Will Magath keep a winning team, or will the experiments continue ? -------------Bettinelli----- Voser-----Burn----Hutchinson-----Stafylidis ----------Hoogland------------ ------Parker-------R.Williams--------- -------------David------------------ --------Woodrow-----McCormack---------- Is Parker injured would Eisfeld take his place ? Will Magath play Burn again or will he swap Bodurov for Hutchinson ? Will Roberts play instead of David ? Will Rodallega make the bench ? Will Joronen get his place back ?
I think despite Bettinelli's good performance on Tuesday he might go back to Joronen. Like I mentioned somewhere else he probably intends to use Bettinelli as a 'cup keeper' and as back up to Joronen. If Parker is out I think Eisfeld is too attacking to take his place directly (if Felix thought he was a suitable replacement he'd have brought him on instead of Fotheringham on Tuesday). It'd be too risky against a team like Cardiff. I think Maybe LVC might come in or possibly Fazlic. I'd love to see us line out in a 5-3-2 formation with: ----------------Joronen----------------- ---Bodurov----Hutchinson-----Burn------ Voser-------------------------------Staf -----David----Hoogland---Hyndman------ ---------Woodrow----McCormack-------- This I think is the most balanced team we can play at the moment and is the formation I thought Felix was going to play this year. We have the players to make it work. Hoogland can play the holding role and Voser and Stafylidis are good enough to get up and down the wings to act as both full backs and wingers. If we get caught out with the two wing backs up the field then Hoogland can drop back and create a back 4 again. I think Felix will stick with the 4-4-2 narrow diamond though so I think it'll be the same team bar Joronen in for Bettinelli and Fazlic or LVC for Parker if he's out.
The Felix press conference was a bit of a humdinger today, focusing mostly on off the field issues. However, stuff relevant to the Cardiff game: * Gabon Kiraly isnât eligible since he hasnât yet got International clearance * Scott Parker is fit * Mark Fotheringham is not * Kostas Mitroglou is fit (why mention him I wonder) Separately, I had picked up a rumour that Emerson Hyndman was injured and out for 2 weeks. From when I donât know and it has been a couple of weeks since weâve seen him, so just flagging him up as a question mark. What will be essential tomorrow is not to lose an early goal and have to chase the game (again). Itâs therefore impotant to keep it tight for an hour or so. The team suggested by both SuperBri and FI would do the job. That said Iâm slightly more inclined towards FIâs selection - with a fit Parker coming on instead of Hyndman. The only other debate is goalkeeper. In the press conference, Felix praised Bettinelliâs performance against Brentford. That was in respect to a specific question though and I think heâll go with Joronen. Thatâs my thinking of course. Whereas Felix â¦â¦â¦?? Why mention Mitroglou? What about Chihi and Fazlic, who we havenât seen yet?
I think the mention of Mitroglou could just be to entice potential suitors who may have been in doubt about signing him. I wouldn't expect to see him near the team tomorrow.
Best line up we've seen yet: ----------------Bettinelli----------------- Voser-----Bodurov----Burn---Stafylidis ---------------Hoogland---------------- ------Parker---------Hyndman--------- -----------------David------------------ --------Woodrow-----McCormack------ I don't think many of us can complain about this selection.
Very pleased with the team for today, and the two biggest things for me are Burn keeping his place and also Hyndman coming back in. This time last week I was dreading this match but after the midweek win and a positive looking team I'm quietly confident about this one now.
I certainly can't, given that this is the exact team I picked following the Brentford game (Parker aside, since I thought he would be out injured). Now we'll get to see whether I should stick to Football Manager!
I'm happy with that. Looks balanced. Good to see McCormack and Woodrow having a chance to develop an understanding. I've got a feeling McCormack will score against his old club. I never expect us to keep a clean sheet, so will go with an optimistic 2-1 to Fulham.
I think the only reason Magath mentioned Mitroglou being fit was so other teams wouldn't be afraid to sign him (you couldn't blame them if they were). I think Woodrow - McCormack is going to be our best strike partnership going forward so letting them play together as much as possible makes sense. If they can develop a good understanding they could be lethal in this league so the exclusion of Mitroglou makes sense to me. He's not in our long term plans so don't play him.
I think the 'Mitroglou is fit' comment from Felix came in response to a direct question from a journalist. There was no indication from Magath that he'd play.
