Joe Bryan is still out but Kevin McDonald has spent his one game suspension with the Man City game. Huddersfield boss Wagner has been making as many changes as our Gaffer and tried something like 6 different systems in their 10 games so far. The only consistency really is a lone man up front - Depoitre at the moment (although the man we nearly signed, Mounie, is a close option). Against us Wagner is likely to pack the midfield where the Australian Aaron Mooy will be a threat. Despite their table position they haven't played all that badly, especially at home, and arguably have been unlucky in some games; a whack of long range shots narrowly missing. Which is probably the time to risk a Fulhamish statistic, "Huddersfield are yet to score a Home Goal this season". For us, although improved against Man City, the back line remains problematic. Against Huddersfield and their one man up front (if they stick to that) we ought to go for full backs who will give us options out wide. At the same time we need a hard working midfield who will track back. We also need to give Mitrovic more support. So here's the line up which Jokanovic will not select: .............................Rico.................. ...Odoi......Mawson..Le Marchand...Sessegnon.. .........................Anguissa..... ..............Cairney....Seri....Ayite.... ...........................Vietto.... .........................Mitrovic... PS if Steven Sessegnon hadn't played for the U23s last night would have had him at RB, Odoi at LB and Ryan Sessegnon instead of Ayite. And yes, I'm dropping Schurrle.
If Slavisa can play bingo so can I... Play the Sessegnon brothers on the same side as a partnership. Play Le Marchand at Left Centre his best position, Mawson still worries me, Play Odoi at LB as he's played there before. Play Fosu-Mensah in an Etuhu role and Seri in a Danny Murphy role with Cairney playing the Moussa(1st) role. Schurrle gets my vote for his goal threat but tempted to play Kebano (but Slav won't). .............................Rico.................. S.Sessegnon.....Mawson..Le Marchand....Odoi.. ..............Fosu-Mensah....Seri ....R.Sessegnon.....Cairney.....Schurrle.... .........................Mitrovic...
Tonight we have Anthony Taylor. please log in to view this image Taylor has had two highlights in his career: * 2010 when he visited the Cottage for his first Premiership game and oversaw us beating Portsmouth 1-0 * 2018 when he visited Wembley for our Play Off win over Villa The Atrincham supporter went back to Wembley with us in August for the League match against Spurs. Pretty uneventful for him however, and nary a card was seen. Taylor has been a busy boy this season having already done 10 x Premiership, 2 x Championshp League and 1 x International. His tally in those 10 Premiership games is 37 yellows.
Its possibly a bit early in the season to say this is a must win game but im gonna say it anyway, this is a must win game in my opinion. Our next 5 games include 3 away games against Liverpool, Chelsea and Man utd. Even the biggest optimist in the world would struggle to see us get points from those, meaning it puts extra pressure and emphasis on the home games in between. Fail to win those and we could find ourselves a drift before Christmas. All that is of course worst case scenario but we still need to be beating the teams around us, teams that are struggling just as much as us. We already slipped up at Cardiff, we just really need to get some points on the board and not give confidence to those teams around us by having them beat us.
What a strange bench. Awful even. Do we really need four defenders and no attacking replacements. Suppose he can move Sessegnon forward but what's happening with Ayite (and Kebano ?) ??? What's happening full stop !!!
Watching Huddersfield in this first 20 mins we could learn a lot from them defensively. When we have the ball they go very compact and make it hard for us to play and find spaces, very frustrating for us. In games this season we seem to be the opposite, teams have all the time and space in the world to open us up
Sad to say but as things stand this Fulham team are going down, not one bit of fight in this team. Huddersfield have struggled just as bad as us this season yet still look a class above us, their players want it more. Sessegnon looks very uneasy at left back, fosu mensah is not the answer at right back, I dont trust Odoi and Le Marchand as a centre back partnership, Anguissa brings nothing to the team, Vietto is very clumsy on and off the ball, Mitrovic is getting no service whatsoever so becomes anonymous and ineffectual. Our only hope is to get Cairney and Schurrle on the ball as much as possible and hope they produce a bit of magic.
There's a real lack of fight in this team. All the new signings (bar Mitrovic) seem to look like they really regret it. It's hard to look past the fact that: a) Anguissa (c£25m) is an absolute waste of money, he's not what we needed. He seems to lack composure and fitness; I struggle to see why he's worth more than £10m. On top of our that, the optics of going over/near £100m as a result of this signing has heaped loads of unnecessary pressure on us. b) Whilst I think on paper most of us thought Mawson (£c15m) was a good signing, he's either completely unfit or not the player the manager wanted. Either way, we had to get more for our money. This was a key signing and we blew it. c) Bryan (c£6m) seemed to pick up an early injury and completely disappear. When we are crying out for balance in the team, where on earth is he? d) Seri (c£25m) looks like he has a great touch, but lacks the desire to fight. At this point, I'd rather see Johansen and his engine in the team. e) Fabri (c£5m), maybe less said the better. f) Le Marchand (c£4m) reminds me of Senderos. He looks like he has some talent, then makes a completely unforced mistake. How best to get nothing back on your investment? Buy a bunch of injured players, or players with zero fight in them. Our tactic last season of subsisting last season on loans has completely backfired - our team has no spirit and we have a whole bunch of expensive players who couldn't even get us back out of the Championship.
The chase to get back in the Premier League was a lot more enjoyable than actually being there it must be said.
You can sometimes watch your team lose a game and think even though we lost we showed signs of improvement, the teams coming together nicely, we showed a bit of fight, well today wasn't one of those times! I just dont see where this teams going, £100m spent on absolute dross, its going to take another £100m+ to fix it. There doesnt seem to be any cohesion in the team, everyone seems a bit lost and doesnt know their role. Something needs to change, sadly as we know the change is usually the manager. I'm not quite at the #slavout stage just yet but unless something dramatically changes how long do we leave it?
Huge disappointment. This is going to be a really long season, the confidence has gone and we are a target now for everyone for three guaranteed points. Real shame McDonald went off injured, we started to play when he came on. Fosu Mensah is a real weak link in the team. Real problems ahead.
Better second half. However, no connect between midfield and forwards. Dysfunctional team. Where do we go from here? Since it's bonfire night, a rocket up several backsides would help. Our goals against in the last 5 games give the perfect Countdown and a very big ' What If ? ' - 5 ... (Arsenal) 4 .. (Cardiff) 3 .. (Bournemouth) 2 ... (Man City) 1 .. (Huddersfield) Blast off ... with a big fat 0 against Liverpool !!
We were saying the same about us in the summer before a ball was kicked. Two different approaches in the summer but a similar result. You played good stuff with a lot of loanees. I did say on your board in the summer that it would cost you a lot just to get the squad to the same point as last year. We had pretty average championship players that overperformed. We added a few more championship players in the summer, so it's not surprising we're struggling. On the loan front, the FA have caused a conundrum as you can have loads in the championship but only a couple in the premier league. Hence your challenges. On a different note, your owner has been very quiet compared to the end of last season when he was giving it large! Tough times ahead for us both.
I want to still believe in Slav, but I don't think I can mount a defence of him anymore. I really thought that we'd get something out of either Bournemouth or Huddersfield or both. Against Bournemouth I saw signs that things weren't far off; last night not so much. Looking at the fixture list, we've got a rough few weeks ahead, whoever is in charge.
