No press conference from Kit today, so going in a bit blind on fitness; never mind tactical thinking! The 4-4-2 against Wednesday only kind of worked and it certainly (with the players Kit selected) didn’t show any attacking flair. We really need to be aggressive in this game right from the off, so it’s back to a kind of a ‘Diamond’ I’m sorry to say, and I’d be very tempted with the team the Captain suggested for that game: ......................................Bettinelli.................................. ……Richards...…..Turner......Hutchins…......Stafylidis .......................................Hoogland................................ ...........................Fofana................Kavanagh.................. ..............................................Ruiz..................................... ..............................McCormack.......Smith......................... However, having watched the last 20 minutes of the game I was impressed by the way that Woodrow created space, while at the same time had awareness of Smith and his headers. Also, Parker, despite my doubts about whether his legs can carry him through two games in such short a space of time, continued to give some stability. To cut to the chase, my opinion is that we need to get in among the Leeds back four early on, create a dominance and both of those players will sit well with that. Therefore, I’m going to tweek the Captain’s team a tad and go for: …………………..Bettinelli…………. ….Richards… Turner..Hutchinson…Stafylidis.. …………………..Parker………. ……..Hoogland………………Kavanagh…. ………………….McCormack….. ……………Woodrow…..Smith….. No doubt Kit will keep Tunnicliffe - though I can’t see for the life of me why - and he could come in for Kavanagh. I know Tunni is not a natural left sided person but since his passing is so poor and his main contribution (allegedly) is ‘breaking up play’, it makes little difference whether he’s left or right. Fofana versus Hoogland is a tight call for me. But I’d probably opt to bring Fofana on later. And the same goes for ’super-sub’, Bryan. At which point, Cauley could come off and Ross either stay deeper or go up front - depending on the scoreline. And a final word(s) - surely to goodness he won’t again gamble with the returning Amorebieta!?
Kit seems to be suggesting a change of game plan and playing to our strengths, not sure what that means. Hoogland and Kavanagh together would be an interesting pairing, both full backs (I thought at the beginning anyway!) and would give some energy - not going to create much but could leave that to the players ahead. I think he will go with a narrow 4-3-3 with Woodrow and McC slightly behind and wide of Smith up top and lots of long balls to be flicked on to either. Same team otherwise.
Morning Fulham fans, feel free to post your opinions on the Leeds match thread if you wish. There are audio links and should have streaming links too later. http://www.not606.com/threads/the-breakfast-debate-fulham-v-leeds-utd.295043/
As long as Hugo is nowhere to be seen I am ok with any other attacking option! Who is this Smith guy? He is playing well!
Feel free to join in with the Leeds fans http://www.not606.com/threads/the-breakfast-debate-fulham-v-leeds-utd.295043/
How did we loose that. Apart from the red card it sounded like we should have finished them off after 25 minutes. When your lucks out, it's out and now we are in a dog fight for sure.
Agreed 2Whites - with a few caveats. Like you I don’t know how we lost that game. But the thing is, we can’t continue getting bettered at home like this. There were of course, a number of reasons why we lost. Bad luck was one but not the fundamental one. Firstly, our midfield was non-existent; even in that early period (those 25 minutes) when we were so much on top, the midfield was not in there, following up and supporting the front pair. Indeed for the bulk of game the gap between them and the forwards, them and the back was huge. I could go on about the flaws in the system but the bottom line was that neither Tunnicliffe nor Hoogland showed any football nous whatsoever. Secondly, when we conceded the second goal Kit should have immediately made substitutions. Instead he eventually made what appeared to be a pre-planned Kaca for Ruiz change. Not only was that baffling in terms of personnel but it changed nothing system wise. The game was screaming out for tactical changes. [As an aside was Kaca wearing a gilet under his shirt or is he carrying a wee bit of excess weight?] I have to say the first 25 minutes were really encouraging in that we looked composed, were playing with some energy and had so many chances to score. While the chances kept coming our play drooped badly thereafter - so much so that we were reduced to a passel of individuals. The impetuous stupidity of Stafyilidis naturally didn’t help but to be honest you had the feeling that the players had lost faith by then. Nontheless, we still had chances and I’ve now gone full circle. How in hell did Leeds manage to score 3 and us 0 (zero)!!?? PS Liked what I saw of Turner.
