Fulham at Sheffield United

Fulham faces off Sunday against Sheffield United, the only other team without a point. It is an early start, 7 am for Eastcoasters, and will be available on Peacock.

Both teams have played the exact same four teams prior to this match. Both teams have lost all four. Both teams have only managed to score in one match. Sheffield managed to get a goal against Arsenal while Fulham got three against Leeds. For a team that lost four matches, Sheffield they only managed to give up six goals. Meanwhile Fulham has nearly doubled that mark with 11 conceded.

I am more excited about this match than I was about the opener versus Arsenal. At the end of the Championship season I mentioned that I felt like Fulham was the dog that caught the car - and that showed over the first four matches. Fulham did look better against Wolverhampton and the late signings were encouraging too. There are more reasons to be optimistic now about Fulham than at any time earlier this season - so I guess that means a 6-0 loss to Sheffield United is likely? Hopefully not. If one team comes away from this match with zero points it will be incredibly discouraging and make it hard to hope for promotion. On the other hand the winner (depending on Saturday) could find themselves outside of relegation and above Manchester United - just a sign of how early and fluid things are.

 

Two of the new players we brought in to shore up the defense are out: Kenny Tete and Joachim Andersen. Since our primary issue so far this season has been the defense, this does not bode well for anything changing anytime soon. Our only saving grace is Sheff U's lack of scoring punch. They'll be licking their chops for the chance to go at the league's worst defense. I agree with Micah. The loser of this match is going to take a pretty big hit to the psyche. Which means it will probably be a draw. I think the bigger question for us is, can we build upon the largely positive effort against Wolves, or did the international break snuff any momentum we might have generated from it?

 

In other grim news, in addition to Andersen and Tete being out for weeks, Harrison Reed still won't be available either this Sunday.

https://www.fulhamfc.com/news/2020/october/Team-News/

 

I’d gladly take a drab Nil-Nil result and press on. Ugh on the ankle injury to Andersen.

 

A number of new faces in the Starting XI:

Areola
Aina, Adarabioyo, Ream, Robinson
Cairney, Anguissa
Lookman, Loftus-Cheek, Cavaliero
Mitrovic

Subs: Rodak, LeMarchand, Bryan, Lemina, Kebano, De Cordova-Reid, Kamara

I still don't understand why Cavaliero is getting a start at this point. Hopefully the new guys on the back line can get off to a good start and I'm excited to see how the midfield operates with Loftus-Cheek in there.

 

Well that should have been 3 points.

 

A point!!! Break out the dancing bananas!

 

I'd say that a draw was probably a fair result, but yes Fulham should have won. Fulham didn't get a win because of the worst performance I've seen from Mitrovic. A missed PK, a penalty given up, and a missed close range header will all make the highlights, but there was more from him - poor passes, mishandled balls, just an all around terrible day from start to finish.

Fortunately Lookman continued where he left off and got a great individual goal. There were times where I wished he hooked up more with Robinson, but he's clearly able to create things on his own too. I felt bad that Robinson didn't get more opportunities. He was moving off the ball more than anyone else, but was seldom rewarded with a pass down the left channel - I still give him an "A" for effort.

I incorrectly put Cavaleiro on the left side in the lineup - but it was a little hard to know where two left wingers were going to play. He ended up forming the far right side of a back five when Fulham was on defense and then played forward when on offense. He was clearly a little stretched and sometimes uncomfortable in that role, but I do have to give him credit for consistently delivering good corners today.

The defense was a mixed bag. Aina didn't look great, but I thought that Adarabioyo played well. Fulham didn't play as well in the first half and were lucky not to be a goal or two down, but looked better after the break. The current offside rule that has the line judge hold the flag when they see an offside violation made Sheffield look more dangerous than they actually were. They repeatedly had multiple players offside, but play was allowed to continue until there was a shot or Fulham recovered the ball. I hate that.

As for the midfield, Cairney showed a bit of his old self. His passing and link-up play was better in the second half and he had two classic left-footed shots on goal that required saves. Loftus-Cheek played fine but didn't do much of note.

Fulham is continuing to improve, but not getting the three points today was a downer.

 

And here are the highlights:

 

Sorry Matt, not worthy of the dancing banana. Should have been a W and three points. I thought the penalty was a bit harsh. Both going for the ball, Mitro clearly missed it, but he didn't kick the defender in the head like he reacted. Gotta make penalties. We don't generate enough. At least we're off the schneid. I guess that's worth something. On to Palace at the Cottage Saturday.

 

Pretty funny Mitro’s shoulder shrug at the end, like what else could possibly go wrong. It was a penalty, but Ivan tackling (American football style) unnecessarily set up the free kick, and Areola catches that cleanly 9 out of 10 times. Instead he bungles it and Mitro is a split second behind the SU guy. A step in the right direction l, need to take another one fairly soon.