2024-25 Mid-Season Review

Fulham begins the second half of the 2024-25 season with 29 points and in 8th place. Fulham also has the 8th best home record, the 8th best away record, and the 8th best defense. Their offense? Well, that's only the 12th best. However, back in 2022 when Fulham had two more points at this stage of the season they were also in 8th place. That's a pretty solid 8th place performance so far for Fulham.

But how they got there is kind of bizarre. Fulham has earned 15 points against the top half of the table and 14 from the bottom half. And since Fulham is in the top half of the table, those 15 points are only against 9 teams. So the points per match is even more skewed. Fulham has 1.66 PPM against the top half and 1.4 PPM against the bottom half. Fulham has just as many wins against the bottom half of the table as Wolverhampton. Fulham has more wins against the top half of the table than everyone except Chelsea (same as Fulham) and Liverpool (one more than Fulham). With that kind of record it is hard to predict where Fulham will go in the second half of the season. If they can keep their form against the top half while getting more wins against the bottom, then Fulham will push for a European spot. But if that gets reversed then Fulham will have a repeat of last year with a comfortable, but lower-mid finish.

The players for Fulham have almost all stepped up over how they performed last season. Remember that Fulham lost three regular starters from 2023-24: Palhinha, Willian, and Tosin. Throw in jack-of-all-trades Bobby DeCordova-Reid too as another key piece from last year's team. I can't say that I've missed any of them, which is especially shocking to say about Palhinha, but Lukic along with Berge have allowed us to forget we were ever worried about our defensive midfield. Diop and Andersen have both done better than Tosin. Wilson and Traore have allowed Iwobi to play more in Willian's old spot along with Nelson. Everything from the goal keeper through the attacking mid-field seems to be working better than ever.

That gets us to one major point of concern, scoring goals. Fulham is not getting enough from Raul or Muniz. They aren't terrible, but Fulham should be scoring more. Some of this is down to them putting away more of their chances, but there is also a need for Fulham to be more direct, creative, and clinical. We've seen flashes of that with Wilson, but we need to see more from others. Then there are all the wasted set pieces Fulham has had. It took an entire half of the season to finally get a score from a corner that wasn't an OG. That's ridiculous.

The other point of concern is Fulham's lack of concentration at key moments. Fulham has been terrible coming out of the half giving up 9 goals and scoring just once. Then there are all of those lost points from late scores, although recently Fulham has managed to work their own late magic to help offset things. Silva needs to figure out how to get more consistency from the team. However, Silva's track record on the back half of the season with Fulham has not been great. Typically the team falls off in the second half. I really want that to end this season. Keep focused, improve against the bottom half, and amazing things will be within reach.

Fulham has also been competitive against every team they faced so there is no reason not to expect a good run in the FA Cup. They just need to not blow it out of the gates against Wolverhampton (edit: I meant Watford!).

With memorable London Derby wins against Chelsea and Brentford combined with a great table position, this has been the most rewarding season I've had watching Fulham. I'm really happy with that, but I'd like to see Fulham move beyond their mid-table finishes. Let's see how far up Fulham can get.

 

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