Thanks for the visualization, G Jim always paints an exact picture of what the keeper's of the day are wearing but not so good at the gaps on the pitch. It's the first time I've felt nervous about our league status in months, that's not good eh.
Correct we seem to have the game under control and had had some good chances to score with their keeper pulling off 3 good saves, then the ref waves play on after Ruiz was pushed in the back for a blatant foul and two passes later Leeds have the ball in the back of the net, and it changed the game. Poor second goal to give away just at the start of the second half. Stafilydis had such a poor game, but too get booked for saying something to the linesman, and then a minute later booked again for another poor decision by the linesman, think he just lost it. But agree again the subs were puzzling, why Kaca for Ruiz and not Kavanagh for Tunnicliffe to go in at left back for Stafilydis !!! instead he puts Hoogland at LB!! How many times do I have to say Hoogland is not a fullback why can Symons not see that, he was playing OK in midfield. Why Fofana for McCormack why not Woodrow ? Crazy or Clueless? Scott Parker was gone after 70 minutes that's who Fofana should have come on for, the funniest thing was when Parker collapsed on the ball, when he got up the idiot of a ref waved play on !!! Let's hope that the Ref has somewhere on his wall to put the signed Leeds shirt he must have got after the game. Thought Bettinelli had a nightmare for all 3 goals. Where as their keeper kept them in it early on. Agree Turner was more stable at CB and played well.
My son said that exact same thing to me on the way home, SuperBri. And do you know, however hard we try to analyse this system or those tactics, that is absolutely why Leeds won and we didn't.
I keep saying it ,defence hopeless, and the headless chicken between the posts once again was pathetic. There will be those who in the past say lets stick with the manager, ( well he must go), he will be gone at seasons end so why wait until we are in div 1. To his absentee fans before commenting on Kit come and see his none existing game plans week in and out.
My problem with this is that due to his stupid diamond formation we don't know which players are actually any good...
Okay, I'm in the Kit camp. However, it doesn't stop me from being critical of him. I won't repeat whats already been said but Kit needs to wake up and sort it out, the next 7 games are critical. We are totally in a dog fight for survival here and we are not too good to go down either.
I normally don't post after games if to depressed but feel I have to after reading a few comments about Betts, I was in the Hammersmith end and didn't think he did anything particularly wrong, I was right behind the first goal and not sure how anyone can blame Betts Parker lost the ball in his own third, there guy put in a great cross and Stafy who was slightly out of position let there guy have a run on him and he put it in the top corner Not sure on the second but the third although the far end appeared to be a mis hit volley straight down into the ground bouncing up and looping over the keeper not sure how that is Betts fault either! Having seen the team play for the first time in a while I'm convinced the major problem is full backs, although not slow no particular pace, average quality spending a bit of cash on two top championship full backs would make a big difference to that team
However ugly it was to watch, we got some joy from the long ball to Smith, who had a bit of a nightmare in front of goal. Quite worrying that a poor Leeds team put three past us - back to the stupid system. I didn't think it was a foul on Ruiz, he let himself get pushed off the ball. He and Betts had an extended exchange afterward where it looked as though Betts was blaming him. Lack of width is now comical, Ruiz and McC can't play together it affects our shape too much. We end up with three quite slow attackers and no pace coming through from the midfield. Concerned about morale too, at 1-0 down, at home, against a team who haven't shown much, we didn't rally or mount a fight back. Once more we have too many players on the pitch who won't be affected by relegation, they have no real stake in the club. Don't know if anyone else was watching the screens at half time when Curbs and Kit came out to go to the dugout? Curbs running ahead dressed up in his suit and Kit trotting behind trying to keep up. What is the situation there? Is Curbs effectively manager but using Kit as the lightening rod so he can stay on if this season ends in relegation? Finally, big Ross McCormack. How much of a prat must he have felt. After waving at / mugging off the Leeds fans he then had to hobble past the lot of them to get to the dugout. It wasn't a good evening for either striker. Expect there will be a few YouTube videos of Leeds fans hurling abuse at Ross.
I was not at the game and I am glad I did. Not because we lost but because I can't put up with a stupid system that doesn't work and a team with no leadership... Frankly if we are relegated it won't hurt too much. Can't see anything changing for the last few games. Kit is so naive that even a conference manager could field a team to beat Fulham! I'm just depressed with the whole situation! Have you seen the goal difference?
