Barely has the dust settled on last night's game than another one is on us. With Spurs one thing that can be guaranteed is that the tempo will be higher, especially on their wings. My team selection is therefore based on three factors. Firstly, we need to stop the service to their wide areas. Secondly, we need someone up front to keep their back four occupied and thirdly we need someone who can pass the ball behind their defences. Obviously we've still got the known absentees and while Diarra would normally be an automatic choice, he seems to need more R&R. So the starting line-up I'd go for is - ............Schwarzer............. ..Riether...Hughes..Senderos...Riise.. .............Baird......... ..Duff...Kara...Sidwell....Frei.. ............Berbatov...
My line-up would be ................Schwarzer....... ..Riether...Hughes...Senderos...Riise.. .....Baird.......Diarra........Sidwell...... .........Frei....... ......Berbatov.....Petric.......... The reasons If you have only one striker up front the two Spurs full backs will have license to go forward. I'd have the three up front 'rubber banding' ie changing positions like at the Emirates. I don't think Spurs central defenders would coup with one on one, so their full backs will have to stay put. Hope Diarra is fit to take care of Dembele if he plays, Riise and Riether will have to curb their forward runs as Spurs away play counter attack, and that's how Sunderland caught us out, so a solid back four with Baird and Sidwell defensive mid-field is the order of the day for me. One thing I'd do is leave Frei up front when they have a corner kick. (Still don't understand why we pull everyone back).
Spurs have lightning pace on the flanks with Bale and Lennon, but no pace up the middle with Dempsey, Dembele and/or Sandros. So I'd try to match pace for pace with Frei and Duff on the wings, Diarra and (Baird or Sidwell) in the middle, then have Petric play in front of Berbs. So: .............. Schwartzer............. Riether...Hughes...Senderos...Riise Duff...Diarra....Sidwell ... Frei ............Petric..................... ............Berbs....................
MJ will play Hugo. I'll bet 20 quid he does. Anyway, i agree with DR on line up as one I'd prefer to be played. Free will be bunched for Rodellega though.
I don't think so, I think he had one eye on this weekend when he started Hugo. If he does start it'll be up front. I really hope I'm right!
Wow, isn't it good despite the injuries to be able to debate the possible combinations. I agree with Bidley that Frei will/should get the start ahead of Hugo - neither will do much defensively and Frei will pose them more problems. I reckon Duff wil/should get the call before Dejagah Captain, because the threat of Bale down the right needs somone who can help the defence - Duff did that job against Chelsea. I seem to be the only one not selecting Diarra. Normally he would be my first choice but watching him against Chelsea he definitely wasn't 100% - and just before being taken off was 'jiggling' his bad leg. Frankly between him and Hugo on Wednesday it was as good as having only 9 men on the pitch and that's not something I'd risk again tomorrow.
A chirpy Jol in today's internal video interview with Sarah Brookes. No new injury problems - Bryan (who had a fitness test today but hasn't quite made it) and Kaca but next week. As usual watching to see if he would promote any particular player and Kara gets a good hearing, as does (unfortunately for mme anyway) Richardson. Quite an amusing response to the question about Dempsey's return. Here is the video - http://www.fulhamfc.com/news/2012/november/30/manager-video
He just says it how it is. Love it! Actually this is typical of a Dutch person. They are very direct and don't mince their words. Refreshing.
I might have to take this back. As well as Jol dropping hints in his pre-match video interviews about who might play, a clue is usually which player has a mini-blog spot on the Club site. Today, it is Mahamdou Diarra. http://www.fulhamfc.com/news/2012/november/30/diarra-be-our-12th-man
Today's lineup: Schwarzer; Riether, Hughes, Senderos, Riise; Dejagah, Sidwell, Diarra, Frei; Berbatov, Petric I take cash or cheque, Craving
Ouch. I wasn't optimistic, but I was hoping for better than 3-0. What's the story, those who were there? From the BBC's coverage, it sounds like we were doing fine until they scored, then it all got away from us. Oh well, we all said we had a tough run of games coming up, and this was part of it. With Newcastle struggling for form, and QPR struggling for quality (even with Harry) and with the injured/suspended players due back, we should get more out of the next couple of games. Any news on Reither's injury. Did it look serious?
Agree although we need to actually because our good start will be rather wasted if we don't. Not that I think this is remotely likely but we are only 5 points outside the drop zone.
