Friday Fulham Stuff 12/02/2015

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QPR v Fulham: Massimo Luongo says side is in better place mentally than last time they faced Whites

Rs Australian international thinks side has what it takes to boomerang back against derby rivals and kick on from there up the Championship table
   


Massimo Luongo believes QPR is in a better place mentally than earlier in the season.

Required to play an unnatural No 10 role, the midfielder admits all was not well with him and the club.

The Australian international dismissed the September 4-0 hammering at Fulham in five words, but spent far more time explaining why his current central midfield role is paying dividends.

Luongo was the one player on that fateful Cottage night who came closest to scoring for Hoops. He was through when the score was just 1-0 to the Whites (see below), but his left-foot low drive found the side netting rather than the back of it.

Now he expects a different outcome Saturday afternoon in the return leg.


He said: "That game's in the past. We're a completely different side, and building on high platform. We're different mentally. I couldn't say what it was, but we're more comfortable on the pitch now.

"I was playing a different position earlier on and you could put it down to that, and we've had three managers come in and had their say."

Luongo was bought as a £2.5 million package with Ben Gladwin from Swindon in the summer, and after an initial run of games found himself in not so splendid isolation on the sidelines.

The man hoping for more call-ups to the Australian World Cup says like the Fuham farce that's in the past.

"I was on the sidelines and I didn't shut my eyes to anything. I was waiting my chance, and I can offer a lot more as a two in midfield than as a number 10," he added.

"As for Australia, I'll hopefully get a call for the next camp."

http://www.getwestlondon.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/qpr-v-fulham-massimo-luongo-10871612?

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Strike Pair's Nomination



Moussa Dembélé and Ross McCormack have both been nominated for Football League Player of the Year at the London Football Awards.

The pair beat off competition from players at all nine London clubs from the Sky Bet Championship to League Two to make the five-man shortlist, where they're joined by Brentford's Alan Judge, Matt Phillips of Queens Park Rangers, and Jay Simpson, whose 22 goals for Leyton Orient make him the country's top scorer so far this season.

Furthermore, Dembélé is also in contention for the London Young Player of the Year Award, but he'll have to fight off stiff competition from some of the Barclays Premier League's brightest footballers.

The in-form Dele Alli and his Tottenham Hotspur teammate Eric Dier are joined on the shortlist by fellow North London man Hector Bellerin of Arsenal, while Charlton Athletic's Ademola Lookman is also on the list.

The ceremony takes place on Thursday 3rd March in Battersea and will be independently judged by experts from the media, former players and representatives of London's 15 professional clubs

http://www.fulhamfc.com/news/2016/february/11/strike-pairs-nomination?

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Video of the Day: Fulham vs Portsmouth, September 1983

At the start of September 1983, Fulham Football Club was experiencing a little bit of a hangover. Requiring a win to get promoted back into the First Division of the Football League for the first time since 1968, Fulham found themselves involved in the story of the day, when their match was abandoned with two minutes left to play following repeated pitch invasions by Derby supporters whose team needed a win themselves in order to avoid dropping into the Third Division just eight years after being the champions of England. Those last two minutes were never played, and Leicester City went up instead.

Portsmouth, on the other hand, had seen the other side of the coin. Relegated twice in three seasons between 1976 and 1978, the club had scrambled up from the Fourth Division ahead of Bradford City on goal difference, and had ended the previous season as champions of the Third Division by a five point margin. The club's stay back in the Second Division would only last three seasons before another relegation, but in 1983 there were still plenty of people old enough to remember Pompey winning the Football League Championship twice in a row, in 1949 and 1950. For people of a certain age, Portsmouth were still a big draw at the time.

It is, therefore, unsurprising that the BBC should have sent the Match of the Day cameras to Craven Cottage on the second weekend of the season. In a competitive division – Manchester City, Chelsea, Newcastle United, Leeds United, Middlesbrough, Sheffield Wednesday, Blackburn Rovers, Crystal Palace, Derby County and Swansea City were all Second Division clubs this season – how would the newly-promoted Third Division champions and the team that had so narrowly missed out the year before get on? On the opening day of the season, Fulham had been well beaten by Barnsley and Portsmouth had been beaten at home by Middlesbrough. Commentary comes from John Motson.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ndCbVvTSC1k

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QPR v Fulham: Another tight local affair on the cards

New boss Sloviska Jokanovic has tightened his Fulham side up in defence
Andy Tongue is on a winning streak with the televised Championship games and is looking to build on that momentum with two more recommended bets in Saturday's west London derby from Loftus Road...

"Five of Rangers' last six matches have gone under the 2.5 line and their back four has looked particularly impressive keeping clean sheets in the last two games"
Back under 2.5 goals at 1.89

QPR
Rangers are now six games unbeaten after Matt Phillips' late goal earned a deserved 1-0 win at home to Ipswich last week amidst signs that Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink is starting to get to grips with the task which faces him at Loftus Road.
They've been hard to beat at home all season losing just twice (and one of those defeats was an injury-time goal conceded to second-placed Hull) but more than half of their games (eight out of 15) have ended up all-square, including the 1-1 draw with Wolves last time we saw them live a few weeks back.
The Hoops will be keen to avenge that embarrassing 4-0 Friday night defeat at Craven Cottage which was shown live on television earlier in the season.

Fulham
It's not been a good start to 2016 for the Cottagers who have yet to win in the new year and have actually won just once in all competitions since the end of October. They are now just four points off the bottom three and have very much been dragged into the relegation fight.

