I really want to beat the champions but how much is 90 minutes going to take out of our teams legs with a more vital game in 2 days time. 3 points from 2 games will be ok. but surely to beat Fulham is more important with their league position. 6 from 6 is better still. Just with our lack of depth its a worry.
We need to get something off Manu else we've under performed. 6 points we all said from these 4 games, 2 so far.
It's a tough one but as 3 of our next 4 league games are against Man Utd Chelsea and Liverpool I think SB will potentially keep a few players for the Fulham game - if we took 3 points from Fulham the other results matter less imo
I don't think we should worry too much about fatigue compared to Fulham when you look at the shoddy way the fixtures have been made up. I don't remember us being at home for 2 in a row like this normally, maybe I'm wrong and it's always like this but it does seem unfair that teams are playing 2 days in 3 days where one is travelling for both games and the other is at home for both. It does seem to give an advantage to the second team. We play a few hours before Fulham on Boxing Day so we have extra recovery time even if it is a tiny amount. We're playing a mid-table rival () whilst they're in a relegation 6-pointer so there's more likely to be a fight to the game for them. They're playing away at Norwich on Boxing Day so they've got to travel to Norwich and back, it's not that far, but we're at home so we've no travel involved. When they play us they have to travel from London whilst we have the comfort of being at home again. As strange as it might sound, if we're going to rotate the team then yellow cards permitting* I'd play the "weakened" team against Man U and the regular one against Fulham. Of the two teams we should be more confident that our regular team can beat Fulham playing our normal style so put them in for that one. What changes we're going to make I'd do it for the Man U game. That's the one where we're more likely to need a tactical surprise to beat them. If we play the regular team in the regular way they should beat us by being prepared to deal with us, so "weakening" the team and changing the way they play a bit is our best shot as they won't be able to plan for what we're going to do. *I don't think it affects us, but anybody on 4 yellow cards only has to make it to the end of the Fulham game without getting a booking to avoid the ban for 5 cards. We may want to time some of those so that the potential yellow cards are split between the two games. If it were Bruce and McShane for example you'd probably not want to play Davies and Chester against Man U, have Chester pick up an injury, and then have Bruce and McShane both pick up bookings against Fulham as that would leave us with only Davies for the Liverpool game on the Tuesday. Playing Davies and Bruce against Man U and Chester and McShane against Fulham would mean that unless 2 got injured we'd have at least 2 available for Liverpool even if both Macca and Bruce got the bookings.
I don't agree with saving players for the Fulham game. Anything can happen in any game, look at our Liverpool and Crystal Palace results. By saving players for the Fulham game the only thing we'd be doing is giving ourselves less of a chance against Man United. What if we gamble and Fulham turn up and take us apart (unlikely but it is possible), 0 points from two home games because we threw away the first game.
I'd go full strength for them both. Neither will be easy and there's a real possibility we'll take nil poi. Fulham look a lot better since changing managers. They're playing with a lot more fight, energy and character.
Play our best team against Man U., they'll be up for it. Fulham will be as tired as us so again play our best team then.
Yeah Fulham will be more tired for our game since they have to go all out against Norwich in a 6-pointer. We can rest players against United, or take players off towards the end, with less stress on the result.
Agreed. Our players will accept that it's a time when they have to 'dig deep' and I'm sure they will.
I am more bothered about the Fulham game than Manure. Whatever we get from boxing day is a bonus but the 3 points on saturday is far more important.
I'm more thinking there isn't really a full strength thing and we have a few players who struggle to play two weekends running never mind 2 games in 3 days. At centre back in particular I'd be looking at different players for different tasks. I'd probably prefer someone like McShane or Bruce to take on Rooney as they're harder tacklers (as in they take the player with the ball) and they might just nark him off, where Chester tends to be more about the thinking game which is better suited to dealing with Berbatov.
Sounds like Fryatt's going to get a chance over this period, so might be in line to start against Fulham.
Injuries permitting strongest team for both games. More important is that we keep all the players off the Christmas booze! Playing 90 mins may tire them a little for a day but hangovers etc will play havoc with their game.
Agree with the consensus here. Fulham's aging, half-arsed team might be a bit tired but the likes of Livermore, Davies, Bruce, etc will be covvering every blade as always. If I was going to rest anyone at any point it'd be Graham or Sagbo because they seem the most likely to start dropping their effort levels, they've both done it before.
Agree with WS Tiger strongest available team for both games.3 points is 3 points no matter who the opposition is, Brucey sees the players day in in day out so will pick the best available eleven.6 from 6 would be fantastic, 3 from 6 would be great, 0 from 6 would not be the end of the world, this season is all about survival IMO, it doesn't matter where we get the points as long as we get them. I think we all knew there would be many twists and turns this year,its never dull supporting City!. ,
Yep. I reckon Fryatt might get a go against them at least for the first half to see what he can do against a poor team.
