Double pressure on the Gaffer for this one with Norwich topping the table and our poor results at home. No doubt he and match analyst Alberto Escobar study the opposition; Jokanovic's pre-match observations about the opposition's strengths certainly suggest that. The problem I have is that, despite tinkering with team selection he never actually changes anything, regardless of who we are playing or whether it's home or away. The form table speaks volumes about how our formation and style of play is working in away games. Yet completely the reverse at home. So, should he shake things up a bit for this one? Probably. And that's without taking account of the havoc the likes of Hoolihan and Dorrans can potentially create. Will he? Probably not. That being the case it boils down to whether he sticks with a winning team. This time it's yes, he probably should. But ... he has to look seriously at Tim Ream who was responsible for both goals against on Saturday. Can't see Kalas being anywhere near ready so Madl, with his normally good reading of play, ought to step in. The only other position in contention is in the defensive midfield with McDonald again eligible. By all accounts Johansen performed well, complementing the 'more steady' Parker in the Barnsley match. Therefore, why tinker for the sake of it. I'm going for: .......................Button.................... ..Odoi....Sigurdsson...Madl...Malone... .............Johansen...Parker..... ....Piazon.......Cairney.....Aluko... .....................Martin.....
Change things round. First ..kick towards Hammersmith in 1st half second... Play 4-3-3 and defensive and counter attack because Norwich will want to win more than draw. .........Button Odoi...Sigurdsson...Madl...Malone... ....Parker....McDonald...Johansen.. ...Piazon...Martin....Aluko.... All 3 midfielders are good passers of the ball and all can defend. Parker and Johansen can go box to box and McDonald as the holding midfielder. Odio and Malone will need to be more defensive then wing backs. 3 up front can occupy their defence, I'd want Piazon and Aluko to attack their back 4 with Martin coming in late (like Clint Dempsey used to do). But it won't happen, we'll play slow possession football letting them get back and defend in number and hit us on the break.
The man in the midddle tonight is James Linington The last time we saw Mr Linington was almost exactly a year ago in our 2-2 draw with Charlton, when he booked LVC. Last season he was pretty conservative with the cards in fact, with only 74 yellows and 4 reds in 26 games. Quite an experienced guy as well having been around for nine years. However he was admitted to the inner circle this summer, joining the Select Group 2 band of referees and since then seems to have upped his anti. This season he has made more boat trips from his Isle of Wight home and taken on 10 games aleady; in the process dishing out 49 yellow cards and one red card. Moreover, on two occasions he has shown 8 yellows!
We've got a good record against them but I don't think you can predict what will happen tonight. We certainly played well on Saturday and perhaps found our goal scoring which is what we have missed since the start. Hopefully Martin breaking is duck will be the first of many. We've deserved more after our performances but the goal threat has been the problem. It will be interesting tonight. We have enough to beat them and if we do it will be a great boost, but who knows what is going to happen.
Full marks to SuperBri for getting the team selection and shape correct. Well nearly almost since Ream, who was shaky in the first half, kept his place instead of Madl. And in that first half you could see why Norwich are at the top; they were so well organised and constantly had two/three/four players hassling our man on the ball. That said there's no way they deserved to go into the break 2-0 up. And full marks to our guys for a great second half fight back. Martin who had been winning balls in the first half really came into his own and now looks genuinely match fit. Johansen, playing high, was so positive, Fredericks when he came on added that extra bit of pace and menace on the right and even Tim Ream was winning headers and looking quite controlled. Norwich were really rattled. They gave the impression of not understanding what was going on. Step in Mr Linington... Zero marks to him. It stretched belief that we had four yellow cards before they got their first and some of his decisions were difficult to understand; indeed at times it wasn't at all clear what decision he had made. However, it was when we had them on the rack that he came up with his most bizarre decisions - dare I say he was close to losing contol of the game - and disrupted our momentum so much that Norwich had time to take a deep breath (plus a couple of subs, especially the Naismith one) and get back into the game. Of course, can't leave Mr Linington without comment on the penalties. In neither case can I cast blame on him. The Norwich players in each case knew exactly what they were doing and like a complete numpty, Malone fell for it both times. Which brings me to why we didn't get all three points. A bit of bad luck for sure, occasions when we were just short of a toe poke from a goal definitely. but for me the reason was Malone. Not so much his defensive naivety for the penalties but the horrendous number of wasted oppotunities in the second half that he fluffed or took the wrong option on. The guy is a total enigma. However wouldn't wish to finish on such a sour note. We had 60% of the possession, were equal to a rugged, organised top Championship side in the first half and bettered them for most of the second half. As a team we showed character and desire for the whole 95 minutes. Loads of positives to take forward. Oh and full marks to the fans as well - they really got behind the lads tonight.
These highlights don't tell the full story. This was a real swashbuckling game. Not one where the opposition sat back and we passed the ball back and forth - players got no time to sit on the ball anywhere on the park - which makes our 60% possession all the more impressive.
Fulham had a poor 1st half and didn't create much, but the 2nd was much better. The second half was the way I thought that formation should play, with Martin facing the goal when he was played the ball and players running off him. In the 1st half they were trying to play balls up to him so he could head down to on running players didn't work. 2nd half Johansen went box to box more which stretched their midfield. McDonald had a good game, but then for me, Parker didn't, so I'm not sure about that Partnership. Calling the Ref incompetent would be too polite. The second penalty was a joke. Jerome was never going to get a head to that ball, it was too high, so he stopped and gave up, that's when Malone ran into him because he was touch tight, the idiot of a Ref gave the penalty. James Linington I'll remember his name for future games. Hope he gets promoted to the Premier soon as Sky would have a field day with their replay machine.
