Fulham’s seaside excursion turned into something of a nightmare on Saturday. The convenient excuses about the international break, injuries or even the impact of Marco Silva being named manager of the month don’t account for why Blackpool were quite so dominant at Bloomfield Road. Neil Critchley’s side, without a league win before the weekend, thoroughly merited the three points. They were first to every ball, energetic in their hassling and harrying that disrupted Fulham’s passing game and looked dangerous in attack from the outset. As bad days at the office go, this was a disaster.
Silva, who has had something approaching the perfect start since he was installed as Scott Parker’s successor at Craven Cottage, has to take a good deal of the blame for Fulham’s first defeat. He has seen his squad strengthened so that it bears comparison with any other in the division, but eschewed the opportunity to freshen up his starting line-up after the likes of Tim Ream and Antonee Robinson only returned from central America late on Thursday. Both looked ropey and should have snuffed out the danger for the decisive goal. Surely Alfie Mawson and Joe Bryan would have been chomping at the bite for a chance.
There should be concern too about the ongoing vulnerability of Paulo Gazzaniga in goal. The statistics show that the Argentine conceded from the Tangerines only shot on target and he should never have been beaten at his near post by Josh Bowler’s improvised finish. The winger was Blackpool’s most potent threat all afternoon – and, although the defending that allowed him to saunter in from the right flank completely unattended left a lot to be desired, Gazzaniga has now conceded several soft goals in a season where Fulham’s defence has yet to be put under concerted bombardment.
The ugly truth is that the home side could – and perhaps should – have been well ahead before half time. Fulham’s game is built on solid distribution from the back, something that was sorely missing on Saturday. They continually coughed the ball up in dangerous areas, with one such mistake from Ream requiring Gazzaniga to slide tackle Tyreece John-Jules well outside his area, and the previously peerless partnership of Josh Onomah and Jean-Michael Seri seemed sedate when comparison with Blackpool’s busy Ryan Wintle and Kevin Stewart.
Fulham were flat on the flanks and up front as well. Ivan Cavaleiro set the tone for another below average afternoon when he spurned a good chance from a swift counter-attack in the third minute by firing wildly wide of goal and Neeskens Kebano’s exclusion appears harsh when he has delivered some of the consistent displays in a white shirt under Silva. You’d have to file Domingos Quina’s debut in ‘the quickly forgettable’ pile, although plenty of players have recovered from shocking starts to become heroes even in recent history. Perhaps the only bright spark came from Rodrigo Muniz, who looked lively in his ten minutes off the bench, but even the Brazilian spurned a couple of chances as Fulham belatedly laid siege to the Blackpool goal.
It was clear that the Whites badly missed the creativity of Fabio Carvalho, still struggling to shake off the ankle problem first sustained last month, and Harry Wilson, who couldn’t be risked after a head injury that saw him substituted for Wales. The pair have added an energy and zest to Fulham’s forward play that was badly lacking last season, but it was still disconcerting to see how disjointed our approach play became in their absence. Aleksandar Mitrovic was left feeding on scraps again – and you couldn’t possibly make a case for the visitors deserving anything on a day when they were comprehensively outplayed.
The good thing is that opportunities to put such an insipid display in the past come around quickly in the Championship. The smugness that accompanied Fulham’s awesome August in some quarters can now be set aside – as we’ve referenced countless times already during this campaign, nothing is won in the early weeks of the season. Silva has spoken about this being a learning opportunity for his squad and we’ll learn a lot about their desire and capacity for responding to adversity against in-form Birmingham on Wednesday. Fulham can’t afford a second slip up.
100% agree with everything you said, Ream and Robinson will still be tired on Wednesday as they had to travel to Blackpool and back, Certainly would like to see Bryan given a chance at left back. His crossing is better for Mitro. I have been saying since the start of the season I was unhappy with Gazzaniga in goal the phrase “Dodgy Keeper” springs to mind. Both Parker and Silva both seem to rate Cavaleiro, to me he is a late substitute at best. I would also drop Onomah and perhaps play Harrison Reed instead. Possibly consider starting with Muniz and put Stansfield on the bench as he is a natural finisher.
Agree with all of that john w. Bryan, Kebano, Rodak and Reed should all play Wednesday. I don’t care for Mawson but yes at least he would’ve been fresh.Maybe play Muniz for 60 minutes on Wednesday and give Mitro 30 minutes if we need him. I also think Bobby would make a great makeshift RB if he can be spared up front
This wasn’t all about Fulham’s failings, We stopped you playing your normal game with our energy and with Critchley’s know-how – he is a rising star as a coach, and I believe we will rise up the league this season. We were without Lavery, our main goal threat, until he came on late as a sub, and Dougall in midfield, as they were away on long distance international duty too. Our last 3 games have been a well earned 2-2 at Bournemouth, a 2-1 defeat to a last minute goal at Millwall having matched them for 75 minutes with 10 men, and now a win over the league leaders. Our entire player budget is, I think, less than the transfer fee for Wilson, but we have a very smart coach who knows the young players around the academies really well and he has worked with elite players at Liverpool under klopp, and at Crewe before that, with the current England coach Steve Holland. I expect to hear the phrase “we shouldn’t be losing to teams like Blackpool” for a while longer! Til the penny drops. Cheers, all the best for the season.
Hi Phil. Thanks for stopping by and commenting. The format of our site is that we give a Fulham-focused look back at the weekend game on a Monday morning, so that’s why there was a heavy Fulham emphasis in this article.
I concur with you and about Critchley and Blackpool’s excellence. I hope you would feel that Saturday’s match report was an accurate reflection of the game and gave Blackpool justified credit for their brilliant display:
https://hammyend.com/index.php/2021/09/bowler-brings-flat-fulham-back-to-earth/
You certainly won’t have any problems avoiding relegation if you can replicate that energy, desire and quality every week. Best of luck for the rest of the season.
Yes of course, I wasn’t criticising the above report at all, we just hear things like ‘losing to Blackpool’ a lot from people who don’t really know anything about us. I guess you see 2 points from 5 and assume we are out of our depth, but it’s just an assumption. We are adjusting, getting players back to fitness and introducing new players and had a fully balanced side out for the first time on Saturday. There were lots of predictions of a 3-0 or 4-0 away win, then the shock of losing and how poor Fulham were etc, international breaks, tired legs, players having a crap game but not in your report. Bournemouth fans had the same angst after we fought back from 2-0 down at half time down there. We started with poor results last season but just kept improving and lost 2 games I think after Xmas. I expect us to keep improving, cos you can see the progression and the focus every week.
Yeah, a lot of fans show breathtaking ignorance of the teams, coaches and players at this level. Fulham fans are as guilty of this as anybody else – and it is very infuriating.
Delighted to see Blackpool doing so well after the Oyston years – and long may it continue. Always get a warm welcome there and it is really is a proper football club. Critchley is a great coach, has a real knack for improving young players and it is good to see Garbutt and Husband performing really well for you. Will watch the rest of your season with great interest.
Thanks Dan. I’m sure Fulham have enough quality in depth to bounce straight back, and I will follow with interest. Another great old club, and it’s good to see you playing attractive football, especially after the visit of Cardiff’s land of giants assemblage. I follow Tosin a bit as he was pally with my daughter at school (they were both on the top table in the top set in maths!)_and grew up a few streets away from us, in Manchester. All the best.