Fulham at Middlesbrough

What a great time of year for football in the Championship! There is so much riding on every match and that will certainly be true on Wednesday when Fulham makes the long trip up to Middlesbrough. The match will be on ESPN+ and kicks off at 2:45 EDT.

Fulham's season started with Middlesbrough and I found some of my early season comments kind of funny given where Fulham is today:

Uh, yeah, Mitrovic was able to return to his old form and then some! A Sessegnon-like partnership? Take your pick between Wilson or Carvalho! This team is on track to score more than 100 goals in the season. It is hard to remember there were any concerns about scoring at the start of the season.

Fulham drew 1-1 with Middlesbrough on the opening day, but it was clear that Fulham was the better team and probably should have won. At the time Middlesbrough was managed by the old bridge troll Neil Warnock. Warnock was fired, or resigned, or something back in early November and now lives comfortably under a bridge again. Chris Wilder took over and turned Middlesbrough from a mid-table team to a serious threat for promotion through the playoffs. Since Wilder became manager, Middlesbrough have the same number of wins as Fulham (12) and nearly earned the same number of points. Under Wilder they have also won every home match except for the first two back in November. This will be a far more potent team than the one Fulham faced back at the Cottage on opening day.

If Fulham should manage to get three points against Middlesbrough, it will eliminate Middlesbrough, and possibly a few other teams depending on today's results, from the list of squads that have a mathematical possibility of getting more points than Fulham.

Fulham doesn't seem to have any injury concerns and Robinson and Kebano should be rested enough to start if Silva wants them. I thought Bryan did well against QPR, so I'm not sure who will start at left back. I wouldn't mind seeing what happens if Williams shifted to the left and Tete played over at right.

I'm going with the same prediction I made for the season opener of a 1-1 draw, but I am glad I was wrong about one thing I said in that post back in August:

 

I’m glad you were off on your early season comments to! I’m more encouraged by our recent clean sheets, although one can’t help but think part of it is due to the offensive ineptitude of our opponents. Still, we’re doing enough to prevent enough goals to beat us, so let’s not quibble. As you mentioned, the Carvalho-Wilson duo has more than made up for the hole left by Sess's departure. In fact, I think most of our attacking players have figured out that getting the ball to #9 inside the 18 is a pretty darn good idea. They also seem to have figured out how to beat the strategy of teams essentially double and triple teaming Mitro. They're going to force some tough roster decisions when we get promoted. You're also spot on in stating that Chris Wilder has done an excellent job since taking over at the Riverside. We'll have our hands full, but our road form has been above average this season, so let's hope that continues.

 

Good Gawd what a year from Mitro…38 and counting

Adding to the Dancin Banana is Bournemouth lost to WBA..11 pts on 2nd, 17 on 3rd…The Rotund Lady is warming up!!

 

The highlights:


One thing I forgot to mention in the build-up to this match was that Fulham has not gotten a win this season against any of the remaining teams they face - except Nottingham Forest and they're on fire (a "Forest Fire"? HA!). Well, now Fulham has a win against at least Middlesbrough.

Fulham probably deserved a win when they faced off in August and they probably deserved a draw tonight, but I'll take the three points and the karmic balance with Middlesbrough. After Fulham scored I thought for sure Middlesbrough was going to equalize with the way they were pouring it on, but they couldn't convert their chances.

That free-kick for the goal was a thing of beauty. One of the things I love about Silva's Fulham is how intentional they are with free-kicks and corners. This was a fantastic example of multiple moving pieces coming together perfectly. The fake by Reed timed with runs by Ream and Chalobah (edit: it was actually Onomah) to open things up for the Wilson to Mitrovic connection - great plan to get the ball on the head of the league's top scorer.

Only Huddersfield, Forest, and Bournemouth can catch Fulham now. Five more points will get Fulham promoted (I'm not saying six points since there is no way anyone closes the gap on Fulham's goal differential). Almost there.

 

It’s always nice to win a match when you really probably shouldn’t have. And as always, the clean sheet certainly brings the good vibes.

 

@SoCalJoe I dare say the lady has grown at least corpulent.

Yes, we got lucky today. Middlesbrough’s finishing was atrocious. But we’ve also had games we should have won. So even Steven.

What does worry me is the loose passing in the midfield and the lack of pace in the middle of defense. We play like this in the Prem, we lose against everyone except Norwich.

 

That Mitro header was a beauty. Maybe his best header this season.

My only complaint was Rodak. Dude loves to punch the ball. Just catch it man. He makes me a nervous wreck.

 

I concur with everyone's assessment of the match. It's true that an average Prem team converts at least one of more or the chances Boro created after we scored. But...we're not in the Prem... yet. That, now, is almost a foregone conclusion for next season. We haven't played particularly well recently, yet we keep getting results. That's the mark of a good team. We have a very good team...for the Championship. The key will be not to muck it up when we retool the squad for the PL, something we've not been able to avoid with Tony in charge. Let's hope he's learned a few things from the last two seasons in the top tier. Meanwhile, let's enjoy this team for what they are. They've been fun to watch. And on the whole, they deserved the result they got from yesterday's effort. We survived a lot of sins to capitalize on a moment of sheer quality. That set piece was executed perfectly, obviously from a training ground exercise. Those moments are what often makes the difference in an otherwise even outing. Mitro's not fast or quick, but the man's got hops, and he knows what to do with the ball when he gets up there. It's gonna be a lot harder, but we have to figure out how to get him service at the next level. This goal and result should give us the push to wrap this thing up soon. Let's have fun watching them do it.

 

Earlier in the season a fair bit was written about Marco Silva adopting basketball plays on his set piece tactics, and last nights goal was so reminiscent of an inbound play where the first cut sets the screen for the trailing runner to catch and drain a wide open 3 pointer on the move.