Fulham sink again as Semenyo leads Bournemouth to 3-1 comeback

Two for the Ghanian plus a Kluivert strike cancelled out Sessegnon's opener on a stormy night at the Vitality Stadium

It’s never easy to swallow defeat at any point in football. It’s particularly galling when your team loses a game they were winning. When you lose in such circumstances for the second time in a row, it becomes a deep pain, a wound that ruins your mood entirely. Alas, this is the fate we must reckon with now - Bournemouth have beaten Fulham 3-1, with fine efforts from Semenyo and Kluivert cancelling out Sessegnon’s similarly impressive goal, and a chance to climb into the upper reaches of the table has been replaced with a slide deeper into mid-table malaise.

First Half

I find it hard to warm to formations with three centre-backs, because if teams struggle to put their attacking pieces together they can end up swamped by the opposition, weighed down by an over-stacked defence and pinned into their own half. The circumstances looked dire going into this game - continued injury troubles for both regular full-backs and both first team strikers ruled out of the game saw us line up in what was essentially a 5-2-3, with Iwobi, King and Wilson contorting themselves into a forward line, Berge and Lukic operating as a deeper midfield pairing and Diop joining Andersen and Bassey to complete a defensive trio in front of Leno.

It was as negative as it sounds, and Bournemouth were ravenous from the offset, pressing high up the pitch with a vicious pace, moving dangerously into Fulham’s final third to prize the ball from our defenders, bullying us off the ball before we could even make it out of our half. Iraola has built a squad of athletes and they dominated the opening minutes, the raw energy of Semenyo and Truffert thrown down our right in no time at all. Our passing radar fell to pieces under such intensity, as the backline heaved the ball around and struggled to find fluidity. Adams, midfield general for Bournemouth, took the first substantive effort of the game, pinching the ball from loose Castagne pass, brushing Wilson aside and driving a shot low towards goal. Leno, alert as ever, dived low to stop us conceding early.

Our injury misfortune continued through a Lukic groin injury, forcing him off the pitch early. Yet this was perhaps a blessing in disguise - the Serbian was churning through the gears and being put to shame by his counterpart Scott, wading through the pitch as though it were a swamp and unable to get Fulham on the ball. Captain Cairney proved the antidote, arriving off the bench and slowly easing Fulham back into the game. You could see that when he was on the pitch, possession was easier to sustain, and there was a greater understanding of how to piece the ball together effectively. Bournemouth’s rampant start, built largely from throwing their players around our congested territory, started to abate, and back in possession Fulham started to navigate the conditions better.

There were some glimpses of potential success, too. Cairney’s left-foot is a gem, and started connecting the dots along our left. This brought Sessegnon into the game, who could combine with King or Iwobi on the flank and target Hill, a centre-back playing right-back, for routes into the box. Inevitably though the attack lacked potency and purpose without Muniz or Jimenez at its heart. We struggled to touch the ball in the box, not helped by Iwobi’s ponderous play or Wilson’s horrendous ball control, and a gallery of passes that might have been devoured by an actual striker were shut out by Diakite and Senesi. King had some decent runs forward and again looked good combining on the left but was a physical mismatch and faced some crunching challenges from the defence. A Cairney volley that whizzed over the bar and a tame Iwobi shot comfortably stopped by Petrovic were the closest we came.

Such turnovers swung the game Bournemouth’s way towards the end of the half, as their energy seemingly regained itself and gave us some late scares - a clearance from a Truffert cross let Semenyo wriggle away from Berge and whip a shot for Leno to save and a Scott volley from another rushed clearance needed a block from Andersen, in a reminder of the danger this Bournemouth side have at their disposal.

Second Half

Sadly this late resurgence gave our hosts the edge in the opening minutes, revitalised by a break from the tempest swirling around the south coast. Semenyo, blistering as ever, took an early run down the right, smacking a cross that deflected wildly into the box - whilst Andersen managed to get his head to it first, it fell for a prowling Evanilson, whose layoff fell nicely for Scott to strike at goal, blocked only by Sessegnon’s fortuitous placing. They had captured the moment, suddenly playing the game with a snappy tempo, moving the ball with verve and intent around our half. Another knockdown, this time Tavernier from an Adams chip into the box, needed Leno to smother Evanilson’s effort at goal - Bournemouth wanted a lead.

Yet something was different about Fulham. Perhaps Bournemouth blew their tank too early - Iwobi suddenly found himself surging down the left, moving into the space around Hill and taking efforts at goal. It took us back into the game, as Bournemouth’s attackers struggled to track back and Bournemouth’s defensive muscle started to look vulnerable. Iwobi was involved in our closest chance thus far, a dink over the backline for Wilson to run onto - he might have had an assist but for Petrovic timing a dive well to parry the Welshman’s volley away.

