I've said it for the last few games and I'll say it again now, Our next few games are make or break for Kit. I've been saying it was Tuesday's game, Tomorrow and next Tuesday- but I'm now extending that to Charlton on the following Sunday as well. I think after the Charlton game we'll have a pretty good indicator as to where we'll be finishing this season. After Charlton we'll be basically a quarter of the way through the season, and if we head into the Internationals with 4 Points or less from these next three games the pressure will REALLY be on Kit.
I got it wrong with regard to the Goalkeeper Selection on Tuesday and it's not Joe Lewis did badly- he didn't do anything either way, but it's a given that Andy Lonergan will come back into the team for tomorrow. Obviously assuming Lonergan doesn't get injured/suspended I think it's a pretty safe bet that he's now in the team to stay until the FA Cup comes around in January.
The "big" news on the injury front heading into the game is Jazz Richards is out for tomorrow after the Peter Crouch tackle on Tuesday. I didn't really sell it in my Review for the Stoke game because he did get up and carry on playing, but obviously with him being out for tomorrow it does raise a few questions over what the punishment for the tackle should have been. My first instinct was that it was a Yellow, it was a clumsy tackle from Crouch without a doubt- but it wasn't a Red for me. One thing that wasn't covered in Kit's Press Conference which is quite annoying is Ryan Fredericks' availability. He's the obvious replacement for Jazz Richards heading into tomorrow, but with him being out of the game last Saturday it's hard to say for definite that he'll be starting tomorrow. Should Fredericks not be fit the only other replacement we've got is Voser, but let's hope it doesn't come to that.
The rest of the Defence is pretty straightforward for me. I still have doubts over Tim Ream at Centre-Back, but coming up against a QPR team with Charlie Austin leading the line I've got less of a concern when it comes to Ream and his aerial ability. So that means we'll be getting the Stearman/Ream partnership again tomorrow, which might not have happened of course given Ream was on the verge of signing for QPR at a point this summer. So that's an interesting little side-story for tomorrow. As I've said repeatedly there's a fine line between giving time to gel and giving time to something that isn't working, and I think coming up against without a doubt the best Striker in the League will be a really interesting test of the two both as individuals and as a pair. On the James Husband front, I believe this is his last game of the initial Loan Deal- and with no mention of something in Kit's Press Conference I'm assuming he doesn't have an injury so of course he'll come back in at Left-Back. It looks like we may be extending Husband's deal with what Karanka's said last week and Kit saying something along the lines of "the longer we can keep him the better". As I said in the Sheffield Wednesday Preview, I'd be all for it- but I'm not sure what happens when Garbutt get's back because that's seemingly imminent should we extend Husband's loan.
One option for Husband should we extend his Loan, with Garbutt coming in would actually be to move him up the Pitch a bit as we did at Hillsborough last Saturday. In retrospect I think I may have been a tiny bit harsh on Pringle in my Stoke Review in that he wasn't completely useless, and on another day he should have had an assist from the chance McCormack fluffed. That said, I do still want us to drop him for tomorrow's game. For the last 20-25 Minutes I thought Christensen really was upping his game and out on the Right and while not in any way reaching his Pre-2015 form, he was probably the best I've seen him this season. With that in mind, and especially with the type of game tomorrow will be- having Christensen out on the Right could be a really good move for us. Christensen out on the Right will obviously bring Cairney over to the Left, and on that front that's really all that needs to be said.
The Centre-Mid selection is pretty straightforward all things considered. Tomorrow's game would have been the perfect Scott Parker game, so the fact he's still not quite there is a bit annoying. With that said, O'Hara coming back in is a big plus for tomorrow- and he really was the only player I fully understood taking out for Stoke. Tunnicliffe should of course partner him, the way we instantly went up a gear as soon as Tunnicliffe (and Dembele) came on against Stoke is all the evidence that's needed on that front.
There really is no logical reason as to why Dembele shouldn't go back to starting tomorrow. I'm pretty sure QPR have only kept 1 Clean Sheet in the League this season, so having someone like Dembele up-front who can cause problems for most defenders really is a must to me. Despite McCormack's relatively anonymous last few games he's still obviously going to continue in the team. As I said in my Stoke Review, the only thing I want us to do differently with McCormack is to take him off Free-Kick duty and give them over to Cairney or O'Hara. I think McCormack's scored two Free-Kicks in his entire time at the Club, and given the number he's taken that's not a good conversion rate.
Team for QPR
I think in these sort of derbies the one thing I simply won't accept is people not looking up for it. Without knowing for definite, I'd guess tomorrow will be our highest attendance of the season and in-terms of "rising to the occasion" the game will be probably be the best test of the season in that respect. Let's be honest, we're not going up and even Kit would struggle to take us down with the squad we've got- so these derbies against QPR & Brentford are the big tests of character for the team this season. I'm in no way saying tomorrow's game will be easy, but there's definite weaknesses to exploit- and it's up to Kit and the team to actually do it.
It's almost becoming a theme of our season, in that we're yet to put together a full 90 Minute display. There really isn't a better time to start than the game tomorrow though, so we can only hope for the best. I think coming up against a Striker like Charlie Austin being backed up by players like Matt Phillips the "we can't afford to not be at our best for the whole game with the quality of players they've got" statement I made heading into Stoke is equally applicable to tomorrow. Time will only tell on that front, but I can't really say I'm that confident. Time will also only tell when it comes to the selection Kit made on Tuesday, I genuinely believe had we gone full strength on Tuesday we'd have gone through. So should we lose tomorrow I'll be really annoyed, because as I've already said we're not going up- and it'll be a special effort to take us down so the Cups are our only real chance of something big happening this season. That said, as is the way with Football- if we win all is forgiven.
Thanks for reading as always, the Review will be up tomorrow at Midnight as usual- so hopefully you'll stay tuned for that. We're of course on TV in our first Friday Night game of the season, and after last seasons exploits in the same position against Brentford, Watford and Bournemouth we can only hope it'll be a different story starting tomorrow. Thanks again for reading, tomorrow's one of those games where I don't care how we get the result- I just want it and hopefully we do and the Review will be a positive one.
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