Fulham v. Leeds U

I’m going to be hoping for the latter. You don’t get many opportunities to pick up 3 points on the road in this league. When you do, you gotta’ cash in.

 

This one will be on CNBC, replay available on Peacock at 9am Monday.

I get the feeling that there could be a number of teams in danger of relegation coming into the final match of the season. Currently there are seven teams - a third of the league - within 3 points of the bottom of the table. A win today keeps Leeds in the relegation zone meat grinder and would put Fulham nine points above the drop zone. These are the kinds of matches Fulham needs to win now to close out the season without a lot of stress in a few months.

Leeds haven't won a match since August (their famous win at home vs. Chelsea) but they've only lost once at home - and that was to top-of-the-table Arsenal. Leeds has also won three in a row against Fulham. Although they are struggling I expect Leeds to still be tough competition at Elland Road.

Dan James will be unavailable to play since he is on loan from Leeds. Tete is probably still out, but there is a possibility he could make an appearance. This means we are likely to see DeCordova-Reid start again at right back and despite his positive performance against Villa, I'm still nervous. He regularly drifts out of alignment with the rest of the back line opening up chances for runners to get in behind Diop and Ream in the middle.

Fulham had everyone flying high after the convincing win against Villa so because this is Fulham I expect a bit of a let down today with a draw. If Fulham should get a convincing win and Marsch is sacked that would establish Fulham as the grim reaper of troubled Premier League managers.

EDIT: DeCordova-Reid did get the start at RB, but I was happy to see Wilson start. If he can get back to his early season form, Fulham will have a dangerous combination of Wilson and Willian on the wings. Somewhat surprisingly, Tosin gets the start rather than Diop.

 

I also noticed Tosin had reclaimed his spot from Diop and, quite frankly, I’m OK with that.

 

With just under an hour to go, this one’s there for the taking.

 

Two straight wins, six points, 7th place. It’s amazing how fast you move up in this game when you put together even a modest winning streak. The only time I get excited about unbeaten streaks is when 75+% are W’s instead of draws. Yay!

 

Very nice! Harrison Reed is making a late case for inclusion in the England team. Tosin is better than Diop and I’m glad he’s back. I wish I could have a beer with Shane Duffy; he looks like a guy who could make that fun. But I’m happy with how we’re using him.

We’ve taken 7 points in October so far. I had thought we’d take 9. If we play well on Saturday, we have a chance to do one better. All in all a good time to be a Fulham fan.

Unlike Leeds. I don’t really care if they stay up, but I am a huge fan of Jesse Marsch (was my favorite player on the Fire team I had season tickets to way back when; a less talented version of Harrison Reed)—I hope he gets to save his job. But I won’t be surprised if he’s fired today.

 

I agree on Reed. He’s our most improved player this season. Bobby has seized the right back chores by the horns and neck and has gotten better and better every half he’s spent in the back. Everybody had upped their games almost every time out in recent weeks, and it’s paid off. If we can maintain or improve this form, we’re not gonna be real crazy about the World Cup break. Today we took the best shots of a desperate, dangerous club trying to get what they saw as a genuine opportunity to get three critical points and stop a bad slide. ANNNHHH, I’m sorry, no, but thanks for playing…. The bottom line: we took care of business in a big way, ESPECIALLY after conceding what could have been a gut crushing opener. No. No, no, no. We refused to lose today. And that’s what a team with backbone and character does. I love it. Who’s next?
Come On Fulham!!!

 

Jesse was never long for a gig (not sacked yet) where 75% of the moron supporters of that club think they know more then him. Tough situation when you have arguably the worst CB combo in league, and an injury prone out of form striker (Bamford). Of the American managers, he’s easily the #1 choice for next WC cycle

 

I was torn between Reed and Robinson as man of the match. I ended up voting for reed. A good performance by all today.

 

The highlights:


I'll have to wait for the replay to see the full match, but it seems like Fulham did a good job of not rolling over after a slow start that culminated in Leed's opening goal. I may need to get over my dislike of DeCordova-Reid at right back, he certainly proved his worth out there today. Based on the highlights, I'm still not sure about Tosin over Diop. Tosin could have been stronger against Rodrigo on the first goal and the buildup on the second goal went right through him, however I'll withhold judgement until I catch the rest of the match. Reed looked amazing in the clips - so close to scoring his third goal and what movement on the assist to Willian! And let's not forget, another game, another goal for Mitrovic. His accomplishments are a bit easy to get lost with all the hubbub around that big blond guy playing for City.

Leeds is my least favorite team so I'm glad to see further misery heaped on them after a number of recent losses against them. As said by others, a great time to be a Fulham fan!

 

Fulham's FULACCESS videos have been great this season - a welcome change from the wasteland that the Fulham YouTube channel used to be. This one has what may be the best view of Mitrovic scoring the opening goal and it has some nice shots of the away fans celebrating.


And upon further viewing of the full match, I still think Diop should start over Tosin.

 

More and more clubs are doing this sort of thing. It was inevitable. Why make people read an electronic screen all the time?