Fulham vs Blackpool

Fulham hosts Blackpool on Saturday. The match will be on ESPN+ at 10am EST.

When Fulham visited Blackpool earlier in the season they suffered their first loss in a very weak performance. Fulham had 17 shots with only 4 on target and zero goals while Blackpool scored with their solitary shot on target. Fulham now sits 21 points in front of Blackpool with both of them on 27 matches. Due to COVID delays Blackpool has only played two league matches in January winning them both 1-0.

Fulham may be forced into a number of lineup changes. I haven't seen any updates on the readiness of Mitrovic, Wilson. or Tete who came off injured in the last match. Robinson and DeCordova-Reid are both on international duty. If Wilson is not available we could see Knockaert come in after his steady performance late against Stoke. Muniz, Odoi, and Bryan will likely come in to fill the other gaps. This would clearly not be the optimal squad, but despite that Fulham should still be competitive against Blackpool. Like last week another narrow one goal win seems likely. Hopefully the defense can keep a clean sheet to make the task a little easier on the guys up front.

 

You know what they say about ‘assume’..I assumed we weren’t playing. COYW

 

Saw on Twitter that Mitro and Wilson are both available.

 

Marco says Mitro and Wilson are both available, but Tete is out…again. Kid can’t catch a break. It seems like our record with him starting is pretty darn good, better than if he’s not playing at all. I would think we’d be able to cover for the absence of Robinson and DeCordova-Reid in a match such as this, but it’s the Championship, so crazy stuff happens. I would like to think we’ll be extra motivated to correct the anomaly that occurred at Bloomfield Road in September, but professionals shouldn’t need that. Still, I would think they know we’re better than they are by a wide margin, and would want to prove it emphatically. There is one significant difference I feel compelled to illuminate. Gazzaniga was still our #1 keeper when we lost to this bunch. I have no idea if that made a difference then. I think we’ll all agree that Marek Rodak has performed better and deserves to be the #1 right now. I’d really like to see us keep a clean sheet as opposed to scoring 3+ goals. There’s not much doubt that we can score, but we could use some improved defense at the moment.

 

Oops. Too soon for dancing banana!

 

So close to a perfect January. I’m not sure why the defense played so lazily at times. Blackpool, on the other hand, did a great job of clogging the area in front of their goal. Either way, it’s a point earned and Fulham are still 6 points clear of third place.

 

It’s a point. Had a few opportunities to score more but so did Blackpool.

 

First off, for those of you who weren't aware, there was a 40 minute suspension in the match so that medical staff could attend to a Fulham supporter in the Hammersmith End that suffered cardiac arrest. Sadly, despite those efforts, that fan passed away at the hospital. The club released this message of condolence: https://www.fulhamfc.com/news/2022/january/29/A-Message-of-Condolence-from-our-Chairman/

Here are the highlights:


The rest of the league should study what Blackpool does to Fulham because this felt like a repeat of the first match in many ways. As before, Blackpool put on a great high press that frustrated Fulham and when they did break through Fulham didn't convert their opportunities - well except for the one goal which is why Fulham got a point out of this one at least. Again, Fulham had over 70% possession and dominated in shots, but couldn't do enough to win. As before, Bowler scored against Fulham - his only two goals of the season.

Blackpool clearly took advantage of the game suspension because Fulham was running all over them for the first 12 minutes. When play resumed, they had the press on and Fulham had to work a lot harder. @astroevan 's use of "lazy" was spot on. There were just some sloppy passes coming up from the back. A little more focus from the defense, especially Tosin and Odoi, and Fulham gets a clean sheet and a win.

Elsewhere, Blackburn drew and Bournemouth won so things tightened a little at the top, but not as much as it could have.

 

Can't work up any particular disappointment about missing the 2 points, given what happened in the stands. Good on Marek and others for alerting the referee and the paramedics. It is sad that there couldn't have been a happier ending. Hope he thought we won at the end.

 

A real shame about Mr. Parish. It shouldn't have, but it seemed to have a negative effect, from our perspective, on the rest of the match. I don't understand why everybody doesn't press us high up the pitch. We've shown no ability to deal with that tactic, and I'm not sure we ever will with this group. For whatever reason, they just don't seem to be able to figure it out. Shouldn't be having this much trouble with an outfit like Blackpool, but I'll just chalk it up to a glitch in The Matrix and move on. We're still in good shape at the moment, and there's no reason to believe we can't stay there. We need to get past the inevitable defeat at Citeh and focus on Milwall's visit to the Cottage on the 8th. We beat 'em 2-1 in August at The Den, and had numerous chances to put it out of reach, but didn't. Let's hope we generate the same chances this time and bury them.