In today's press conference the chat was mostly about the managerial position - and there's nothing worth reporting back on that. On Saturday's team Kit said all the 'Internationals' had come back without injury. So .... There are a few questions for this game. The first has a simple answer - probably. With Amorebieta injured will Stafylidis be the straight replacement? - probably (despite his having a wretched time for Greece midweek). The second is whether Ruiz, who has only just returned from Korea, will be considered given he’s bound to be jet lagged? I think not and David will come in after a good run out and scoring for the eleven who played Cardiff. The third is more problematic - Hugo or Smith? In recent matches nobody could criticise Hugo’s effort but he’s not a natural goal scorer; whereas Smith showed in the same U21 game that he is. I’d expect Smith to get the nod. The fourth is where to play Hoogland. He gets forward, has proven to have a knack of picking up goals but defensively he’s very suspect. Norwich are going to try and hit us on the break and down the flanks, so for this game I’d put Hoogland as central midfield alongside Parker and bring in Vozer or Zverotic at right back. The fifth and last, is how we find width ourselves without totally compromising the ’diamond’ that Kit has come to prefer. Simple answer for this one also - play George Williams. So My starting line-up is:   ………………..Bettinelli……………. ..Zverotic…Bodurov….Burn……Stafylidis… ………..Hoogland……Parker….. …Williams……David……McCormack… ……………..Smith……
It doesn't matter who we play, we always beat Norwich. I think we should go with: ----------------FulhamIreland-------------------- Cottager58--Bidley----Captain Morgan---FFC_Madness SuperBri----Fulhaman---Cravingawin---Kunye- -----------Surlyc------Cookie-6262-------------- Apologies to those who didn't make the cut, this management game is tough. Joking aside though I think this will be a very tough game so I like the idea of Hoogland in CM along side Parker. I'm not sure about Zverotic at RB though, I'd rather have Voser. Also I'd stick with Hugo up top, he's been on a good run and is playing with confidence, I wouldn't do anything to upset that. I'd definitely love to see George Williams from the start after his good performances with Wales.
Sadly true, and with that in mind, I am expecting nothing other than yet another defeat at the Cottage
Having taken my rose tinted glasses off I dont think weve got the strength and power to match Norwich. However, players always raise their game for the big games and im hoping Kit gets them motivated to turn Norwich over or beat them by a single goal.
Sounds like the International players have come back without injuries, so that is a plus as injuries can disrupt the team, (my Fantasy Football team is devastated with 7 players Doubtful ). Think we mustn't let in a early goal,get our home form back on track, hopefully Norwich will come to attack so we can counter-attack, just need our defense not to make the mistakes they did at Boro, and for the forwards to take their chances. Easy as that So My starting line-up is:   ………………..Bettinelli……………. ..Voser…Bodurov….Burn……Stafylidis… ………..Hoogland……Parker….. …Williams……Ruiz……McCormack… ……………..Rodallega…… Need to win more freekicks around the box for Ruiz, McCormack or Roberts to exploit. Need to bring someone like Roberts on if it's a close game for the last 30 minutes to see if he can bring his good form to cement a win.
Sounds like we should be more than just 1-0 up, hopefully we can get an early goal in the 2nd half and not come to regret missed chances. We still need to be wary of Norwich, they seem to be the comeback kings so far this season, so many points gained from losing positions.
A decent performance so far, we had one cleared off the line from a corner. Stafylidis is actually playing LB with Kavanagh in midfield, which is why he was so far forward for the goal. I'm delighted for the lad, should settle him down and give him some confidence. If anyone wants a link to watch it this one works: http://firstrowir.eu/watch/290838/1/watch-fulham-fc-vs-norwich-city.html
Great win against the team who were top of the league at the start of the day, lets not forget that. Not to sound too over confident but I think we now have a nice run of games coming up to try and make up the points lost at the start of the season. The team seems to be coming good now and finding it's feet in this league. Tough games against Boro and Norwich out the way, we're now coming up against teams we'd really fancy ourselves to win against - Rotherham(a) Charlton(h) Wigan(a) Blackpool(h) Huddersfield(h). Our next 5 league fixtures and can't say that I fear any of these teams, not saying I expect us to win all 5 but we should go into them knowing we can compete and we have nothing to fear.
Everybody did something okay and something not okay today; except McCormack who didnât do anything really. While we rode our luck, we were pretty solid in defence and Bodurov was especially good in the air. Playing Kavanagh in front of Stafylidis was a gamble - presumably Kit did this to counter Redmond - which perversely, worked. Frankly neither looked very comfortable but Norwich decided to switch Redmond to the opposite wing and Kavanagh took advantage of the âfreedomâ he now had .. wonderfully. please log in to view this image Scotty Parker worked like a Trojan throughout but we lacked any creativity; evidenced by only one real effort on goal in the second half (a scuffed effort by Dembele). However three points and a clean sheet is not something to complain about. So well done Kit & Co. PS You are correct Bidley - the ref wasn't very good and really inconsistent. None of them in the Championship seem up to muster and I guess we'll just have to accept that
I read that only Scotty Parker put in more successful tackles than our mate Ruiz today. That's a stat that shouldn't be ignored.
We never manage to beat you lot, i really hope you don't appoint Hughton the guy is a clown. Well done today.
Indeed, not only did he score the winner but also had the highest pass completion rate out of any of our players (83%). Surely if you were going to guess out of Ruiz and Kavanagh who'd have the highest pass completion rate and who had the second highest tackle rate you'd have gotten them the wrong way around.
I listened to the game from our website today, and don't ask me why but I wasn't nervous. Now that's a first for quite some time, apart from Bolton although it needed the goal before the break. The ref sounded awful and it certainly seems the trend in this division. It's a great win and I'm very happy even though we are still in the bottom 3. Just 2 pts. from safety now though and we couldn't have imagined that under Felix.