Manager Slavisa Jokanovic has yet to record a win since his arrival in west London. Their away record won't inspire too much confidence going into this west London derby with just a pair of victories away from home all season.
However, they managed to get through the transfer window without losing either Ross McCormack and Moussa Dembele, the forwards who have scored 24 goals between them, and it's very hard to see them not pulling away from the drop zone with that pair up front.

Match Odds
Rangers are now 2.20 for the win which still looks a bit short to me for a side with just five wins from their 15 previous home games this season and one who are no better than 13th in the Championship table. The away win can be backed at 3.75 with the draw available at 3.50.

If we take Jokanovic's word that his side are improving then a lay of the home side becomes an attractive looking play, although I wouldn't put anyone looking for a bigger return off backing yet another draw in West London.
The visitors have drawn two of their last three and only a late goal defeated them at home to second-placed Hull. It looks as if they have tightened things up defensively with the loan capture of Rohan Ince from Brighton to sit in front of the back four so I'm going to get the point apiece onside once again.

Over/Under 2.5 goals
As with seemingly every Championship game we've seen on the box this season, unders if favoured by the market but at 1.89 it's a bigger price than most of the others in recent times with overs available to back at 2.06. The reason for this is that despite sitting in 19th place, the visitors have scored 44 goals - bettered only by the high-flying trio of Hull, Burnley and Sheffield Wednesday - and the 49 they have conceded is less than just Rotherham and Charlton.
A look at their last three games, though, shows that each went under the 2.5 goals line and the new boss does seem to have tightened things up at the back. Meanwhile, five of Rangers' last six have gone under the line and their back four has looked particularly impressive keeping clean sheets in the two most recent games so bearing in mind this is a derby and an early kick-off (the stats show goals are hard to come by in the 12:30pm Saturday fixtures) let's take advantage of that pretty decent price about unders and make it the recommended best bet here.

Recommended Bets
Back under 2.5 goals at 1.89 *best bet
Back the draw at 3.50

https://betting.betfair.com/football/championship/qpr-v-fulham-betting-tips-saturday-13-february-090216-601.html?

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Dembélé: Confidence Is High

Having scored his first derby goal against Queens Park Rangers earlier in the season, Moussa Dembélé is targeting more of the same on Saturday.



The Whites dismantled their local rivals at the Cottage back in September, with the Frenchman opening the scoring after just 116 seconds, and he admitted his pride at netting on such an important occasion.

"It was a very good game for us that we won 4-0," Dembélé said when reflecting on the reverse fixture. "It was a local derby against QPR so, of course, I've got good memories of this match. Hopefully we can do well this time and win again.

"In a game like that you always want to score. You want to score in every game but a derby is a special moment so you always want to score in matches like that, for the fans and for the Club."

After last week's draw with Derby County, Slaviša Jokanović expressed his faith that Fulham would claim three points in their next outing, and when asked if the team are as confident as their Head Coach going into the West London Derby, Dembélé stated: "Yes we are, we are.



"You have to be confident and keep your head focused when you're not winning games, and hopefully we will win games very, very soon.

"We've improved our style of play and we're playing with more intensity, but the results are not there yet. So we have to keep working hard to get those wins, and I'm sure they'll come very soon.

"QPR are at home and they'll have their fans behind them but I'm not really worried about this, I'm just focused on what's happening on the pitch."

It has been a stellar campaign for Dembélé to date, and it was announced recently that the 19-year-old has been nominated in two categories at the London Football Awards, but he insists he'll be keeping his head down as he continually looks to enhance his game.

"It is nice recognition," he admitted, "but I have to keep working hard to improve. Hopefully there will be more to come."

http://www.fulhamfc.com/news/2016/february/11/dembele-confidence-is-high?

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Pringle poised for Ipswich loan move



Fulham winger Ben Pringle is set to join Ipswich Town on a 93-day loan.

The 26-year-old has not played for the Whites under Slavisa Jokanovic, his last appearance coming as a substitute in the 4-1 win over Rotherham on 29 December.

Pringle joined Fulham in the summer from Rotherham but has made just 12 league starts.

Ipswich are close to confirming the arrival of Pringle as a replacement for Ryan Fraser, who tore his hamstring in their defeat at QPR on Saturday.

http://www.westlondonsport.com/fulham/football-wls-fulham-man-set-for-ipswich-loan-move

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Ian Holloway confidently predicts QPR v Fulham



The pundit has been previewing Fulham's trip to Queens Park Rangers.

Embed from Getty Images

Former QPR boss and current pundit Ian Holloway believes the west London side will beat Fulham 2-0 in the Championship this weekend, according to his regular predictions column on Sky Sports.

Indeed, Holloway thinks the R's are beginning to look 'more stable' under Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink and backs them to beat arch rivals Fulham comfortably at Loftus Road.

And he is also pleased there is 'a bit of calm' at QPR right now.

The former R's boss told Sky: "Fulham have won just one of their last 15 league matches while QPR are starting to look a little more stable under Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink, who has got his team improving with each game.

"I didn't like the upheaval behind the scenes before Hasselbaink's appointment but there is a bit of calm at the club at the minute."

QPR will have home advantage, of course, and will be desperate to exact revenge on Fulham after their 4-0 thrashing at Craven Cottage earlier this season.

It should be a brilliant contest during Saturday's early kick-off and, if Holloway is proven right, it's the QPR fans who will be celebrating come full-time.

http://www.hitc.com/en-gb/2016/02/11/ian-holloway-confidently-predicts-qpr-v-fulham/?