Fulham vs West Brom

Starting the thread early. This one will be on ESPN+ at 7:30 am Eastern.

Cairney was gassed last weekend; must be glad he has a week to get ready for WBA. I like the look of this Cairney/Seri midfield (a year ago I wouldn't have been caught dead saying this). We should have most players available. I hope Carvalho can get a few minutes in that 8/10 hybrid -- missed the kid; but he likely won't start.

I really look forward to this one. A win could go a long way to establishing us in the top 2.

 

I’m almost afraid to say/write anything at the moment for fear of jinxing everything. Consecutive clean sheets and only three conceded in our last five, all wins. We’re playing as well as I can remember, at least as well as our 23 match unbeaten run in ‘17-‘18. The squad’s overall strength is improving, especially with Cairney and Tete returning to active duty. Is it important to beat the teams equal to you in talent and performance? Yup. But it’s just as important to take care of business against the OK teams and the weaker teams which, in this league, may be harder to do than any on the planet. I don’t know how we match up head to head with West Brom, but it won’t define our season if we lose this one. I don’t think we will, considering our recent performances. I’m more concerned about the next international break and, more importantly, how we play coming out the other side of it. That’s the only time we’ve stubbed our toe this season. I don’t know what the answer is, I just hope our staff figure that out when the time comes. Meanwhile let’s have some fun against the Baggies! UTF!

 

One of the things that has me nervous about this match is that it seems like West Brom likes to play with a high press. At times Fulham has struggled to deal with a high press leading turnovers in their own half. At the same time the two teams that have managed to beat West Brom (Swansea and Stoke) also possessed the ball more than 50% of the time - I think those may have been the only matches where West Brom didn't have the majority of possession. That's a small sample size, but it would seem to indicate that to succeed Fulham will have to deal with that high press without giving up possession.

Fulham handled the high press better early in the season by sending balls over the top that Wilson or Carvalho could run onto. That outlet hasn't been used as much recently and I'm not sure why. Have teams adjusted to covering Wilson? Does Fulham need BOTH Wilson and Carvalho to stretch the defense? Does Silva just want to do things differently? I'd like Fulham to find some way of dealing with the press by getting out of their own half earlier and spending less time passing around their own box.

I haven't seen an injury report yet, but it seems like Silva should have a wealth of options with Reed, Carvalho, Cairney, Bryan, and Tete hopefully ready to play. I really hope the recent Carvalho issues are legitimate and not some kind of contract negotiation tactic, because I want to see him back in as soon as possible, even if it means less time for Cairney. I was surprised that we didn't see more of Tete in the past two matches (he only played a few forgettable minutes against Forest). Part of me wonders if Silva was intentionally holding him back so that West Brom wouldn't have a chance to see how his presence changes Fulham's capabilities. I'm salivating over the chance to see Fulham with Carvalho, Wilson, Seri, Tete, and Robinson putting teams back on their heals and carving them to pieces. If that moment comes I'll be like the Emperor:


Of course, the Death Star was undone by some shoddy defense so maybe he isn't the best example, but I hope that Fulham will come into this match against West Brom with 100% of its potential available.

 

Amen, @MicahMan. The force is strong in this one.

 

I feel like Fulham have at times played to the level of competition. So it bodes well that they’ll bring their A-game.

As this match is at the Cottage, Fulham need to make West Brom as uncomfortable as possible from the starting whistle. That means getting right to business - no easing into the game by playing keep away for the first five minutes. Put them under pressure and keep them on the back foot.

It’s going to be tight and I’m looking forward to watching.

 

The 4:30 game again????? Arg!!!!!!

 

I'm up. The coffee is on. Let's do this!

 

Kill Kill Kill!!!!!! Where Jump at??

 

I love winning ugly. It's not that we were ugly, exactly, we just didn't possess the ball with as many flowing movements as usual, but that was going to be the case with West Brom's physicality and high press. I love, love, love what we did there.

Did not love Tosin's straight red, but that will give the other guys a chance to shine. It was probably deserved, and the appeal is unlikely. I don't imagine that Silva will have Odoi slide into the middle--not enough height--but he might since neither Hector nor Mawson have Tosin's mobility. I haven't seen enough of Kongolo to have an opinion.

Wonderful to see Carvalho back, looking sharp in his few minutes.

If Mitro stays healthy and keeps getting this level of service (or opposition mistakes), his season total will be ridiculous.

 

I'm just here for the dancing banana from @jumpkutz ^^^

 

Am I the only one that thinks BDR is flying under most peoples radar while having a really good season?

Love the three points and Mitro’s hat trick.

 

Here are the highlights if you couldn't catch the match:


I find it interesting that these official EFL highlights, which NEVER show replays of a goal from multiple angles chose to show a replay of Mitrovic being taken down in the box - apparently to point out that it shouldn't have been a penalty. Did they do that when a PK was wrongly awarded when Robinson put his leg out and got nothing of the opposing player? (The answer is "no")

Regardless of if the penalty was deserved, that was a great steal from Odoi followed by a wonderful through ball from DeCordova-Reid (@BarryWhite you are right, he's making things happen) to put the West Brom line under a lot of pressure. Odoi didn't have a great opening few minutes, but looked good for the remainder of the match - so much for my theory about Tete being kept under wraps! That was also the best PK Mitrovic has done this year.

As mentioned before I had been worried about the high press form West Brom, but it was Fulham that reaped the rewards of the high press when it led to that dreadful back-pass from Snodgrass that Mitrovic alertly jumped on. West Brom's high press was pretty toothless and I was happy to see Fulham using a couple long balls to Kebano and Wilson to relieve the pressure and open things up. There were moments where Ream (my MOTM for his work on defense and controlling play from the back) reminded me of Andersen when he pinged a couple of long balls right to where they needed to be.

The only downside was that late, and deserved, red-card for Tosin. I have no idea why he went in like that given the stage the game was in. Hopefully Fulham can handle Blackburn without him.

I really hope Carvalho gets a start on Wednesday because as @daddude7 said, he looked really good out there. Fulham has won the last four matches from a combined score of 13 to 1 and I'm STILL looking for my "Emperor" moment - what potential! If only Bournemouth would start losing.

 

More Highlights from West Brom:


I had to laugh when the Baggies' commentator said that "Sondgrass has been dispossessed." Um, no. It was just a terrible pass.

 

I agree with everything @MicahMan said, including Ream being MOTM. Mitro will win because folks will vote on the strength of his goals, but it was Ream who organized us from the back. He had only one bad moment, but was able to slow down WBA after a give-away enough so that the rest of the D were able to recover and put out the fire.

Tosin will likely get suspended for three games after a straight red for a dangerous tackle. I wasn't sure it was warranted in the moment, but after watching it again, I'm convinced it was the right call, as much as I dislike it. A poor decision from him, but he's still young and growing. We'll need a different option for those three matches. Is Hector it? Can he get back to the "van Mike" form of two years ago?

 

I just don’t want to jinx this.

 

COYW. Whoa, 4 on the trot. Love reading this from Silva in the Guardian:

“The numbers speak for themselves,” said the Fulham head coach, Marco Silva, whose side have won four successive games. “When a striker has 18 goals in 15 games, in terms of the confidence, I don’t need much time to speak with him about what he is doing. The goals do it for me; his job is done. I have to do different things.

“His teammates are helping him and he has to keep with the momentum. I’m pleased to see Mitro in a good mood, the team in a good mood.”

 

In other words, if it ain’t broke….

 

Whaaaa? I'm always super optimistic, shot glass half-full, about Fulham. ;-)

Okay, it took a while, but I am now a Marco Silva disciple.