At today's press conference the Gaffer said that clearly Piazon won't be available but neither will Madl. No mention of Ayite, Bettinelli or indeed Cairney. Over the years often thought we never get any luck. Well, getting three of the dirtiest teams in the League in succession, and over the space of only one week, is doing us no favours. The lack of protection from hapless referees in the first two of those games adds to our bad fortune right now. Guess the main speculation is whether, after two fantastic matches at centre back, Denis Odoi will continue as Tim Ream's partner. I suspect not and Tomas Kalas will be back - Jokanovic tends towards his first preference unless there's some over-riding reason not to. What he could do of course is play all three; allowing the Ryans (Fredericks and Sessegnon) to be pucker wing backs. The other big piece of speculation is whether he will play Cairney. I suspect (hope?) we won't risk him yet and give Tom that wee bit of extra time to get properly fit. Nor will the new boys be risked - the Gaffer's usual words when he's holding a player in reserve, "[Fonte and Ojo] have great capacity to learn & will be important players for us this season". Interestingly Aluko gets a big build up, So the line-up - ......................Button............. .......Kalas.......Odoi......Ream.... ..Fredericks..McDonald...Sessegnon.. ...........Johansen.....Norwood... ........Aluko..................Kamara... If I'm honest though it's more likely to be the regular four at the back with Odoi dropping out and Kebano coming in up front on the left.
I like the look of the team you have there, but as you say, seems unlikely the gaffer will go that way. To solve the Odoi problem id rather just play him at left back and move Sess further forward. We can still have that exact same 11 but just a slighly different shape.
I expect to see: Button; Fredericks, Kalas, Ream, Sessegnon; McDonald, Johansen, Norwood; Aluko, Ojo, Kamara. However I would very much prefer to see Fabio's suggestion of Odoi & Sessegnon on the left, or maybe even Odoi & Kebano. Odoi deserves to play at the moment (and Sess has already played 279 minutes in the last 14 days).
And the man we've got today is none other than ... Stuart Attwell. please log in to view this image Won't dwell on Attwell's time in the wilderness or the reason for it. However he's back flirting with the Premiership; having spent the first two games of their season as a 4th official. So our match today is his first proper one of the new season. Attwell officiated at two of our games last season and no surprise that they weren't happy memories. The latest was on 13th May in the first leg, at the Cottage, of our semi-final playoff against Reading. Plenty of 'incidents' not in our favour but you wouldn't necessarily realise that by simply looking at the after match stats - he booked Malone and McDonald while sending off McShane as well as booking two of theirs. The other match was the smash and grab 2-1 win for Brighton at the Cottage back in January. Again five cards were issued; Fredericks and Smith (you know who was in a sulk at the time) for us and three of theirs. Again that doesn't begin to touch on the real story. Dunk, who go the winning goal, should have gone before that for kicking Piazon, their iffy penalty and our missed one, to mention but the main 'incidents'. More recently, at the end of July, he ref'd our adopted club's Emirates Cup match against Leipzig (which Sevilla won 1-0) and yes, the card yet again came out five times. So, there you have it - Stuart "five cards" Attwell.
Wednesday didn't have to do anything to win that, although thought Bannan was superb and Fletcher wasn't too bad either. We, on the other hand, were flat footed throughout. PS Nice to see Rui Fonte and nice to see he has two good feet. Pity he didn't once in the 90 odd minutes get even one forward pass.
Very disappointing with today's game, without a doubt this is a very talented team, but from where i was sitting it seemed that there was no technical input into the teams play. Managerial direction appeared to be lacking, and while awaiting the wrath of the Slavi supporters questions must be asked can he turn our results around proving to be the man who can take us to the level us fans aspire to Last season up until 19th Aug 8pts This season " " " " 3pts while i dont expect those up there to remain so, there is still a lot of catch up to be done, and so early in the season. Time to bring on our 2 big C/F ?
Don't believe C/Fs big or otherwise are the answer rosc. Do agree with your first point though. The Gaffer seems to do better when he has fewer selection options. And today you have to question the performance of three of his favourites: Johansen continued to be unimpressive, low on energy and awful passing [Seemed to have the hump because Fonte took corners and free kicks? And was better at them] Aluko appeared disinterested and maybe had his mind elsewhere Cairney simply did not seem fit; played too deep and seemed to avoid the 'busy' areas [Can only remember him making one forward run with the ball]
Another case of not taking our chances in the first half. Cairney was ineffectual most of the game and was easily marked by Bannan who ran the show all game. Think Kebano had more of a spark about him when he came on then Aluko had during the whole game. Very sloppy passing in the second half by a midfield who were not at their best.
Funnily enough, I thought Johansson was much better than Cairney. If he hadn't got injured I would have kept him on and subbed Cairney when Norwood came on. I thought the first half looked promising and we deserved to be ahead by half time. That said, in the second half we were much worse and didn't deserve to get anything from the game. Sessegnon was the standout for me, and the game underlined how much he needs to play forward rather than at left back. That said, Odoi's right-footedness was conspicuous, always having to cut back when a left-footed cross was a better option. Fonte looked encouraging, though the rest of the team weren't switched on to the runs he was making (hopefully that will change as they all get to know each other's style and preferences). Conclusion: our mythical new left-back has to be transfer priority number 1. Until then I'd be tempted to break up the Kalas/Ream partnership in the centre and try Ream at left back. Other than that, we've got the right personnel once they all start to gel. Which makes it all the more galling that we didn't go get Fonte (or one of the other strikers we looked at) in July rather than late August.
Another thing: Button played well (other than one of those moments where he moves wide of his goal to receive a back pass without his defender realising). I thought he was very good on crosses and high balls yesterday, and generally had an air of confidence. I know he's not always like that, but he does seem to be in good form just now.
Agree. Our new Goalie coach has obviously been working with him on crosses and indeed distribution, which has also improved. Good to see Bettinelli back mind. Meanwhile, on Tom Cairney. In an interview with FulhamTV today the Gaffer confirmed that Tom had not and still wasn't training with the squad. The problem is still the knee and the physios will "be working on his strength for Ipswich". Really does question whether he should have played on Saturday. PS Very strange that in the interview Jokanovic didn't seem to be aware/acknowledge that Tom had been called up for Scotland, He said, "we'll continue to work with him during the break". Could of course mean that we are going to pull him out of International duty. Hope so!
Agree with the captain, Button seemed to have played last Saturday with much more confidence and the previous week was i believe man of the match,could be the results of the new coach, if so lets hope it will continue for both keepers.
