Mawson is in the early part of his rehabilitation and out. Kebano took a bump on his knee on Sunday and doubtful. However, Carney seems none the worse after going off following his 'dive' and Anguissa, whatever was wrong with him, is back and in contention. Following their 5-1 thumping at Turf Moor on Boxing Day by Everton, Burnley seem to have turned a corner of sorts. Certainly in the last three games their defence is more it's old resolute self; helped by players coming back from injury and rosc's favourite Tarkowski in the middle rather than filling in on the flank. Sean Dyche is likely to go with his tried and tested 4-4-2, sticking with Heaton in goal and their young Academy product Dwight McNeil. It's those front two that will cause the problem though. Chris Wood is an old fashioned centre forward and so good in the air. The somewhat underrated Ashley Barnes will equally put himself about and has that knack of popping up to nick a goal. With Ranieri ruling out a fair few of his squad after last weekend's showing (or lack of), there's not a lot to debate. He'll revert to his five at the back and the only questions really are - will it be Seri or Cairney in the middle and Schurrle or Kamara on the right ? Both Seri and Schurrle will be more disciplined and occupy important space. But will they be strong enough to thwart the opposition or creative enough to cause a threat ? Would also be concerned about who will get in those crosses that the Manager says Mitrovic needs - from his press conference today, "Mitro is a goalscorer and we have to create more chances. We need to supply him with more crosses". Anyway, the potential starting line up : ..............................Rico....... ..............Odoi...Le Marchand...Ream.. ...Christie..........................................Bryan... ...................Chambers......Seri... ......Schurrle........Mitrovic......Sessegnon.. But then again there is the Tinkerman factor !!
I'm getting to the point when I so despair at the words that come out of Ranieri's mouth. His tactics are so inept I wonder how we are going to win a game, we need a hell of a lot of luck. The last manager to buy any decent French players was Tigana. Keep Tony away from the French leagues, they are sub standard to the Premier. I don't want Cahill and I don't want Drinkwater both are just copies of what we already have and aren't up to fitness. I'm hoping McDonald is fit, just the type of game for him & Johansen to get stuck in. .................Bettinelli.............. S.Sessegnon Odoi Ream Bryan McDonald Chambers Christie Johansen R.Sessegnon Mitrovic
The man centre stage today is Martin Atkinson. please log in to view this image We've seen the man who hails from Bradford and supports Leeds a fair few times already this season. The most recent was in late December and the 0-0 draw up at Newcastle when he booked 3; Kamara and Seri for us. Before that it was the 2-0 League Cup defeat at Man City. Only Vincent Kompany saw yellow that night. Then there was the 1-1 draw at the Cottage when again 3 got booked; Fou-Mensah and Mawson going down for us. There were a couple penalty shouts in the Newcastle game and at least one 'incident' in the Wolves match, but over the piece don't believe we have any real complaints. For the record, Atkinson has managed 17 Premiership games so far, dishing out a fairly hefty 53 yellows but only 1 red. Back on penalties, he has a quite high ratio, totalling 5 so far.
What to do after going ahead doesn't seem to be in this team's psyche. Don't believe I saw Schurrle even once after he scored. Christie and Bryan were woeful. Seri ? As our fans frequently chant at opposition players, "Seri who?". Yes we were better second half but nowhere good enough. Defensively fine but no cohesion or quality going forward. Very suspect subs to boot. And for goodness sake, losing to a team that doesn't have a shot on target has be a classic case of Fulhamish.
When you are down at the bottom you just don't get the luck - 2 own goals, unbelievable. I think our performance merited a point at least. Second half we played well I thought and even Vieotto did well. Mitro was well marked all game, could have done I thought with Kamara who wasn't even on the bench. Wonder whats happened there. That was a must not lose game but there we are, our record at Turf Moor continues at least another year. Long way to go but I enjoyed the day.
