Fulham vs. Sunderland

Fulham returns to action against Sunderland at Craven Cottage on Saturday. Kickoff is at 10am EST on Peacock.

I'm worried. Really worried. This feels like it has all the makings of a crushing defeat for Fulham. Fulham are typically terrible coming out of international breaks. Their Nigernian players are dealing with the shame of missing out on the World Cup. Muniz is out and Raul is not at 100%. And then let's not forget we still have no sign of a return for Robinson. Then there is Silva, who seems lost about what to do tactically with the squad he has. He's been overly stubborn and isn't putting Fulham in the best position to win matches. Meanwhile Sunderland is flying. They'll come into this looking to make a statement that they are not the team that has to worry about relegation, that's Fulham.

Lukic will be unavailable due to his yellow card suspension, but I don't think that is a bad thing. It will force Silva to try something different from what has been a pretty dreary midfield so far. However, I've lost trust in Silva so I'm not sure what he comes up with will be an improvement. I'd like to see Iwobi, Berge, and King in the midfield with Kevin and Chukwueze on the wings and Raul to start. Kusi-Asare has got to be given some time. Yes, we all saw he sucks at PK's, but guess what - so did Mitrovic. If Fulham is going to be without Muniz for a while then Kusi-Asare needs to be given a fair shot to see what happens. He's performed well with other teams and he's a nice tall target for those crosses in the box. Treat him like old Matt Smith and just try bouncing stuff off his noggin into the goal! To keep him off the pitch at this point is ridiculous.

I'll be thrilled if Fulham manage to get a comfortable win over Sunderland - something like the Brentford match would be nice. But I don't see that coming. Instead I think Fulham gets well beaten on Saturday, ends up a spot or two closer to the relegation zone, and we are left wondering what will prompt Fulham to turn things around.

 

Sheesh. After the highly positive international window for the US, this is potentially a disastrous crash back to earth for me. I have also lost confidence in Silva’s ability to adapt. The team has become stale and predictable. They need a result here. Period.

 

Cue It James!!!!

 

Wow! I did not see that performance coming - especially after an international break! That was one of Fulham's best showings of the season and the first time I can remember Fulham playing well under Silva after a break. They really controlled that match almost from start to finish. Sunderland's defense made it hard for Fulham, but Fulham prevented them from getting very many opportunities of their own.

Can we give Man of the Match to someone who only played 30 minutes? Chukwueze certainly made his case for that honor. After he came on he provided the cutting edge that Fulham needed to finally break down Sunderland. When Kevin played on the wing he was getting space and finding opportunities, but not providing much of value. He kept lofting in crosses that were difficult to do anything with. Then Chukwueze came on and started feeding dangerous through-balls to his teammates and then that cross to Raul! Picture perfect, a cross of the highest quality!

And a moment to recognize Raul after what I said pre-match. I didn't think he was at 100%, but he still had enough in his tank to fight through Ballard to get his boot on the ball for the winner. Well done.

I'd also like to give some credit to Berge and Silva. I thought with Lukic out, Berge would spend his time just barely in front of the back line, but that was not the case. He had clearly been given freedom to move forward and take chances. I didn't mind his shot from distance, because in those rainy conditions you never know what might happen. He also delivered a number of great passes and even found himself working the ball in the box. I think that really helped bring up Fulham's performance today.

You could argue "It was only Sunderland, this should be expected", but after some disappointing showings, this was exactly what was needed to help settle the nerves of nervous fans like me.