Fulham at Bournemouth

Fulham tries to shake off the horror of March with a trip to the coast to face Bournemouth. The match kicks off Saturday at 10am EDT on Peacock.

It will be interesting to see the spirit that Fulham shows when they take the pitch on Saturday. Will they come out with an "eh, whatever" attitude of a team that doesn't feel there is much to play for or will they come out looking to light up the worst defense in the league and put March in the rear-view mirror? I hope we see the latter.

Fulham will of course be without Mitrovic and Willian, but Silva will still be on the touchline since he is appealing his suspension. Meanwhile Palhinha will play his first Premier League match in a month. It also looks like Cairney will be available again.

Cairney had one of his best performances against Bournemouth earlier this season. After a poor first half Cairney helped take control of things in the second half. A penalty conversion for Mitrovic saw Fulham pull even for a 2-2 draw. I'd be happy in this match if we don't have to see Solanke's archer celebration since he has scored in each of the last three matches against Fulham.

 

Checked score/stats at HT and was pleased. Saw the final score and was disgusted.

 

It was such a promising start. It was sad to take nothing from the game.

 

The highlights:


This really was disappointing because they showed they could beat Bournemouth, they just didn't. After scoring the goal Fulham got a lot less creative and seemed to just wait for Bournemouth to bring pressure rather than working harder to get a second goal. It is really unfortunate that Robinson's shot didn't hit the bottom side of the bar and go in. That probably was a few inches that made the difference in the game.

I agree with the critique of Vinicius. I have no idea what he's doing out there. Sometimes it seems like he's actively moving away from where the ball is going to go. The subs who came on in the second half did bring some life back into the team, but I still didn't feel like Fulham was going to get an equalizer. Let's get some of the young guys out there to see if they can do any better in the #9 spot.

Can Fulham please burn these mint kits? They've got bad juju.

 

Was hoping for better after the international break. Thud. We seem to have tapped the brakes since assuring safety in the top tier. But why? If anything, we should be playing like there’s nothing to lose…because there isn’t. Disappointing.

 

Like others, I've about had it with Vinicius and also Dan James. Some players make the wrong decision albeit at the right time or the right decision but at the wrong time, and you throw up your hands in frustration but at least understand them. I dont get Vini and James. They run around but dont make any decisions. Are they even Championship-level players? I have no idea!

Anyway it seemed like Marco had a game plan for 30 minutes but the match was 90 minutes. Some of it was the players he had at his disposal considering the two major suspensions, but he did not appear to make any counter adjustments at HT nor shortly thereafter when it was clear Bournemouth changed their initial approach.

Lastly I do wish we had more than one fit left back because for everything Robinson does positive, ouch are there inopportune brain farts lately. I attribute it to exhaustion, and it may seem harsh, but I think if Kurzawa actually existed (outside the FA Cup), we'd see Robinson riding the pine more often moving forward.

 

Yeah, I’m not sure what changed at the 30 minute mark but Fulham didn’t provide anything positive past that point.

I also wonder about how all that dominance in those first 30 minutes only produced one (1!) shot on goal. Fulham seem to embody impotence. Lots of pretty play that led only to the inability to take effective action.

I personally think reality is setting in. Fulham have be outperforming expectations all season. Now the universe is starting to make things right. I still think they’ll finish mid-table but it’s looking more like 10th/11th vice 6th/7th.

PS. Timmy, Kurzawa is currently injured and (according to FotMob) expected to return mid-April. But I agree; Robinson is tired. Andreas is tired. Ream is tired. Decordova-Reid is tired. We have little depth.

 

Yep IIRC its a knee injury that was downplayed but I highly doubt we'll see him the rest of the season. This was someone who arrived out of shape, and then got immediately injured once deemed fit. Mbabu gets the plaudits for the worst signing of the year, but I'd argue Kurzawa edges out James for #2.

 

It was inevitable that weariness would set in. I'm not sure that there is another Prem team with as little depth and as much drop off in quality after the first choices. The one position where we do have some depth is winger, but that's disappeared with Keba's injury and now Willian's suspension. (I'm not counting James.) Arguably, we also have some wiggle room at CB, but not much.

I don't see much downside in letting one of the U21 strikers get a chance instead of Vinicius. They couldn't do any worse.