One More Season in the Championship

Millwall lost to Blackburn so it is official, we are safe. So now what?

I said it before and I'll say it again - we close out the season with two wins!

 

Finish strong and start planning out additions and subtractions for the summer. Maybe the most important summer window in many years. Absolutely HAVE to get this summer right. We really need to sure up the back 4 and add some much needed depth in midfield. Would really like to see some freakin wingers added to the roster, not fullbacks who can play farther up but some true WINGERS. It's all well and good having strikers who can finish but you have to have players who can get them the ball in a good spot. I feel like we're really lacking in this area.

 

I think much will be determined by these final matches. If we show marked improvement, then Kit has earned the right to start fresh with HIS players next season. If we maintain our current form or regress, then all bets are off on any first team position, including the manager. Whichever way things go, we need to start prepping now for next season. The remaining fixtures are tryouts for those who want to stay. So let the games begin. Who would you keep, and who would you let go? I think it's safe to say Senor Ruiz will be departing and Marcus Bettinelli will be staying...unless someone waves a large wad of cash under Mike Rigg's nose, like, say, Roman Abramovich. But I really don't see that happening. As for the rest, we'll have to wait and see if Kit retains the hot seat, or we make yet another change. I really hope he's still around next season. Unless we totally tank these last two games, I believe he's earned the chance to get his own guys in place for next season.

 

I am going to hope for the same change I have hoped for an extended period of time, please give us a dominant central midfield pairing. I would like one that can tackle and disrupt the oppositions attack and one that can transition the team from defense to attack with regularity.

 

WooHoo! I'm going to take a few deep breaths and relish this for a couple of days.

 

I'll be very disappointed if Fulham doesn't keep Kit as manager. The easiest way to make his case is to simply state he took a team that was doing worse than Blackpool - worse than Blackpool - and kept them up in the Championship.

The next easiest way to make his case is to point out that if the season started on September 20th with his first match in charge Fulham would be 12th right now - 17 points outside of relegation and 16 points outside of the playoffs. A true mid-table position.

He accomplished this without a team of his choosing. Let's have a recap of who was brought in last summer:

• Adam Taggart
• Adil Chihi
• Dino Fazlic
• Gabor Kiraly
• Kay Voser
• Kosta Stafylidis
• Mark Fotheringham
• Matt Smith
• Nikolay Bodurov
• Ross McCormack
• Shaun Hutchinson
• Thomas Eisfeld
• Tiago Casasola
• Tim Hoogland

How many of those 14 were on the roster last week at Blackpool? Three started and two were on the bench.

Kit took the wreckage of Magath's tenure, 1 point in seven matches, and managed to make a team that could compete. For that, he has earned the right to manage the team next year.

 

I have to admit that I'm still not sold on Kit. I have my concerns about his tactical ability. Set pieces, for example, were something we haven't been able to defend all season and we haven't shown much improvement. I'm also not a fan of the diamond. Maybe you can say he's been forced to play it because of our lack of wide players, but I think you need quality wide players to be successful in the english game.

That's not to say I'm not behind him, I am, but I want to see what he can put together over the off season. So far he's making the right noises about an overall, but it's much easier said than done.

 

!!! I dont think that's only 'English' game... I used to fixate on how the field spread when watching the Crew. If it was wide, I knew they were confidant. Narrow... held my breath about a counter the whole time.
A good # 10 WILL spread the field.
- just sayin..

 

Why... are you surprised? Remember how the day-day content geek used to cajole you to do front page game analysis? Wasn't cuz I didnt get what went on, it was often because I would over-analyse and run off on a tangent.
In short: Just writing that reminded me of how the Crew had a beautiful classic #10 named John Wilmar Perez.. And if old pro Robert Warzycha* came in late, as left mid, the field collapsed because he would never let Perez have the ball to distribute. Which would lead to a rant explaining why many soccer fans hated Manager Warzycha from the git-go.
I am, and always was, more interested in the Team dynamics than the games themselves.

* Best known for being able to put the ball in the corner of the net from 30 out...

See what I did here? Now think about that, boys and girls.