It's also exactly one year ago that Kit Symons came in as Caretaker Manager, so I think it's fair to take a look at said year. In Kit's year in charge we've;
Played: 53
Won: 19
Drew: 14
Lost: 20
Win Percentage: 35.85%
Tomorrows game is yet another test of Kit. I think until we see a complete performance the doubts over Kit and his future will still be there- so a full year into a reign that's not exactly a good sign. As I said in my Review last Sunday, there's definite positives that there simply weren't around a Month ago- I'm not disputing that. However, we're still SUCH a naive team which is almost definitely a reflection on the Manager and it's because of that he's nowhere near secure in the role despite the recent winning streak we're on. That said, we are on a winning streak at present and one year on from Magath we're in an infinitely better position. I won't go as far as saying we're in a good position to push for Promotion which is of course the goal, but we've definitely got the squad now the only question now is if Kit is the one to put all of the pieces together.
We are on a bit of a run at the minute, and one of the players who's been key to that run is Andy Lonergan. He's just been all around quality in pretty much every game he's played for us since coming in- and having Lonergan in goal consistently with the same Centre-Backs in front of him can only help him and the team as a whole.
Those Centre-Backs will of course be Ream and Stearman. I'm still not really sold on Tim Ream as a Centre-Back, especially when there's the potential of him coming up against Atdhe Nuhiu tomorrow it might become particularly apparent. That's not to say Ream doesn't have his plus points and I still without a doubt want Ream and Stearman as our main Centre-Back pairing and with a full week together hopefully they'll be a lot better as a pair than they were against Blackburn. The Full-Backs are pretty much picking themselves at present. We're coming into the last week of James Husband's loan and given how he's performed it is a shame- there is somewhat of a positive with Karanka saying Husband's loan may be extended, but with Garbutt waiting in the wings I'm not really sure on that front. I definitely won't be complaining if he does stay longer than the week he's got left on his current deal.
The Midfield is going to be a really interesting battle tomorrow. With Forestieri playing as a sort of #10 for Wednesday I do have a bit of a worry when it comes to the Second Half against Blackburn and the way the Defence was exposed as a result of asking Jamie O'Hara to play a role he isn't really comfortable playing. The O'Hara/Tunnicliffe pairing is great when we're on the front foot, but I wouldn't call either guy a proper Holding Midfielder, so I'm hoping Forestieri can't find the pockets of space in between the Defence and Midfield. I'm not suggesting we drop either guy, because primarily we don't have anyone who I'd trust to come in and play that role anyway at present- but it's a big area of concern for me.
This is where I'd see Scott Parker coming in when he's fit, I'm not saying he's great in the role- but Parker can without a doubt sit in front of the back four and give it some protection. Sunday's game was crying out for a Sub for a large period of the Second Half just to calm everything down and give the Defence a lot more protection. That's how Scott Parker should be used this season, or heading into these sort of Away Games that's when he should be starting.
Had Ryan Fredericks not have gotten injured Ben Pringle's position in the team would have been quite precarious for me, it's just not really clicking for him- and I'm not saying it won't ever. It's just really annoying, the same can really be said for Kacaniklic- but in his case it's a weird situation where he really needs confidence to be a good player for the team and at the same time we can't afford to play him while he's low on confidence. Of course Cairney will continue at Right-Mid and coming up against a Left-Side likely to contain Daniel Pudil at Left-Back I'm hoping that between him and Richards (who aren't the quickest, shame about Fredericks) we can give Pudil a lot to think about, because while being a good player he isn't that fast and it's an area that can be exploited.
One of, if not the main talking point this week has been Moussa Dembele. In Kit's video interview, which isn't really worth a watch to be honest a lot of the talk was about Dembele and his seeming rise so far this season. The one thing they didn't talk about was the rumoured contract we've offered him, without knowing I think Dembele's going to hold off on signing a new contract (providing it isn't a money issue, which given the rumoured wage rise it shouldn't be) until Matt Smith's back and will see if Smith comes straight back into the team and above him in the "pecking order".
It's as I've said so many times now, Smith is a valuable player to us- but he's best used in our team as a 30 Minute "shock tactic" coming off the bench and changing the Striker dynamic if needed. If we bring Smith back in as a starter above Dembele, especially with how Dembele's performed since we've been starting him I think I'll scream. I'm not saying Dembele is the finished article, I'm hoping that he can now add regular goals to his game now that he's gotten off the mark in the Championship and make him pretty much a complete Striker. Obviously McCormack will carry on next to him, and I'm just hoping they can carry on and further develop the partnership between the two of them.
Team for Sheffield Wednesday
Out of the 6 Games we've played this season we've played 1st, 4th, 6th, 20th, 23rd and 24th. So the fact we're pretty much as Mid-Table as it gets isn't really a surprise to me. While Sheffield Wednesday are below us and only have one win they still without a doubt have players who can punish us- and if we see a repeat of the Rotherham and Blackburn Second Half performances we might not get the luck we did last Sunday. That said, we are on a bit of a winning streak- and Wednesday are seemingly having a lot of teething problems under their new regime with a boat load of new players. I don't know whether being "confident" is the right word, we simply can't afford to let the Second-Half performances against Rotherham and Blackburn happen again- but the First-Half performances are definite positives and especially with Wednesday having a Midweek game when we didn't if we can start as well as we have done recently I'd say we've got a pretty good shot at winning.
Thanks for reading as always, it was pointed out in one of the Interviews Kit did on the Fulham Website- should we win tomorrow it'll be the first time we won 4 in a Row since the Europa League Final season which is just amazing and oddly impressive to me. So hopefully we can put that to bed tomorrow, and the Review for the game will also be up tomorrow as usual so hopefully you'll stay tuned for that. We're getting back into the Weekend-Midweek game pattern between now and the International Break starting with the Stoke game next Tuesday which should be a fun one. Thanks again for reading, if you haven't already I'd recommend looking through the Matt Smith/Twitter Takeover thing he did on the Fulham account because some of the Tweets/Responses were hilarious. Let's just hope that our good run can continue and the Review tomorrow will be another positive one.
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