Fulham vs. West Ham

Fulham hosts West Ham in Saturday's marquee match up. The game will be on NBC starting at 12:30pm EST.

You probably don't want to be reminded of this, but the match against West Ham earlier this year introduced the Premier League to Ademola Lookman because of his disastrous attempted Panenka. A loss due to that terrible PK was all the more difficult after Fulham had held West Ham goalless for 90 minutes only to give up an injury time goal that should have never happened because of a offside player in the build up.

Going into this match Fulham desperately need a win. The Whites are now 8 points deep into relegation with the possibility of moving into last place if results don't go their way. To get to the minimum points typically needed for safety Fulham will need to win about half of their remaining matches. A task that seems insurmountable at this point. Fulham is the only Premier League team without a win in the last five matches and only Newcastle is worse over the past eight. The hole Fulham is in has been getting worse as the remaining time has gotten shorter.

Fulham must find some way of scoring without blowing holes in their defensive shape. Fulham's new signing Josh Maja could make an appearance in this match and we all hope he can bring something new. A change in the formation is needed too. I'd like to see a back four of Robinson, Tosin, Andersen, and Tete. Have Lookman, Reed, Anguissa, and Reid in the middle with Mitrovic joined by Maja up top (if he's fit). If not that, then please Parker, try something else. Time is running out.

 

Time is running out and Fulham need wins just to get back into a position that hits a bad patch feels any pressure from below them.

 

Feels as though the team has no idea who is going to score the next goal. There is still 51 points available, but it feels as like it’s now or never. Mitro appears as interested in eating doughnuts as he has in putting doughnuts on the scoresheet (is it me or is he 15-20 lbs overweight?).

 

Mitro is not in playing shape. He may or may not start. Still, for some reason I am feeling optimistic. Fulham 2:1 WH. One of our goals will be a WH own goal. The other, a deflection off the back of Cavaleiro's head after a corner. Luck of the Fulhamish.

 

I don’t know. I always get a bad feeling when Fulham play the local network game. I suppose though, since Fulham haven’t won against a London opponent in a decade or so, maybe they’re due. Lingard looked like the signing of the year in West Ham’s last match. It’s time for Parker to reach into his bag of tricks and somehow convince the guys that they’re all Alan Shearer.

 

Didn't see much I liked in the 1st half. I assume we will see Maja early in the 2nd.

 

Simply too much to ask to put a shot on freaking target!! RLC & Cav couldn’t hit water if they fell out of a boat! Tosin had a header from a corner from point blank range that he has to convert. Spam will say it was a fair result, and they were better in the first half, but 2 points dropped...AGAIN

 

HD is right: we play well, but fail in attack. The gap between 17 and 18 gets larger, hard to see us scoring enough goals against anyone to win at least 5 more games. Wish it weren't so.

 

I’ve been saying I just can’t see where the goals are going to come from and nothing has changed about that based on today’s match. This squad just simply isn’t good enough in the attacking third of the pitch.

My mantra this season has been, “This is what happens to teams that get relegated.” Fulham out played West Ham everywhere but where it counts the most, the scoreboard.

By the way, can anyone please explain to me why BDR was subbed off and Cav was left on when what we needed was a goal? Made no sense to me whatsoever.

 

Highlights if you need them:


Agree with all that has been said - overall not a bad match from Fulham, but just not good enough given the points needed for safety.

The thing that drove me the most crazy was how RLC could put himself into space to receive a ball (good!) and then repeatedly do nothing with it (bad!). He often waited one step longer than he should have to make his pass. I don't know if he's lacking confidence, vision, or trust, but his hesitation killed off a number of opportunities.

For the rest of the season I'm just going to try and enjoy these matches as one-offs and not think too much about the inevitable conclusion.

 

I was wrong about this match, but I still think that own goals are the most likely source of scoring for us. Just a few, please Universe? It's not too much to ask.

 

I was thinking about this when Ogbonna deflected a cross in on his own goal! Sadly it went straight to Fabianski, but it was one of the more dangerous "shots" in the match for Fulham.

An in the spirit of looking at these as one-offs, I forgot to mention that ridiculous red-card against Soucek. I was hoping that it might lead to a last second miracle goal for Fulham, but the call itself was terrible to a mind-boggling degree. It was so clear that he had an incidental touch on Mitrovic's face and the rest was play acting my Mitro. I fully expect the red to be overturned, but it is just one more sign of how VAR has not improved the game at all.

 

I haven’t dissected the numbers, but we’ve gotta be the worst shooting team in the league, perhaps even England or all of Europe. Can’t remember the last time we scored from a corner or a free kick within range of the opposition goal, either free or direct. The Gang That Couldn’t Shoot Straight?
Sheffield United have won two since the calendar flipped to 2021, so they now have 3 wins to West Brom’s and our two. And the Blades have been more competitive too, beating ManUre at Old Trafford and succumbing 1-nil at Citeh. They’re still going down with us, but we’re still better than the Baggies...for now.
As long as Tony’s running the club like a Rotoworld fantasy team (which is to say as long as Tony’s running the club) this is what we can expect: uneven performances in up and down seasons, both league-wise and on the pitch with rent-a-players. The plus side is Shad’s investment in the new Riverside Stand.
The best we can hope for the rest of this season is for the law of averages to kick in and some of our good work on the rest of the pitch ends with the ball in the back of the other team’s net. Maybe spring a few surprises on the big boys trying to make it into Europe next season. I know we’re better than the two below us, but it’s academic at this point. It would take a miracle, but Burnley, Newcastle and Palace are capable of long losing streaks. Burnley’s time in the PL should, realistically, be up. I just want to see us win 4 or 5 matches that we have left.

 

Another draw. Who'd have guessed? If we draw every remaining game, we'll end up with 31 points. Hey @MicahMan, is that enough to have half a chance of survival?

 

No.


I looked back to 2008 and a team with 31 points would have been relegated every season - even worse, they would have finished below 18th place every season. 35 points is probably the bare minimum, 37 points more likely.

Based on the form from the past 8 matches Fulham would finish with 25 points in 19th place. To reach 37 points Fulham would need to close out the remaining games with 6 wins, 4 draws, and 6 loses. That would be 1.375 points per match, which is just over twice as many PPM that Fulham has earned to date.

I dissected the numbers (for the Premier League at least) and you are correct @jumpkutz ! Fulham has more shots per goal than any other team. Fulham needs 15 shots to get a goal. Considering Fulham takes 12 shots in an average game, that's a big problem! On average, teams that are not Fulham need only 9 shots to get a goal.

 

I feel like this was the case last year too. Good to know!

Not to plug another article by The Athletic considering their paywall, but as they are the only media outlet that actually covers us Peter Rutzler had a great piece about our offense and Cavaleiro in particular that echoes your stats Michah. I'll add the table graphic below, but basically our conversion rate is dead last when our chance rate is respectable.

There's a foundation there to build on, so if we can turn that around then perhaps a great escape is possible. And if there's a year for wacky things to happen, it's probably this one. But will it?

 

I'm certainly no expert on futbol training methods, but it seems to me that of all the skill sets necessary to be a top flight level player, shooting would be the easiest to improve upon on the practice field, correct? I mean, it surely is in many of the other major sports you could name: basketball, hockey, lacrosse, water polo. Baseball players can't get enough time in the batting cage. And every kid who picks up a pointy end football wants to be the quarterback so they can throw the thing like Brady or kick it like Ray Guy or Justin Tucker. What does every kid alone with his favorite spherical ball do with it? Except for a baseball, they practice SHOOTING it.