How’s this for a team to take on Wolfsburg tomorrow?
Ideally, I’d like to play Baird in central midfield – but Murphy and Etuhu seem to function much better alongside each other. Playing Dempsey at Hull would suggest that he’ll be on the bench to start with against Wolfsburg though I’d be tempted to give the American a run. Any other changes?
I have a feeling that we will see another outing for Kelly at RB since Fulham are at the cottage and are a bit more attack focused. I too would like to see Dempsey start, but I think that Davies will start there leaving Dempsey as a super sub (a role he has performed well over the last few weeks).
Pretty spot on but if I was Kelly I would be a tad disappointed, he has performed very well in Europe.
on another matter i really have come to the conclusion that Roy will leave us in the summer. No evidence or anything, just by his body language and general frustration. What do you think?
I’d be very surprised if Hodgson is actively looking to leave Fulham – he’ll be excited to see if he can continue building something special down here, especially if MAF gives him a decent transfer budget. Roy’s anger of late is down to some very disappointing performances (second half at Spurs and Saturday at Hull).
Kelly probably will play at right back and dropping him from the European side is harsh but then leaving out Baird in favour of an off-colour Etuhu would be similarly unfair.
I agree that leaving out Baird is harsh, but I think, especially in the case of European games, having a large, athletic and tough tackling centre mid puts the wind up the teams we have faced, as well as giving us more height in the team (not that Etuhu can header that effectively).
Bairds problem is that he is a bit too short/not quite pacy enough. If he was just a bit bigger I think Hodgson would have no problem putting him in as an enforcer. As it is, I think he is a good backup to come on if we need to go more attacking.
At times I worry that Dickson’s lumbering is going to come unstuck. It has done a couple of times in our domestic games of late and Baird’s been very impressive in a progressive midfield role in Europe. I’d play him over Etuhu as the Germans are likely to be a bit more physical than Juventus but there’s a reason why I’m sitting here typing and Roy’s a top manager …
If I’m honest, I don’t think Etutu should start. He is out of form while Chriss Baird has been thriving in that CM position. He was fanatstic against Juventus and definatly deserves his place against Wolfsburg.
Kelly should go in at RB and lets just hope he raises to the occasion once again.
Davies has been good recently but if Dempseys fit then I’d play him in LM with Duff out at RM. Zamora and Gera should play up front again as that combination has worked wonders for us.
Roll on Thursday night for what I hope will be another great night in Europe 🙂
I agree with Lydia and Dan. Chris Baird should be at CM instead of Dickson Etuhu.
I have been harsh on Stephen Kelly in the past. At times he has gotten the job done. I am hoping he can hold his own.
This team can really score a good amount of goals. Even if Dzeko can’t play this team still has weapons. I am also not sold that Dezeko is not going to play. I was led to believe by the papers that Pavlyuchecko was not going to play in the FA Cup. He played and scored a goal last Wednesday.
In an ideal world I’d put Baird and Etuhu together in midfield and drop Murphy (Probably a cardinal sin to say such a thing but I groan a little whenever anyone says Murphy is the driving force of the team, when all I see him do is win the ball back only to give it away.) Baird’s distribution is actually very good, he can cross and is good at finding Zamora upfield, but we’ve only seen that REALLY when he’s played at right back. but I’d stick him midfield for tomorrow
The rest of squad pretty much chooses itself, with all our best players readily available. Dempsey will be eager to make a start in midfield, so I’m sure he’ll get in over Davies. It is really funny to think that Chris Baird is probably causing a massive selection headache for Roy, when you think, this time 2 years ago, you would be forgiven for thinking he’d played his last game for Fulham.
I think we need to go with our A1 team which I think is the one you show in the graphic. I think Etuhu is the best defensive midfielder we have and I think Chris Baird is our best option at RB whilst JP is still out. I think Dickson has been steadily improving since coming back from injury and Baird can be relied upon to keep things ship shape at the back. Also, apologies to Michael but, Murphy is the driving force of our team!
Whoever we put out we need a big performance. This season’s epitaph may well be so near and yet so far. I’m thinking positive though. COYW!