Fulham at Reading

Fulham makes the short trip to Reading on Tuesday to make up one of their COVID postponed matches. The match kicks off at 3pm and will only be available on FFCTV.

This kicks off the second half of Fulham's season. They did very well in the first half of the season with a 13W 6D 4L record that found them in the top spot. Fulham has the top scoring offense and one of the top three defenses. Compared to prior seasons, Fulham is seven points ahead of the 2019-20 season when they missed out on automatic promotion after a post-lockdown dip and they are 13 points ahead of the 2017-18 season when a spectacular second half run saw Fulham finish just outside automatic promotion. Unfortunately Fulham closed out the first half with their worst form of the season earning just four points from the last five. Fulham has also dropped to third while other teams played as Fulham sat idle. I was glad that Fulham won the FA cup to not build any more pressure on the recent winless streak.

On paper, Fulham's loss to Reading is the most head-scratching result of the season. Reading has not been good all season and their only away points versus a team in the top half of the table came at Craven Cottage. In that match Reading managed to get an early goal and then just camped in their own half looking for the occasional counter attack. When Fulham loses the lead they are unlikely to get it back. Of the five times Fulham gave up a lead this year, they've only equalized once (Bournemouth). If Fulham gets a first half goal against Reading they'll probably win by multiple goals, but Fulham needs to get that score first.

Silva said that two players were dealing with COVID prior to the FA cup, but given the roster from Saturday those players aren't key to Fulham's success since the standard starting lineup (minus Seri on international duty) was available.

Fulham needs to win this one to keep pace for automatic promotion. Anything other than that will cause a lot of hand wringing.

 

Reading are also fresh off an FA Cup loss to non-League side Kidderminster Harriers. I’m not sure if this will motivate them or bring them into this match low on confidence.

Regardless, Reading is struggling this season and this should be a relatively easy win for Fulham (on paper at least).

 

Wow. We Blackburned ‘em.

 

Had to do a double take..thought it said 0-1..:

 

52% of the games played, 53% of the points needed (based on 90). Keep up the pace.

 

Just have two comments, both not my own:

(note the xG difference)

 

I assumed it was a typo. It wasn't until I read the first paragraph of the recap did I believe it was correct.

 

It's a goal scoring party! Here are the highlights (via Reading since Fulham is slow):


I'm about to say something that I'm not sure I've ever said before, but I think Gentleman Jim was a bit harsh on Fulham in his assessment of the first half. He said that a 2-0 lead flattered Fulham and wasn't a good representation of how the game was going. He pointed out that Fulham's first goal was due to an error and said how different things would be if one or two of Andy Carroll's spectacular goals had counted rather than (rightly) ruled offside. Carroll's first non-goal was a well executed bicycle kick that sadly didn't make the highlights. There was also a moment (not in the highlights) when Robinson muffed a ball in the box that forced Rodak into a great save. GJ argued Reading could easily be level or in the lead.

My take was that the first goal was another opportunity generated by an excellent high press that isolated the defender. Under Silva, Fulham has been particularly good at this. Sure you can blame it on Reading as an error, but it is a forced error. GJ also missed that in the first half Fulham was often running through the Reading defense, particularly Wilson. They just needed to be less cute in the final third. There were too many back-heals, chip shots, and intricate passes when all we really needed was the ball fired on net. That changed in the second half and the goals started pouring in.

I think Wilson is a great player and we haven't seen him at his best in months. It was a thrill to see him firing on all cylinders tonight with a two-goal, two-assist performance that still doesn't fully convey the magnitude of his contribution.

They won't all be Reading/Blackburn matches, but they sure are fun when they happen.

 

That is a lot of goals. I will give Fulham credit for pressuring Reading on the first goal but you just don't square a ball in the back much less to your goalkeeper from that kind of distance.

Observation - It looks like they've spent the down time working on set pieces.

 

This is one of the areas that Silva really seems to have improved on from Parker. In the past teams could give up corners or free kicks to Fulham without much worry. Fulham would rarely take advantage of those chances. When Kebano started knocking in set pieces at the end of the 2019-20 season it really stood out because Fulham had been ineffective for so long. Under Silva Fulham has been much more dangerous from set pieces. With half the season gone, Fulham has scored 11 goals from set pieces so far (only Cardiff has more with 12) while Fulham scored only 10 goals the entire 2019-20 season (only Barnsley had fewer with 9).