Fulham ride their luck in dour 0-0 draw against Forest

Silva's men go three games goalless after being second-best in a nervy second half in Nottingham

Fulham have their first draw of the season since January, but unlike the character and fight shown against Liverpool on that occasion there was nothing thrilling whatsoever about our performance at the City Ground today. 0-0 is a generous scoreline for our performance, in which Nottingham Forest were far the more productive team over the 90 minutes, creating numerous headaches for our stumbling defence, and only VAR could deny super-sub Dan Ndoye from earning his side a penalty and a winning goal in the second half. Frustrated as he may be with their failure to beat a poor Fulham, Vitor Pereira can take positives from a crucial point for Forest’s relegation battle; Marco Silva risks his team all but resigning themselves to the beach if our games continue to play out like this.

First Half

“Attritional” was the theme of the day, and fittingly is the way to describe the start of the game. Forest, four managers into a relegation battle, entered the game struggling to generate danger - difficult when you’re without a home win since before Christmas. Our hosts having peeled themselves off the floor following a dismal home defeat in their Conference League fixture, Fulham might have taken the initiative and put the pressure on the hosts with a slick start. Sadly our own troubles hung around our necks - miserable defeats at home, one of which ejected us from the FA Cup, had lulled the energy around the team, and the opening spell was much of a nothingness.

Slowly though, the two sides crept out of their shells. Elliot Anderson was a driving force here, taking initiative around the pitch with a steely determination and playing the ball directly into the path of Forest’s wide threats, Neco Williams and Callum Hudson-Odoi. His own runs were productive, too - an early surge produced a turn on Bassey that might have produced an on-target effort if he’d been able to get the ball onto his right foot.

Physical strength was an asset of this Forest side, one that sometimes veered beyond legality. Milenkovic was fortunate not to receive a booking - or even a foul - for catching Jimenez in the jaw with an elbow. Such hands-on play was to be found across their football - sharp passes could advantage this however, and one such move exposed Forest’s clunky backline - a ball forward was trapped brilliantly by Raul, who deftly turned Murillo and moved the ball onto the charging Wilson, bursting along the right. Williams took a yellow-card to scythe his compatriot down, earning Fulham a free kick in the process. It should have been scored - Iwobi, with what would turn out to be his best pass of the half, floated a ball neatly to the edge of the six-yard-box, perfectly into the path of Calvin Bassey. Yet with the goal at his mercy, he headed straight to Sels, who gratefully kicked it away from the net and into his control.

This was as good as it got for Fulham for the rest of the half. Our passing was timid and uninspired, lacking the fluidity to unsettle Forest’s backline, failing to reach our strongest finishers Raul and Wilson in areas remotely close to the goal and often undone by clumsy passing from the usually reliable Iwobi. With Anderson playing such a versatile role, the limitations of Berge really stuck out here - his vision for attacking opportunities was deeply lacking, and our tempo couldn’t rise effectively as a result. Smith Rowe’s influence was missed in absentia, too - King and Bobb weren’t able to operate as coolly in the pockets of space Aina and Williams left, allowing Forest to avoid serious danger.

It should be said that our better moments did involve the former, though - once he’d got himself into a bit of sharpness, his nippy runs and tenacity caused concern for Forest trying to weather the storm. Robinson’s bursts along the left were also impressive, and it’s telling that our best chances besides the Bassey header were won through taking pace to the game. King moving the ball to Robinson drew defenders towards the left and gave Wilson space drifting centrally to shoot, but from an awkward angle put a lofty effort into Murillo for Sels to catch. At the end of the half, a run of his own for King, intelligently seizing upon a loose pass from Anderson, brought Fulham to the edge of the box. The Forest man compounded his mistake by felling King, earning a yellow and a free-kick in a precarious area… but Wilson’s strike ricocheted off the wall, and the resulting corner came to nothing.

The hosts weren’t much better. Anderson powered around productively, Gibbs-White had a clever pass or two from his position on the left and the overlaps of Williams forced Andersen to come across and deal with him, but too many of their teammates were cumbersome and disjointed. Hudson-Odoi has the talent but rarely put his pace to good use, cruising through the game and seldom challenging Robinson on the right, whilst Igor Jesus trundled about the box on a different wavelength to his teammates - a shame for Forest, as Bassey was having a skittish game and might have been one to target. Subsequently Leno’s work was simple - a good run out of the box to intercept a long ball to Hudson-Odoi was his greatest strain, facing only a comfortable shot from Dominguez to actively stop (Wilson, in fairness, did block a speculative attempt from Williams from finding the target). 0-0 was more than a fitting scoreline to end the half with - both sides would need to be much better.

