View from Preston North End

[terryr]

Fulham
"DANGER MAN
Aleksander Mitrovic
Far too good for this league and in every appearance against us the Serbian has scored hopefully goes down with flu or a late injury so is ruled out, total class this guy.
TRANSFERS

10 Internationals in the squad main signings Michael Hector from Chelsea plus a shed load of loans Knockaert, Cavaliero who apparently nearly died on his last visit to Deepdale after a gentle touch by John Welsh

Just what we needed another televised game, four straight defeats and no goals and now we are up against Mitro.
Need to be at the top of our game for this one, they are beatable but need to press them all over the pitch, we will not have a lot of the ball but will have to deny them the time on it. As I said not sure whether Parker has a plan B.
Hopefully we will play the ball on the ground instead of some of teh alehouse stuff personally think we need to play a couple of fresh faces just to liven the side up, come on Alex time for Bayliss.

Let's move on. We need pace, movement, energy , determination, inventiveness - none of which were evident today. It seems unlikely Johnson will be back and while Gallagher - if fit - brings experience he does tend to want to play big long high balls that often just get headed straight back. So if no returnees at all I might even recall Clarke simply for his character and go for:

Rudd,
Clarke, Huntington, Storey, Rafferty
Pearson, Ledson or Bayliss
Bodin, Browne, Harrop
Nugent

There needs to be a shake-up - this season can still be something memorable but it is now on a knife-edge.

"Realistically, why would you change the system of the leagues highest scoring side, after 45 minutes of come back football. O.k it got a result that day but to persist with it for five games in which we have scored just one goal is either,silly,stubborn or both !!
Lets get back to what we started the season doing."

" I'm not seeing any pace in that XI, tbh."

" Pearson, Browne and Harrop at least have energy, so does Fisher and I would start him if he is fit. Barkhuizen has pace, as well know, but it is of little use when it is not accompanied by any great determination. Something we absolutely need is a really fast left-back - a player of that sort would compensate for Maguire's lack of pace when played on the left - and you would have to hope is what we would be looking for in the New Year. Ledson has no pace I agree but playing him would free up Pearson to roam forward with more freedom. Has Bayliss any pace - perhaps it is time to find out"

" Playing a team as expansive as Fulham, I suspect we'll play a team similar to today.
The problem with the current side is although they might follow AN's instructions to a tee when it comes to pressing, when they win it back they just don't know what to do with it.
I'd play Barky up top with Harrop and Bodin either side."

" Tactics do seem to have changed from ' let them worry about us and stop us if they can' to 'how do we stop them?'
We used to go for wins from the beginning, now it looks like we set off and hope for the draw."

" Can't know who to pick when we don't know who's fit."

" Presuming no one else is back

Rudd

Hughes
Huntington
Storey
Rafferty

Pearson
Bayliss

Harrop
Bodin
Browne

Barkhuizen

And before Ernest says anything about Barkhuizen being ineffective up front that's only the case if we're playing hoofball, Fulham will leave space in behind for him to break into and hopefully if we get a playmaker in midfield (Bayliss if DJ and Gally are out, either one of DJ and Gally if fit) we can keep the ball on the ground and be more fluid and technical as we were towards the start of the season."

" One thing I DO know is they had better keep a close watch on Mitrovic, he always does well against us, I wish we could have afforded him; we might have had a spell in the premiership if we had. IMO"

" Might as well give him the freedom of Deepdale. He'll still get at least 2 goals whatever we do"

" Time to play Harrop and Bayliss from the start. Both hungry and good on the ball. Need to put out a team to play anything but hoofball and go back to pressing high up the field; something that has been lacking in recent games. If we sit back Fulham will rip us a new one."

" I don't understand the Bayliss thing, even less than the Green our Ginelly thing. Why are we buying these creative players and not playing them when we're screaming out for creativity."

" Fulham will score cause they've got Mitrovic and he always scores against us."

" Think AN will tinker a bit v Fulham depending on current injuries expect to see same back four & change up front so

Rudd
Hughes Storey Huntingdon Rafferty
Pearson Browne
Bodin Ledson Harrop
Nugent

think Stockley/Maguire/Potts be on bench"

Please post your prediction in the following format:

<Home team> <Home Score> - <Away Score> <Away Team>
<Name of Scorer>
<Attendance Prediction>

e.g. PNE 26-0 Blackpool
Finney
Attendance: 23,404

3 points for correct result W/L/D
1 point for correct home score
1 point for correct away score
1 bonus point for getting the score exactly right
2 points for correct first scorer OR 1 point for correct scorer at any other time
2 bonus points to the poster who guesses closest to the official attendance (If 2 or more players are level, then 1 pt each).

You can only predict one goalscorer. Two or more and it won't count.

