In his press conference today Kit declared Scotty Parker “fully fit and raring to go!”. Tim Hoogland is close after playing in the friendly on Wednesday but Nando Amorebieta missed that with a thigh strain - bit worrying that he can’t get, or more importantly stay, fit. No mention of Sean Kavanagh who had a stormer in that friendly but the word around Motspur Park (well, from Ivan Berry) is that “his cut is in an awkward place and he’s not quite ready for the first team”. Nor was anything said about Jazz Richards who apparently missed the Bolton game because of a knock (??) suffered against Birmingham. Kit also confirmed that Bryan wont play but “could be involved”. Personally can’t see him even being on the bench - yet! The options for Kit then are more about which system to play than who to select. And he’ll probably go - ………………….Bettinelli…………… …Richards…Bodurov.. Hutchinson…Stafylidis… ……………Tunnicliffe…Parker…. ……LVC………………………..Kaca… …………..Hugo……..McCormack… Just a personal opinion, but I think the one we’re missing most at the moment is Sean Kavanagh.
I ve said it before and will say it again...... The current system doesn't seem to be working to well, in Burn, Hutch and Bod we have three good centre backs and all our full backs, Staf, Grimmer, Hoog, Kavanagh, Passley are all attacking...... Everything points towards giving the wing back system a try!!!!!
kit seems to be so intransigent in his particular style of play which is clearly not working, so tine for a change. for me 2 speedy wingers Williams, Roberts, Ross as C/F,. The talent is there, but with recent results their confidence must be waning. And still we have the back line problem. If Kit falls to rectify his style of play today, another drubbing
To be fair, that is Kit's first choice team and he's shown absolutely no inclination to vary things unless he is forced to. I just hope that he's been teaching them some new things this week, otherwise this afternoon could be very disappointing.
He’s become as predictable as the team are - put two out wide, pressure us in our own box and we crumble.
I was a fan of kits when appointed, but with his refusal to adapt tactics after our recent dismal performances, i am starting to feel that he is out of his depth. A great manager he may become but I feel that his managerial apprenticeship cannot be honed at our expense. The majority of players in our squad are capable of mid table at least, but the form of play Kit employs and our last line of defence must make opposing managers assured of the points when Fulham are the opponents," another relegation dog fight comes May" ?
We're short of experience at too many levels. He should be able to keep us up but I don't think we can move forward, or hold on to our younger talents, if Kit is the manager next season. We have, within the squad, the players to play a different system and yet we persist with one that doesn't work. Two of our best prospects are wingers, and yet we play with no width.
All the midfield players were non existent in the first half and most of the second half till Ruiz came on. Not one had a good game. There just seemed no passion to want the ball, turn and go forward with any conviction. Symons needs to go sit in the stands and take a look at what is happening, as some on the after match comments you just can't believe he is seeing the game correctly. Does he not see everytime Rodallega comes up against a more physical defender he loses out all the time, and has a poor game, we need a strong physical player, oh wait a minute we had one but loaned him out!!!! Todays game reminded me of a park game where 11 year olds were playing against 16 year olds.
Went to the game today with my Villa supporting mate. First time he has seen us since we beat Villa 1-0 a couple of seasons ago. He was shocked at what had happened to our team. No faces he recognised, a style of play that had changed completely, no width, no experience, no apparent desire for at least 45 minutes. He likes Fulham but is saddened by what has happened to us and we have become. I thought we were bloody terrible in the first half (and they deservedly got boo-ed off) and marginally better in the second. Our goal was complete good fortune and up to that point, and after, we didn't look like repeating the trick. Tabb was skinning Hutchinson everytime - thank the lord he went off injured just before half time - Ipswich could have won by 4 and only a brilliant goal line clearance - I think by Staflydis, couldn't be sure from where I was sitting in the Riverside, stopped it being 3 for sure. Very disappointing. On the bright side, my mate won £38 quid by backing a 2-1 ipswich win scoreline and bought me a pint as consolation.
Spot on SuperBri. I just couldn’t understand our players at times today. * Why on earth did they persist in trying to play long balls and/or high lobs forward? The outcome being that we lost possession. [Nikolay Bodurov stand up please] * Why did they persist in intricate close triangles around the half way line? The outcome being that we lost posseisson or went backwards. [Scotty Parker stand up please] * When they mis-kicked or mis-headed, why did they then just stand and watch? By not following the ball the inevitable outcome being that we lost possession. [Ryan Tunnicliffe stand up please] * Why did they frequently pass the ball behind the intended receiver or when he had his back to their goal? The outcome being that the receiver was caught in possession or passed backwards. [Kostas Stafylidis please stand up] You can replace the named players in parenthesis with any number of others! The recurring theme, and the point I’m trying to make, is that we constantly gave the ball away far too cheaply. And it’s not just sloppy passing as Kit has maintained. It’s a lack of composure, a lack of application and (in some cases anyway) the lack of a football brain. You correctly absolve Ruiz, Superbri. However that leads me to question Kit’s substitutions in general and specifically the nonsense of bringing Roberts on for 5 or so minutes (again! - as Rosc pointed out in the other thread). If, and it’s a big if, he was minded to make a change at that late stage surely the choice had to be Fofana.
Frustration galore... Just not enough experience in the team, and Kit needs some help to get our kids to gel - we should be playing better. Defensively naive: 1) Tunnicliffe marking leading scorer Murphy at the corner; 2) Stafylidis still coming into the middle leaving so much space on his side of the penalty area; 3) ........ (enough). Up front, just not enough composure: 13 Shots , but just 1 on-target - not good enough. Midfield: too much reliance on LVC having a great game. It was good to see Bryan Ruiz come on he made a difference - let's start with him at MIllwall please. Certainly, I disagree that Fofana would help. COYW!
Frankly I was amazed to see in the match statistics that we had 61% possession; it didn’t seem like that from the stands. However, given all that possession that we only had 1 shot on target sums up our insipid play. Apart from questioning the lateness of the substutution GS, the Ipswich lads were too Championship worldy for Pat. All they needed to do, and did, was lean on him knowing that in this League you wont give away a foul. Fofana would at least have had more of a physical prescence and may, just may, have run at them. I'm not saying we shouldn't play Pat but chucking him into the middle of the field for the last 5 minutes is a nonsense.
Kits here until then the summer, for sure. Again tactics all wrong. His refusal to change it up bores me. We're 2 down at home at HT, we're all thinking come on let's have a go here. What do we do - make no changes same old bore for 25 mins then make changes and we score (ok was a touch lucky). For the first time in nearly 20 years I'm looking at the summer - changes required on and off. If the chairman doesn't bother neither am I. So disappointing week in week out same old crap. Apologies to those that favor Kit.
Most of you seem to be saying that you got your tactics all wrong, as a Town fan who was at the match might I suggest that possibly it looked that way because Town got their tactics right? I would agree that Fulham were not versatile enough to recognise when something wasn't working and change it to upset the oppositions plans, but you were getting plenty of ball to the flanks and making our defenders work hard, all you needed was a decent striker to get shots on target and more dominant central defenders to nullify Murphy and Sears and it would have been a close run thing. All the best for the rest of the season.
