Cottage POV

I thought last week against West Ham was an excellent Fulham performance with a heartbreaker at the death. I think yesterday was our best of the season with a goal at the death to relax ourselves and secure a deserved three points. Whilst early season things happened at Newcastle made the score line uncomfortable, particularly with the 5-10 minute spell that followed but generally Fulham had the game in complete control as Marco Silva likes.

These pieces seem to go here, there and everywhere, so today I thought I’d trial talking about the team back to front and see what tangents we run on. An insight on my writing style, the first paragraph was written during the first half of Brighton’s 2-2 home draw against Nottingham Forest, this paragraph and I’m hoping the rest are being knocked up at 9:26pm with the Baltimore Ravens at the Dallas Cowboys as my accompaniment. All whilst fighting a bout of COVID (I know, who gets COVID in 2024?), the things I do for you guys.

Anyway (and talking of COVID), Fulham continue life in the Premier League with 3 of the back 4 being part of the team taken down behind closed doors that season, quite criminally when you look at the talent in that squad and the things they’ve achieved since. To me, the loss of Joachim Andersen, amongst others, was the biggest pain point of relegation that year. It was tough to connect to players behind closed doors, but Joachim’s unbelievable passing range, dedicated boxing defending and leadership qualities saw him captain the team on many occasions, finish 2nd in Player of the Season voting and earn a subsequent £20m move to Crystal Palace. I’ve always struggled with envy, but seeing the Great Dane turn out for Palace when he just felt so Fulham would irk. Needless to say, I’m delighted he’s back, he’s proved he’s a quality Premier League football both at Fulham and his time at Crystal Palace and has slotted into Marco Silva’s system beautifully. Adding a real aura of authority and an elevation of quality to the Fulham backline, Joachim may not have claimed a clean sheet back in white but the defensive comfortability and has been levelled up with his presence.

Calvin Bassey has continued building on his growing season last year, generally very solid. I think something gets rarely spoken about him and it’s how young his career is. Yes, he’s 24 years old but this is a lad with 3 full senior seasons to his name going into number 4. He’s played in the Scottish Premiership, Eredivisie and the Premier League whilst a lot of his football at Rangers was at left back. His first run of games at Fulham were on the right hand side of defence and he’s come through it all excellently. He’s a combative defender, which I like, who welcomes the physical battle of defending and whilst not as talented as others on the ball, he’s good enough to help build out from the back and support passing patterns. He’s been a really smart addition to the Fulham squad and my impressions is that he adds a great personality to the squad and seems to be developing a solid relationship with the fan base – this new centre back partnership will be spoken about with familiarity I’m sure.

It was a pretty typical “good” full back performance from both yesterday, not really too noticeable and neither were their opposing winger. They had their flanks on lock, keep progressing possession and supported attacks. Both have new relationships to form down their flanks, with Alex Iwobi seldom seen on the left in his first year at Craven Cottage, instead rather paired on the right hand side with Timothy Castagne behind. For Kenny Tete, coming off a season where it looked like it may be the last we saw of him, with the aforementioned Castagne having a commendable debut campaign and his contract being up in 2025, it’s been a bit of a comeback year for Kenny, who has been fine though admittedly I am missing something about Timmy down on that side but its a beautiful problem for Marco Silva to have, similarly to most positions in this developing Fulham project.

I do have plans to write a fuller piece on this phase of the Marco Silva project at Fulham, but lets look closer at the midfield, which was terrific on Saturday nullifying Newcastle’s circa £100m starting midfield, but its 11pm now and its probably time to rest and get some sleep. To make clear first though, I’ve not strictly sat here typing for the past hour and half. It’s been a leisurely write up whilst enjoying the Ravens demolish the Cowboys in the first half.

Well, its 10:15 the next day, I’ve taken this week off to recover so the lie in and relaxed morning was much welcome. We now try to get this posted on Monday… To the midfield, I feel its unfortunate card happy Peter Bankes had two of our midfield trio carded which led to Sasa Lukic’s substitution at half time (a fair move, Lukic had made 3 fouls in the half and really wasn’t far from a second yellow). But it felt as in-sync as the trio of Lukic, Andreas Pereira and Emile Smith Rowe have felt all season and has probably created the truest birth of Silva’s wide triangles as we’ve seen yet. Smith Rowe is already linking up beautifully with Alex Iwobi, as evident in the second goal of the day. Will Nick Pope think he should have saved it? Probably, but the move deserved the goal so I’ll take the keeper fumble at the end!