A correctly predicted 0-0 will be awarded 6 pts including the bonus.

An updated league table will be posted at least once a month. You can see the latest table here.

" Pne 2-2 Fulham
Mitrovic
12245"

" Pne 1-1 Fulham
Browne
13, 883"

" PNE 2 Fulham 1
Huntington
12123"

" PNE 1-2 Fulham
Mitrovic
11,817"

" PNE 2 Fulham 1
Harrop
11205"

" Mitrovic
Preston 1 Fulham 4
11,271"

" Preston North End 0-2 Fulham
Mitrovic
11,200"

" PNE 1-2 FFC
Mitrovic
12,842"

" PNE 2 - 2 Fulham
Barkhuizen
12,411

" PNE 1 - 3 Fulham
Knockart ?
12,869"

"

" Not sure about Barkhuizen up front,but will accept your reasoning and explanation, I would also like to see Bayliss given a chance after all we paid a big fee and he was playing regularly all be it at a lower level with Coventry.
What concerns me though,is our manager has stated that in training and bounce games he arranges,players who meet and play to the role and systems he sets out,will be given a chance when opportunities arise.
Yet with Bayliss, he has rarely been included in the match day squads,unless we have had injuries and suspensions, AN just like yesterday does not seem to see him as a player who can be a game changer at this level?

"We have s owner who prefers horses to buying decent quality players .instead he rather pay wages for the likes of nugent and maguire who are not good enough"

" Why has it all gone wrong.......... If we lose on Tuesday night, that will be 5 defeats in a row
It cant all be down to injuries can it ??"

" Heard the following today.

Tom Clarke played an hour yesterday in a "reserve" game
Fisher is back training
Ben Davies is a couple of weeks off
Hughes is running but no contact as he is recovering from a broken bone in his foot
Not heard about Bauer anyone any news?"

" Ben Davies is the biggest casualty by far of that list.
Thankfully Huntington has stepped in superbly, but we need both Bauer and Davies back ASAP."

" QPR and Fulham will be tough, would sign up for two draws tbh just to get some momentum back into the season.
Luton had a decent start to the season but are really struggling now so that should be a win even with makeshift defence.
Need them all back for Leeds if possible."

" A win an a draw for me from those 2 games, we've lost 3 on the spin, 2 draws is hardly momentum. I know they're both tough games but if we wanna stay in the top 6, we need 3 points ideally tomorrow. No flat away performance please Whites!"

" DJ out for 6 weeks"

" Oh no!"

"It didn't sound good when the knee brace stuff was on here last night"

" And yet AN was trying to kid us yesterday that we would need to assess the injury even though he was in a knee brace."

" Perhaps trying to keep QPR guessing as much as anything. Not that it did us any good."

" Think his comments were made after the match so fulham he's trying to kid!"

" Lets be honest.
Take the rose tinted glasses off.
How many of our players would get into other top half championship teams?
Davies
Pearson
It's a short list imo
Therein lies the problem.Huff and puff only gets you so far."

" Easy to criticise now but we have a very good team when everyone is fit.
Bauer and Davies would be a great partnership for all Champ teams, Pearson and Johnson would be first choice for most sides.
We've got a good side, don't trash them just cos we're on a bad run."

" From a work ethic a few would get in a top six team. From an ability point of view, none of them."

" Current team has too many players with limited technical ability to keep possession, hence we revert to long aimless balls when under the slightest pressure, or backpasses to keeper. Until we get Gally, DJ, Bauer, Nugent, Harrop, Davies in the team it will remain that way. Barky and Maguire lose it too often. I'd love to see Barkys pass completion rate this season, but last 4 games it must be <20%"

""They have shown that when they are on it, they can beat any team in this league and we know it will be a tough game.""

" AH on Fulham: "They probably go in to the game as favourites but we often seem to do better against the better teams and hopefully that is the case again tomorrow night." #pnefc"

" AH: "We've only lost one game at home in the league and that was against West Brom so it's perfect for us to have a home game against one of the top teams and we will be looking to put recent results right." #pnefc"

" Four defeats, no goals and a long queue to see the physio paints the picture of the dip, the opening spell of winter a bleak one for PNE fans."

That's all I could find today

[ScalleysDad]

As ever thanks for doing these. It would seem fan forums in the top half of the Championship have very similar thoughts, gripes and fears. The Bristol City site bemoaned missing players, technical flaws and how few of their squad would make it elsewhere. PNE fans have many similar points to those being raised on here as well as the squad depth and quality concerns. A rallying cry for us tonight comes from a Charlton fan after they beat Leeds when he described the expensive Leeds squad as "All fur coats and no knickers". Long johns and gloves tonight boys. It's almost our version of the often used ' cold, wet night in Burnley' fixture