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 ..]
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 ..]
