There’s been some discussion on the various Fulham messageboards today about the possibility of Roy Hodgson picking ‘a shadow side’ for the Europa League game in Sofia tomorrow night.
I’m not sure that Roy will ring the changes to such an extent, but it’s an interesting question posed by a few people. Would it be worth rotating the squad to such an extent with what could be a testing tie at Wolves on Sunday afternoon? I’m not convinced that we’ll need to rest our key players, but it might be neccessary to give AJ the opportunity to get over his recent injury problems and three games in eight days could give the likes of Duff and Dempsey a bit of trouble as well.
I’d be tempted to go with the strongest possible side along the lines of – Schwarzer; Pantsil, Konchesky, Hughes, Hangeland; Etuhu, Murphy, Duff, Gera; Zamora, Nevland – maybe resting Andy Johnson and Dempsey. But what would a plausible alternative look like? Perhaps something like this:
Stockdale – Kelly, Konchesky, Hughes, Smalling – Baird, Greening, Riise, Davies; Nevland, Kamara.
NB: Unless there has been a late change to our squad list, Kagiso Dikgacoi and David Elm will not be eligible to play in Sofia tomorrow night.
It will be very interesting to see who lines up for us tomorrow. It will certainly give an indication of how seriously Fulham plan to take the competition.
I think Riise and Davies should be our wide players tomorrow as I think Gera has had his chance and ruined it! He needs a break to settle before he is introduced back to the strating 11.
I think Greening could give either of the centre players a break as he has the ability to do that.
I’m slightly disappointed that Duff is injured as he played so well on Sunday. At least this gives Riise a chance as from what I have seen of him, looks lively.
Personally, I’d like Gera to get a game tomorrow. He’s played in these type of games before and the slower pace might suit him. Davies would ultimately be ahead of him in the pecking order but I find it difficult to believe that he’ll be ready to start a game so soon after coming back from injury.
I lot of our 1st team players have had knocks in the last couple of weeks: Schwarzer, Hangeland, Konchesky, Duff, Murphy, AJ, and Zamora. Not to mention Dempsey already looks quite tired after a gruelling summer. It seems entirely sensible to rest these players in midweek games, and not risk them getting injured to a worse extent. Also gives the newer and fringe players a chance to show that they can stick to Roy’s system, meaning that when they come into the team in the future, they can blend seamlessly into the way we play.
Can’t disagree with any of that Nick. Dempsey’s the sort of player who give it his all even when he’s really flagging which it seems like he is first now. He’ll need to be given some rest – perhaps in some of these European games as well.
Great point about the system. Though they will have been used to it in training and maybe in the reserve team (although I don’t really know how far Roy’s influence extends), that’s no substitute for match practice and game situations.