At his press conference this lunchtime, Jol confirmed that Briggs and Diarra (specifically mentioned!) are out. Brede is most probably out and Bryan pretty doubtful (not sure why). I’d go with Madness’ selections, for the reason he gives. And also my argument of the last couple of weeks that we need to strengthen the midfield - primarily to close down the opposition before they threaten our goal. Despite our dominance on Monday night Palace still managed to get in 14 clear attempts. Southampton play a high game and are very combative in midfield. We can’t allow them to control that area and simply hope to hit them on the break. My preference is the second of two options Madness gives. The only change I’d make is Zverotic on the right (where he plays for Montenegro) and Sidwell on the left. At the back, with Hangeland most likely out, well it kind of picks itself: ………………Stkelenburg…………. …Riether…Senderos…Amorebieta…Richardson… .
No Sarah Brookes in this week's internal interview. Presumably she's holding Mr Khan's coat tails as he does his own series of media interviews - he's on 'Football Focus' at the weekend, for instance. Instead the two young people who won the competition to be 'Diddy' David understudies (at least i think it's them) get the honour this week. And some decent questions they ask too, letting Jol open up quite a bit on how he sees things. On specific player information, Bryan has a back injury and he sounds a bit disgruntled about Brede. Sidwell, he confirmed, has been offered a new one year contract but then conceded that he would support it being for two. Anyway, here is the video - a bit longer than normal but as I said full of Q&As that I'm sure all us fans wanted to hear: [video=youtube;L48Cbl8uukE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L48Cbl8uukE&feature=player_embedded[/video] PS Based on that, sticking with the Madness selections.
Think the interview is the press and media rather than the internal. I guess it might be........ ………………Stekelenburg…………. …Riether…Senderos…Amorebieta…Richardson… ........Parker..........Sidwell........... ..Kacaniklic.............Kasami........... ..............Berbatov............. ................Bent................... although could be Duff instead of Kaca. I wonder if he will drop Bent in favor of having Karagounis or Boateng in Midfield against a strong Southampton midfield and use Kaca in the hole with Berba up top with Kasami breaking from midfield to join in up front.
I thought it was a good interview. He's absolutely right. 93 minutes and WBA score, same with Cardiff. Also since Everton we've lost once. Once in 5 weeks. I like the big man a lot. I hope he stays with us.
I think it will be the team that SuperBri has there with Duff instead of Kaca for defensive cover. I'd love to see Mesca come in as we'll need pace on the counter attack and sadly Duffer has lost his.
Will go with a strong midfield and attacking formation in order to take the game to them as we can absorb pressure and counter attack too..
Hope it is Kaca or Mesca instead of Duff!!! My head says we will struggle today 2-1 or 2-0 to the saints but what a time this would be to get one of those unexpected results that most teams get a couple of a season, a win when you are expecting nothing, this would be an amazing time for that to happen, it would give confidence a massive boost, shoot us into the top ten, three wins on the trot, move us away from relegation with a a few hard games coming up!!! The brilliance of football making you dare to dream
Morning all, Totally agree with that cookie. All the pre match stats would show that Southampton are huge favourites to take the 3 points. They have the meanest defence in Europe bar Roma. An impressive stat. It seems that their favoured approach comes from the right of midfield where Lalana plays and clyne provides the overlap. However, we must be full of confidence from the win at palace. Whilst we struggled in the first half, we showed amazing character. Richardson has looked good in the last two games but who will Jol deploy in front of him. Kasami seems the logical player although kaka may be available. Not sure I would fancy kaka vs Lalana though. I would go with super bri's team although I may be tempted to try the forgotten man rodders instead of bent. Bent is a great finisher but I thought he looked overweight, slow and lacking in ambition against palace. I hope he Proves me wrong today !!!!!
The referee today is Mr Marriner, again, and who needs no introduction. please log in to view this image
Let's hope that we can keep the score low. The saints are having a party!!! Who is actually defending?
Our defending is shocking! Senderos is having a particularly bad game. We have the attackers to score but they can't get into the game. Kasami looks like he is genuinely trying, Berbas head has unfortunately gone down and Bent... Looks like he's happy to just pick up pay cheques for being there, absolutely useless.
Don't think it's just defending! Soton 14 (6) attempts with 6 on target versus 0! 67 to 33 possession... Shocking
Normal service has been resumed. Southampton were very, very good. That however, does not excuse our lack of organisation (Jol's responsibility) and commitment (player's responsibility). Okay not all of the players but far too many. There were some poor, half hearted performances out there tonight.
Followed by we want two, we want two. Maarten Maarten sort it out Maarten sort it out I said to my mate I bet Jol says a least it was 0-0 in the second half. And he did.
And one which got us a ripple of respect.... You've only scored 2 You've only scored 2 What crap must you be You've only scored 2 C O Y W
Lost the plot is more like, rosc. "Fulham boss Martin Jol has leapt to the defence of Dimitar Berbatov after his lazy display in the 2-0 defeat at Southampton. The relaxed forward is imperious when he's at his best but too frequently he shows no interest in how his team performs and he was guilty of allowing Rickie Lambert a free header for the opening goal at St Mary's. Berbatov was captain for the encounter on the south coast but Jol said the loss was nothing to do with the Bulgarian's showing. Jol said: "It had nothing to do with the front four, it was to do with the defending. In the second half the shape was better because Aaron Hughes went in and stayed with his man. "It is nothing to do with Berbatov or Bent, it has to do with the application and organisation because if you communicate with each other you come away with results." For Lambert's header, Scott Parker told the striker he was marking the England forward but moments later the ball was nestling in the net. "Berbatov is our spare man, normally he isn’t marking. He’s the spare man so maybe before the game we should have told Berbatov to go on Rickie Lambert," Jol added. "If you play like we did today and don’t talk together we looked like a team of strangers. We have worked together now for a couple of months and we have to do better. "The incident with Berbatov and Scott Parker, I think that’s a good thing because you have to tell him that is what you should do, that is what you have to do and that is what happened." Source: http://talksport.com/football/jol-fulham-defeat-not-berbatovs-fault-13102665647#fK8LAeqEpt8LOXz4.99 So in other words, no game plan. Apart from that, Jol statements lead to so many questions about his ability at the moment. For starters: a) Why on earth would you have Berbatov marking their danger man? We saw exactly the same against Stoke with Berbatov attempting to mark Huth - can't remember exactly but he had at least 4 free headers; b) Why is there no communication on the field? c) Is Sascha Riether the next to be ostracised?
58 maybe you can answer me this When a FFC player this season has been responsible for poor marking giving away a goal (Hangeland the latest culprit) Jol has always criticised the players in a discreet way to the press, yet Berbatov escapes such punishment, and in fact actually finds himself not only ostracised, but defended by the manager?
The worst thing is that gives the 3 laziest players a free card to contribute nothing towards the task of the others to defend and play as a team. The guy is become dangerous for the team's morale.
