Nice
he did not reveal to Ruiz that he was cup-tied before he had secured his signature from Twente on transfer deadline day. Ruiz is ineligible because he played for the Dutch side in the Champions League before they were eliminated earlier this season and dropped into the Europa League.
“He thought he could play but he couldn’t. It was an advantage for us because if he’d known before it maybe could have been a problem. I knew it but he thought he could play. Just after signing he said: ‘I thought I could play.’ I said: ‘No you can’t’.”
Not mentioned in this article, but Jol also notes that he might need to get Duff on the left as too many of his right footed crosses weren’t up to scratch. This is something we all agreed on, although against that Twente might not show him down the line as much.
From what we can piece together, I’m guessing:
Schwarzer – Kelly, Baird, Hangeland, Briggs – Sidwell, Etuhu (Gecov?) – Duff, Dempsey, Dembele – AJ
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I think that Etuhu may be injured, so it would be nice to see Gecov get a run out. Would not bet against Kasami getting a run out (which I think is a good this because I think he is going to be one hell of a player)
Looking forward to the game tonight, I was away on Sun for the Blackburn result (that some were unbelievably calling worse than the West Ham Boxing Day massacre) which made me think that Fulham had imploded and ceased to exist due to the reaction.
With regards to Duff – I think we had a bit of a Catch 22 on Sun – he had a torrid time with his right foot crossing as he was shown out wide as Bburn packed the middle and defended with 10 men behind the ball. On the other wing, Riise also had a shocker, so both attacking outfits were broken and we were relying on Kelly to be our wide attacking outlet – fine in tandem with others but not on his own. We missed Davies, badly.
The thing about Duff and inverted wingers is, whilst it can be very effective and allow more freedom and fluidity in attack, I’ve always felt we are slow to react when it’s not working.
I wonder why we don’t switch the wingers over more often. Give them, say, 15 minutes at the start of the game to see how it works. If we’re on the money stick with it, if not switch for a bit. There’s probably some sound coaching reason why we don’t do this (Hodgson, Hughes & now Jol have all resisted) but I don’t understand what it is.
I am pretty sure that when Hughes arrived last season we played Duff and Davies on their ‘correct’ wings for a few games with poor results.
AJ alone up front will be a waste of time and really ought to be a lesson learned.
If Zamora’s to be rested and Sa not ready then the only possible 1 in a 4-2-3-1 should be Dempsey.
I’m no expert on these matters but surely it is Duff’s ability to cut back in & shoot with his left that is his key threat rather and as such on Sunday it was more about Blackburn being cute & forcing him wide every time (and maybe at the same time us not recognising that we might need to vary things up a bit)
Whilst I prefer having a left sided player on the left – would bet money that the stats on Duff’s assists & goals from the left vrs the right would support deploying him on the right, and that just sticking him on his ‘correct’ wing is not as blindingly obvious a solution as it sounds