Yesterday afternoon at Ashton Gate brought breathlessness and, ultimately, more disappointment. The bald facts from Fulham’s last two Championship matches tell you clearly where the problem lies: 47 shots, ten on target, two goals. An awesome August has given way to a stuttering September that has seen Marco Silva’s side drop points to Blackpool, Reading and Bristol City. If the wheels aren’t quite falling off Fulham’s promotion juggernaut, the vehicle certainly don’t look like the well-oiled machine that swept aside opponents in some style in the early weeks of the season.
Silva singled out the officials for criticism after Fulham’s latest setback but, in truth, he was as off target as his misfiring forwards. Yes, Kasey Palmer’s equaliser should have been disallowed for offside – that appeared clear to the naked eye, but the visitors were guilty of missing a succession of chances both before and after the leveller. The chief culprit was Aleksandar Mitrovic, who could easily have had a hat trick in stoppage time alone, although the Serbian striker was far from alone in squandering glorious openings. Both Neeskens Kebano and Harry Wilson also wasted glorious chances when it seemed easier to score – and that failure to be clinical proved very costly.
The Fulham head coach was also upset at how long it took his side to dictate the play. He glowered briefly before charging down the tunnel at half time – perhaps an insight into how fiery his team talk might have been – and the two changes that enlivened his side immediately after the interval were even more evidence of his unhappiness. But the balance of Fulham’s midfield felt off from the start: Nathaniel Chalobah, who took time to settle into his debut at Birmingham, has failed to follow up that encouraging overall performance in two subsequent outings, Josh Onomah flitted in and out of this contest and, plainly, Jean-Michael Seri is not a defensive midfielder.
Fulham looked far more combative and sprightly once Harrison Reed entered proceedings, but it remains to be seen whether Silva will recognise that the ginger-haired schemer is best deployed at the base of the midfield, especially now that Kevin McDonald and Stefan Johansen have departed. Saturday showed that the new management appear eager to reinvent Reed into a more adventurous raider from the engine room, when his reading of the game and ability to snuff out danger could have been better used to diffuse the Robins’ rousing revival midway through the second period.
Fulham might have been far too passive at the outset against Nigel Pearson’s disciplined two banks of four, but they also failed to adjust after the City manager switched to a back three and threw caution to the wind. Questions have been asked before about the ticker of a team that seems set up to ambush teams going forward and the Whites looked briefly befuddled by their opponents’ own sense of adventure following Pearson’s move to a 3-4-1-2. Palmer profited from finding pockets of space in front of the Fulham back four when he came on and, had Nakhi Wells showed some composure in front of goal, the hosts might have snapped up a second. Game management is one of modern football’s most in-vogue terms: Fulham had none of it in BS3.
Silva’s side clearly miss the creativity of Fabio Carvalho and Kenny Tete at right back, but such is the quality in the squad at the Portuguese head coach’s disposal they can’t quibble about the odd injury. Teams have worked out how to deal with Fulham’s attacking arsenal and when the Whites aren’t able to match the opposition’s tenacity or intensity, they don’t deserve to come away with three points. Rodrigo Muniz has shown enough in three appearances to suggest he might be a source of something different so the decision to send on Ivan Cavaleiro with Fulham hunting a winner in the closing stages was particularly perplexing. One defeat might be a wake up call, two hints at a problem – and, after all the chances that came and went, yesterday’s point felt like another opportunity missed. It is early in the season, and it would be a much bigger worry were the Whites not incisive enough, but Silva sorely needs a ‘plan B’.
Is Silva’s honeymoon period over?
I agree with all the above we were bloody awful again we must be the worst finishers in the championship, how is it that our players can’t score goals with all the chances they had,I don’t think Chalobah and Adonai should have started and I would have liked Muniz to have been given a start, Caveleiro shouldn’t even be in the squad, we are not the same team without Carvalho and Tete, we also need to step up our intensity to match our apponents,Silva needs to sort things fast because we won’t make automatic place’s playing like we are right now.
That should have read Onomah
Fulham’s Football may be mediocre for the moment but what does make me proud to be a Fulham fan
1. Taking the Knee against racism in football
2. The players display of solidarity with our Fulham Fan Rhys Porter living with cerebral palsy who got all that abuse from the disgraceful mob .
Thats what makes us Fulham ! COYW ..
