Fulham ‘22-‘23 season post mortem

First and foremost, WE STAYED UP! Comfortably, in fact. That it should have been a dogfight and wasn’t speaks volumes about the way the club went about its business. They got everything right they needed to. And not once did I see or hear of any bitching about how Tony Khan was running the club’s roster decisions. Maybe he took a step back from it, or maybe something else happened, but we nailed two key pieces in getting Palhinha and Leno and, to an only slightly lesser extent, Pereira. Leno was brilliant, facing the second most shots in the league and keeping most of them out. Palhinha brought some serious energy to the midfield, expertly jumping passing lanes and earning quality yellow cards to put that little bit of fear in the opponents. Nobody expected Tim Ream to put in the kind of season he had at his age. There’s more, but suffice to say we’ve got something to build upon for next season. Here’s to a long sustained run in the top flight

 

Addendum #1: Mitro has got to start acting like an adult on the pitch. Double M, you were spot on in the match thread...he apparently did not learn his lesson from the eight match ban. I didn't see the "mild" head butt, but any head butt, mild or otherwise, has extreme potential to get you sent off. I joked in the Crystal Palace match thread that he must have worked on kicks from the spot intensely during his suspension. The one he made against them was textbook. The one that was saved by DeGea was, well, not. It was not well struck, not well placed, and not at all disguised. All DeGea did was have to guess the right way, and he did. I have to believe they deduced that from scouting. It wasn't an easy save but it wasn't hard either. In any case, that's also something he should be much, much better at. If I'm Marco and the brass, I read him the riot act before he takes off for the summer...get your act together on both issues...period. His obvious talent and pluses are severely mitigated by the inconsistent penalty taking and adolescent behavior, to the point where they do the team more harm than good. Nobody is indispensable.

 

Agreed on all those points. The recruiting was really top notch this past season. The only real dud was Mbabu. Sure we would have liked to have seen more from Vinicius, but he did make some notable contributions. Many of the other signings - Palhinha, Pereira, Willian, Leno - exceeded expectations.

I also have to give a huge amount of credit to Silva and his coaching staff for developing players who had been here before. There were plenty of doubters about Mitrovic and the back line of Robinson, Ream, Tosin, and Tete. They had all played at this level and failed. What we now know is that it wasn't their fault. With the right coaching they got out there and stood toe-to-toe with the best teams in England. It makes me a little bitter about the wasted opportunities in the past, but Silva is here now and he has made things work.

For the majority of the season Fulham were really consistent performers. They got maximum points from the relegated teams, they got points at home from every team between 20th and 5th place with two exceptions - West Ham and Tottenham, and then they got zero points from the top four. That is a recipe for a solidly mid-table team! Fulham also only had three losses by more than a goal. Again, solid performances almost every week even in losing efforts.

I don't believe there is any such thing as a "comfortably mid-table team", but Fulham is in a great position to build on this season's success.

 

Yep. I forgot about Willian, although I think he kind of faded as the season wore on. Still, he brought a positive "x factor" dynamic for a good chunk of the season. I hadn't thought about how much the returning players improved under Marco until you brought it up. That's what good managers are supposed to do, not shoehorn them into a system that doesn't match their skill sets (where IS Scott Parker these days?). For a while there, we were contending for a European spot. I see no reason why it can't happen next season. Comfortably mid-table is still much, much closer to 17th than upper table. I think Marco and Erik ten Hag should be neck and neck for manager of the year. ten Hag worked a miracle at Old Trafford this season. They had no business contending for a top four spot this season, but he got them there after a horrid start. That's what's possible for us if we improve on all of the good things we did this season.