Fulham host West Ham

Saturday morning kickoff - The skid is at 3 in the league, but West Ham should put an end to the string of losses. The Hammers have an awful away record and Fulham should have, at a minimum, pride to play for after the disappointment at Bournemouth. And it was mentioned elsewhere that Vinicus isn't the answer up top but I don't think there's much in the way of other options currently in the club - could go with Periera in a "false" 9, but don't see whoever is on the touchline changing the shape. Youth teamers Muniz is out on loan at Middlesborough and Stansfield is apparently doing well at Exeter, even winning the club's player of the month for March.
COYW

From the Beeb:

TEAM NEWS
Fulham have no reported new injury problems, with midfielder Harrison Reed expected to be fit despite limping off last weekend. Aleksandar Mitrovic is serving an eight-match ban but Willian is available again after completing a two-game suspension.
West Ham also have no new reported injuries for the trip across London. Gianluca Scamacca, who hasn't played for the Hammers since mid-March, remains sidelined with a knee injury.

 

I assumed Willian got a 3-game ban. This is excellent news. We needed him.

 

We just need to win again. Whatever that looks like, however that looks like. Soares is in at RB, Vinicius gets another chance to prove he belongs here and Tosin partners with Ream today. I just want to see some energy and better overall play. Maybe make some early subs if we come out flat again.

 

With Vinicius up front it feels like we’re playing 10 vs 11. Marco needs to make some changes in the break. But what changes? I’m still optimistic.

 

Deserved a point. Maybe more. Need another striker so badly.

 

The highlights, although that's being generous:

Yes to all of that. I also watch the Aston Villa game today and it felt like Fulham and Villa played at equal levels of mediocrity against teams in the lower regions of the table. However, Villa got lucky and was gifted the ball in a great scoring position and put it away to get the win. Fulham was unlucky and gave up an own goal to get nothing out of the day.

With Vinicius up front Fulham will need a fair bit of luck to get a goal. He seems to have no ability to judge the flight of ball and when the ball does reach him it seldom sticks. He did make one good pass to Pereira that Fabianski poked away. Fulham's crosses weren't great, but even when they were good Vinicius managed to make them look bad. Six more matches to go!

 

Here’s the wonderful thing. The Fulham brass can focus on building depth throughout the summer for a Prem campaign next season. That is awesome.

We haven’t had this luxury in years. I do hope we blood a few more of the kids before the season is over.

 

I think this is the rub for me as the season winds down. Although its been an amazing campaign, I do want to just sim the rest of the season. I don't see how anything improves per se barring some magic.

We've scored 11 goals in 12 league games since the new year, and 14 in 13 since the WC break if you include that 3-0 thrashing over (9-man?) Crystal Palace on Boxing Day(?). We've been bageled in 4 of those matches 13 games. If Mitro aint 100%, or out through injury and now suspension, we're so easy to defend against because Marco isnt all that flexible with his system, Vinicius aint it, and we dont have a backup #10 (with Carvalho left out the Liverpool squad today, holy moly how both parties could use each other right about now).

But, there's hardly any answers because of the aforementioned inflexible system (for all the valid criticisms of Parker's mis-management, he at least knew when to change things up), and the squad is thin but also we focused so heavily on defense and wingers in the transfer windows there's no depth up front.

 

Marco does love his 4-2-3-1. Not unlike Pep Guardiola, but Guardiola has Haaland and Alvarez. We have Mitro or nothing. I wish we'd have kept Stansfield, but we'd be taking no additional risk by giving a u21 striker a chance. If we want depth in the squad, we will have to find some first-team-level players under 21.

I don't think Marco will blow the system up, but he has shown some pragmatism in the past. But when at Watford, he also had the team playing really good football before they flattened toward the end of his tenure, but that was when he was actively recruited by Everton. Has another team gotten into his head, and is he thinking about leaving in the summer. I truly hope this is not the case.