I've actually been thinking about this since we drew Stoke in the Cup, it seems as though the Cup Draw Gods are trying to get us to exorcise the demons of our disaster last season in the Premier League. First we had Sheffield United in the 2nd Round which was undoubtedly the low point of that season for me, and now we're playing Stoke who of course officially sent us down. IF we get through tomorrow I'm fully expecting us to get Hull, Southampton or Liverpool. Even with the fact we're playing a Premier League team tomorrow we haven't had a Press Conference so I'm flying blind a bit on the injury front- but as I've said since the Wycombe Review I'm expecting us to go all in on the Cup and I won't accept anything less.
In the "going all in" we should of course be playing Andy Lonergan in goal still. I said a while back I don't see many opportunities for Joe Lewis, and he may well not make his Debut for us until the FA Cup in January. I stand by that and with that said, there's no chance we should be dropping Lonergan who despite conceding three at the weekend was without a doubt one of our better players (again) and on the form he's on with some of the saves he's making he'll without a doubt be a key player for us tomorrow when we're no doubt going to be put under pressure.
The Defensive selection is actually quite an interesting one for tomorrow. I'm praying we've been doing non-stop Set-Piece work today because if we defend like we did on Saturday we're going to get destroyed. However, it's not as simple as a Height issue which we may have again tomorrow- as I'll get onto a bit later on as shown with the Michael Turner goal where Burn just completely misjudged the ball.
Without knowing for definite, basing it off the Luton game Stoke may well be rotating for tomorrow- and within that rotation Peter Crouch may well be coming in. Crouch against Ream isn't even going to be fair if we're playing Ream as a Centre-Back tomorrow, but at the same time I want the Stearman/Ream partnership to get as many minutes together under their belts as quickly as possible- so we're just going to have to grin and bear it. Nothing about Saturday's managed to dissuade me from my statement that the Full-Backs are picking themselves, the only reason they wouldn't be picking themselves at present would be if we wanted to shift James Husband to the Left-Side of Midfield as a result of bringing Burn in, which I'm against. We could of course start Burn at Right-Back, for the memories.
Wanting us to go for it in the Cup doesn't mean we shouldn't be making changes, and on the Ben Pringle front I'd be actively encouraging it. I've said it a few times now, just because it hasn't clicked for Pringle yet doesn't mean it won't- but with the form he's on I'm sure even he would find it hard to justify him continuing to start. So then we turn our attention to who can come in to replace him, and without a Press-Conference it's quite hard to do so. We do have a number of options when it comes to the Left-Hand side of Midfield though, so it's not a case of if we have a suitable replacement it's case of which one.
In an "everyone fit and available" scenario the team for tomorrow would have Cairney playing on the Left with Ryan Fredericks coming in on the right. I said it in my Blackburn Review that he's one of the few players we've got with genuine pace and we should try and use that whenever possible. The obvious problem with that being Fredericks is Cup-Tied which is annoying, but we just have to move on.
Next on the list would be Kacaniklic coming back into the team and leaving Cairney on the Right-Side of Midfield. Kacaniklic is far from a perfect player but it's hard to say how he'd react if he got a proper run in the team, because he just looks shot for confidence whenever I've seen him play as of late. Then of course we get to what we were playing as the Final Whistle blew on Saturday with Cairney on the Left and Christensen on the Right. None of these options are great, but at the same time I wouldn't be opposed to any of them and it's just a case of who's available for tomorrow.
I'm not sure what we should do on the Centre-Mid front for tomorrow, especially because we're coming up against a team with (it goes without saying) Premier League quality players. If we had one available I'd want to bring in a proper quality Holding-Mid for tomorrow just to give the defence some proper protection, but the fact of the matter is we don't so as with the Ream selection we've just got to grin and bear it and hope for the best.
Despite McCormack's completely anonymous game on Saturday coming up against a Premier League team we can't afford to drop one of our very few players who (in my opinion) could actually make it at Premier League level. As is the case with Dembele really- obviously not yet, but if he can add regular goals there's nothing stopping him from becoming a proper top-level Striker. I'm not sure how they're going to perform tomorrow- and it'll be an interesting test for both guys and to watch unfold tomorrow.
Team for Stoke
Stoke are an interesting team for us to be playing tomorrow, I'm in no way saying we're a guarantee tomorrow- but Stoke are there for the taking at present. If we can take our final 30 Minutes from Saturday into tomorrow's game and translate it into a full 90 Minute performance we have a pretty good shout of being in the Draw for the next round. That is a big "if" though, especially under Kit I've got little to no faith in us actually accomplishing that- and should we get into the hat for next round I think it's a pretty safe bet to say we're going to be put through the ringer tomorrow.
I said it on Saturday and I'll say it again here, these next three games really are make or break for Kit. With all three games being at Home against really tricky teams, but at the same time games that aren't complete write-offs should we lose all three the pressure will be massively on Kit once again- and with it being his squad now he won't have any excuses this time. Unless he goes for his tactic in the Post-Match Press Conference from Saturday where he said something along the lines of "if you take out the Sheff. Wednesday goals we did well". I keep saying this, I like Kit as a person- but he's practically inviting people to get on his back with comments like that.
Another point I made on Saturday could become particularly apparent tomorrow. We've shown our naivety as a team in one form or another in every game this season. Coming up against a Championship team, especially in the case of Rotherham and Blackburn we've managed to get away with it. Playing a Premier League team and that margin for error get's completely thrown out the window, any naivety we show tomorrow will be punished- that isn't even up for debate so we really need a full 90 Minute performance.
Thanks for reading as always, obviously with these Cup games there's a possibility for Extra Time and Penalties and in the event of that happening chances are I won't be getting the Review up in time for Midnight. That said, I hope you stay tuned for the Review tomorrow and then again with the QPR Preview where I'm not sure if I'm going to be putting it up on Wednesday or Thursday yet. As said I try and avoid double post days whenever possible. In the meantime, thanks again for reading- and let's just pray for an improved performance/result.
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