Any predictions? This forum has been very quiet of recently as well as our official twitter and fb accounts. Assuming no injuries my lineup would be: ----------------------- Stek ------------------- Riether ---- Heitinga ----- Hangeland/Burn ---- Riise ----------- Kvist --------- Sidwell -------- Dejagah ------ Holtby -------- Richardson---- ------------- Mitroglou ---------- I would be tempted to bring in Tunnicliffe because of his work-rate and help that provides to Riether but may be in second half when they are knackered.
Tunnicliffe has already been sent out on loan, along with Larnell Cole - just another day in our absurd season. I'd go with the same lineup you've posted but withdraw dejegah and richardson to midfield so we have 2 banks of four, keep Mitro up by the half way line when we are defending and give Holtby a free role when we are in possession and a harrying role when we dont.
A big question in team selection is whether Kostas will be fit. In his lunchtime press conference Felix said, that he was "not ready”, although he should be for next week. Amorebietta and Duff are also ruled out. Bent, he said, is back in the squad having missed last week for personal reasons. An even bigger question then, is who will be sacrificed? We know Chelsea are strong in midfield. We know they tend to attack through the middle rather than use the wings. So we need to shore up our own midfield to combat them. Could it be one of our own wide men that has to be left out, and Richardson would be the favourite? Or do we play without the ‘lone’ man up front? Well, our lone strikers, collectively, haven’t exactly been banging them in so far - arguably because of the lack of support and or service. Mainly however, it has been lack of mobility and frankly I can’t see anything changing. So, I’d add to our mid field and keep the two wide men. Who to bring in then? I’d go for Kvist (don‘t understand why he didn‘t play at West Brom) and Kara. Then, and contrary to my comments in another thread about pre-planned subs, bring on Parker for Kara sometime after the hour mark - probably! ……………..Stekelenburg…………. ..Reither…….Heitinga..Hangeland……Riise.. ……Kara………Kvist…….Sidwell… …Dejagah……..Holtby………Richardson..
I'd agree with this line up, but I suspect Felix will go for Parker over Kvist. I'm not sure what Kvist did to get dropped, other than not be the biggest name in our array of centre midfield options. Is Riise the best option at left back? After everyone else seems to have come up short in recent games, I'd be tempted to try Duff. That said, I suspect Riise will play.
Ally Mac has a lot of explaining to do over Mitroglou, clearly we got an unfit player. Not acceptable given our league position.
We need to play Kvist to pick up Oscar in the 'hole'. Tunnicliffe would have been ideal on the right for his defensive work rate to help Sascha with Hazard had he not been sent out on loan. I'd like to see C58's line up and I suspect we will apart from Kvist, Parker will play instead.
Easy, peasey tomorrow and fighting talk from Felix as he also explains the Kostas situation and why Tunnicliffe and Cole went out on loan - [video=youtube;0yfvIA4etAc]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0yfvIA4etAc&feature=player_embedded[/video]
If anybody fancies us to upset the apple-cart and take all three points, you can get us at a massive 7/1 with some of the bookies. I think I'll be having an ambitious fiver on us. Surely Chelsea will have to rest a few key players.
Before the interview I was going to place a cheeky one on Fulham winning and Kostas scoring... Will replace Kostas with Holtby!
Quite looking forward to this one and a tad optimistic we might get something from this. It will be interesting to see what difference a good week of training with Felix will have done. Chelsea's trip to Turkey won't help their preparation but they're a good team and we'll have to be at our very best.
Mourinho said some interesting things yesterday about Fulham and our relationship with Chelsea. Sounds like we have a little place in his heart. "I'd like the London teams to stay up. I have that emotional connection with Fulham, our neighbours and our rivals," he said. "Rivals need each other. It is good for everybody, so hopefully they can keep their place in the division, but we have to try [and beat them]." He seemed to suggest that he'd be willing to take a loss to Fulham, if it helped us stay up and as long as it didn't cost them the title. http://www.bbc.com/sport/0/football/26216284 -- I'll add that I wouldn't be surprised if Fulham put in one of their best performances so far this year following another week of training with Felix. Let's hope.
The more I hear Felix speak the more convinced I am that he gives us a much better chance of staying up. He is driven by keeping things simple and making them work. Employing experience in our situation is exactly what we need. The press are foolish to imply he does care about the young players, if only they did their homework. As for today, Chelsea are odds on favourites but their game midweek will help our cause. John terry and fat boy Frankie played so hopefully they may step aside, replaced by Luiz and another. If Luiz plays centre back anything is possible, he is a definite liability. If rodders can keep moving and drawing the fouls, Luiz will take the bait. Richardson will have a tough afternoon though against the best right back in the league. Stopping ivanovic will make our job much easier. Dejagah has the toughest job of all though up against hazard. A wonderful player on his day, let's hope today is not his day. We need Holtby to thrive today and Sidders to be immense. Fulham 2 Chelsea 2 COYW
I agree with the Frogman, FM is definit3ly the best man for the job, he makes complete sense to me. I would like to Kvist play as I thought he was more reliable than parker. Apart from that, bring it on. Also liked the article on the web site from the ginger ninja. BRING ON THE NOISE! Lets make the Cottage a fortress once more. Still believe boys!
The ever busy Mr Clattenburg is in charge today. please log in to view this image In his 28 Premiership games this season he's amassed 92 yellow cards. We last saw him, in fact the only time we've seen him this year, at the Cottage in the game against Spurs in December.
Stekelenburg; Riether, Hangeland, Heitinga, Richardson; Dejagah, Parker, Sidwell, Dempsey; Kasami, Bent Fairly uninspiring, and no Holtby (?!), but let's see what today brings. COYW! Also, today is Clint's last game before he goes back to MLS.
Well Clint, it's your last chance to show that this loan wasn't an unmitigated disaster. Where's the pace in that team?
Well that is a surprise line up. Will Dempsey play behind the striker or Kasami ? If we could counter attack with Dempsey coming in from the left if ivanovic gets caught up field .... Mmmm. I guess we have to trust in Felix's line up, he sees what happens on the training pitch. First impressions though are somewhat underwhelmed. Please please go out and show some fight. COYW
