In his look forward (no pun intended) to the Blackpool game, Kit today concentrated on the need to get something from the game and the fact that the pitch up there doesn’t lend itself to good football. In fairness he stole my punch line by acknowledging that "we didn’t play good football on a fantastic pitch at the Cottage on Wednesday night“. There was no news from him about player availability so in second guessing his selection I’d base any arguments on his comment that [playing good football] “isn’t an option” [with that pitch]. So don’t expect any significant changes. In fact my view is that there are only two in contention. The first is Tunnicliffe and whether his sulk at being taken off will convince Kit that Tunnicliffe’s not up to the job or whether Kit believes that it will be a reality check and fire-up Tunnicliffe for the Blackpool game. The immediately obvious contender for the place, Hoogland, was an improvent when he replaced Tunnicliffe on Wednesday but still made little impact. The second potential change is Bryan. No worse than anyone else on Wednesday and arguably suffered more than most because of the tactics employed; either being played ahead of McCormack or wide right. The bottom line for Saturday though, is that pitch. Something else that was quite telling about Kit’s mind-set at the moment was Wednesday night’s bench. There were no obvious midfield replacements - no Fofana, no Kaca and indeed those sitting there were 3 x fullbacks (Hoogland, Stafylidis and Kavanagh) and 2 x forwards (Woodrow and Hugo). My initial leaning was towards exactly the 4-4-2 formation and exactly the same players I suggested for the Rotherham game. However, and not sure why, I’ve an inkling that Kit will switch things a bit and go for a ‘4-3-3 ish’ format with his old favourite Hugo making a comeback. Regrettably I also think he’ll also ’bottle it’ with his other favourite, Tunnicliffe. ……………………..Bettinelli……………. ..Richards……Turner……..Burn…….Husband… ………….Tunnicliffe..Parker..Guthrie.. …………………..McCormack…. …………..Smith……………Hugo…. [Disclaimer: This is me trying to emulate Kit’s thinking, not my personal preference. For instance, Richards seems to have regressed so much since his initial games that I wouldn’t hesitate in replacing him with Grimmer; Parker has been so bereft of leadership that I’d drop him; and so on .. and so on ..]
Not that our players would be tempted to play anything other than long ball but this game just calls out for long balls up to Smith and have Ross & co. feeding off second balls. If Moussa hadn't played for the U21s today I'd be tempted to play him but I suppose Cauley or Hugo would be enough of a handful. If the past couple of games are anything to go by Matt Smith will be "out on his feet" after about 70 minutes so I'd probably leave Cauley on the bench to replace him. I think this is probably a game that would suit Tunnicliffes 'style'. A scrappy messy affair, sound perfect for a scrappy messy player.
As bad as we think we have it, Blackpool have it umpteen times worse. I had a bit of a guilty chuckle at the 'Inside Bloomfield Road' piece on the Fulham site. Blackpool supporter Matt Wright gave his opinion on the state of the club and the game tomorrow.
Love to see it, but I an afraid if any team gets into our half its the Cpl Jones scenario "don't panic" but of course we do, and then the arms go flailing about appealing about something or other
Our result today may well be our defining moment, it will either motivate or demotivate both Millwall and Rotherham. We really need a solid professional win but will we be able to do that........................I dearly hope so. COYW
Important three points for us today, regardless of the performance. We're all but safe now, barring a highly unlikely set of circumstances. Now we can take a step back and reassess, try to get a proper plan in place for the summer and beyond (unlike last summer!)
please log in to view this image The pitch looks better from a distance. Which, from what I can gather, is more than can be said for the football. Apparently we were again very poor. But what the heck - 3pts, thanks to Betts in the last minute!. And with results elsewhere … surely safety!?
Looks like it unless we concede a bucket load.... A professional win, but from the stats is depressing... Time to rebuild
No player that isn't going to be here next year should play in the final 2 games. Our team should be packed with academy graduates.. We've got nothing to lose now.Imagine: Bettinelli Grimmer Donnelly Burn Kavanagh Roberts Hyndman Parker Plumain Woodrow Dembele We'd probably get hammered but at least we could afford it.
I agree with you Ireland though you have been a little extreme, my team for the last two games Bettinelli Grimmer Hutchison Burn Kavanagh Roberts Tunnicliffe Gutherie Plumain Woodrow McCormack Demebele Hyndman Donnelly Parker Rodak Husband I think we should give Roberts both 90 minutes, Woodrow deserves a couple of 90 minutes and I hope Dembele gets some time off the bench, I also wouldn't mind us playing Husband as. I hope we buy him in the summer if fit how's about having a look at Larnell Cole
I would agree with that, but I wonder whether that would harm our chances of signing Turner & Husband permanently? Not too worried about Lee, Richards, Fofana & Staf not getting any more game time (there's a decent chance that Guthrie probably will be here next season regardless).
Well I'd definitely put Emerson in for Tunnicliffe and only play Guthrie if we plan on signing him permanently in the summer. If plans are afoot to sign Husband and Tuner then they probably should play. I'd actually be very interested to see a Hutchinson - Burn combination, the lads are good pals and could work well together. Ross has played almost every minute this season so I think he could probably sit them out.
To be honest I wouldn't sign Turner and don't think Burn - Hutchison would work long term the problem we have is that our four centre backs Burn, Bodurov, Hutchison, Turner are all good solid centre halves but have the one same weakness a slight lack of pace, nine are ridiculously slow but you wouldn't describe any as quick, I honestly believe any of them could form a solid partnership with a partner with pace but put any of them together and they will have problems! I think we need to spend a bit of cash on quality in four positions in the summer and three of them are at the back, two new full backs ( hopefully Husband) a centre half with pace and a good defensive midfielder, chuck James McClean in there and I will be happy
Agree in principle not to play loan players in the last two games, unless there is a serious intent to retain them. However, players like Cole, Roberts and Dembele will have to do a lot better than they did for the U21s yesterday to even be in contention. Larnell is injured again anyway and the other two will probably feature in the game against Porto on Wednesday. One thing I'd like to see is Jack Grimmer as holding central defender. He's a natural CB, although too small. But he is a good reader of the game and much better when the ball is coming on to him rather than chasing outside at fullback. Won't happen under Kit though and probably this is not the correct time for that sort of experiment. Better to try as part of next season's re-building.
I agree with the principle that we should look to next season once we're safe, but we're not (quite) there yet. If Millwall win all of their games they can draw level with us. If they get three wins and we get two losses, that reduces the gap in goal difference by at least five. If we throw in all the youngsters, would you bet against either Middlesboro or Nowich running four or five past us? Until we are mathematically safe, we should pick the team most likely to do the job now, not one for next season. I don't think we are likely to go down after today, but putting out experimental, inexperienced sides is the route most likely to make that happen.