Fulham’s press post-Palhinha has been much more pronounced and aggressive, whilst there’s times we sit back in our typical 442 midblock, we have had no qualms in sending Andreas Pereira to press up alongside the front line using Sasa Lukic as a safety blanket in front of the back four – a role that is high risk, he will pick up yellows with the vulnerability of the responsibility, that and the willing to get stuck he’s developed since arriving from Torino. Genuinely, it’s almost as if he saw Palhinha leave and he thought “I’m the new hero this football club needs” and he picked up the aggressor heir. I’m fully enjoying it mind you whilst on the ball he’s been so, so clean keeping the ball moving, providing a reliable passing option and as seen on Saturday with a disgusting bit of play on Anthony Gordon to keep Fulham possession which had Kenny Tete applauding from right back. An early contender for player of the season, Lukic has £25m man Sander Berge on the outside looking in, the Norwegian likely waiting for an inevitable yellow card suspension for his next opportunity to start after Fulham’s Carabao Cup exit.

An interesting aspect of this phase of Marco Silva’s Fulham is out wide. Alex Iwobi has replaced Willian and is doing so beautifully, as mentioned linking with Emile Smith Rowe on the left hand side and progressing play moving with the ball, connecting with Antonee Robinson and his shift in to his right and passing over the top or switch has been a lovely, quite understated tool in his arsenal that we didn’t get from Willian. Whilst Adama Traore is essentially a new signing on the right hand side, a full pre-season has worked wonders with him looking fit. When we signed him a year ago, I tweeted, “There’s a perception about Adama & end product doing the rounds. His best season, he created more chances than Willian did last season (Willian also took set pieces often).” It was then backed up with some numbers, ending on “Of course numbers don’t tell the whole story, I’m a believer in that. But I feel like it’s the same misconception about Robinson’s crossing – it became a thing so now it’s a thing.” Adama Traore has always had misconceptions, partially due to his introduction to Premier League football as a 19-23 year old at Aston Villa and Middlesbrough in that rapid winger mould but at Wolves under the tutelage of Nuno Espirito Santo, he turned into a phenom putting up the creative numbers that saw Raul Jimenez look like one of the top strikers outside of the media anointed ‘big six’ and helping Wolves to a FA Cup semi final, 7th place and a European tour. Of course that Wolves team was packed with talent beyond the two now-Fulham boys but its just to highlight that Adama has always been more than the narrative of a being a big, lightning fast, baby oil meme. He’s a genuine player who is another early leader in Player of the Season voting.

I did just want to add one more paragraph talking about winger 3 on the depth chart it seems. Another Hale End graduate, Reiss Nelson has had a bright start to life at Fulham, adding direct wing play and dynamism to the left flank leaving many at Craven Cottage wondering whether we can add an option into the loan deal, purchase in January or purchase in the summer. Whilst it’s still early days, these cameos have been exciting providing the sort of wing play we’ve not seen since returning to the Premier League. He will largely play on the left, that’s what he is (stop trying to shoehorn Ryan Sessegnon further forward, he’s a left back lads). But I like that his introduction appears gives you the potential to flip Iwobi onto the right and give you a lot of the good work that he and Castagne provided down that side last season, in fact it was Iwobi’s press from the right that led to Bruno Guimaraes’ error for Reiss Nelson’s goal at the Hammersmith End. It doesn’t look good for Harry Wilson who didn’t make the match day squad on Saturday and you wonder when his next appearance may be.

Up top, Raul Jimenez continued to payback Marco Silva for giving him the go ahead up top following a blunt start to the season for Rodrigo Muniz; did Fulham gamble too much on Muniz’s purple patch? That’s a discussion for another day. A clinically taken strike on the swivel set Fulham ahead, taking advantage of an excellent performance. It does feel as though Raul is a better fit currently with his ability on the ball and play little flicks to connect the attacking players, whilst his pressing is a fair bit stronger than Rodrigo Muniz’s bulldozing up top. Raul’s goal scoring record when starting is actually pretty decent since arriving at Fulham, whilst his peak at Wolves is behind him, he’s shown he’s a serviceable option for Marco Silva going forward. You do hope though that the scouting team and data computer lads are sourcing options for the striker position, if nothing is to be done in January for it being a horrific window, we should be setting our ducks in a row for the summer now, we should be identifying and making contact for potential positions now. But I’ll end this on props to Raul, a solid forward and it’s on Muniz now to show he’s more than a flash in the pain and that he genuinely deserved the no.9 shirt (though the club care less about that stuff, criminal Armando Broja got it!)

A quality weekend performance and the three points to back it up. Our fourth season under Marco Silva appears to be taking us to a new footballing level, whilst his ability to get players playing at their absolute peak is commendable, he’s done it time and time again at Fulham. Give him the keys to the Cottage, another new deal and the power of everything.

To end in Tony Khan fashion, come on Fulham!