Fulham at Brighton

Fulham faces off against Brighton and Hove Albion on Saturday with kickoff at 10am. The match will be carried on USA Network.

Fulham's terrific Premier League form against Brighton will be put to the test on Saturday. Brighton has had three straight wins to move just ahead of Fulham while both teams have won four of their past six. Both teams also had to go to extra time in the FA Cup on Sunday. Both teams have also been a bit unpredictable in their form. The teams are evenly matched and any result from a blowout to a draw seems plausible given their hot and cold performances.

Injuries and suspensions will force changes on Fulham. Lukic will be out for his first of two games due to an accumulation of yellow-cards. The wings will be further depleted with Traore likely out due to injury. Tete has returned to training, but will still be unavailable. This has me wondering if we'll see the same lineup that closed out the Wolverhampton match. Five at the back (Castagne, Diop, Andersen, Bassey, Robinson) , two in the midfield (Berge and Pereira), and three up top (Iwobi, Raul, Willian).

This is the start of a tough two months for Fulham. Over the next six league matches Fulham will play five of the eight teams above them (Tottenham being the only one below) with an FA Cup quarter final thrown in the middle. Fulham's performance in this stretch will determine if they stay in the hunt for a European spot, or settle into a comfortable mid-table position. While I'd like to be hopeful, Fulham has not been strong in the final stretches under Silva, so I'm not expecting Fulham to get much higher than where they are now - which is still historically very good for Fulham!

 

Damn near spot on with the lineup prediction there @MicahMan. Swap Smith-Rowe for Willian and you would have been perfect.

I agree that the range of outcomes for this match is infinite and only a few would be surprising.

 

You gotta be fucking kidding me.

 

Just... I can't... bleh.

 

Not sure they deserved to lose. But I’m certain they didn’t deserve to win. Aside from the goal, Fulham did very little to make anyone think they belong in the top ten.

I’m surprised that Cairney wasn’t used. He could have helped Fulham take control of the match in the second half. His possession and composure would had really benefited the team.

And on another squad note, I realized today that while Berge and Lukic have done very well replacing Palhinha defensively, they lack his offensive threat. Lukic had a great game against Forest recently, but outside of that neither of them are ever a threat to the opposing defense. I’m not sure Berge has more than a handful of shots all season.

 

I was correct about Berge. And it’s even crazier than I thought. TWO shots in 1555 minutes; both from headers; both from a corner kick. He hasn’t even attempted a shot with his feet!

 

Thanks for those stats @astroevan ! Following up down that I fell down a rabbit hole of additional stats...

I had similar feelings about Berge, but it was more about his hesitancy to attempt attacking passes. He almost always turns back or out to the wing. Very little ever goes forward. According to the Premier League, Berge has had 2 through balls but I have no memory of them. However, I was shocked to see that Smith Rowe also only has 2 through balls! That's ridiculous for an attacking midfielder after 25 appearances!

So then I started looking at how many through balls were accounted for by the top 5 players at Fulham and the teams around us. Here is the count of through balls from the top five on each team:

1. Newcastle 48
2. Brighton 38
3. Brentford 37
4. Bournemouth 36
5. Palace 35
6. Fulham 26

Fulham is way off the pace from other teams, but not off the pace from last season. Fulham averaged 1 through ball per match last season from their top 5 passers and that is about what they are doing this season. That is way lower than the teams around Fulham and I think it captures what I find frustrating about Silva's style of play. There is a hesitancy to attempt risky passes like through balls and I think that limits Fulham's potential on attacks.

Back to the Berge/Palhinha comparison - Palhinha finished last season with four goals and an assist. Berge has not contributed this season in either way. He's been very good on defense, but not attacking.

If Fulham could have a little more of an attacking edge I think that would really help them progress into higher levels of the table.