Second Half

Pereira wasted no time trying to up the ante - a languid Hudson-Odoi and a poor Dominguez were swapped for the pacey pair of Ndoye and Hutchinson, moving Gibbs-White to the centre in the process. It was a masterful move, and produced instant results - the winger peeled off Tete following a long pass from Murillo and stormed into the box, winning a penalty by being bundled over by the clumsy Bassey. VAR came to our rescue, flagging the tightest of offsides from Ndoye in the build-up, but it was evident Forest were not interested in letting the half play out. It was a very nervous watch for Fulham. We’d been ineffectual for most of the game, but with Forest smelling blood our players started feeling the pressure, struggling to pass the ball in the slightest bit of proximity to a man in red.

Forest were in a strong phase of play, the new wingers carrying the ball superbly along the wings and poking holes in our defence. Given our frequent errors on the ball, the space was there for them to exploit. A deeply underwhelming cross to no one from Iwobi was headed clear by Aina and taken from one end to the other in seconds by Gibbs-White and then Hutchinson, narrowly put out of play by Robinson. Another failed build-up let Murillo bend a pass through the entire team, Aina surging away from a loose Bassey to meet the through ball on the bounce, and smack a volley past a prone Leno - fortunately the crossbar came to our rescue. Aina’s involvement was hurting us here, moving confidently from right-back to support his team’s attacking play - a combination with Sangare worked itself wide to Hutchinson, producing a yellow for Robinson upon the foul and a free kick which was narrowly cleared.

Perhaps our substitutes would allay the threat? Silva, finally realising his team were on the backfoot, reorganised the attack - Jimenez, Bobb and King, deemed to be underperforming, were swapped for Muniz, Chukwueze and Lukic, the latter moving alongside Berge to put a struggling Iwobi into more attacking positions. But Bassey had other plans. Taking what should have been a comfortable clearance, the centre-back smacked a header straight back to Williams, who wasted no time looping the ball over his head and into Ndoye’s path, running into the chasm Bassey failed to close down. As play entered the box, Leno came off his line to intercept, but Ndoye was too quick and lifted it over him, opening the scoring. Yet VAR struck down his move again - the Swiss had again strayed marginally beyond Leno.

It was clear we needed a response - a third offside reprieve surely wouldn’t bail us out. A ball pumped into the box almost did this; Milenkovic’s attempt to head the ball away from Chukwueze fell kindly for Muniz, who smacked a volley goalwards, only denied by a timely defensive header over the bar by Aina. The corner from Iwobi was cleared by Sangare, again falling to a Fulham man - on the bounce, Lukic narrowly placed his shot wide of the left post. Iwobi at AM at least changed things a little for Fulham, Lukic adding his energy from deeper to try and repel the Forest momentum, and there were hints of us changing the flow of the game; Forest refused to yield, Williams shunting Wilson and Lukic’s runs into dead ends, Muniz starved of a goal-scoring chance by Murillo and Milenkovic’s impressive marking and Yates swapping for Gibbs-White to add an extra barrier between us and the goal.

All the while, Forest continued to purr in attack. Andersen’s day took a sour turn when he collected a yellow card, forced to haul Hutchinson down on a breakaway along their right - it was an ugly moment for the team, with Bassey outjumped by Yates for a header and a hideous touch from Iwobi taking the ball to Hutchinson’s path, and swung momentum firmly back to the hosts. With Robinson and Andersen booked, and Bassey having a hellish match, Forest concentrated their attacking along Hutchinson’s wing and tried to exploit our vulnerability at the back. Awoniyi almost got the better of Bassey, latching onto a through ball from deep from Hutchinson and surging into the final third alongside his marker, but Bassey made just about enough of a recovery to take the ball and win a free-kick.

With our difficulties compounding, Cairney arrived for Berge to calm the storm (and lower the risk of going down to ten men). As always, the captain had a pretty pass in him, trying to get Robinson involved in the game again and pinpoint gaps in Forest’s defence. Again, the moves couldn’t quite connect themselves - a good intervention from Murillo stopped one ball from Chukwueze on the edge of the box reaching Iwobi in the centre, and whilst Iwobi had the freedom to get himself into dangerous positions, his finishing touch was still dismal, overhitting crosses repeatedly as the clock ticked down.

His ball across the box, sailing hopelessly off-target and out for a throw-in, gave Forest possession, and one last chance to seize the win - as they played it from the back, Sangare lifted the ball into Awoniyi’s path, again ahead of our dozing centre-back pairing. He strode into the box, but Tete was alert to the danger and intervened, cutting across his teammates to slide across the grass and block his effort. It was a stupendous piece of defending, arguably the best of the game from us, and saved the point - the corner was cleared away and, following one last piece of dithering from Fulham, here Cairney squandering a chance to pass to an unmarked Sessegnon for a late breakaway, the referee blew time on the game.

