Fulham’s fabulous season under Marco Silva has been a joy to watch so far. The Whites have a real swagger about them at times and appear committed to attacking football regardless of their opposition – as proven by their adventurous display at Manchester City in the FA Cup last month. The league leaders have the opportunity to extend their advantage at the top of the second tier to nine points with a win over Huddersfield Town this lunchtime after Bournemouth’s game with Nottingham Forest succumbed to Storm Eunice yesterday.
Beating Carlos Corboran’s side won’t be as straightforward as it was in August, however. The Terriers’ head for Craven Cottage undefeated in fourteen matches and fifth in the table – looking an entirely different proposition to the one that shipped five goals on home turf on the second Saturday of the season. Corboran has a similar philosophy to Silva, which might make for an intriguing tactical tussle, and his settled starting line-up is no longer ravaged by the injuries and suspensions that put them at such a disadvantage at the beginning of the campaign.
Huddersfield could consider themselves particularly unfortunate not have grabbed all three points against Sheffield United last weekend – especially as they had a perfectly good goal chalked off in the first half. But Town have kept three successive clean sheets for the first time since October and are undefeated on their travels in almost two months. They would dearly love to win at Craven Cottage for the first time since 1993 and definitely have the quality at their disposal to ask questions of Silva’s defence.
Danny Ward has been a consistent foil in attack in the Terriers’ front three this term and holding onto the likes of Lewis O’Brien, the subject of several approaches from Leeds in January, proved pivotal. Jonathan Hogg had an outstandingly disciplined game against the Blades and will be vital in their midfield three this afternoon and if the Middlesbrough-born man can replicate that showing then Corbaran’s charges will be in a chance of nullifying Fulham’s enterprise in the engine room. Young Jon Russell will likely complete the visitors’ midfield triumvirate after an excellent first league start of the campaign last time out, with the suggestion being that Duane Holmes’ work ethic will see him come in for Josh Koroma on the left flank. Sorba Thomas has enjoyed a superb season on the right wing and will certainly test Antonee Robinson’s defensive discipline on the other side.
Silva was insistent in his dialogue with the press yesterday that the 5-1 thumping Fulham handed out in August is ancient history. His first win since taking over from Scott Parker was thrilling and offered the earliest glimpse of what David Hartrick memorably described as ‘toddlers on Haribo mode’ when he responded to Harry Wilson’s senseless sending off by sending on Ivan Cavaleiro instead of shutting up shop. Fulham grabbed two further goals with ten men to ruthlessly put a ragged Huddersfield to the sword. The Portuguese head coach has a firm ‘each game as it comes’ mantra that is drilled into his players by this point – to such an extent that in the aftermath of that narrow win at Hull he could have easily scripted the words of Tim Ream and Neco Williams.
The Whites are likely to be unchanged even though Kenny Tete has finally shaken off the groin problem that he aggravated at Stoke last month. Williams’ seamless slotting into the right back role has been a real boon given the Dutch defender’s injury issues and you simply can’t drop the Welsh international after two excellent assists for the red-hot Aleksandar Mitrovic in his first pair of league starts. The only possible alteration may come in the middle of the park, but Nathaniel Chalobah’s doing enough to keep both Harrison Reed and Jean Michael Seri on the bench at present and the balance of the central pairing seems stronger with the one-time England international alongside Tom Cairney.
Fabio Carvalho continues to dazzle in the number ten role even when the conditions appear likely to dilute his talent, as at Hull last weekend. Harry Wilson missed three sitters in a poor first half on Humberside by his high standards but the Welsh winger never stopped running and Hull’s preoccupation with his propensity to drift infield afforded Williams the space to whip that peach of an early ball in for Mitrovic, whose goalscoring exploits defy description at this point. Fulham were far from fluent against Shota Arveladze’s side last weekend but they ground out a gutsy three points and similar patience will be the order of the day against the Terriers, who surely won’t be as open as they were six months ago.
MY FULHAM XI (4-2-3-1): Rodak; Williams, A. Robinson, Adarabioyo, Ream; Chalobah, Cairney; Wilson, Kebano, Carvalho; Mitrovic. Subs: Gazzaniga, Tete, Hector, Reed, Seri, Decordova-Reid, Stansfield.
