Five things we learned from our Carabao Cup victory
With Fulham in the hat for the fourth round, here’s what we took away from our win.
It wasn’t pretty, but the Whites got the job done on Tuesday night and operation major trophy lives on.
As the Fulham Faithful flocked to the Riverside Stand to see how the other half live, what did they see and what learnings did they take home with them ahead of our trip to Aston Villa on the weekend?
1. Our flair players struggled against the less talented
I, like everyone else, was gassed to see Kevin start against Cambridge. We all licked our lips at the potential damage our new Brazilian might do to the League Two minnows. Sadly, it wasn’t his night.
You got the feeling that his flicks, tricks, and take-ons would almost be more effective against elite players; Kevin anticipates his opponent’s moves before they make them, but he perhaps misjudged the more robust approach of players three tiers below Fulham. But it’s early days for Kevin in England, so games like this will be a useful learning curve.
Likewise, Adama had a frustrating night as he was kept shackled by a Cambridge side that sat back early on and didn’t let him have any joy. The tendency will be to beat Traore with this stick as he is a polarising player with less credit in the bank than the man who’s sparked KevinMania, but any flair player is divisive their end product doesn’t match up to the number of step-overs.
2. Jorge Cuenca is a top centre-back
We’ve done really well to get this lad, haven’t we?
Look, it’d take a lot to dislodge Calvin Bassey and Joachim Andersen, particularly at the moment, but we’re all long enough in the tooth to know that defensive form is a fluid thing, and that strength in depth in that department is crucial. Cuenca put in another solid performance and was probably the our best player on Tuesday.
Alongside the (nowadays) typically dependable Issa Diop, Jorge showed that we’re blessed in the centre-back department at the moment, and no wonder Spanish accounts on X were flooding the platform with messages of support and calls for liberation all summer. No doubt we’ll see more of him in the coming months.
3. Jedi is back
I was surprised to see Antonee Robinson get 90 minutes in his legs on Tuesday, but seeing as Marco Silva made five changes on the night, it was clearly the plan all along. It wasn’t his best performance by any stretch, but it was great to see him start to put his summer surgery in the rearview and get back to it for the Whites. What that means for Ryan Sessegnon, who has had a mixed handful of games filling in, is less clear.
4. Smith Rowe is starting to purr
He got the winner - his second goal in seven appearances this season - and although the headlines around ESR this term will be the fact he’s on the bench behind Josh King, he’s doing all the right things in response.
Smith Rowe seemed to relish being back on the pitch from the start, with a level of intensity not seen in many of the rest of the boys. Mistake against Brentford aside, King has done little wrong to provide a pathway back into the XI, but with a versatility that could also see him play on the left too, there’s plenty more to come from Emile, who has a full pre-season under his belt – and a lot to prove.
5. 11 changes may be too many
Look, the fact that Marco Silva can change the entire starting XI from our win against the Bees and still put out a side with the quality that could have got the same result, shows the strength in depth we have. (Bar any injuries to any of our central midfielders, of course.) But had we not won here, questions might be asked if it was a change or two too many.
The overriding narrative on the weekend was the fact that the consistency around our XI shone through, while Brentford’s summer of upheaval in the dugout and on the pitch probably hurt them. But hey – we got the result, so what do I know?
I genuinely believe we have a significant opportunity to win our first major trophy this season, and the League Cup offers us our best opportunity to do that. Let’s just hope for a kind draw on Wednesday night.