In his press conference today Slavi stepped up and admitted that he had to fix things after Tuesday night’s horrible display. He did say however, “the players know they can play better than they did on Tuesday, we need to be positive, clear our mind”. That would suggest we won’t see radical changes for Saturday. One that might be enforced though is Dan Burn, who is very doubtful with a hamstring problem. Guess the big question is whether he’ll play Baird and as SuperBri said in the Bairdinho thread, if so where? Chris certainly did a good job for an hour in our game against Derby; at central defence sitting in front of their back 4. Not sure I can see him at full back these days, although Garbutt will be a very lucky boy to get another chance straight away after his shocker on Tuesday – know Chris isn’t normally LB but he has done it there for us in the good times. Can’t see him replacing one of the current lot at CB (even with Burn out) – he was never renowned for his heading. Pretty certain Savi was content to bring him in for his fighting spirit and leadership so he’ll play him central midfield primarily as an 'organiser', possibly swapping him and Parker around. So for tomorrow? Probably off the bench when Parker tires. Just as big a question is what formation will Slavi play? To be honest if you look at our results choosing between 3-5-2 and 4-4-2 is as long as it’s broad. The Burn situation may force his hand though, unless he brings Stearman back. On balance it looks like it could be: ......................Lonergan................ ..........Madl..Stearman..Amorebietta... ..Fredericks...Parker...O'Hara....Kaca.. .......................Cairney.... ............Dembele....McCormack...
Just thinking more about Baidinho at LB. Vaguely recall a disaster/controversial moment with him there and against Adam Johnson in a Man City game. Anybody else recollect?
I think I can remember Baird scored an own goal and gave away a penalty up in Manchester on a snowy night we lost 3-0. Think you are probably right on the line-up SJ will use if 3-5-2, but if he's fallen out with Stearman he might use Hutchinson, and might keep Garbutt in for Kacaniklic to keep as close to the QPR line-up and see if they can get back that performance Think he'll keep Baird for the Leeds game, as I've said think we can't get two games in a row out of Parker.
All I know is that tomorrow is a London derby in a game that if we win could put us one foot towards safety, a defeat and we are three points from safety but a win ( a few results going our way) we are 9 points clear and with out goal difference compared to the others down there it is pretty much 10 points, if the players can't get up for this then I don't know what the answer is. Anyway Tomorrow I'm going with four Charlton mates and I fully expect the boys to make up for throwing away a two nil lead at the Valley ruining what was going to be a great night for me!
OK - Arrogance time! Nothing less than a win. As Cookie says, there is a matter of us throwing away two points in the last few minutes at The Valley. COYW! And, of course: "We've got Bairdinho!"
With no Premier League matches today because of the Cup, the powers that be have decided that the extra officials should nonetheless keep their eye in. So, today the Cottage sees a top spare part, Mr Kevin Friend, take charge of the game. please log in to view this image In fairness, he has been a wee bit of a lucky charm for us in the recent past; 3 wins and 2 draws, with a total of 14 goals scored in the 5 games. Bring it on, as the cheerleaders would say.
Good to see that Fulham were able to hold onto a 2-0 lead this time, and add the third, while keeping a clean sheet. The bonus of our first goals from corners - like waiting for the 74 bus then 3 come together. Jokanović was bold at HT: Michael Madl and Chris Baird making 3-5-2 “We played good football today..... In the first 45 minutes we found many difficulties and Charlton troubled us many times. It’s probably my mistake; we tried to play from the middle....I killed Ryan Fredericks and Luke Garbutt and didn’t find the right position for them. We scored the goal in the first 45 minutes but I wasn’t so happy so decided to switch the structure and we played better football in the second 45 minutes." Good to see Bairdinho in front of the defense and telling Dan Burn where to position himself. Scott Parker fought hard (pity about the Charlton fans abuse). And a bonus of having Ryan Tunnicliffe getting a run-out. Pleased for Tom Cairney scoring so well, one with his right and a beautiful volley with his left (though he lost the ball a few times). 17 shots, with just 5 on target - Moussa does need to look-up more to utilise Ross. Let's see how much of the performance we can carry into the Leeds match. COYW!!!!
