Fulham at Reading

On Tuesday evening Fulham makes the short trip outside of London to face Reading. Reading has been really poor at home winning one and losing three. Reading haven't won yet this season if they gave up a goal while Fulham hasn't allowed anyone a clean sheet since week one. This is a good chance for Fulham to get its first win at Reading in 11 years and Fulham's first October win since beating Huddersfield 5-0 on October 29, 2016.

The match will not be on ESPN+ since they will show the Leeds vs. West Brom match instead.

 

I like Fulham's chances here, but I don't think Reading is as bad as their standing in the table. Reading average 1.11 goals per game and have allowed 1.33. You would think that they should have more draws than losses.

 

Game time was pushed back 15 minutes due to an accident on the M4 - hopefully that won't impact any of your plans (EDIT: While there was an accident on the M4, the start time was planed for 8pm, they just threw me off by not having it at 7:45 like usual)

The starting lineup:
Bettinelli
Odoi, Mawson, Ream, Bryan
Cairney, Arter, Johansen
Knockaert, Mitrovic, Reid

Subs: Rodak, Sessegnon, Le Marchand, Reed, Onomah, Cavaleiro, Kamara

I get the sense that with this mid-week match Parker is trying to rotate the lineup a little to give some guys a rest.

 

2 for the captain, 2 for the Mitro, 4-1 thrashing of Reading on the road is a nice way to spend a Tuesday evening.

 

Match highlights:


I watched some of this while at work, and while he didn't really contribute much directly I liked what I saw from Bobby Reid. On both of Mitrovic's goals Reid was paired up with him which prevented the defenders from focusing on Mitrovic. That opened up space for Mitro to earn two goals. The chemistry up front felt better today than in some recent matches, but maybe that's just what you get when playing with a man advantage. Johansen also looked like his classic self, irritating the opposition into errors like the one that led to Cairney's second goal.

Note to the rest of the league: do NOT leave Tom Cairney unmarked at the top of the box.

I don't want to complain about a 4-1 victory, but let me just say that Le Marchand (who came on to give Joe Bryan a well deserved break) continued to provide evidence he never belongs on the pitch. Fulham was cruising to a clean sheet until he decided to back off the guy with the ball to let him have a free shot. In the match commentary GJ mentioned that the only person who we don't have an adequate replacement for is Joe Bryan. As GJ said "Please God, keep Joe Bryan healthy."

 

Not gonna bitch about conceding a man up. Whether or not Reading are complete fecal matter doesn’t matter at this point. What DOES matter are braces from two guys who should be getting them, Cairney and Mitro. I’ll take multiple goals from them any day, and twice on Sunday. A win is a win is a win.
Let’s go!

 

Not going to lie, had to watch that last goal 6/7 times. From that goal was so pleased to see how big our traveling support was on a mid-week night. Conversely, I know they’re sitting just above the drop zone, but what is going on w/Reading that there might of been 3-4K home supporters at the Madjeski? That’s a fan base seriously pissed off at ownership.