Hello! Its our first league game of 2015 we're going to a Cardiff team who have just been given a fresh motivation- and a reason for the fans to firmly get behind them in tomorrows game, which given Cardiffs recent patchy form wouldn't have been the case prior to todays news. The "Blue Shirt Effect" will be a short lived spike for Cardiff before they slam back to reality in 2-3 games in my opinion, unfortunately for us we're facing Cardiff during this short spike- and what is already a tricky game has just gotten 10 times harder, because now the crowd will be firmly behind the Cardiff team on Saturday.
Tomorrows game is our first game where Kacaniklic and Tunnicliffe will be eligible since they were recalled, and they effectively feel like new signings given how much the squad has changed (and management) has changed since their last Fulham games. I'm not sure as to how match fit Kacaniklic is, his last competitive game was at the end of November for Copenhagen- I'm not sure if injury played a part, but either way he won't be fully match fit which will raise doubts over his level of inclusion in the team tomorrow. There are no such doubts over Tunnicliffes fitness given the fact he played 4 Full 90 minutes at his last 4 Blackburn games- so the question over Tunnicliffes involvement are less to do with fitness and more to do with options.
Bettinelli should of course continue in goal tomorrow, it was interesting news to see Schwarzer was allowed to leave Chelsea permanently to Leicester when (if the papers are to be believed) the only stumbling block over Schwarzers return to us was Mourinhos unwillingness to let Schwarzer go because of uncertainty of Petr Cech. While I wouldn't substitute Bettinelli out at this stage, it does beg the question about where Bettinelli would have been if Cech (presumably) had given assurances over his future in October/November.
We're going to have to be defensively on point for tomorrows game, especially given the way the crowd will get behind the Re-Blued Bluebirds. We of course kept a Clean Sheet last weekend, and despite conceding two goals against both Brighton and Bournemouth I didn't see anything greatly wrong with the back 4 we were playing and their defensive work. As such I'd continue with the Back 4 we appear to have settled on, and indeed I'd continue with the same back 4 barring new signings and injured players returning- and even then question would have to be asked depending on how the defence is playing at the time.
The Midfield is where the debate is to be had, both for tomorrows game and pretty much the whole month of January. As I've already said with regard to Kacaniklic there will be doubts over his match fitness- and granted I've not seen him in training I would keep him on the bench and give him roughly 30 minutes tomorrow. Although Kit didn't out and out say it, I think Christensen is highly doubtful for this match- and as I said with regard to my Wolves Preview I wouldn't want to risk Christensen and make him worse if he's a 50-50, despite there being points available tomorrow. I'm not sure about Bryans fitness, but I would assume the fact he was on the bench for Wolves- and a week has passed since, with no further news about him he's fit and as I was saying in the summer with regard to players like Bryan and Mitroglou as long as we're paying their wages we should be playing them- and we should take this attitude with Bryan this month. The three midfield spots in behind Bryan (assuming we're going to stick with the diamond for the time being, as the Wolves game indicated) are pretty straightforward for the time being with Tunnicliffe, Parker and Fofana occupying those spots.
We need to start playing McCormack as a Proper Striker. In the last few games he's been playing ridiculously deep- although that could be symptomatic of the lack of Bryan and Christensen and lacking in midfield as a result of these absences, however hopefully with the re-inclusion of Bryan and the addition of Tunnicliffe to the midfield providing enough of a balance to the midfield McCormack can go back to playing up front. This is also why I think we should keep Rodallega in the team- at least for the time being, because he's been ridiculously isolated in our last three games because of a combination of good defences and McCormacks wandering.
Team for Cardiff
Bettinelli
Grimmer, Hutchinson, Bodurov, Stafylidis
Tunnicliffe, Parker, Fofana
Ruiz
McCormack Rodallega
With Kacaniklic coming on for Fofana at roughly 60 minutes regardless of the score.
On Paper, Cardiff haven't won in 5 games- and if the game was played yesterday it would have been a much different prospect, but with the way the crowd will undoubtedly get behind the team tomorrow it could be very similar to the supposed "new manager" effect and provide the Cardiff players with enough of an impetus to win the game tomorrow- although in the long-run it won't have much of an effect.
Thanks for reading as always, tomorrows game will be interesting with regard to how the "Blue Shirt" effect counteracts the general ill feeling there has been with regard to Cardiffs recent play under Russell Slade- and how much of an impact the Blue Shirt effect has on the players on the pitch, but thats for tomorrow and if we can frustrate the Cardiff fans for the first 30 Minutes we could get the better of them and take something from the game.
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