Fulham vs. Barnsley

Fulham is back in action on Saturday hosting Barnsley. The match starts at 10am EST and will only be available on FFCTV.

Fulham and Barnsley come into this match heading in opposite directions. Fulham has the best form in the League right now with 21 points out of the last eight matches. Barnsely has the worst form in the League with just 3 points out of the last eight matches. Fulham has kept a clean sheet in five straight matches. Barnsley hasn't had a clean sheet since a draw with Blackpool back in September. Fulham has scored 32 more goals than Barnsley's 12. Mitrovic alone has eight more goals than Barnsley. Fulham had six players on the pitch for their national teams over the international break. Barnsley had one player on Poland's bench.

Prior to the international break Barnsley did manage to stop a seven game losing streak with a win over sad Derby (who have been docked an additional 9 points after the initial 12 point penalty, now sit at -3 points, and are certain to be relegated), but they followed that up with a loss to Hull that allowed them to end their five game losing streak.

Despite all of the advantages for Fulham, Barnsley does seem to play better against the top teams. Out of the five teams they played in the top seven spots, they only lost to Bournemouth. They earned a win back in August against Coventry and had draws against Blackburn, QPR, and Stoke. Barnsley also come in with a new manager in his first match with the team. Who knows what kind of impact he might have?

Fulham will need to be wary of the fitness for the players coming back from international break. The days since the last match is better than the last break, so hopefully most of the guys will be ready to go. My biggest concern is Robinson who seemed gassed against Jamaica. Fulham will have one more match without Tosin too.

Fulham should win this one, but I have this feeling that Barnsley will somehow manage to end the run of clean sheets despite the odds against them.

 

Lest we forget; 2019-20 Championship, Fulham finished 2 pts out of automatic promotion…and 21st place Barnsley swept us…hopefully that is not lost on the guys.

 

I forgot that Odoi will also be out for one match because of his collection of yellow cards.

And it appears that the new manager will merely be watching from the stands for this match. The interim manager will still be in place on Saturday for Barnsley.

 

So far, so good. Like how we jumped right on ‘em out of the gate. Much better start after an international break than the first one at the beginning of September. Also good to see Mitro still in club form off of two huge international matches.

 

Ho Hum just another 4-1 thrashing

West Brom loses 1-0 as well.

 

Restarts from international breaks are improving.
That’s good. Only thing to be irritated about here is losing the clean sheet. But…we answered within three minutes of conceding, so that sort of mitigates that sin.
We’re kind of trading the lead with Bournemouth at the top of the backstretch. The Cherries are at Pride Park early tomorrow morning, so it’s likely they’ll poke their nose back in front of us, given the Rams’ points deductions from massive financial problems. Still a long way to go until May 7th…Kentucky Derby day, as fate would have it. Lots of football left, with twists and turns, both predictable and not…injuries, transfers, etc.
But right now, you’ve got to like where we at.
Credit to the Khans, the staff and the players, but especially to Marco. When his appointment was announced, no one started turning cartwheels and rushing to the bookies to wager the mortgage on our promotion. Like most such changing of the guard, I’ll bet most of us accepted it at face value and hoped it would work out. Fair to say it’s worked out beyond anybody’s wildest dreams.
Props to him for putting us in a position to be more than merely competitive, but in the lead, for getting us back to the big boy league. He’s made it fun to be a Fulham supporter again.

 

Baby Khan could save a busload of saintly newborns, and I still wouldn't give him credit. I require permission to be possibly irrational on this topic.

Okay, here's one scenario in which I may eat crow: Tony ties Fabio Carvalho to a multi-year contract and keeps him at our promoted Fulham next year. If this happens, I may concede that perhaps not everything the reverse Midas touches turns into turds. I may even find myself thinking: good job, Tony, good job.

 

I'm not sure how anyone could find a complaint with the season to date. Better than 3 to 1 on goals and 9 points clear of third place. Outstanding!

 

Here are the highlights:


I missed most of the first half, but GJ described it this way at half time: "I've said it before, but here we are up 2-0 and we haven't even played that well!"

Based on that description I would guess that Fulham did even better in the second half. They really seemed to be in total control. Barnsley had a brief period where they got a couple corners, and then the few seconds surrounding their goal, but other than that it was all Fulham.

I really enjoyed so many players getting involved. Mitro scores (and had an uncredited assist on Carvalho's goal), Carvalho scores, Kebano scores, Wilson scores and assists, Tete assists, Seri assists (that lofted pass from him was on point!!). This is the challenge for defenses facing Fulham right now - how do you stop all of that?! Even Hector got close to scoring and sent one off the post.

Speaking of Hector, he'll be the most disappointed with the one goal that was scored. He's played so well that I started to think maybe Tosin's spot isn't guaranteed. Hector was doing Andersen-esque long passes and playing well on defense - until he didn't. He turned the ball over to Woodrow in the midfield and then didn't track back to defend the eventual goal scorer for Barnsley. He lost his starting position in that moment.

And if someone had to cause the end of Fulham's clean sheets, I'm glad it was Woodrow. Like Don, I've got a soft spot for him and I couldn't be too upset - especially since Fulham restored the lead almost immediately.

As mentioned by others, today was a great day with Coventry drawing and West Brom losing to put Fulham 9 points clear of third place. There is a lot of the season left to go, but it is going to be really hard for anyone to stop Fulham.

 

At 90 minutes, Derby is leading Bournemouth 3-2. Come on!

And yes! We're now in first!

 

Fulham posted essentially the same highlights, but these are better because they include Gentleman Jim's commentary! Hopefully Fulham will start to include him regularly:


And after seeing these highlights I have to say my memory of Hector on the Barnsley goal was a little off. I thought he had possession of the ball and lost it, but it wasn't that bad, he just didn't hang with the flow of play after Woodrow got past him.

That is shocking! I watched the first half of that match and both teams didn't look great, but I figured Bournemouth had it wrapped up with a 2-1 lead.

 

More proof positive that when you roll the ball onto the center circle spot, everything’s even until somebody proves otherwise. Props to the Rams for giving the middle finger to just mailing it in. Just another reason to look at the EFL Championship with a sideways raised eyebrow.

 

Just watched the highlights for the first time. The thing that jumped out at me, again? Mitro’s PASSING. Yes, it’s blatantly obvious the man can score. But the one-two with Carvalho and the midfield flick on to Wilson followed by Harry’s delicious cross to Neeskens were both so bloody sublime, brilliant and (drum roll please) unselfish.
Very few things in this world warm the cockles of my heart more than a guy with every right to hog the ball for more shots for himself, yet chooses to make the extra unselfish pass for a better shot by a teammate that works, putting team ahead of self.
The big Serb is truly a special player at a special time in our club’s history. Oh, and how about throwing in getting your relatively tiny country into the next World Cup, just for fun? Just a joy to sit back, watch and appreciate.