Blue chews-daze: Mid-table is where the heart is…

…for Fulham, who have practically made it their home this season.

v Fulham

Craven Cottage

Predicted line-up, subs and outcome:

(Number correct from the starting line-up in the last game: 10/11).

I’m going for our manager to put out the exact-same starting-11 & subs as he did in our last match a week ago…

A very fluid 4-1-4-1 / 4-5-1 / 4-2-3-1 (occasional 3-6-1):

____________________Haaland___________________

____Foden_________De Bruyne_________Silva_____

____________________Kovacic___________________

_____________________Rodri____________________

Gvardiol_________________________________Walker

_____________Ake______________Akanji__________

____________________Ederson___________________

Subs: Ortega, Gomez, Lewis, Dias, Stones, Nunes, Doku, Grealish & Alvarez.

Ederson continues in goal.

The back-4 looks like Josko, Nathan, Manuel & Kyle.

Rodders is the deepest of the midfielders but is likely to have Mateo close by; a player who started off okay and then really grew into last weekend’s game, I thought.

A very fluid & dangerous trio of Phil, Kevin & Barnardo attacking just ahead of the Croatian and all behind Erling ‘up top’.

Stefan is the reserve keeper; Sergio, Rico, Ruben & John continue to provide defensive cover on the side. Matheus, Jeremy & Jack are the midfielders / wingers in ‘the 9’; Julian is the back-up striker.

Notable absences:

- Oscar Bobb – Not selected.

Do I agree with Pep’s (predicted) line-up?

Personally, if our manager does-indeed pick the same 11 and bench, I’d have Oscar Bobb in reserve instead of Sergio Gomez, simply because the hugely-talented Norwegian winger has more of a chance of affecting a game coming off the bench than the Spanish left-wing back, that’s all and nothing more.

However, I suppose having Nunes, Doku, Grealish AND Alvarez all on there who all do / can play wide, that’s more than enough for that department. Other than that…👍

Result? A flick through the game-week table standings at GWs 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30 & 35 reveals our host’s season in a nutshell; where they largely bounced around between 10^th & 14^th, mostly resting in 12^th. Inconsistent results, to say the least, has been the cause of that pattern.

They currently sit on just 2 wins in their last 8 outings, a 3-0 triumph at home to Spurs and a 0-2 away victory at West Ham United; drawing 3 and losing 3 also. In that time, they both scored and conceded 11. Those last 8 results & stats would seem to sum up The Cottagers’ season perfectly.

At the other extreme end of the scale, consistency IS where we’re currently at with 32 games unbeaten in all competitions [in ‘the 90’ / extra time]; winning 26 and drawing 6 of those.

It doesn’t get much more contrasting than that, does it?

However, we shouldn’t get ahead of ourselves – with 5 goals slammed in against both The Lilywhites and The Hammers without response, they clearly know how to, on their day at least, both hurt sides as well as keep teams out.

A week off for us but Pep looked a little tired behind the eyes in the first part of his pre-match press conference yesterday (I’m not bothering with ‘Part 2’ / the embargoed section on this occasion in terms of preparing my blog-posting).

However, without being a psychologist, I got the impression that it was simply a case of having to face some (more?) crazy questions; one, even, regarding an apparent training session at Fulham’s training ground about them flying kites. Look that up if you want to; I’m not bothering and nor am I interested.

Instead, I reckon that our manager simply wanted to get past any press questioning so that he could get back to preparing his player the best he could and, of course, why the hell not - a set of players who, as well as some much-needed respite from football, were allowed to travel a bit and spend some valued time with their families in the last week. 👍 He's also probably been watching hours of recent footage of Fulham while his flock have been spread all over the place...

Will our hosts put us under some pressure in front on their own crowd in their last home fixture of the season and breach our defences? I think that’s a distinct possibility. Will our players do the same with our away fans ‘giving it their all’ to urge our players on and ‘respond in kind’ but even more so? That’s what I’m going for…and it’s a City win for me.

Last season’s, corresponding pre-match prediction and result:

Prediction: Win

Result: Won

(Pre-match blog posting from that game)

Expected weather conditions during the game: 73F+ (23C in new money) and brilliant sunshine awaits the players and they enter the pitch for the 12:30pm (BST) kick-off. Perfect sunny, warm / quite hot weather either side of the match too! Want more good stuff? If that’s a little too warm for some fans who might be taking some time adjusting to this, the first of anything like Spring weather; then there should be a nice, 10MPH+ breeze wafting around too. Enjoy! ☀🌤😎