You guys had the better of a flat first half and whilst we weren't at our best I think it's only fair to attribute that to your team frustrating us by defending in numbers whilst also threatening further up the pitch. Once Schwarzer let in the first you lost some of the discipline at the back which made it easy for us. All in all it came down to converting chances which we did whilst you missed a couple of good chances and at other times the ball just didn't fall right for your players. Hopefully you'll bounce back from this and you'll be helping keep Arsenal out of the top half of the league
Well we limped through that game almost as painfully as Riether limped off. Not sure about the severity of his injury Captain, it looked like a bang on his ankle. Just on this, I wish we would learn to go down on the pitch when injured though rather than todlle off, since we then played five plus minutes with 10 men and unlike Bale who was actually off the pitch but came back on before 'collapsing'. Somewhere along the line we have lost the confidence to go forward but more worringly we didn't come together as a team today. In the end it was defensive errors which cost the point (s) - Schwarzer for the first (although blame could go to others for not closing Sandro down) and Senderos for the other two (helped by Kelly for the first of those). Here is a video clip of the goals http://www.caughtoffside.com/2012/12/01/video-fulham-0-3-tottenham-premier-league-highlights/ But the main failing was again the lack of vision in the middle (Diarra never really got involved and while Sidwell was full of endeavour he lacks the ability to use the ball in an attacking sense) and someone to hold the ball. But (yes another but) Dejagah and Petric both lacked movement off the ball and seemed a yard off the pace the whole game. Petric in particular was guilty of not only missing one golden first half opportunity but not anticipating through balls from Berba. And I'm afraid Frei was lightweight and was another one who never really got involved. Hughes sealed a lot of leaky spaces around and in front of him and came out with credit. Berbatov was just class and on a different wavelength from those around him. It was all very dfficult to understand because before the game most were delighted to see the line up (although it wouldn't have been my selection I was still surprised how poorly they performed together). In all honesty both teams were poor. For the record Dembele was quieter than quiet and got a round of applause when he was subbed; Dempsey did what was need of him but not a lot more and received derisory (not hostile) boos throughout.
Captain, a brief report.... Overall, we had almost as many chances as they did (8-10), so 0-3 is a harsh scoreline. We opened brightly in second half, with a couple of chances, but then conceded a [well taken, but almost a] freak goal - I could not see how Sandro got the room for the shot. Hughes played well, but Senderos still seemed unsure. Kelly coped reasonably coming on for the unfortunate Reither, but was at fault for the second goal, and that was us done in. Following his [reported] good game at Chelski, Sidwell played well, and if he'd converted on his chance, it would have been well-deserved. However, the key midfield role for me remains Diarra. Kerim Frei tried hard but in the end things did not work out for him. Dempsey got a fair bit of stick (not from me - he's still in my fav.team (for the moment)), and the contrast between him and Dembele was the applause/chant that the latter received when substituted. Actually, apart from maybe 3 driving runs, Moussa was not impressive - I can see him moving on. Clint played a number of roles, but frankly looked a bit lost - in still a fairly unimpressive Spurs side. Newcastle at home on a Monday night could be key and I fancy the all-important 3 points; then followed by a further 3, maybe 1, at the table proppers - notwithstanding Harry who has taken on one turnaround too many this time. C O Y W
I'm not looking forward to watching the replay, having seen the score line. At least Dempsey didn't score. I'm not sure what's wrong with the team. A bunch of draws and three losses was not what I was expecting after our good start to the season. A good point last week away to Chelsea. A good draw against Arsenal, but what about the rest? We certainly need Hangeland back and there's something missing, I think, from the midfield. Berbatov is great, but we're sputtering on offense.
First half I thought we played well and were possibly the better side. Spurs had more possession but I though we looked more likely to score despite neither side really having a decent attempt on goal. In the second half Sandro’s goal killed us and we were piss poor after that… I haven’t seen a replay so it may seem a bit harsh but I’m amazed how a shot from that range can beat MS may be we should be seriously looking at Paul Robinson? After the first goal we were out of the game and looked poor. Dempsey got a fair amount of stick which I was personally pleased with (I think he deserves it) but Dembele was received well. It was nice to see both sets of fans applaud him and chanting his name when he came off after 80 min or so… Oh Lay, Oh Lay, Oh Lay, Oh Lay, Moussaaaaaaaaaaaaa Dembele. He didn’t have a great game but he is undoubtedly quality. It leaves you thinking how he would link up with Berbatov had he stayed for another season.
