Fulham vs. Burnley

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

Expectations are high for this match against Burnley. Burnley has earned just one point from a team outside the bottom four and Fulham are coming off of back to back 5-0 wins at the Cottage. Fulham fans will be wishing for a similar result as an early Christmas gift. I enjoy watching the YouTuber "The Irish Guy" and he said that if Fulham wins 5-0 he'll "take a bath in cat wee." The Irish Guy is known for following through on his bets, which is why he has an unfortunate tattoo of Patrick Bamford on his foot. This led me down an odd path of internet searches to find out that there are companies that sell a wide variety of animal urine. Not a place I'd enjoy working.

Fulham will be without Raul for two more matches so Muniz is likely to start up top again. I won't be surprised if we see a few players rotated out just to help keep some fresh legs with three games to go in December. Castagne could come in for Tete and Pereira for Willian with Iwobi sliding over to the left wing.

This will be a history making event regardless of what the teams do. When Rebecca Welch blows the whistle to start the match she will become the first female referee in a Premier League match. Welch was also the first woman to be the fourth official in a Premier League match when Fulham played Manchester United.

We don't need another 5-0 win, but a win is expected given the circumstances. Fulham has been very good at picking up results from these kinds of matches under Silva and hopefully that continues.

 

A win is key here. Not in the sense that it will move Fulham up the table, but more so that it will help Fulham maintain and potentially improve their standing over the four teams that are within three points of Fulham’s 21.

 

Apparently there’s a swift regression to “where are the goals going to come from?”

 

Disappointed not to score in the first half. In the 2nd half we were just spectators. I'll give'em a pass since it's Christmas.

 

Pardon my French but, WHAT THE (EFF) WAS THAT???
I’d like to think that Raul’s participation today might have been a big difference maker but that’s a fantasy. I think Evan is spot on with his incisive observation…where ARE the goals going to come from? And here we are asking it AGAIN only two fixtures removed from back to back 5-nil drubbings, one of which was against a team whose only loss in their past seven league matches, Wet Spam. They lost in the cup to Scousers Wednesday, but the only other blemish was a draw with Palace. Aside from the shellacking we put on them, they’ve been very good. Beating ManUre decisively was great fun.
But us?
Vinicius and Muniz are two of the lamest strikers I’ve ever seen. They are just simply not getting the job done. Raul wasn’t much better until he clicked into form during that 10
goals in two matches. Then that idiotic red card brought all of the momentum from them to a screeching halt. We’ve all heard it before from any number of non-dictator coaches and managers. Rule 1: Don’t do anything to hurt the team.
Duh.

 

They looked uninspired, possibly tired, but they certainly didn’t look likely to score. COYW

 

Not enough focus. Sloppy. The guys seemed to assume an easy win and made little effort.

 

Okay, it sounds like I picked a good Saturday to be on the road and totally oblivious to what was happening with Fulham. A huge disappointment. Back to demanding a new striker signing in January.

 

What's most frustrating about yesterday is Burnley didnt deserve the points because of anything they did, it really was a case of us playing so poorly, especially in the second half, that they got anything. There was no magic or even cohesion to unlock a team that actually barely threatened our goal. A dud all around.

I'm a bit perplexed by Marco's line-up and adjustments. This was our third game in a week (with the first two cross country travels; and other trip in 3 days), yet the line-up was practically the same across each. The subs were too late and too unimaginative. Fulham have a truly terrible record when conceding first, and sure you can attribute it to our squad or Tony or some Fulhamish hoodooo, but the manager, who yes is easily top 5 historically for us, should be as culpable.

 

I found the match very reminiscent of the early season matches where Fulham spent nearly all of their possession passing the ball side to side and almost never in an attacking manner. They were also a bit clunky early - passes that were slightly off and lots of poor touches. They had some half chances in the first half but couldn’t get the lucky bounce or shot that somehow weaved its way through the crowd.

They have a couple of days to shake off the last two matches. If they don’t, I see little chance that they get any points from a Bournemouth squad with 5 wins and a draw in their last six matches. And two of those wins came at the expense of Man United and Newcastle.

 

Just apply this thread to the Bournemouth match…

 

Together with the Bournemouth game -- a learning opportunity for Marco Silva. It does not get easier from here.

 

Yuck. I wanted to start a separate thread but, as @nevzter said, you can simply apply all the comments here to today’s Bournemouth match. Rinse and repeat. No bite. No concern for the opposition. Arsenal is probably already relishing this weekend’s match.

 

Rarely does the decision to go to work instead of taking leave and watching the match work in my favor. Glad I missed it.