Fulham at Cardiff

Fulham travels to Wales to face Cardiff at 10am EST. The match will be on FFCTV.

When Fulham and Cardiff met back in October, Cardiff was near the end of a terrible run of form and the end of McCarthy's reign as manager. Fulham was also in a bit of a funk having a mixed bag of results in recent matches. Fulham looked like it might be headed for another disappointing night in terrible weather conditions until Cairney came in as a sub and put in his first goal in almost a year. Fulham went on to win the next five matches.

Cardiff is much improved now and are no longer in danger of relegation (BTW, Fulham is officially safe from relegation after the win against Posh). When Fulham met them earlier, Cardiff had only scored once in their previous six (all losses) - now Cardiff have scored 10 times in their previous six with three wins. Midweek they faced Huddersfield and appeared headed to a 1-0 win until the Terriers got goals in the 88th and the 96th minutes to steal the three points.

With nothing to lose and nothing much to gain, I expect Cardiff to come at Fulham unlike Peterborough. This should open up opportunities for Fulham especially if Wilson is reintroduced to the starting lineup after getting a break mid-week. However, Cardiff does seem to love scoring late with 82% of their goals coming in the second half, so don't get too comfortable if Fulham has a one goal lead.

 

I hope you’re right. I hope they do come at us straight up, full bore. As a noteworthy smuggler from a galaxy far, far away once opined “Bring it on. I prefer a straight fight to all of this sneaking around.”

 

Here are the highlights:


The most entertaining part of this match for those of us watching live were the two arguments Gentleman Jim had with a Cardiff supporter sitting behind him. I think the one was over a flop that drew a card and the other was for an elbow to the face of Cavaleiro late in the match. After the Cardiff fan said that the game shouldn't have been stopped for Cavaleiro's injury since the ref didn't see it GJ asked "So we can slit the throat of the keeper and that's alright then if the ref doesn't see it?!"

It was another kind of weird match since Fulham really outplayed Cardiff (Fulham had 83% passing accuracy, Cardiff 64%) but Fulham just had trouble making good connections in the final third. Cardiff actually ended up with more shots on target (4 to 3) despite Fulham's superior play. Mitrovic's goal was a classic score from him - such a well placed header to get around the keeper, but into the net. It felt like Fulham would get more, but they had trouble getting good looks. Bryan started off really well, especially an early drive into the box that seemed like a repeat of his second score in the 2020 playoffs, but later on he made some suspect passes. I'm also still not a fan of Chalobah. He completely spaced on receiving the ball twice and turned the ball over into a dangerous situation when his foot missed the ball - this should be football basics. Then later he prevented Ream from clearing a ball, then sent the ball into the empty space where Ream might have been, but instead a Cardiff player was standing there. Fortunately Cardiff couldn't convert that opportunity.

Rodak's fantastic save that came from that fluky goal kick saved the match I think. If Cardiff had gotten the lead I don't know if Fulham could have gotten it back today. Rodak was up for the task and played it perfectly to get Fulham out of the jam.

Fulham remains at the top of the league with an 11 point margin over 3rd place. Fulham has the league's best form over the last 8 matches (along with Luton @HatterDon !), the best home record, the best away record, the top scoring offense by 31 goals, and the second best defense (but that is with top defense Bournemouth still having two games in hand). They just need to keep this up a little longer.

EDIT: One thing I forgot to mention is that the officiating was pretty poor in this one. The worst example was a clear and obvious handball by Cardiff in the box that blocked a Fulham cross. I have no idea how they missed it, but they did and Fulham didn't get a PK in the second half.

 

I concur MM. Perhaps Silva addressed it, but I'm still puzzled as to why Seri didn't start again. I though his game against Peterborough was one of the best he's had for us in a long time. I wouldn't think it's a matter of fitness: he came back from AFCON in good shape, or so I thought. Anybody seen anything on Cairney? All I can find is that he was "still unwell" in the Cardiff preview story.

 

GJ just said he was sick, but no particular kind of illness. I haven't heard anything beyond that.

I am also puzzled about Seri - and I thought for sure he would have come on as a sub after Chalobah made those errors.

One more thought about the lineup - Robinson wasn't even on the bench and watched the match from home. I'm not sure what was up with that either.