Fulham vs. Nottingham Forest

Fulham host Nottingham Forest on Saturday with kickoff at 10am EST on Peacock.

When Fulham went to the City Ground in September, Nottingham Forest was in the middle of their worst form of the season - a span of 9 matches without a win. It was an unusual night for Fulham with Ream playing left back leaving Tosin and Diop to play in central defense - and then the three goals came from the unusual combination of Tosin, Palhinha, and Reed. Forest was competitive in this match and came close to earning a draw.

Now Nottingham Forest are in their best form of the season with as many Premier League wins in 2023 as in all of 2022. And now they have the legendary Kaylor Navas in goal. While Forest will be coming in full of confidence, the three most recent wins came against teams in the bottom third of the table - at Southampton and at home versus Leicester and Leeds. They have yet to get a win against teams currently in the top nine.

Meanwhile for Fulham it has been a month since Vinicius scored the winner against Chelsea - the last time Fulham scored in the Premier League. Fulham rotated their typical starters in the Sunderland match so the starting lineup could be unchanged from last Friday against Chelsea. Forest will be tough, but I hope that Fulham start putting the ball in the back of the net again.

 

Tom Cairney will miss the match due to an ankle injury. He's barely started, but he has played in every match this season, so this will be Fulham's first time without him. It looks like Soares and Lukic will be available from the bench.
https://www.fulhamfc.com/news/2023/february/10/forest-matchday-preview/

 

Get your dancing shoes on, banana!

 

It felt good to watch them close out a close match. Around the 70th minute I started sweating

 

Got a little nervous in the middle of the 2nd half. Other than that, it was a very impressive performance. I felt like half the team was in the running for man of the match. Leno, Ream Willian, Pereira all stood out to me.

 

Great team win; feels good to watch a Fulham team and actually have confidence they will finish out a game haha.Table looks awesome also.

Ream and Willian tight for man of the match, both were great and looked ageless out there.

 

I think we've all seen all this, but here are the highlights anyway:


At the end of the match I thought for sure that Pereira was my MotM, but then I read the post from @stlouisbrad and thought that both Ream and Willian had good reason for that honor too. Pereira did an excellent job driving Fulham forward and his assist that pulled in three defenders was sublime. However Ream seemed everywhere today. There were multiple times I thought Reed did a good job stealing the ball only to realize it was Ream who had flown in! And then of course Willian showed he may be 34, but he's not done yet. That goal is one of the best of the season and was so close to getting a second. His footwork has defenses panicked. It is nice to have so many terrific performances to choose from.

The only negative on the day (I was sad Mitrovic wasn't rewarded for his own great moves before Navas saved his point blank shot) was the look on Willian's face at full time. He had the expression of someone who is worried about missing some extended playing time due to injury. Hopefully I'm reading too much into his grim expression.

The first time this season that Fulham got a win by more than a goal playing against a full strength squad and Fulham probably have enough points for safety! That's all great, but I'm still hoping for more.

 

I'm worried about Willian, too. Fingers crossed. Solomon was a worthy replacement, but he's coming off a serious injury himself. Does anyone remember a better dribbler over, say, the last 15 years, in Fulham's colors than Solomon? He's fun to watch and took his shot so well. I hope Kebano isn't too far from getting back into training, too.

I voted Tim Ream for MotM. As others have noted, he was everywhere today. His skill on the ball is rare for a CB and really helps with Marco's preference for playing out of the back. Diop was solid, too.

The guys got tired around minute 65-70, especially Palhinha and Reed, and let NF into the game. Good thing we don't have a mid-week match. We have a small and settled squad, and it means a lot of miles in those legs. Rest up. Take tomorrow off.