Would not say teams have worked us out, if we took our chances, would have one easy v Reading and Bristol City and a bit unlucky with offside goal and amount of times we hit the woodwork. Don’t worry yet still playing good football . Bournemouth and WBA had a lot of luck don’t look great early days . And as Pez says could not be prouder great club.
Parker’s Bournemouth (how good does it feel to type that!) are scoring way above their xG and long ball West Brom will be found out soon. We should keep our nerve, keep playing with verve and panache and the goals and the wins will come. We gave awful Parkerball two seasons, don’t write off Silvaball after a few games.
I think at time we need a Plan B. Silva has not got a long wrong so far except the team against Blacpool when he picked a number of tired players returning from international duty. Along with his insistence of Cavaleiro featuring in every match and not playing Bryan either at full back or on the wing. Plenty of time to get things right. Personally, as I have stated before, Stansfield should be on the bench he is a natural goal scorer.
Everybody has a genuine grievance over the way we are playing and I agree with them all. We have lost that silky edge that saw us slice through teams’ defences and allowed us to believe that we were head and shoulders above every other club in this division. It felt good. Hell, it felt bloody great but-and it’s a BIG but – remove a couple of key parts of the jigsaw and we are back relying on players that have proven to us, over a period of time, that they just aren’t good enough.
The new manager came in and had a very short time to assess each and every player and came to the conclusion that certain players would not be part of his plans but, for whatever reason (and it appears to be because of their astronomical salaries) we were unable to move them on. He appeared to want to keep hold of Anguissa but the player clearly wanted out. Others who may have fallen into the “surplus to requirement” bin were rehabilitated and now play a vital part in the squad.
Those who lingered have been given their chance, supported publicly by the manager, but have, predictably, fallen short yet again.
So, in a very short space of time, Marco Silva has had to do a great deal with his inherited squad.
In addition, he has brought in a number of new players-his choice-and they have had to be integrated into the squad and his way of playing.
We pursued Grimes from Swansea for several months, ultimately settling for a free and a loan from Watford and, for me, to date, neither have impressed.
On top of all that, he has encouraged youth, in a way not previously done, and players such as Jay Stansfield now train regularly with the senior players.
Everybody constantly talks about the depth of the Fulham squad but, unfortunately, depth does not equal quality and, whichever way we choose to look at it, our depth does not include too many players that we, as fans, would want to see playing regularly.
Rodak, Bryan-for sure. Mawson deserves to be in this bracket for the way he has got his act together but I clearly remember his awful performances in our promotion season under Parker -so, for me, the jury is still out.
There aren’t too many more.
Marco Silva is finding out the hard but slow way that players such as Cavaleiro just aren’t up to it.
For sure, I would love to see Stansfield progress and I agree that he is a natural goalscorer but, at his slender age, could he hold up the ball and link play against some of these monster centre backs in this division?
I would like to see more of our Brazilian striker, Muniz, but I think he showed clearly in his appearances to date that his talent is still raw.
We will lose the odd game, draw when we should win. Players will have off games, miss chances, make mistakes that cost us. It’s the law of averages. But, once we have Cavalho back (and he will probably need time to re-settle) we, I am sure, will still be more than a match for most teams and will be thereabouts going into the January window when, I feel certain, the manager will add quality in one or two positions that need strengthening and we will win this league.
First and Foremost we need to sort out our midfield. Harrsion Reed is proven, Seri had improved above all recognition but his form has slipped over the past couple of weeks, Onamah has one brilliant match followed by two or three poor ones. Decodova Reed is primarily a striker. Play Mawson against Swansea it might stop the team passing everything through Tim Ream and please play Joe Bryan I would not suggest with start with Stansfield but i would include him on the bench. Leave Cavaleiro out of the squad completely for a few weeks. Consider a different approach, Play two out and out strikers Mitro and Muniz ,then we would no be so predictable.
I was at the Bristol City game, and could not believe or understand how a team like Fulham need a kick up the a..e to start playing quickly and incisively through the opponents defence
It needed Silva to give them a blast to wake them up. the subs should have been there from the start. What a difference Harrison Reed and Kebano made to the team, suddenly we were back playing quickly and cutting through their defence.
What I cannot understand is why it needed the manager to intervene. Why is it not there from the start, for they are professional players after all and getting a good wage to entertain us.