Brentford bested in commanding derby win for Fulham

A terrific comeback victory at the Cottage makes it two in a row for Silva's men

Two wins in a row! More than one goal! A derby victory! It was a fine night at Craven Cottage, where an early wobble was put aside to comfortably dispatch Brentford 3-1. Goals from Iwobi, Muniz and a Sessegnon-created own goal outweighed Damsgaard’s opener on a night of fine football from Fulham, and continues the upwards trend of the early stages of the campaign.

Brentford under Thomas Frank were always a pain to play, and Keith Andrews’ tactics today bore many of the same signs - three solid centre-backs in a back five, physical excellence everywhere and a rapid turnaround of defending into counter-attacks. Us taking a lion’s share of the early possession didn’t seem to deflate them, soaking up our passes and using their defensive unit to lockdown the final third before our players could even ponder shooting. Wilson had a shot in the box deflect wide, from which Lukic’s corner deflected goalwards and had to be punched by Kelleher, but these were half-chances, and Brentford rode through them.

Their 5-3-2 was reactive - dull, even - but not useless. Schade and Thiago had the pace to take the ball forward rapidly, putting the pressure on our backline in an instant, and any clearance that went to the sidelines was turned into a long-throw situation, where Kayode was more than happy to loop in the ball into the box. One bounced just in front of Leno, who was fortunate not to have knocked the ball into his own net. Infuriatingly, it was not any tactical genius that gave the visitors the lead but a mistake of our own; a scuffed pass from Josh King in the build-up gobbled up by Damsgaard, a dangerous roaming presence behind the two strikers, who arched his run and intelligently angled his shot around Leno for the opener.

It was a horrible moment for King and was followed by a few more ugly mistakes - Lukic made a similarly botched pass behind Berge to Schade, whose subsequent sprint goalwards had to be forced wide by Bassey, and a headed clearance from Andersen went off the radar and again Schade’s marauding pace had to be denied by Bassey. Such errors threatened to stain Fulham’s night - we’d responded well to the concession, Iwobi and Sessegnon linking nicely along the left and quick passes taking the game straight back to Brentford, and on one occasion Kelleher had been forced into saving a low-driven shot from the latter.

Thankfully, it was Brentford’s slip-up that tipped the game our way. Lukic had already smacked one long shot into Pinnock and dragged another considerably wide, and a third had again found the centre-back as it looped towards the goal. But Collins decision to let the ball bounce meant his attempted clearance was scuffed, and with Muniz pressuring Van Den Berg into another rushed clearance, the deflection off Kayode fell into the path of a lurking Iwobi, who pumped the loose ball beyond Kelleher for the equaliser.

It proved the perfect catalyst. Brentford were unfortunate to have their post-goal momentum slowed by a Pinnock head-injury; Fulham wasted no time sustaining the pressure, and found a second instantly. Tete’s long throw was met by Muniz, who muscled through Brentford’s midfield and combined with King to drive into the heart of a scrambling defence. Laying the ball off to the left, he found Iwobi, who had the time and space to thread a delectable pass through everyone to the feet of Wilson, whose perfectly-timed run needed only a single left-footed touch to curl the ball past Kelleher. 2-1, and the game was turned on its head before halftime.

A shell-shocked Brentford came out of the interval at fullspeed, launching more aerial passes and long throws into our final third. Thankfully our lead seemed to sober us up at the back, because Bassey’s tackle on Schade and Leno tipping a knock-on over the bar proved timely, crucial interventions. Such defensive contributions are vital over the course of a Premier League season, keeping games competitive and reducing the time you have to spend chasing a game, and tonight was no different. From our own half, a terrific crossfield pass from Andersen found Sessegnon, who used his space away from Kayode to float a cross into the box. Muniz and Collins missed the cross but the danger was still present - low, gangling and awkward, a misshapen Pinnock was caught on the nape by the ball, and Kelleher could only turn and watch as it fell into the corner of the net.

It was a jubilant moment, not least because it meant Brentford now had no choice but to break from their rigid defensive structures and try and use the ball to rescue the game. It required concentration for Fulham, who now had centre-backs entering their half and periods of watching Brentford on the ball. Damsgaard, a wily fox, kept popping up around the box and needed the attention of Berge to snuffle out, and Schade’s energy never seemed to quell as passes were thrown for him to latch onto.

But Fulham were attuned to the situation, and holes in Brentford’s backline were being spotted. Sure enough, a lofty pass from Tete was won in the air by Muniz, who knocked it down for Wilson. The Welshman played the ball into the open space, where Muniz surged ahead of a dawdling van den Berg to fire a volley too powerful for Kelleher’s arm to block from goal. Alas, a foul in the build-up prevented the Brazilian striking our fourth - if Muniz’s elbow hadn’t clattered and bloodied Collins’ mouth, he’d have had a goal for the ages.

Andrews, and soon after Silva, started to make changes - one to try and salvage the game, the other to keep the energy up and build the sharpness of the squad. Strangely the back-five was persisted with for Brentford. Henry swapped with Lewis-Potter at LWB, Ouattara offered more pace off the bench for Thiago, Janelt tried to offer more dynamic passing than Henderson, Ajer replaced a battle-weary Pinnock and Carvalho switched late with Damsgaard for a pantomime-villain cameo, but Brentford were inflexible in their formation, and thus unable to shift enough energy towards Fulham for the rest of the half. It explains why the chances they had weren’t particularly devastating: a glut of corners comfortably cleared, a few long-throws that required putting out and a couple of well-worked chances that Ouattara couldn’t keep on-target. The danger was still there, but Fulham knew how to deal with it, and with Cuenca arriving to give us a back-five Brentford couldn’t find a way through.

