Fulham vs. Manchester United

Fulham welcomes Manchester United to Craven Cottage on Sunday with kickoff at 2pm EST on USA.

In the past when Fulham played United on USA (which I can't watch at home) I have headed down to the local soccer bar and been the one Fulham fan with the Man U fans. I've then been crushed by late winners from Garnacho or Fernandez or Zirkzee, left to cry into the remaining bits of my pint of hard cider. Well no more! Screw that! I'm watching this one on replay and I'll be crying alone thank you very much!

While I've made plans to be alone in my sorrow, Fulham should win this one. Manchester United are a mess. They barely beat Southampton (don't remind me how Fulham did against Southampton) and then eked out a win against Rangers in the Europa League thanks to one of the worst own goals from a keeper that I've ever seen. Like Fulham, United does seem to show up for the big teams, but Fulham is not one of those teams. Fulham should go out there and get all three points! However, my tissues will be ready.

Although Fulham got three points last week, I feel like they really didn't do that well against a pretty bad Leicester squad. Hopefully Iwobi will be 100% and maybe Smith Rowe will have some confidence after scoring again. I want to see more direct attacks from Fulham going into the middle, more give and gos, more through balls, more variety than repeated hopeful crosses from Robinson.

Expect a very similar lineup as Leicester. The injury list remains the same although Nelson is back on the training pitch.

 

I typically rue these nationally televised matches as well, but for a different reason. It’s great that a wider audience is exposed to the team that I love to watch every week but that exposure is always to play second fiddle to the marketing campaign of one of the big six. The larger audience rarely sees Fulham in their best, most entertaining form. And don’t get me started on the commentary.

I’ve seen the wild headlines about the state of Man U (relegation?, worst United side in the history of football?) but haven’t followed that closely. My guess at how it goes will be some sort of agonizing draw. As @MicahMan stated, neither team plays well against the bottom half but both put in strong shifts against the top half. Given that both Fulham and Man U are not in either of those categories, the match likely play out a little choppy and inconsistent since the teams won’t have a clear cut approach.

 

What an unfair score line. We obviously could have been better but thought we deserved at least a draw. Poor finishing today.

 

@stlouisbrad pretty much summed it up perfectly. Once again Manchester United sneaks away with an undeserved win. Muniz, you've got to put away these chances - at least get them on target.

This YouTube comment on the video below did make me smile:

 

Pretty poor all around.

I know he didn’t hear me but I definitely told the announcer near the end of the match that he obviously doesn’t watch enough Fulham after his Fulham fans must be wondering where this effort was prior to United’s goal comment.

It is true though. Fulham rarely seem to have any urgency. Micah has commented on their lack of direct play and through balls. I’ve commented on how it seems that they prioritize maintaining possession over attacking. The team is good and has done well this season… but they could be so much better.

In the end, Man U turned out to be more of a bottom table team than I expected and Fulham reacted as they typically do when playing lower table teams. Plenty of possession, few shots, one quality chance (honestly I can’t believe how close that ball was to going in), and a disappointing one-nil loss.

 

Watching that Fulham performance, I thought I was transported back to 2014.
COYW