From the Press Box: Lukic and TC to miss City clash

JK is back on the Fulham beat to take us through Silva's pre-City presser.

Saturday was a tough one to take. A real punch to the stomach. I took the chance to step away from football entirely on Sunday - to spend time with people who could take my mind off that disastrous second half.

Monday, it was back to it. The pre-Manchester City press conference. No time to dwell on the past; we have a game on Wednesday against a side we haven’t even taken a single point from since September 2011 - before they won their first Premier League title. Crikey.

But, in all fairness, in every visit to the Etihad under Silva, we’ve scored at least one goal. Nearly all fairly meaningful too.

Fabio Carvalho gave us the lead in 2022, in the FA Cup. Fulham went on to concede less than 90 seconds later, and lose.

Andreas Pereira scored a penalty to give us the lead in 2022/23, but we went on to lose against their 10 men.

In 2023/24, Tim Ream equalised for the Whites, but we went on to lose 5-1.

Last season, Pereira gave us the lead again; Fulham went on to lose 3-2, with Rodrigo Muniz scoring a late consolation.

Extraordinary. Then of course the small matter of scoring FOUR goals against Pep Guardiola’s side earlier this season. And then to get zero points from that game.

You cannot make it up.

Anyways, away from that head-spinning rabbit hole, Marco Silva gave a host of team news ahead of our trip to Manchester.

He confirmed that both Sasa Lukic and Tom Cairney won’t travel. Everyone else is ready to go, as we saw at the weekend.

Oscar Bobb could feature against the side he left less than a month ago.

Kenny Tete could start his first game since New Years Day against Crystal Palace, if Silva decides to rotate.

Calvin Bassey hasn’t started for Fulham since returning from AFCON. Silva may be tempted to switch to a five at the back, which could mean Bassey starts, or even Issa Diop, who is also an option.

Rodrigo Muniz hasn’t started a game since Brentford at home in September! And as I’ve already mentioned, he was the last Fulham man to bag at the Etihad. He may get the nod ahead of Raul Jimenez, who has put in an almighty effort since Muniz has battled injury.

Silva also said that he’s not concerned about Fulham’s goalscoring abilities, after Saturday’s first half of missed chances.

“It’s not a concern because of the reality that we have been scoring. I’m pleased with the way we created (chances),” Silva said.

“It was probably the 45 minutes where we created more clear chances to score. Probably, in the future, we are going to talk about how we didn’t create or we were not clinical and ruthless – but we should have scored more goals in the first half.

“What concerned me was how quickly we changed from a great first half to one of our worst halves in the second half.”

It’s a tough ask for any club to go to City and get something, but it does feel like Fulham are due a result against them; it’s been a ludicrous run of results against the blue half of Manchester.

I wish a safe journey to all the Fulham fans making the trip, I’ll see you up there!

COYW!