Three surprises today; Tom Cairney does have a right foot, we scored from a corner and kept a clean sheet. The real credit for what turned out to be a comfortable win however has to go to the manager. How many would make two quite radical changes at half time when you're 1-0 up? Well, Slavi clearly saw things wrong with the first half 4-3-1-2 and was proactive with his subs. And what an improvement the 3-4-1-2 was; more balanced and playing much further forward. Before saying a little more about the two who came on at half time, mention must go to Ryan Tunnicliffe's return. Good to see of course but wish the lad hadn't put his jocular half time warm-up tackles on the floor into practice as soon as he came on. Enthusiasm is one thing but brainless lunges are not really clever. So, the other two. I'll leave Bairdinho for the other thread as much because I want to highlight Michael Madl. His defending was terrific (not too close to get turned but quick on the player and harassing them) and he anticipates play so well. Oh, and got a goal to boot. He was close to my MOTM, as was Scotty Parker but in the end guess I'll give it to .. Tom Cairney .. "he scores with his left, he score with his right, that boy Cairney .. " (you know the rest).
Wasn't the best of performances despite the score. Charlton like most teams low on confidence heads dropped once they had let in the second goal, and Fulham should have had more goals, but never took control of the game. Like us Charlton are a small team and they had problems defending corners. The first half Fulham seemed disjointed and apart from the nice passing move that ended with McCormack skying one over the bar didn't put their keeper under much pressure. The formation I saw was 442 and again O'Hara and Parker were too similar. The change in the 2nd half taking off Kacaniklic and O'Hara both had been having no impact, going to 352 gave a bit more balance in the Team and both Fredericks & Garbutt did well getting down the line. Madl impressed me, reads the game well, calm and distribution is good, Burn dominated and not sure why he got booked after two good tackles. Another good game from Amorebieta, but he is a red card waiting to happen. Baird seemed to give us a balance and gave good encouragement. Parker had another good game and lasted the 90.
Good result and bold management from Joka, he wasn't messing around at half time! Cairney our star man and, of all the pretenders, the one we should build around. Baird did a good impression of the person I though Parker would be, geeing up the team and organising the defence. Dembele flirted with the sublime and ridiculous, although on the whole didn't make the most of his chances. Moment of the match, and I hope this makes the highlights, was Fredericks taking it in the gonads and then desperately scrambling to recover whilst battling with the pain. He looked like he'd been shot - I had such a great view of the panic / pain, the guy next to me bellowing "get up", it was comedy gold! Fair play to him for trying to get through it, he had a good game overall and has nowestablished him as one of my favourite players, which I'm sure he'll be delighted with!
Yes with the Fredericks moment and the linesman getting a ball in the face the game had its comedy moments. Good result but had Charlton taken a couple of their chances then it would have been a nervy game. Second half was much better and I was pleased to see the return of Baird. The points yesterday were massive and glad to see Garbutt given a chance to redeem himself and it was a much better performance from him.
Point blank OUCH! please log in to view this image Best bit was the rest (especially Parker) not letting the medicine men on since they had a corner and if the docs had tended him, we'd have had to defend it a man short. Mind the post did a good job keeping Ryan upright when the ball came over.
I'm not entirely sure I watched the same game. The first 10-15 minutes of the second was just like the first, Charlton didn't exactly put us under pressure but so many missed passes etc, didn't get a grip on the game. I thought Charlton unlucky to go in 1 down to be honest. Things calmed down after that. Kaca was a waste of space. Amore adds a bit of bite at the back although he always took too long playing the ball out, I wish he'd get the ball up early. There were long periods where all we did was play it long! Happy with the 3 points though. Well played the manager. At last we have a manager who changes things up, makes substitutions at the right times. Kit would have kept the same formation as we were 1-0 up.
