Fulham are back on the tv this weekend against a West Brom side who are expected to be up the top this season and have started well. Our next two games are the end to what in my opinion has been a run of tough fixtures, if we can win at least one it should keep us around 6th with what is on paper a slighter easier run of games. If we are looking to win at least one of the next two then we should be looking at the home fixture! The team has had a break so i expect pretty much the same line up as before other than the fact Arter is suspended. Reid, Reed and Stef are fighting for two spots but the rest of the team we all no. West Brom will be decent but we do like a live game and I don’t think they will be as defensive as other teams which might suit us! West Brom are also missing a couple of injured defenders in Hegazi and Gibbs!
Big game tomorrow and we will need a good start of fast possession football. No injuries to my knowledge, just Harry A suspended, so going for an unchanged side with Steff or Harrison R stepping in. Looking forward to this match, AND IT'S LIVE............... COYW's!
Looks like most players have come back fit after Internationals. Wonder if Ream & Reid will start, long journeys and jetlag? WBA will be strong opposition, Slaven Bilić's side are unbeaten from their first six league matches (W3, D3, L0). Fulham need to get on the score sheet early and not allow any early goals to West Brom to boost their confidence. David Webb is the Ref and has booked 14 players in his 5 games so far. Don't like early KOs as I tend to arrive just minutes before KO, relying on Trains, Tubes & Buses.
Wonder what that Military looking Helicopter was doing flying low over the pitch during the game. Looks like we are stuck with Parkers possession tactics across the back four. Won't say where Parker should stick his tactics sheet. Didn't take our chances in the first half and could have had the game in our pocket, but again almost blew it in the last 10 minutes. Not sure if Bettinelli was at fault with their goal but he didn't cover himself in glory going up one-handed to parry when under pressure, if you use one hand then you go for a punch but from where I was sitting he just flapped, pushed at the ball and not even over the bar. Knockaerts goal came when he was on the wrong side of the pitch (left) and floated one in the top corner.
If we take a few of those chances in the first half, we would be sitting here talking about taking apart one of the best teams in the division! Cairney should be scoring, clean through 10 yards out and doesn’t hit the target.... I also thought there keeper was man of the match although a mention to Harrison Reed who I thought was top class!
In the first half and part of the second we played our possession football, the passing was crisper than some previous games and we broke forward more often making chances. Our downfall was we didn't convert chances into goals but partly because of their keeper doing well. Once we did score, Scott was unhappy we didn't continue as we were doing and knows we are not cut out to shut up shop "we don't have the players for that". West Brom then took advantage and on the following run of play deservedly scored. In summary, we should have wrapped the game up and took a deserved 3pts, but this is the Championship, you don't always get what you deserve. My opinion of the possession football is that as long as the passing is fast/crisp it has the right effect, bursts forward from this make chances and I enjoyed watching us outplay WBA yesterday.
SBMcB has a glass half empty then. Its tough coming down. Expectations are high. There's a target on our backs. The change of style and a Saturday/Wednesday/Saturday slog. To be fair, the Championship is more exciting than the Premier League. That's not to say I wouldn't rather have stayed up last season though. A lot of similarities between our clubs and a lot of differences. Polar opposites with our managers in terms of footballing philosophy and experience in particular. Be interesting to see where we end up come May next year. Udders are having a particularly bad time of it of the 3 of us. Could do a Sunderland if they're not careful.
It was no doubt two points dropped yesterday after a good performance for over an hour. We've seen it all before and you knew that we would need the comfort of a two goal lead to be sure, had we taken our chances in the first half it would have been a comfortable win. I'm confident our squad and team will get even better and we will convert all this possession into goals eventually. We are playing some superb stuff at times and for me it is enjoyable to watch. There's a long way to go. We have the quality and the work rate. I'm very confident we're going to come good.
