In his press conference today Ranieri said, "everyone is available". Will give him 'journalistic' licence for ignoring our long term injured. So, Seri wasn't injured when taken off at half time last Friday night and Schurrle has overcome his mysteriously recurring virus. Southampton started well under their new boss but in recent weeks have drifted back into trouble. Something, Ralph Hasenhuttl acknowledged in his press conference - and boy how refreshing those are compared to what our man spouts. For example, he openly explains why he 'experimented' in playing Redmond at centre forward against the Arsenal and tactics in general. Not a soundbite in sight ! Against us he'll change things he says and the primary aim will be to put "stress" on us. So we can expect a high tempo game. Southampton's big problem though is the lack of a striker and they've only the hit and miss Danny Ings or Shane Long to fall back on. The danger man is James Ward-Prowse. Ranieri appears to decide on his formation then his preferred people to fill the slots, regardless of whether they are playing out of position. With everyone apparently available that's a lot of dice to throw for this one. On the face of it he started with four at the back against West Ham but if you watch a replay of the game, after we scored the opener, it was in fact six at the back. Of the initial four, newby Harvard Nordtviet did okay and should keep his place, but with whom? Ream and Bryan were shaky to put it mildly. Whatever he does at the back the key however, will be getting the midfield correct. If we can't hold our own with Southampton there ... it's trouble. Chambers will get the nod for his defensive stuff (although his distribution is woeful) and if Ranieri doesn't also place Cairney there .... well, it will be double trouble. Who else is anyone's guess. Might be more fun trying to pick the second half team since Ranieri has changed things at half time so often. But no, the starting line up: ..............................Rico............. ...Christie....Nordtveit....Ream....Bryan.... ..........................Chambers.... ..................Cairney.....Anguissa... ..........Babel.......Mitrovic....Schurrle.. [Yup, no Sessegnon !!!]
I don't think Sessegnon will start either, apart from his assist he had a terrible 1st half last Friday and his confidence is shot at the moment. I believe Ings is out which for us is a bonus - Redmond is the man to keep close on together with Ward-Prowse. We've got to give this a go. They had trouble controlling Mitro at the Cottage, we can score goals I just hope they have the fight and give it their best. A few things worried me against West Ham - Rico and Chambers saw the hand ball goal and meekly appealed - we should have gone ape **** about it. The whole teams heads dropped and from being the better team a goal ahead we were on the back foot and panic was everywhere. There needs to be determination, grit and total desire to get a result tomorrow just to restore a little pride.
Tonight we have Anthony Taylor. We last saw Taylor as recently as the Oldham Cup game and you'll recall from the post there that he'd done an awful lot of games this season. Well, he's continued to rack them up since then and, before tonight, has ref'd 36. A lot of them the in Europe, so his expense account if not his bank balance must be pretty healthy. Only last week he travelled to Seville and saw the home side have a rare win, 2-0 over Lazio in the Europa. He sent off 1 from either side, the Sevilla man for 2 yellows, and booked 3 from Lazio. All in a days work for the Altricham supporter as he's amassed 83 yellows in 21 Premier League games. As well as that disastrous Cup game he also did the season busting game up at Huddersfield. But of course we'll all remember him for the Wembley triumph last May.
Very nearly got the team prediction correct. Big KMac is the surprise Inspector Clouseau had up his sleeve, and very unexpected it is . However, absolutely no idea what the formation will be. 7 at the back and 3 others? [PS Seri nowhere to be seen.]
Yup, shocking tactics, shocking subs. The players looked as though they couldn't give a flying X. If Khan - whichever one but presumably 'Dad' - doesn't act now the already poor relationship with fans would be soured big time and long term. Have very mixed opinion of Parker but the only sensible move is to give him the job until the end of this dreadful season.
Ranieri has been an absolute disaster, must go now. Parker til the end of the season makes sense, no need to rush getting a permanent manager in yet as most of these players wont be here next season anyway so no need to build a relationship with them. Allows the new manager a clean slate in the summer and to do things his way.
There doesn't seem to be any intelligence in our game or tactical awareness. What is Rico thinking everytime he comes to punch the ball, this time he took it off the head of Anguissa who was going to head it away, he has no intelligence or awareness, seems it's just blind panic. There's a saying when you are down the bottom struggling that you hope there a 3 worse teams then you, but in reality Fulham are one of those 3 teams that the likes of Burnley, Southampton etc are hoping for. On paper we have good players, in reality they are under performing big time and lack confidence, leadership & management.
I don't generally believe in the idea of must win games, but after West Ham this really was one. Unlike when Roy's boys pulled off their great escape from a similarly hopeless position in terms of points and games remaining, the team just doesn't seem to have the spirit to turn this around. I agree, we're all-but down now and Ranieri - who I thought at the time was a great appointment - really hasn't worked out at all. I'm not a fan of chopping and changing the manager, but I think he should go now. My one reservation with Scott Parker is that if he comes in and things improve (and we're so bad right now that even a marginal improvement will make a new manager look good), it might make it hard for the board not to appoint him permanently. When Kit Symons came in, we all felt that he had earned the right to take the job on long-term yet his lack of experience showed through once the honeymoon was over. Scotty is less experienced in coaching than Kit was then and I would much rather see a more seasoned permanent appointment. Just don't ask me who, as I have no idea right now!
He's someone who my eldest keeps suggesting. Maybe, but I'm not sure. His dad was certainly a Fulham fan.