An avoidable predicament for Forest

Seeing as Forest were the active force in the game, it makes more sense to start with them. You can see both sides of the team’s recent fortunes on the pitch - they have some exceptional footballers across their squad, and clearly had something special there very recently. Anderson should go to the World Cup with England - he dominated the midfield and put the senior pairing of Berge and Iwobi to shame with his industry and pragmatism across the match. Whilst Gibbs-White probably has harsher odds of making Tuchel’s squad, the talent is clearly there - be it in dainty backheels, outside-the-foot through balls or pure attacking venom, the man is central to all things good for Forest. Sangare was a warrior, covering the space around the backline very effectively - for as much as we stank out the game at times, our task was made harder by the disciplined defending we had in front of us.

Aina and Williams, once Fulham men, had a world of fun darting down the wings and cutting inside to link play to their attacking pieces - both might have scored goals of their own. Murillo and Milenkovic both rose to the occasion to wrestle Forest out of danger in their own box. The substitutes Ndoye and Hutchinson ignited their wings upon arrival, and the tightest of margins denied them a strong win today against us. You wonder what this club could do if they hadn’t bungled the hard work of Nuno Espirito Santo - this squad were a whisker away from the Champions League last season under him, and the fantastical decision to mistreat and then sack him by owner Evangelos Marinakis have plunged the club into a relegation battle. It demonstrates the importance of confidence and trust in football - if these players were not adapting to life under their fourth manager there is every chance they’d have settled into decent form by now.

We’re clear of the drop, at least, but our season is threatening to peter out with months still to go. Forest are not in a great place right now, but had they started the game with a functioning Igor Jesus (and maybe Dominguez and Hudson-Odoi demoted to the bench) there’s every chance they’d have had enough to actually strike a goal today. Indeed, the only thing that did save us was the marginal boundaries - a couple of tight offsides, a crossbar, the well-timed slide of Kenny Tete at the death…

Our clean sheet is a cheap one, arguably less fitting today than in games we’ve actually failed to keep them in. Tete aside, I thought the team struggled at the back - Robinson can at least balance out his tricky second half against Hutchinson with some decent contributions going forward, and wasn’t so much exploited as he was the natural victim of a fresh-faced substitute. Andersen and Bassey started the game nicely and seemed to be settling back into their flow as our first-choice partnership, but imploded in the second-half - Bassey was asleep to the danger happening around him, his pace only-just bailing him out on a number of occasions (and not even that on a few of them), whilst Andersen continued to look worryingly slow compared to the play happening around him. Remove the aerial clearances from his game and opponents have far too much joy outrunning the Danish defender.

Perhaps the problems lie further forward. The Berge-Iwobi pairing is in urgent need of alteration - the pair are out of energy and ideas. Berge has entered a rather rotten patch of form, unable to take the game forward with any ambition and alarmingly losing the ball to more alert and sprightly opponents. He couldn’t lock down the space in front of the defence and the backline were threatened by a barrage of attacking passes as a result. A fully-fit Iwobi can do wonders - an Iwobi desperate for a rest and also detached from his passing radar is not that man, and he had a horrid afternoon today.

Of course, he’s not the only one. Raul took a fierce knock from Milenkovic early on and did little else for the rest of the game - Muniz at least had a flash at goal when he came on later but couldn’t get himself in the box ahead of a fierce pair of centre-backs. Wilson missed a couple of games and struggled to get himself into the action today, not quite having the momentum to get into suitable striking positions enough - albeit starved of quality service from his teammates. Chukwueze demonstrated the advantages of pace over Bobb, actually managing to run beyond Aina and put balls into the box, but they didn’t have the quality or consistency to trouble the hosts. I was a little surprised King came off when he did - whilst it wasn’t a strong performance, he at least seemed willing to take some mettle to Sangare, and combined nicely with Robinson on the left. However, the season has been long, and Smith Rowe’s experience might have been better suited to today’s gruelling match.

We can perhaps be pleased that we have a clean sheet, something to at least satisfy Leno’s personal statistics, and the point ensures we keep pace with the European chasers, something that should on paper keep the squad - and manager - motivated. But it’s precious little for Fulham - we lacked urgency going forward throughout the game, leaving us goalless for the third game running (and given our most recent goals came against this historically-bad Tottenham team, it’s not saying a lot). Bowing out of the cup in such tepid fashion has had its toll, and in some ways this is one of Silva’s (potentially last) great tests - with the team still in touching distance of the European places, and a final set of fixtures with more than a few winnable ties across them, can Marco take us out of this slump and push us right to the end of a potential return to Europe? As bleak as today feels, it is still a point - with the right attitude, the team can still use it to kickstart their season against Burnley next weekend. It remains to be seen whether the squad realise the campaign is far from dead.