Fulham FC v Liverpool FC - Sunday 13 Dec - 1630 KO

[Gethin]

Live on Sky Sports - hopefully not a big enough game to get the whole Tyler, Carra & Neville bulls***-bingo triple-whammy. Reckon Jurgen will be trying to keep a few fresh for Spurs on Wednesday so we'll see something like

Kelleher

Neco Phillips Matip/Fab Tsimikas (if fit - Robbo if not)

Curtis Naby Gini/Hendo

Jota Bobby Mane

Having Ox fit enough to get on from the bench would be nice too.

[Dan]

Is Alisson not fit for this?

[Gethin]

I'm assuming he won't be - but even if he is, I'd be surprised if they risked him with Spurs on Wednesday and Kelleher playing well

[Hightown Phil]

Be shocked if either of Matip or Fabinho doesn’t start given one didn’t start and one came off at half time last night. If Phillips gets a game any time soon it’s Palace I guess.

 

[Bailo]

Wish we could just go back to Sat 3pms. Hate Sunday games and this time is the 2nd worst after the late game.

[Jarg Armani]

Fulham have been sh*t but are showing some signs of life. Our away form in the league isn’t at all title winning. Play the very best lads available.

[downunder]

Surely Trent starts.

[Gethin]

3 minutes ago, downunder said:

Surely Trent starts.

Just coming back from injury, they'll want him to play the full match against Spurs, it's Fulham. Got Neco starting all over it

In hindsight, I reckon HP's right and we'll get both Matip and Fab starting as they won't want 4 of the back 5 to be inexperienced.

[downunder]

1 minute ago, Gethin said:

Just coming back from injury, they'll want him to play the full match against Spurs, it's Fulham. Got Neco starting all over it

In hindsight, I reckon HP's right and we'll get both Matip and Fab starting as they won't want 4 of the back 5 to be inexperienced.

After being injured he will play, he now needs minutes, he has a had rest?

[Big Red Machine]

I think Nat Phillips starts this 

[Sion]

People definitely over doing the rotation angle here. 

Between now and the weekend 9th/10th Jan we have 6 PL games. Think we can afford to go pretty much full strength in all of them. 

[Andy-oh-six]

Think Neco starts. Trent to play the last 25/30 and back in as a starter for Spurs onwards.

[Gethin]

6 minutes ago, Sion said:

People definitely over doing the rotation angle here. 

Between now and the weekend 9th/10th Jan we have 6 PL games. Think we can afford to go pretty much full strength in all of them. 

You could - but you risk paying for that later in the season.

Between now and Man United mid Jan we've got one game (Spurs) where we absolutely need to go full strength and a bunch of games where teams with 7 or 8 of our best XI with some decent subs available should really be getting the job done. 

You're trying to save players now for periods like 6-20 Feb where you've potentially got Man City, FA Cup R5, Leicester, CL R16 1st Leg & Everton in 15 days.

[Cam]

3 hours ago, Gethin said:

I'm assuming he won't be - but even if he is, I'd be surprised if they risked him with Spurs on Wednesday and Kelleher playing well

Yep. Give him a few more days to recover and play the Wizard. 

Similarly with Neco vs TAA at rightback. 

[Big Red Machine]

I don't think Matip can play 3 games in 6 days 

 

 

[Conrad]

4 hours ago, Gethin said:

Live on Sky Sports - hopefully not a big enough game to get the whole Tyler, Carra & Neville bulls***-bingo triple-whammy. Reckon Jurgen will be trying to keep a few fresh for Spurs on Wednesday so we'll see something like

Kelleher

Neco Phillips Matip/Fab Tsimikas (if fit - Robbo if not)

Curtis Naby Gini/Hendo

Jota Bobby Mane

Having Ox fit enough to get on from the bench would be nice too.

I hope and expect we will go much stronger than that

 

[Sir Tokyo Sexwale]

2 hours ago, Jarg Armani said:

Fulham have been sh*t but are showing some signs of life. Our away form in the league isn’t at all title winning. Play the very best lads available.

 

0-2 City

2-1 Leicester

2-3 Everton

0-1 West Ham

2-0 WBA

since the start of Nov. They've defo perked up but really haven't played anyone aside from those last 2 games - City & Leicester

they've played teams in positions 20, 19, 15, 14, 12, 11, 10, 9, 8, 7 (City) & 4 (Leicester)

[Gethin]

48 minutes ago, Conrad said:

I hope and expect we will go much stronger than that

 

Work through how we go much stronger than that, factoring in the injuries and the Spurs game. 

[Jarg Armani]

If Matip can’t play this one Spurs and palace then I suppose this is the one to miss, but I don’t think it will work like that. This little run is so awkward.

[DanM]

I like the games when it's obvious that our analysts have sat Klopp down and said "these are crap"

Get the feeling this might be one of them with the players who played midweek

[Conrad]

9 hours ago, Gethin said:

Work through how we go much stronger than that, factoring in the injuries and the Spurs game. 

We play our first choice back 4

we play both henderson and gini in midfield, neither of whom played on wednesday

no reason why the same players, bar one or two, cant also play v spurs

 

 

10 hours ago, Big Red Machine said:

I don't think Matip can play 3 games in 6 days 

 

 

agree - I think Phillips is tailor made for Palace

Edited December 11, 2020 by Conrad

[Big Red Machine]

Phillips vs Zaha gives me the fear, why I think he starts against vs Fulham instead.

 

[Gethin]

15 minutes ago, Conrad said:

We play our first choice back 4

we play both henderson and gini in midfield, neither of whom played on wednesday

no reason why the same players, bar one or two, cant also play v spurs

There's zero point in having squad depth if you can't use some of them against a 17th placed team with 7 points from 11 games. The type of team I mentioned in my first post (with Fab & Matip at CB) and good bench options is, on paper, too strong for Fulham.

Gini's a great example - he played what 7 or 8 games on the bounce before having Wednesday off. Why start him against Fulham if you don't need to? Sure, have him on the bench but I'd rather he was able to have his feet up. Got to manage the midfielders carefully with Fab needed in defence and (presumably) Thiago and Milner still not available

Trent's played the full game on Wednesday so you don't really want a player just coming back from a muscle injury starting 3 games in 8 days. Neco's last 2 games have been very good and this is exactly the kind of game you want to use him in, regardless of who's up next.

I'd play Tsimikas just 'cos he needs the minutes - although he's possibly injured so that might not be an option anyway.

[Hightown Phil]

You start Wijnaldum against Fulham cos if he doesn't start he hasn't played for 10 days and while he definitely needed a rest, you need to keep them ticking over and a spell off that long isn't really beneficial.

[Gethin]

1 minute ago, Hightown Phil said:

You start Wijnaldum against Fulham cos if he doesn't start he hasn't played for 10 days and while he definitely needed a rest, you need to keep them ticking over and a spell off that long isn't really beneficial.

Start Naby, bring him off after 60 (as is traditional) for Gini. Nice run out, not too strenuous, in good shape for Spurs.

Selection for this game would probably be a lot different if we didn't have a huge game on Wednesday.