Fulham vs. Reading

Will go ahead and start this one. I'll miss this game, too, but if @MicahMan watches it, we're good.

Reed is out again, and Carvalho not yet ready to play, either. No change with Kongolo, Knockaert, and Cairney -- all out. Would be nice to see Francois get some minutes tomorrow.

 

I'm smoking a pork shoulder Saturday morning so I've got nothing to do but watch Fulham and a hunk of meat slowly cook. The match will only be available on FFCTV and starts at 10am EDT.

I expect the Fulham/Reading match to be more exciting to watch than the pork. The fewest number of total goals scored in a Reading match this season is three. In the seven Reading games this season a total of 30 goals have been scored. Fulham is above average in total goals, but teams in Fulham matches have managed only 22 goals. So the one thing I'm counting on in this match is scoring - and lots of it.

Reading's defense is terrible. They are tied with Peterborough with the worst defense having given up 17 goals, but Reading has faced a little stiffer competition than Peterborough. However, Reading can also score. Their leading scorer, John Swift, has one more goal than Mitrovic, has accounted for over half their goals this season, and is the league's top scorer.

I'd rather have Reed in there with such a potent scorer for Reading, but Onomah should be available again and will likely take his place in the midfield.

Reading have the same number of goals this season as Huddersfield, so I'd like to see a similar 5-1 finish for Fulham. Plus let's hope for the added bonus of having Mitrovic the league's top scorer by the end of the match.

 

Well, we've proven that @daddude7 and I do not control Fulham's fate.

Fulham was a bit unlucky bouncing three balls off the woodwork and Onomah forcing a spectacular save, but mostly Fulham just wasn't as good as they were mid-week. The big thing that was missing were balls through/over the defensive line to get Wilson in behind. When that finally happened late in the second half, Fulham scored. I'm not sure why Wilson wasn't getting free, but Seri and Chalobah just weren't giving him the same service.

Reading getting the first goal was key too. It allowed them to play even more defensively than they already had and Fulham is a lot less dangerous when they can't counter-attack.

I was surprised to see Onomah on the bench. If I'd been the manager I would have tried a different formation to bring him on and sit Cavaleiro. I have no idea how Cavaleiro managed to play the full match. He could be counted on to kill almost any Fulham advance with a bad pass or hesitating to play a forward ball or a cross straight to the keeper. DeCordova-Reid missed a wonderful chance earlier, but I still would have preferred him over Cavaleiro. When Onomah finally came on with Kebano Fulham looked a lot better, but it was too late. Bad Mitro also showed up late in the match when he had a great opportunity to turn and score, but instead fell over looking for a penalty.

The rest of the matches worked out relatively favorably with West Brom drawing and Stoke losing to Derby so that Fulham sit in second place one point behind Bournemouth.

 

The highlights... and Reading is one of those teams that also only posts the standard 2 minute EFL highlights, so this is all we're getting.


Only one team that started the day in the top 10 got a win, and that was Bournemouth. Meanwhile bottom of the table Forest got their first win of the season. A very "Championship" Saturday.

 

Did anybody see the match, live or replay? The two minute highlight reel doesn't give you much of an idea about what happened. We were essentially all but technically shut out. Muniz's goal was too little, too late, but a great individual effort on his part. I was a bit miffed at how easily we allowed them to advance the ball upfield, then backed way too far off of Ejaria on the first one. Too much room too close. Robinson vainly chasing Alen Halilovic down the right channel, then letting him go to cross to John Swift, who poked it along to Ejaria to do his thing. On the second, we gave them too much room again, and a lucky bounce inside the box set up a gimme. Yeah, we hit the bars a lot, but you gotta close people down in your own final third. We didn't. A nominal effort won't cut it in this league. Now we've got what's likely a second string runout Tuesday night at the Cottage against Leeds in the FA Cup before resuming the promotion chase against Bristol City at Ashton Gate Saturday. Still bullish on this team, but this performance was subpar.

 

I didn't see the game, but I did see the Leeds game is televised. That's good news. I was starting to have withdrawal from the lack of Fulham in my life.

 

I watched it live. Beyond my original comments, I would add two things:

1. Reading looked like they were going take full advantage of any counter attack opportunities. This wasn't like Birmingham where the Tosin led back-line cleared out 30-something crosses. When Reading had the ball in possession it felt like it was more to kill time, especially after scoring. They converted their chances when they had them and won the match. Fulham did not. Speaking of not converting chances, on to point two...
   
2. Fulham has lost both matches when the other team scored first and have only score once in those matches. This match hinged on Bobby Reid missing his early opportunity (not shown in the highlights, but he just need to dink it over the keeper, but instead of a dink, he doinked it over the net). It is always easier to play with a lead, but I think it may be especially true for Fulham. We are less likely to see a scoring play under Silva where Fulham was in possession for two minutes and everyone touched the ball before scoring than under Jokanovic or Parker. If Reid had put Fulham on the board first, I think the game would have ended differently. Fulham has looked better on corners this year than in years past, so I was hoping a set-play might let Fulham get back into this one, but it never happened.