FA Cup 5th Round: Bolton @ Fulham - Hey, At Least It's Not Spurs

Then again, we did destroy them (I don’t think I’ll stop bragging about that beatdown for a while.  Sure felt good).  But, time to move on in the tournament.  It’s not getting much easier.

Bolton are one of those clubs that’s flown incredibly under the radar this season.  After beating Tottenham in the last round, I saw the matchup and thought getting one of Wigan or Bolton was a win-win.  Then I realized they are in 8^th position in the Premier League table.  Whoops.  This will be no easy task.  Let’s take a look at the hard facts, then we’ll try and predict what’s going to happen.  Because, you know, it’s pretty easy to predict sports.

State of Fulham:

Fulham’s recent FA cup form, as you all know, are most recently coming off a surprising yet incredibly promising 4-0 beatdown of Tottenham.  I still hold that Spurs beat themselves more than Fulham beat them, but it was a great sign nonetheless.  In the Premier League, the Cottagers are coming off that emotional roller coaster with Chelsea that ended 0-0.  The team has really picked up their form in recent weeks.  If you told me in December that I’d be writing a preview where I mentioned a drubbing of Tottehman and a draw with Chelsea we should have won, I would have promptly laughed in your face and bought 4 handles of some very hard alcohol.

The best part of this club so far has been their defense no doubt.  Hangeland and Hughes are absolute studs in the back, and their presence has been a force.  Salcido played relatively well against Chelsea, but I still hold that he should not start, especially with Senderos on his way back (you’ll find out I don’t care for the Mexican very much).

As far as injuries go, the most notable one is Clint Dempsey.  As recent as 2 days ago, Mark Hughes said he fully expected Dempsey to be ready to go despite a sore big toe, but all of a sudden word on the street is he may instead fall victim to the FA Cup and its relative lack of importance to the Premier League, even though the team has made it this far.  If he can’t go, expect Dembele and Johnson to be up front and Gera to start in the middle.  Dempsey’s benching may also result in a lot of time for, and perhaps even a chance at a start for Eduir Gudjohnsen, who recently has said he wants to stay in Fulham (more on that later).  Also, Zamora is only a week or two from being back and Senderos is about 3 weeks away, and while they will be absolutely welcomed back with open arms, the team has been playing well without them as of late.

State of Bolton:

Like I said earlier, they’ve been flying very under the radar.  Their strength is in their spread out, steady attack, with not only Kevin Davies and Johann Elmander up front able to score, but with 3 of their midfielders having already put the ball in the net this season as well.

On the injury front, here’s where the match gets interesting.  Bolton are without two of their starting defenders Zat Knight (former Fulham member) and Sam Ricketts, not just for this match, but for the long term as well.  Knight is out 6 weeks or so with knee damage (side note: who made knees? Talk about a design flaw) and Ricketts will miss the rest of the year with an Achillies tear (a la Senderos).  This will force manager Owen Coyle to have to do some serious mixing and matching.

Fulham will win if:

They take advantage of the aforementioned injuries to the Bolton back line.  They played Chelsea EXTREMELY defensively, often keeping all 11 players on their own half of the pitch.  This match will require just the opposite and will be a good test of the team’s relatively depleted and underwhelming attack.  Not taking anything away from the Bolton attack, which has its moments, but I would venture a guess that 2 goals, possibly even 1, could be enough to win the match for Fulham, due to our back line’s recent form.  The only way they will get those 2 or 1 goals will be if they keep on the pressure all 90+ minutes.  Mark Hughes picked his attacking moments incredibly well against Chelsea I thought, but with our attack, you can’t just pick your spots, you have to keep it on full power all match or that goal never comes.

Prediction:

I’m probably oversimplifying this a lot, and maybe I’m asking too much of the defense, but if we can hold Tottenham and Chelsea to clean sheets, why not Bolton?
Fulham moves on 2-0.

Also, I will be live tweeting during the game as best I can (as long as foxsoccer.tv behaves) so follow me @FulhamsFinest