Hello! We're back to League action after our disappointing cup performance in the week- and this time we're welcoming Gary Rowett's Birmingham to the Cottage. Birmingham was of course our first win of the season when we beat Lee Clark's Birmingham up at St. Andrews in Mid-Late September, but so much has changed since then- with Birmingham now looking the team in the ascendancy and Fulham somewhat stuttering. I'm not an ultimate pessimist as some Fulham fans have a tendency to be- and realistically barring an absolute horror run of results we won't go down this season, and for people saying a horror run is possible; a miracle run taking us to 6th is equally possible. However, realistically Relegation or Promotion are highly unlikely to happen this season- and despite the current weather it wouldn't surprise me if already have one eye on August.
The appointment of Mike Rigg is going to be the key to our success or failure in the future from when he starts in March. I saw some people slagging him off because of our lack of Deadline Day activity forgetting the fact he wasn't even in the position yet. We definitely need to bring in at least 6 New bodies this summer, but I'll accept less if the players we do bring in are of a sufficient quality.
Squad for Next Season:
GK: Bettinelli, Joronen, Experienced New Keeper- willing to have a #2 Role
DF: Grimmer, New RB (Starter), Bodurov, Hutchinson, Burn, Kavanagh, Stafylidis/New Starting LB
MF: Christensen, Parker, Tunnicliffe, G. Williams, Kacaniklic, New Winger, Hoogland, Hyndman
FW: McCormack, Hugo, Woodrow, New Striker who can potentially start- but mainly rotation option
There a few omissions on there that people could disagree with, the most obvious one if Pat Roberts- while Roberts is undoubtedly an amazing potential talent, I'm not convinced as to how he's going to transition into Senior Football; as such I'd cash in on him while his stock is still really high because in my opinion he will easily command a 20-25 Million Transfer fee in the current climate which'll enable us to sign quality in quite a few areas without worrying about Financial Fair Play. Another player who some might be wondering where he is is Dino Fazlic- misspelt Moussa Dembele there- apologies. I wouldn't sell him- but in my opinion he isn't ready yet so he'd be priority #1 with regard to sorting out a loan move. There'll also be players like Adam Taggart going out on loan- but the large majority of the players we have I'd be either releasing or selling this summer.
The "Get Rid" list:
Kiraly, Zverotic, Voser, Amorebieta, Fazlic, Chihi and the players that'll be coming back to us from Loan Moves; Mitroglou, Stekelenburg, Ruiz, Smith.
Any players you don't see there I'd be Loaning such as Eisfeld and Casasola.
Anyway thats for the Summer- now onto today's game.
Despite his mistake, Bettinelli should of course continue in goal- as I said in my Sunderland Review- his mistake on Tuesday is hardly a representation of his season and I hope Bettinelli puts in a good performance tomorrow to completely put to bed Tuesday's game.
The good news with regard to the defence is Hoogland and Amorebieta are close to full fitness with them getting a run out in the U21s later on tonight. However, for this game the only debate to be had is Grimmer or Jazz Richards at Right-Back. Albeit Richards has had a very limited time frame with which to make his case- in my opinion he showed enough against Blackburn to get his place tomorrow on merit. That isn't a slight on Grimmer- because since he came in against Brighton in November he's come on leaps and bounds; but he isn't quite there yet and Richards isn't necessarily "ready" but he is more so than Grimmer at this stage. The rest of the defence pretty much picks itself until Amorebieta is fit with the solid partnership of Bodurov and Hutchinson continuing- with Stafylidis at Left-Back.
The Midfield is going to be interesting tomorrow- Parker still being highly doubtful for tomorrow the Midfield will be an interesting selection; because the Birmingham midfield could over run us if we're not careful. From Kit's Press Conference it would seem as though McCormack is going to continue in the #10 Role tomorrow- although that wasn't directly said so the 3 Midfielders in behind pretty much pick themselves from my point of view. Kacaniklic, Tunnicliffe and LVC could be slightly more attack minded- but in a home game considering where we are in the table we might as well go for it.
The other interesting talking point with regard to the Midfield is the seemingly never ending saga of Bryan Ruiz. Just as he thought he'd finally escaped the FIFA Paperwork is taking longer than a Dan Burn 100m- and as the paperwork takes longer and longer you have to consider the possibility that Bryan could end up playing out the rest of the season in a White (and Grey Stripes with Orange Bits) shirt.
If it were up to me I'd have McCormack in this section- but at least for the time being that doesn't look likely. As such there are only two real options for the Striker Roles with Hugo and Woodrow. Hopefully the goal for Hugo on Tuesday will have arrested his recent nose dive with regard to form- because when Rodallega gets 1 Goal, a string of goals usually aren't that far behind; thats also why I'd extend his deal at least through next season- because as we've already seen this season Hugo's goals can be the difference between 0/1 and 1/3 Points.
Team for Birmingham;
Bettinelli
Richards, Hutchinson, Bodurov, Stafylidis
Kacaniklic, Tunnicliffe, Christensen
McCormack
Woodrow Rodallega
As I've already said the rest of the season is little more than a formality from my perspective and judging from Kit's Press Conference where he basically admitted we won't be getting close to the Playoffs this season he seems to think the same.
Thanks for reading as always, now the Cup Run is over we have a defined 18 Games left for this season- and from Kits perspective I'd be wanting to win at least Half of them and picking up points in 12-15 of them just to cement his place for next season; because there'll undoubtedly be people asking questions about his involvement next season if we were to limp over the finish line. Anyway, lets have a good rest of the season and lets start it with a 3 Points to send us home happy tomorrow .
No comments:
Post a Comment