Fulham – Villa; Oh dear, oh dear

It just goes from bad to worse, doesn’t it?
On top of Mings and Buendia being out for the season with serious knee injuries, we now have Kamara, with a similar injury, Konsa with a knee sprain and out for maybe another month and Jhon Duran with a Hamstring injury that will probably keep him out until April.
Now add on Diego Carlos, who has suffered a Hamstring injury in training and will be out for around a month.
What makes things worse, is that Kamara is not expected to return until september or even October, meaning he’ll have missed all the pre-season and take an age to get into proper shape.
All in all, it means we’re now beyond bare bones and likely to see the consequences of not giving the kids enough minutes in the first team.
It’s a fact that many of us have called for Tim Iroegbunam to play, for example, to no avail. Well, now it looks like we have no choice but to play him.

I remember quite a few players getting serious injuries, particularly around this time of year in the seventies and eighties, but it was usually attributed to the state of the pitches, where feet would dig in to the really heavy, muddy going. Nowadays, pitches are often smoother than a baby’s proverbial, meaning things should be vastly better?
Yet they don’t seem to be and I think it can only be due to modern methods of training.

Whatever, the footballing gods are definitely not looking down on us favourably, which is about usual and it all means we could be in for a torrid and massively disappointing end to the season, which begins today in my estimation.
There is a little bit of good news, which is that Pau Torres and Lucas Digne should be good to play.

Fulham manager, Roy Hodgson was taken ill during training and had to be rushed to hospital. I’m sure we all wish him well and a good recovery, but the timing wasn’t very convenient for the club, as rumours suggest he was on the verge of being sacked. That thought will obviously have gone out of the window now.
The question for us is how will that affect the Fulham team? and it tends to be that players often try harder in these sorts of situations.
As though things already didn’t bode well for us.

Fulham’s squad news is that Calvin Bassey and Alex Iwobi are back from AFCON. Tosin Adarabioyo and Kenny Tete are available again too, but Raul Jimenez remains out, while Harry Wilson (shoulder) and Issa Diop (hamstring) are both doubtful.
It sounds like they’re in a lot better nick than us.

So how do I see this one going?
Poorly, is the simple answer to that.
I’ve commented for a while now that I didn’t think we’re a very good side of late and we’re now seeing the results that back this up.
I think many of us knew at the back of our minds that we wouldn’t be able to sustain our fantastic play of the first half of the season, but doesn’t it hurt to see that thought coming to fruition?

Our poor run of form continues then and I see goals. I’d expect us to get one, but I’d also expect Fulham to get more, with no doubt Jordan Ayew getting one, if he plays.

It has to be a 1-3 loss I reckon.

UTV!