Fulham vs Stoke City

Stoke come to the Cottage Sunday, tied with Luton on points but just outside the relegation zone on GD. Simply put, we cannot afford any more defensive displays like the one at Kenilworth Road on Boxing Day. I’d certainly expect to see defensive changes to the lineup, the question is whom. May be some elsewhere due to the heavy holiday fixture list. Again, despite all of our inconsistency, we’re still 5th. Still all to play for, as the Brit announcers like to say.

 

Some highlights.

 

A club near the bottom three who beat us at their place in October, 2-0.

 

Parker clearly had Fulham in a different mindset for this match. No more playing up from the back if there was high pressure. When Rodak first had the ball early they attempted to play up from Mawson and Ream. GJ said "Mawson squares it for Ream. I hope I don't have to say that much today." And it turned out he didn't. From that first series it was clear Stoke would apply pressure so in most cases Rodak then sent the ball long - and it all worked out fine!

Fulham really deserved to win this one 2-0, but a couple of nice palm saves from Stoke's keeper kept it close. The whole team looked really good in the first half, but seemed to lose the ability to control the game once Onomah went off in the 37th minute due to illness. At that point one goal was enough to win the day so that drop in quality didn't make a difference in the result. Once again Bobby Reid looked great although he was gassed at the end and got a little sloppy, but that can be forgiven after all the games in December. Although I stand by my criticism of Christie and Fulham's need for other options at right back, he is more of a threat than Odoi going forward and played well against Stoke. Knockaert also looked his best in a while. Cavaleiro, for the second match in a row, was running free into the box, but failed to do anything but turn the ball over.

Defensively, the back line looked much better because they weren't nervously passing in Fulham's half. Credit needs to be given to Ream for a play that didn't make it into the highlights. Late in the game Rodak had punched the ball away but it fell to a Stoke player and Rodak was on the ground well outside the net. The Stoke player tried to volley the ball into the goal, but Ream was there to clear it away just in front of the net. It wasn't a hard shot, but if Ream hadn't gotten back it would have been an easy goal for Stoke. Fulham did a nice job of limiting Stoke's chances, but it also has to be said that Stoke could barely get the ball on target when they did shoot.

This was a match that Fulham should have won and they did. Fulham gained a point on first place and moved back up to third, but are still 9 points from second after Leeds' crazy win vs. Birmingham - 5-4 including a goal for each team in injury time, most importantly Birmingham's unfortunate own-goal winner for Leeds' at the death.