Twenty four hours on – and the frustration hasn’t left us. However you might try to console yourself with the thoughts about Fulham’s dominance, the fluency of Marco Silva’s side or how the playmaking potential of Andreas Pereira and Emile Smith Rowe combined for the wonderfully worked goal that was expertly poached by Raul Jimenez, the fifth minute of stoppage time returns to the forefront of your mind as agonising reminder of how the Whites threw a fully deserved win away.
There’s plenty of blame to go around. The lack of a finishing instinct in the final third will dog Fulham until January after they failed to add another striker at the end of August and cashed on the raw potential of Jay Stansfield. The home side faded once Sasa Lukic, imperious again in the middle of the park, was withdrawn from the action midway through the second half and there was certainly less creativity after Smith Rowe departed well before the end, still apparently short of match fitness. Reiss Nelson sparkled from the substitutes’ bench, but you could see West Ham growing in confidence.
The game might have been different had Adama Traore been awarded that first half penalty or if he hadn’t floated that late cross tamely into the arms of Alphonse Areola. It was hardly Kerim Frei and Orlando Sa against Odense all those years ago, but there had to be a case for going to the corner since Fulham hadn’t managed to score that crucial second goal. There was also doubt about the award of the throw in that Vladimir Coufal took swiftly, but castigating the officials after the fact would ignore the biggest frustration of all that the Irons’ equaliser was so easily preventable.
Antonee Robinson, who had enjoyed an excellent game along the left flank, switched off unforgivably – which gave Coufal the chance to locate Bowen in the sort of position the former Hull City winger loves. The England international had time to pick out Danny Ings having drawn Calvin Bassey out of position and the substitute, a scorer of 72 Premier League goals, worked a shooting opportunity on his right foot expertly. Could Sander Berge, Joachim Andersen and Bernd Leno have collectively done better? Yes, but it was lamentable defending all around.
The tragedy is that there was much to like about the way Fulham played – and it was undermined, much like on the opening night at Old Trafford, by the shattering blow at the death. Pereira’s performance might have been patchy but the majestic move for Jimenez’s goal showed the utility of having him in a deeper position. Silva’s switch of the Mexican veteran for Rodrigo Muniz worked perfectly on account of the former Wolves’ forward’s magnificent movement and some of Fulham’s approach play had the Craven Cottage crowd purring.
The midfield still looks unbalanced at times and Silva’s side often appear too stacked with creativity. You want a talent as prodigious as Smith Rowe to be on the ball more, but a team missing the peerless Palhinha to have the insurance of Berge’s ballast in front of the back four. There will no doubt be further tinkering before the Portuguese perfectionist of a head coach gets in right, but the potential of this side was demonstrated by their first half fluency and the way West Ham created absolutely nothing. Turning promising performances into three points is now Silva’s most urgent action point.
We seem to switch off at crucial times, when awareness and concentration levels fail, Man Utd and now W.Ham proves the point. This team aren’t novices and should be able cope effectively for the duration of the game regardless of the state of play. Silva must get an outfield player as captain as keeper Leno can’t do it from his position, give it to Andersen. He can organise and kick arses if required, a bit like Murphy used to do.
Agree with Martin regarding the promotion of Andersen to captain. We need a strong personality on the pitch to keep some of these players concentrating for the whole game. It’s happened so often that Marco has to accept some of the blame for not hammering home the point on the training pitch. These are schoolboy errors. Substitutions again looked suspect to my untutored eye. How can you start tinkering with only a one goal lead. Taking Lukic off was lunacy. Subs did not improve the balance of the team.
I think he took the excellent Lukic off because he was destined to pick up a 2nd yellow due to his competetive performance. I thought the addition of Nelson made us much more balanced and dangerous. My biggest concern on the day was why did we take a tame shot in the 94th minute when the sensible option was to take the ball to the corner flag and see the game out. Schoolboy stuff. Has ruined my week…..at least until Preston
Criminal what Adama done in the 93rd min. Had the ball in the corner and he tries to clip a ball behind the centre back and the full back instead of doing what every kid is told to do from under 12s upwards in injury time defending a 1 goal lead. Cant blame Marco for that.
Shows why he wont ever live up the ability he has. Just not intelligent enough with decision making in games.
Lukic great again, the yellow card meant he had to come off. Nelson looked great, a bit more direct than Iwobi. Goal scoring still looks a huge worry.
Yes Anderson for captain. Does not seem much support for Andreas on this site.
Really poor from Fulham to throw away the game at the death. It is gonna be a tough season with really poor finishing from Pierra, Muniz, Jimenez, Traore, Bassey too many average players that cant hit a barn door. Fulham have had a fairly easy 4 games and should really be on 8 or 9 points rather than 5. Next 4 games are probably all losses – Newcastle, Man City, Villa and even Shottingham forest away will be tough given the form they are in. That will be played 8, 5pts.
Yes, I know I’m a sad case but I still can’t believe that Jay Stansfield has gone for good. Watching the Wrexham game and, lo and behold, he scores (no surprise there). But the REAL takeaway from Birmingham was the sight of their skipper, Bielik, before the game, applauding the fans on all sides -then going around each of his teammates individually and encouraging them all.
I don’t know Bielik from a bar of soap but he epitomises what a captain is all about. Then I look at OUR captain and I despair. Great goalkeeper, very decent, quiet man but a captain???
Come on Silva. We need a leader -somebody in the thick of it. Somebody who demands respect. You made a poor decision but it’s time to realise that and make the change.