The order of the goals makes this a comeback win but it doesn’t really feel like one - Brentford had a coherent gameplan but Fulham were the stronger side throughout the contest, by far the more proactive and creative one and had to shoot themselves in the foot for Brentford to actually claim a goal today. I think there’s a massive achievement for the team as a whole - it would have been all too familiar for Fulham to slump into submission after Damsgaard’s goal, or even implode completely and let Brentford steal the game two or three-nil, but Silva has given us real steel, and combined with our solid attacking philosophy gave us a useful vision to craft our way back into the game.

I thought the attacking was sublime today. Iwobi has been our most versatile, reliable footballer and he excelled again today, combining well with Sessegnon to penetrate the defence behind Kayode, holding the space so the winger could bomb into the box, and of course turning the screw himself with attacking moves of his own. We underestimate his intelligence - he had the alertness to sneak into the box to strike our first goal, the vision to spot Wilson amongst a sea of defenders for the second and most importantly the quality to execute both exquisitely, earning himself a goal and an assist. Certainly enough to earn MOTM today - what a signing he has been for Silva over the last few years.

His teammates had a strong day today too. I think King has been tremendously unlucky recently, with the nonsense at Chelsea the other week and the spotlight on him for the gaffe with Brentford’s goal, but he was actually strong again today, fighting off far larger players to take the ball forward and win territory for Fulham, and linking seamlessly with his teammates in the process. He was involved in clever passing moves all game, most notably for Wilson’s goal. He channeled his visible frustration into a very mature response and should hold his head high as a result. Another Fulham starlet, the slightly older Sessegnon, also had a strong game - covering for Robinson is no easy feat, but he continues to perform well - he looks quicker than last season, taking on players, using his acceleration to get into nifty positions and sprinting back into defence when Fulham needed him to. An assist - albeit for an own-goal - is a just reward.

I liked Wilson today, who was far more active along the right against Lewis-Potter and kept Brentford’s centre-backs busy. The goal was the obvious highlight (he doesn’t score simple goals, does he!) but clever footwork was present all game, such as for the ruled-out Muniz goal or a quick-free kick that set King up in the box. Muniz didn’t get his goal but did cause another - he started quietly against the triple centre-back threat but by the end had conquered them, forcing them into mistakes and drawing them away from his creative teammates. This is true of Lukic also - there was a fair amount of stodge in his earlier passes (and he really is fortunate not to have blown the game with his misplaced backpass to Schade) but when the performance got flowing his passes were core to keeping us on top of the game.

Berge had a great game - like Palhinha, his contributions are easy to take for granted, but the muscle, positioning and timing helped shut down Brentford’s passing avenues and force the visitors into relying on the aerial route to goal. This made things much easier for Bassey and Andersen, who had a lot to deal with against Schade, Thiago and later Ouattara but could feel more confident handling crosses and lofted passes. It was a great night for them actually - it wasn’t that long ago that our centre-backs were lambs to the slaughter, so for such refined players to take the mantle and come out on top in a range of attacking situations is brilliant. Tete, as always, quietly won his battles all evening - dependable as ever, and whilst there’s no clean sheet this week Fulham demonstrated their evolution as a defensive unit against a physical threat.

Onto Brentford, then. I don’t think Andrews is destined to relegate the Bees, and I don’t think the club were solely dependant on Frank’s stewardship, but there is clearly a bit of work to do to make this team close to being as effective as they were in recent seasons, and Fulham have really highlighted the limitations of their team. Three centre-backs and two defensive midfielders needs a lot of pace around it - and in it - to keep your team progressive, moving out of defence and into the opposition half. Schade was certainly an outlet and ran all match, and Damsgaard has a lot of quality, but other than those two chances were limited to long-throws and corners. Watching Henderson smack passes into Fulham players or Yarmoliuk chase shadows for 90 minutes was alarming - they needed more players to consolidate possession and put pressure on Fulham, but their back-five made that impossible to realise.

I think they can also rue some glaring defensive errors. The calamitous defending for the first goal really crumpled their entire approach, because they couldn’t rely on three solid figures absorbing anything that entered the box. Collins will be furious with himself, because his error seemed to ripple throughout the team and they were at sea for the rest of the half and most of the second. Pinnock too will be frustrated - a good start devolved into a positional mess and a hideous own goal. However, they and van den Berg were still involved in a range of tackles and did stop Muniz from scoring (even if it did cost the captain some blood). I don’t know why more wasn’t done to support Kayode at RWB, who was continually overloaded and exposed by Fulham, and how Henry is kept on the bench when the not-even-left-footed Lewis-Potter continues to struggle at LWB is a mystery.

Perhaps the biggest problem is the lack of tactical flexibility. Back fives can work, and many a side will switch to them in certain scenarios. Fulham certainly will, as Cuenca’s introduction showed. However, Silva is proactive as well as pragmatic, and only tends to switch to them when Fulham benefit from it. We also had Kevin’s tricks, Cairney’s calm and team-players Jimenez and Smith-Rowe coming on as well, all of whom have featured in late goal comebacks this season too. Brentford, even as they trailed by two goals, were stuck with five defensive players, and a formation that never really shook itself into life. Andrews is in the hotseat and will have to learn quite quickly that the Premier League will not wait for your team to sort out their shortcomings.

It’s early days yet though, and why focus on the defeated? Fulham have another win, the first consecutive league wins since February, and a nice mood to head into a hopefully-comfortable home cup tie against League 2 Cambridge United up next, where Kevin and yet-to-debut Chukwueze should hopefully get a full runaround. There’s plenty to be positive about, and with eight points from five here’s hoping our current top half placing gives the squad a taste for ambition for the coming months.