Cottage POV

Well the festive football is beyond us, all eyes are on 2025 and with that, the winter transfer window opening and our first fixture of the season hosting Ipswich Town at Craven Cottage followed by a home cup tie against Championship play-off contenders Watford. Fulham played 7 games in the month of December and come on the other side unbeaten in a fixture list that appeared daunting especially considering the context of our 4-1 humbling by Matheus Cunha and Wolves.

The notable result of the run is breaking the 45 year winless run at Stamford Bridge, Rodrigo Muniz’s 95th minute winner completing a turnaround following a dominant second half from Fulham. The other win within the 7 game unbeaten run was a well fought 3-1 win at home to Brighton, Fulham had to dig in but Alex Iwobi sprinkled a little match winning magic to secure all 3 points.

I keep summing up this season in a couple of ways, that being “points left on the table” and “could’ve been more” and this 3 game run over the true festive period perhaps confirms that view. I reference the Clint Eastwood classic movie in the title but allow me to move it around a little. December 22nd, an ugly game against Southampton where Fulham weren’t at their best but still the stronger side and didn’t do enough to secure three points, Aaron Ramsdale putting in a few excellent saves in the Southampton goal, namely saving from point blank to thwart Harry Wilson at the back post.

The same Harry Wilson at the back post who secured Fulham’s equaliser with a deft header at Stamford Bridge on Boxing Day. That was the good of the mini-run, Fulham went to Chelsea and had to ride a couple of moments of individual quality, notably from Cole Palmer but team for team, Fulham were very good, particularly in the second half and deserved every moment of that victory.

The worst performance of the three, the bad was this past Sunday at home to Bournemouth. I do want to credit the visitors, I think they have an excellent team who are coached beautifully. I love their system that is intense, high pressure, chaotic and finds control in that chaos. Bournemouth under Bill Foley have built quite a sexy little team with a volume of quality young players that thrive under Andoni Iraola. But this is a Fulham blog so lets talk some more about this game from a home perspective.

Fulham continued with the 343 that was successful at Stamford Bridge, Issa Diop and Calvin Bassey either side of Joachim Andersen at the base. I haven’t watched the game back, but live at the Cottage the distribution from the back was uncharacteristically poor from all 3. Passes out wide hitting the advertising hoardings, the touches in tight spaces on the touchline lacked sharpness. It felt like we’d had a heavy night out after the Boxing Day win and just weren’t “on it” against a Bournemouth side that doesn’t let up. Both teams were down on numbers so I don’t want to factor that for Fulham; even despite a pretty poor performance, we had victory in our grasps but for a sloppy pass from Issa (who had few options to be fair to him) but ultimately, the team should have managed the situation better. West Ham, Everton, Liverpool, Bournemouth – 4 games were Fulham had the lead in the 85th minute and drew. 8 points at the death which would have us level with Arsenal and 4th in the table. Though if my aunt had balls she’d be my uncle, but it adds to the conversation of what could have been,

Whilst our left hand side in Antonee Robinson and Alex Iwobi is excellent and consistently dangerous, more so in our traditional 4231/433 when Emile Smith Rowe pulls wide to create those triangles but sometimes it does feel like we’re a one sided team. The right hand side is more direct, we utilise Harry Wilson or Adama Traore in behind but it just doesn’t operate the same way as Jedi flying up and down the flank and the crisp combinations that come down there. Fulham have previously been better at splitting that combination play, perhaps notably when Harrison Reed would leave Joao Palhinha (or Jean Michel-Seri in the Champ) in midfield to make those underlap runs in the box.

Even last season, Andreas Pereira would pull right from the 10 (similarly to ESR pulling left this season) but Tom Cairney could float towards the left and combine with Willian and Robinson but this is perhaps the next step to look for in the Marco Silva system. Albeit we were a big fish in a small pond, go back to the Championship years and Harrison Reed was flying up down the inside-right connecting with Harry Wilson and Kenny Tete/Neco Williams whilst Fabio Carvalho floated left to build that triangle with Antonee Robinson and Neeskens Kebano. So for me, how Fulham approach that 8 in our standard shape is the key for taking that next step.

It’s become notable we’re almost spamming the left hand side and using the right as a quick switch but in a couple of these games, we could have done with testing and probing both sides with a similar combination quality.

But Fulham can be satisfied with their first half of the season with plenty of room to grow, we sit level on points with Champions League Aston Villa, 2 points from the top 6 and more points than Tottenham and Manchester United comfortably. It’s a jam packed top half of the season with the others from the media anointed causing a shake up with Nottingham Forest sitting 2nd whilst Bournemouth, Fulham and Aston Villa are the closest contenders pushing for one of those European spots. However will the media react to their norm being shaken up? I’m sure it’ll come the attempted trying to sell players to other clubs because they believe in the food chain of the Premier League and global football thanks to branding, marketing, attendance and Sky tv.

Alas, hopefully 2025 is the end of lazy analysis but I doubt it, whilst Sky continue to employ Gary Neville, Jamie Carragher, Jamie Redknapp and the other “hot take” artists who are trying to cause controversy, create clips for social media and not break down the game in any meaningful level. The national media are obsessed with telling the story of their big teams because stories about Manchester United get the most clicks but the most interesting things are happening elsewhere.

With the January window on the horizon, I think had Fulham picked up just a few more points, they’d be seriously looking at pumping some cash in to capitalise and attack Europe but with a horrid window to do business in and such little margin for error in a tight top half points wise, I think it’ll be small patch jobs with Fulham looking to use the loan market and see if any Sasa Lukic like cheap opportunities pop up later in the window. That’s the sensible way and look to invest further in the summer, which you’d hope Tony Khan and the recruitment team are already making their list and checking it twice (I know, I am).

Anyway, I’ll leave it there. Hope you all had a great Christmas, a happy New Year and up the Fulham.