Ahead and for the first time this season we truly deserve to be in front. Hoogland for the golden boot?
That was the best 45 minutes I've seen us play in over a year. Could and probably should be further ahead. McCormack and David have been wonderful so far.
You know what, I give Ros/kunye a bit of stick (mainly for being so negative) but I think he was bang on about Hyndman. This kid has the potential to be something really special. EDIT: Woodrow, you have to score there.
1-1, we really needed to turn our dominance into goals or else we could be looking at another defeat after playing so well.
Finished 1-1, which on balance was a fair result. We need to get the ball into the box more, it's like watching a Championship version of Arsenal. We try to walk it in and then resort to shooting from 30 yards when it doesn't come off. Overall though, a more positive display. We need to capitalise when we dominate though, as this young team will be prone to a knockout punch when (like today) the opposition score a goal against the run of play.
It's a good point to pick up, even though a lot of us might have felt more hopeful that today could be the day we got the first league win. This time last week we had just lost 5-1 and everything was a bit doom and gloom, since then we've picked up a good away win in the cup and got a useful point against one of the main contenders for promotion. It may only be baby steps but it's still steps in the right direction. I'm not sure how good or bad this international break will be for the team, to me it just feels like as we're finally getting going this season the break is coming at the wrong time. Who knows though, the break could be good and give the players time to work on things a bit more and time to take it all in about how tough this season is really going to be.
Cracking first half. The main difference from previous games was the movement off the ball. Unfortunately we couldn’t build on the lead. A mixture of things let us down; being over elaborate, lack of composure in front of goal and poor delivery from free kicks and crosses. That comes over as negative but in fact we were far from that and played some slick/ quick football. Hyndman and David showing up with their passes, Parker and McCormack putting themselves about. At the back we looked solid - Dan Burn was outstanding with confident yet no nonsense play. Overall the formation worked. Second half for some reason we lost our sharpness and reverted to trying to control the game deeper and across the field. A number of times if Voser and Parker had released the ball quicker (and forward) we could have taken advantage of good runs. The substitutions were a bit strange in that the players didn’t seem to know who was playing where. For example Chihi when he came on for David seemed to be up front them when Dembele came on he went right. And all the while McCormack went wider and wider left. The impression was that Felix was (again) trying out formations rather than having a distinct plan. That said, I thought Chihi showed up well and looked a player with the kind of strength and purpose that’s needed in this League. So, very much improved, albeit came away disappointed not to take all three points as we could, and should, have done.
There were a few positives to take from the game. Like I said if you are not going to win games at least show the stronger clubs that you can compete against them. In the first half the defense coped really well and Cardiff were no real threat, with zero shots on goal. Their goal in the 2nd half was the only real lapse in defense. The back 4 had the best game of the season so far, bar a few panics. Hope Magath now keeps them intact. Burn was probably my MoTM, but it was close with Hoogland. Hoogland had a good game sweeping up in front of the back four, and filling in for the fullbacks. David did well, but has to practice his free-kicks. Hyndman again had another consistent good game. One of the negatives I found was I don't think Woodrow has the Physical qualities at the moment to be a center forward to hold the ball up, he has been getting bullied too much by CB, but give him time and he'll get there, but not just yet. Don't understand why McCormack and Rodallega aren't the pairing up front, cause in the 2nd half against Millwall they seemed to partner up well. Not sure about the tactics of Madgath, why was McCormack playing out on the wing for most of the game!!! Chihi came on for Woodrow and played Center Forward!!! till Dembele came on. 2nd half we didn't have too many shots on goal, those we did have were coming from midfield players from outside the area and went high and wide most of the time. Please work on corner kicks because they were woeful. Surely the sub to come on for David is Roberts, like for like, if Madgath thinks he can't play both.
Tend to agree with most points, not to sure we have turned the corner yet, still baffled by some of Magaths tactical manoeuvres'. As you say B Mc BMc Cormack seemed to be pushed out wider and wider why ? Another 3 results and I feel I can come down off the fence into the pro or anti camp. At this point in time our scoring and defensive record does not look good, " quality signings or loanees in the next week please. And Felix don't spend the next 2 weeks getting Woodrow running up and down, when I go down to MP to watch training sessions lets see him concentrating on shooting practice.
