Fulham host Wolves

Friday kickoff for this one. With Mitro still doubtful, does Vinicius substitute for Mitro? As Decordova-Reid was rather anonymous in the last match as the #9 (wasn't entirely his fault), I don't believe we'll see a repeat. How about more minutes for Solomon? Sliding him into a forward 4 along with Willian, BDR, Perrera leaves Fulham's attack without a discernible #9, but is dangerous on paper. COYW!

 

If Solomon’s 100% fully recovered from his injury and is 100% able to go 90 minutes then, heck yeah, put him out there leading the line. We’re paying him, right? He’s earned it. Vinicius hasn’t.

 

I’ll have to do a beer run early for this one.

We’re built to play with a focal #9, so I don’t think we have a choice. Someone will have to play there. Probably Vinicius. Or we could roll the dice on McFarlane — Silva spoke highly about him in the last few weeks.

 

This one will be on USA.

When Fulham and Wolverhampton met back in August it was a blistering hot day and Fulham's performance was a huge disappointment after opening the season with an exciting draw against Liverpool. Everyone except Mitrovic seemed to be dragging and then Mitrovic missed a penalty. Fulham has more chemistry now so I'd expect to see them make more chances this week even if Mitrovic isn't available. Wolves are better now too with three wins out of their last five matches - including a 3-0 win against Liverpool despite scoring the fewest goals of any Premier League squad so far this season.

Wolverhampton should keep this close, but they didn't have to deal with Willian or Solomon last time out and I think one of them will make the difference this week to get Fulham a win.

 

I can't catch it live so I'll be avoiding the score in hopes of watching it on peacock on Saturday.

 

I'm in the same boat, but they don't show Friday replays until 5pm the next day which makes it really difficult to watch any PL games on Saturday and still stay in the dark. So I've given up on remaining unaware of the results until the replay, I'll just try to make it to when the highlights are dropped.

 

I’m guessing neither of you have dvr availability. I’ll be able to catch the game live but if I wasn’t, then I would just record the USA broadcast and watch it whenever.

I haven’t been keeping up lately so I can’t speak to the current state of either team, but this should be a Fulham victory - with or without Mitrovic. Vinicius has had his moments but he hasn’t produced them consistently enough to be a shoo in replacement. But I can see any lineup producing enough chances to take this one.

 

Chippy affair, bummed Palhinha will miss the next two on yellows, but glad he didn’t get a 2nd one (close a couple times) today. Solomon w/a brilliant goal and we looked more likely the side to win it. The way the season has gone thought Vinicius’ header was going in, but good save and Wolves certainly deserved their point.

 

The team is going through a bit of a mini-crisis of form. Especially Pereira. He may need a rest to recover. Having said that, we had poor outings the last two games and still got 4 points, and that’s a sign of a quality team with the right mentality.

We have to get Solomon to stay.

Vinicius is less than a half of Mitro.

Reeeeem is so fun to watch.

Lukic will get a chance to impress the next two weeks.

 

The highlights:


Based on the highlights I wonder if I should just skip the first half when watching the replay. It seems like Fulham was better in the second half after the substitutions were made.

It felt a bit Fulhamish for the streak of clean sheets to end against the team that had the fewest goals going into the match.

It is my understanding that the two match ban for the accumulation of 10 yellows must be served in PL matches since it is a PL specific rule, so he will miss the Brentford and Arsenal matches. However if he had gotten a red for a double yellow then that two game ban would have applied all matches, including the Leeds FA match. That means he would have been back in time for Arsenal had he received a double yellow. So maybe he didn't care much about the double yellow since he could have returned for Arsenal? Frankly, I'd rather have him for Leeds than Arsenal.

 

@MicahMan Skip the first half Micah, it was poor. Reed rolled his ankle early and tried to gut it out, but it was noticeable. @daddude7 spot on about Pereira, it’s almost as tho he’s pressing and trying to do too much w/Mitro out.

 

Agreed. With Pereira it’s not lack of effort that’s the problem, just the opposite. It’s affecting the quality of his passing and positioning. I think Silva will fix it.

 

Two things:
1) We need Mitro back.
2) We need different player/tactical options when he’s out. Solomon’s done well, but he’s a very different type of goal scorer than Mitro.
We’ve got to find a way to be better without Mitro in the side, which is gonna happen from time to time.

 

I'm thinking Silva has probably tinkered with different systems in training. Something other than our preferred 4-3-3 that's dependent on a #9 who lives behind the collar of the last defender and can post up and deal the ball as well as finish,. Without Mitro it doesn't look like we have the personnel to execute--as much as Vinicius works his butt off, he just doesn't Mitro the way Mitro does.

Silva will figure it out. I won't be surprised if we see an unusual formation on Tuesday.