Fulham away to Rotherham

The matches come fast and furious when playing in a cup mid-week, as the lads travel to New York Stadium to take on bottom of the table Rotherham. The Championship is a marathon, but this a big game to build momentum towards the end of the window and beyond. Hopefully Ross can build off the Sheffield brace, and Ben Pringle gets the chance NOT to celebrate against his old club.

 

Must win match.

 

It may not be a must win match for Fulham but it could very well be for Kit.

 

Anything but an easy win will be met with more howls for Kit's ouster. This IS a big game for exactly that reason. If we've improved at all from the second half of the SheffU win, now is the time to see it. If not, well, it's gonna be another long season, I'm afraid. I will say this...Moussa Dembele is much bigger and stronger player than I previously thought. I don't know if he's got more growing to do, but he's not a skinny rail of a kid. And I hope Kit runs him out there again. As someone once said of Deuce, "he tries shit." And so does Dembele. And he just TRIES, period, harder than many of our other players in recent times.

 

Deuce tried shit...and a lot of it worked. That's the difference. I appreciate Dembele's endeavor, I just wish it came with more result.

If we can't beat Rotherham, home, away or on Mars, we're in for another extended run in the bottom 1/4 of the league. Given our start to the season, that's must win in my book, even though technically, yes, no single league match is "must win".

 

I didn't mean to compare the two directly, b/c yeah, Clint would have been at Furman at that age & that comment hadn't even been made at that point in his career.

I'm really only interested in what I think of our performances & of those who can provide a reasoned opinion of them. I couldn't give a rat's ass about what the folks you're referring to think or say.

 

Dembele has the kind of size and athleticism that defenders have to worry about constantly. He also has class (as anyone who's seen his France U-19 highlights can attest), and it will show as he gains experience in the league.

Here's the lineup I would go with tomorrow:

 

That's how I'd go. I'd have Tunnicliffe on the bench and a quick hook for LVC if he continues to look lost in the shuffle. Tunnicliffe's effort against ShefU merits another chance to play soon. Speaking of merit, I'd like to see Cauley in for either forward when they start to fade, and not in the 87th minute.

After listening to Kit's prematch video, sounds like Husband will start tomorrow. Also interesting, he says they talked to Ross about playing further up the pitch and trusting his teammates b/c they need goals from him. However, after the Cup match, Ross said he preferred playing up top and implied he'd been dropping back more previously b/c he'd been instructed to.

 

After Blackburn's draw with Bolton yesterday, we now sit in the relegation zone before today's match. COYW! Get a win! I'm tired of being at this end of the table.

 

And here's the lineup:
Lonergan
Richards, Ream, Burn, Husband
Cairney, Tunnicliffe, O'Hara, Pringle
McCormack (c), Dembélé.

Subs: Lewis, Voser, Hutchinson, Mattila, Christensen, Kačaniklić, Woodrow

Tunnicliffe is awarded a start at the expense of Christensen - interesting. Glad to see Ream and Husband in there. Actually, for once, I like all the choices for the back line.

 

Good win and, more important, a good performance. Just what we needed. Husband slotted into the side well (goal conceded aside), sounded like a strong performance all around from the mf, and Ross seems to have found his form.

So relieved to go into a 2 week break on the back of that performance as opposed to a poor one or a loss.

 

Thank you Tim. Thank you. And Cauley! Thank you both for finishing a match right. A final score of 3-1 is much better than 2-2.

 

Encouraging. Three goals, a penalty save, and a decent performance. I'll take it. And DON'T change the lineup for the next game!!!

 

How did Ream do?

 

Hard to say just listening to the audio but you didn't hear his name a lot which for a defender is a good thing and when you did it seemed to be in a positive light.

 

Sounds like Ream/Burn have done well, but we shouldn't forget that they've played against a League One team and the bottom team in the Championship.