Promotion - the Fulham way....

[It's Character Forming 1,167]

On ‎13‎/‎02‎/‎2019 at 11:05, sonyc said:

I agree with a lot of comments in here. We won't be buying big. Our present team can be competitive. Playing those larger pitches too, you could see how our team might flourish. Emi is up to it and many others. 

I just know we will need another Pukki type player ( or two) when there are the inevitable injuries or rest phases. You cannot have too few scorers. I love Jordan Rhodes like many but is he in the same mould as Pukki in his style of play? We need other potential scorers in our 18. Huddersfield found they couldn't score enough in their second year. And look at all the bottom placed Prem teams. It's scoring enough that is the problem. You are better in the Prem scoring well and conceding some than struggling to score in every match. You must carry a threat. And in Teemu, he is just one player and we must reinforce. If we can unearth another in the way we have players in the last year, we will do well. I'm not advocating large fees, it's the type of player we have to find. Hopefully if we go up the likes of Buendia, Hernandez etc can also scored their share of goals too.

It's so essential and we would definitely need to reinforce that position .  What's amazing is how often in the Prem we've been struggling for striker options, like under Worthington when we ended up starting with the Doc up front about 10 games into the Prem season, or under Hughton when we had Kei Kamara on loan but didn't sign him.  I wonder whether Jerome would have stepped up better if that goal vs Palace had been allowed, I think because he went on from then without scoring it started to undermine his confidence.

 

Thinking of Alex Neil, he just ended up signing so many attacking midfielders and other positions were neglected.

[CANARYKING 644]

Talking of Kei Kamara, is he still around ?

[norfolkbroadslim 223]

IF and it's a big if, we go up.  We definitely need to strengthen. 

[paddycanary 539]

9 hours ago, Yellowhammer said:

All this talk of promotion is way too early,lot of games to go yet and still close between top six ,wait till 2 or three games to go 

Agreed Yellowhammer, too early for cocky promotion transfer speculation. Loads of water yet to go under the bridge this season. Playoffs at least should be in the bag, but plenty of work to be done & points to play for. We need Leitner to pick up where he left off, Stiepermann to find his form again, Vrancic back in the mix, more support for Pukki in the scoring spread, Hernandez to be a bit more clinical around the opposition's box, sharper movement & concentration defending set-pieces, perhaps convert the occasional penalty...

Perhaps it's time for some more pitch-time for McLean, Cantwell, Rhodes, Klose...? Bit of experience, freshen things up.

The last few weeks seem to have taken their toll on Farke's favoured starters. Understandable, but Bolton is another very tricky assignment and this division is unforgiving. Unlikely I know, but perhaps Zimm, Buendia, Trybull & Pukki need a bit of a breather this weekend to ensure they're ready for the battles ahead. 3 games in a week, after such a high-intensity series of games is tough going. I'm fairly sure there must be a few niggly groins & hamstrings manifesting already. These are the periods when a bit of rotation & smarter use of substitutions might prove beneficial over the last big push through April & May.

Then again, what do I know!? In DF we trust!

[keelansgrandad 6,679]

I don't think you can avoid thinking about promotion at the moment. We are in the top two with a fixture list that looks gift wrapped. Of course we cannot take it for granted. And we probably will lose games and maybe only end up in the play offs. I would take that even though we are showing as much promise as anyone.

Go back to August and the pre-season expectations followed by an awful start and predictions included relegation and most were very little change from last season.

And then a beautiful butterfly emerged from an ugly caterpillar chrysalis.

So even if we don't go up, this season is already a resounding success.

[It's Character Forming 1,167]

I love our team being compared to a beautiful butterfly 🦋. 😀

[splendidrush 700]

5 hours ago, keelansgrandad said:

 

Go back to August and the pre-season expectations followed by an awful start and predictions included relegation and most were very little change from last season.

And then a beautiful butterfly emerged from an ugly caterpillar chrysalis.

So even if we don't go up, this season is already a resounding success.

Agree with this,  reading some of the comments during the Preston game you'd think we were nailed on back in August and were underachieving. 

[It's Character Forming 1,167]

IF

[It's Character Forming 1,167]

It's definitely a big "if"

 

But being honest, the football we've played this season is as good as any I can remember seeing City play over the last 20 years.  This team really deserve to go up. 

 

Yes, I started the season not sure how well we'd do, especially with the squad changes and the players who had left.  But now, if we don't go up, I will be pretty inconsolable !!

[wcorkcanary 4,342]

On 13/02/2019 at 09:32, Bethnal Yellow and Green said:

For every Fulham who sign a bunch of players and fail, there is a Watford who sign a bunch of players and kick on and have never looked in danger of relegation. 

But Bethno, arent Watford just the English branch of a Multi Club  business that gives them an advantage moving players between outlets, sorry, i mean Clubs.