Fulham and penalties equals pain. The Whites have never had a good record in penalty shoot-outs and have struggled for a consistently reliable taker from twelve yards. Willian filled in admirably and we even won two knockout shoot-outs last term in that epic run to the League Cup semi-finals, but normal service resumed during an agonising defeat at the hands of Aston Villa on Saturday.
Context is required to fully understand why Andreas Pereira’s pitiful penalty was such a big deal. The first is that even post the 2016/2017 season when Slavisa Jokanovic’s side were entirely atrocious from twelve yards finding a taker of the ilk of Danny Murphy, Heidar Helguson or Mark Blake has been an issue. We all howled at Aboubakar Kamara for wrestling the ball away from Aleksandar Mitrovic’s clutches against Huddersfield in December 2017, but given the Serbian’s subsequent shocking record maybe AK47 was just seeking to save us from ourselves.
Silva notably backed Mitrovic to score from the spot until his Fulham career came to a sad end with an epic sulk all the way to Saudi Arabia. However good the number nine’s hold up play or goalscoring exploits were, he definitely wasn’t dependable from twelve yards. Mitrovic, who scored eighteen spot-kicks and missed seven for Fulham as well as missing the decisive penalty as Scotland progressed to the European Championships at Serbia’s expense, was briefly replaced by Willian before the Brazilian veteran opted for pastures new this summer.
Raul Jimenez, who had already emphatically converted a penalty in the League Cup at Birmingham, got into some hot water with Marco Silva after securing Fulham’s win at Nottingham Forest from the spot last month. It transpired afterwards that Pereira was the club’s nominated penalty taker, but in the uncertainty over whether the Brazilian would be allowed to take the penalty having received treatment on the pitch as the referee was sent over to the VAR scheme, Raul stepped forward. He might have won the battle with Pereira by the banks of the Trent but Pereira retained the responsibility.
Quite why is unclear. Pereira did take an excellent penalty to give Fulham a lead at Manchester City last year, but he’s had very little experience of taking them in senior football. Jimenez, on the other hand, has scored 36 of 38 spot-kicks, and is arguably in the hottest form of his career. Confidence is not something you could associate with Pereira at the moment, whose stuttering run up was parodied by a Villa player behind him, and easily saved by Emi Martinez. It was on that incident that a very even game turned.
Far be it for me to criticise a genius, but Silva would do well to realise he’s made a mistake and take the role away from Pereira. He’s having a trying season in a new position and was jeered by a section of the Cottage crowd when he was substituted. It would be good man management – and might make the Whites more effective from twelve yards.
