Fulham at Nottingham Forest

No time to dwell on the mid-week glory as Fulham travels up to face Nottingham Forest on Sunday at 10am EDT. The match will only be available on FFCTV.

Nottingham Forest is red hot having not lost since new manager Steve Cooper took over. Over the last six matches only Bournemouth has been equal to their form with 16 points to Fulham's 10. This is all after losing six of their first seven matches at the start of the season. Forest only got their first home win last weekend against Blackpool. They won their last match against Bristol City coming from behind with both their goals in injury time. Forest are in the middle of the pack when it comes to goal scoring, but they do manage to score in most matches. They have only been held goalless twice (same as Bournemouth - Fulham have been held goalless once). Forrest are twice as likely to score in the second half than the first, so don't feel settled after an early lead (as Bristol City painfully discovered).

I'm not sure about the injury status for a number of players. Reed went off with a calf injury, but Silva thinks he'll be okay - I'm less confident. Cairney was amazing on Wednesday, but he still doesn't feel 100% so I wouldn't be surprised if he comes off from the bench again. Carvalho will still likely be recovering from covid. Tete was an unused sub against Cardiff and I'd like to see him play against Forest. It is unclear what state Bryan and Cavaleiro are in. Oh yeah, and Kongolo still exists, but I haven't heard anything about him in a while.

Fulham will need to be at their best in this match and keep their focus for the full 90 plus injury time if they want to come away with points.

 

I agree with pretty much everything Micah said except this match is actually on Sunday.

Given the performance of the team between the last two international windows, they should definitely focus on operating at peak level every match. There are (virtually) no easy outs in the Championship and the priority should be winning every match. Bournemouth are atop the table because they haven't lost yet. Fulham made the run and almost attained automatic promotion a couple of years ago because of a 23 game unbeaten streak. Fulham need to score first and keep their collective foot on the gas until the final whistle.

 

DOH! Well that explains why injury updates were so thin! I fixed the original post. Thanks @astroevan !

 

Rodak vs Gazzaniga? Who gives us a better shape and stronger leadership in defense?

Seeing Tete back would be awesome. I may actually be able to watch this Sunday, and would love to see him start. No slight to Odoi, he always givee his best, but Tete gives us a different dimension on both offense and defense.

It will be a difficult game.

 

0-4 away thrashing, back into 2nd place w/WBA match looming…cue it James!!!

 

Everything around is awful, so it was an incredible boost to see today’s game. These kinds of games, where we’re not world-beaters but take our chances and defend well, are the ones that give me confidence that we can finish in the top 2.

Mitro should get his hat trick. His first shot was on goal and would have ended up in it if no one had touched it.

Don’t even know if the league has yellow card reviews, but if it does, we should appeal Harry’s. There was definitely contact, and we don’t want these to accumulate. He’s as important to us as Mitro.

Great to see Cairney last the 90. He probably should not have been asked to do it, and I hope his knees recover. He should still be sitting in that ice bath.

All in all, an excellent outing.

 

I'm happy with a 4-0 win, but Fulham to be honest they were gifted that margin rather than earning it. I'm not sure if the first goal would have gone in without it being turned in by a defender (we'll have to check the replay when available). The second goal came from a Keystone Cops moment in the Forest defense that essentially put the ball on a platter for Mitrovic. The third goal was good stuff on a counter attack and the fourth goal came from a PK. Rather than celebrating the four goals, Fulham deserves more credit for earning the clean sheet. Forest was hard-pressed to generate any chances and that was due to the solid Fulham defense. A fair result probably would have been 1-0, but a win for sure.

 

I just wished I had paid to see it. Regrets.

 

Here are the highlights. They kind of suck because with a number of the goals you see them and say, "Wait, what happened there?" but there are no replays from a different angle to answer that question.


And I should clarify what I was getting at earlier. Just seeing the scoreline, 4-0, you might think that Fulham bossed the match and cruised to an easy victory, but it didn't feel that way when watching it live. Fulham was doing a great job defensively of keeping Forest from organizing themselves - that one good look Grabban had was about it - the one shot on target was more of a cross. At the same time Fulham spent a lot of time with the ball in their own half and frustratingly didn't push forward as much as I would have liked until they were up two goals (of course, that strategy may have also had something to do with why Fulham was well organized defensively). I thought Fulham played well but it wasn't the offensive display that you might have expected from a team that won 4-0. It was a defensive show more than anything else.

 

Tipping my hat to @HatterDon. He is correct. We have had many a match (remember last season?), when we would play pretty, but let in 2 or 3 because of mistakes and fail to take any of 5 or 6 chances. I'd rather have us defend well and make sure to convert that 2 or 3 chances. I'm not saying that we are playing ugly by any means, though, only that it's good to see some pragmatism.

And lest this be taken as a critique of @MicahMan, it is not. He's saying much the same thing. Just isn't as optimistic about it.

 

4 goals on the road on just 3 shots on target? I love the Championship.