormack partnership for at least one more game before even reopening the debate with regard to alternative options- and as I've made reference to with regard to McCormack at various parts of the season strikers shouldn't always be judged on goals, and against a much worse defence (in comparison to Bournemouth) I would expect us to create enough chances to where Hugo/McCormack will either score- or have a chance where they should have scored.
Team for Brighton
Bettinelli
Grimmer, Hutchinson, Bodurov, Stafylidis
Fofana, Parker, G. Williams*
Ruiz
Rodallega McCormack
*Christensen
Thanks as always for reading- Its been a trying year for Fulham fans, and one I'll be summarising in my "2014 in Review blog" most likely coming out on Tuesday- so stay tuned for that. But, lets hope we end the year on a high and go into 2015 fresh off the back of a win.
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