Evidently Iraola noticed a problem, because Hill’s struggles on the right were ended with his withdrawal for Alex Jimenez, and Tavernier was sacrificed to unleash Kluivert onto our defence. This was a huge concern - Bournemouth were hardly deprived of pace before but the electricity offered by the introductions threatened to overwhelm our defence. They wrestled back control - Kluivert’s versatility along the attack let him link to his attacking teammates, pulling defenders out of shape and doubling the damage their widemen could do. Once again, it looked as though Fulham were sinking into the mire, pinned back in the face of clear and present danger.

Silva, ever the pragmatist, had his own changes ready. The raw pace offered from the arrival of Kevin and Chukwueze was immense - they came on for the disappointing Wilson and a fading King, and set their sights on anything green in Bournemouth’s half. An early warning was given from Kevin, running at Petrovic and forcing him into booting the ball out of play. It wasn’t heeded, and with much of Bournemouth’s team asleep to the danger, we struck back. Sessegnon, making a run into open territory ahead of Bournemouth’s defence, combined with Chukwueze to get into the box, receiving a beautifully-weighted through ball to get into shooting position and lifting it smartly over Petrovic. Bournemouth’s defending betrayed them - they didn’t have the bodies ready to absorb Fulham’s momentum, right back Jimenez was static and watched Sess bolt past him and Senesi was left with too much to do to prevent the shot from being scored.

It might have been a real triumph from here. With 20 minutes to go we’d claimed a 1-0 lead, having defended a range of Bournemouth attacks and fought ourselves through the conditions across the evening. It would take a solid mentality to survive the rest of Bournemouth’s ferocity but with an advantage, some smart football and maybe a decent counter-attack or two a clear path to victory could be drawn. Warning signs should have been noted when Christie and Gannon-Doak, two more attackers, came on for Bournemouth - no holds would be barred for the hosts. Yet we were on the ball, pinging a few passes around and even taking set-pieces into Bournemouth’s box. What could go wrong?

The answer came a few minutes later. A Bournemouth attack took itself through the team, from Brook on the right, through the middle with Scott to the left with Truffert, and then into the final third against Castagne with Semenyo. With a glint in his eye and silk on his feet, he glided past Castagne, dancing through the narrowest of passages on the goalline, moving into the box with the wind behind him and slotting the ball between Leno’s legs to equalise. It was a brilliant piece of individual brilliance, and showcased the best of an exceptional attacker, but Fulham’s defending fell apart - Castagne was bamboozled by a winger in a position that no fullback should be giving away, and Diop fell asleep to the danger at precisely the wrong moment.

It fell apart from here. Suddenly we were on the cusp of defeat, throwing the ball away and back to square one, a return to our first half traipse. Kevin’s pace had been replaced with a series of giveaways, one of which required a sharp Berge block to stop Christie striking the ball into the net. His mind was all over the place, and a tame shot stopped easily by Petrovic proved critical. Moving out from goal, Semenyo carried the ball forward, giving it to Kluivert on the halfway line. The Dutchman dribbled into position, swivelling easily away from a tracking Cairney, and struck the ball into the goal from outside the box. The captain, so important in our stability earlier, had wilted - the keeper, whose saves gave us parity for so long, was being pummeled.

Even the substitutes couldn’t save us. Traore and Smith-Rowe trudged on, now chasing a game they’d thought they’d be protecting. Our winger had one nice move, wriggling through a sea of players to put a decent cross into the box, but Cairney smacked the volley over. With so many bodies though the service would need to be precise - Traore, sadly, has proven anything but. Chukwueze worked hard and some quick passes took us into the box again - but on two occasions Cairney again found himself denied, by Diakite’s well-timed slide tackle and another rush of blood in the shot. The captain was eager to redeem himself, but the execution was poor, and a hat-trick of missed opportunities was his consequence. And from the corner Diakite conceded, after a botched Andersen overhead kick, Bannon-Doak launched himself forward, cruising into the space, threading a nice pass through the chasing defenders to the completely unmarked Semenyo, who comfortably put it past Leno for 3-1.

Brilliant Bournemouth

The temptation is to dive into negativity and despair for Fulham - and we’ve every justification to! It is the second game running that a lead has been blown apart in a small window of time, and we weren’t even as good as last week’s bout at Villa Park! Let’s instead take a moment to offer some praise to Bournemouth, and Andoni Iraola.

They’ve come a long way from the Scott Parker 9-0 days, and there’s a seriously talented set of players being coached into something very impressive at Bournemouth. We’ve long wondered where the X-Factor comes from with our Fulham team, and here we face a team with it in abundance. Semenyo is the leading man at the moment, and for good reason - however questionable the defending was it takes a talented footballer to string together the sharp ball-control on the nether reaches of the pitch, the speed to get into striking position, the composure to slot it under Leno from such an acute angle, and the fortitude to be doing this after over an hour of being defended against successfully. But there was similar explosiveness from Brooks on the other wing, from Truffert sailing down the left alongside him, from Evanilson fighting the centre-backs for each ball, from Tavernier slotting between defence and midfield to make a nuisance of himself. Kluivert came off the bench and scored a delightful goal, Bannon-Doak showed off his own pace with an assist late on, and you’d imagine everyone in that squad passes a physical standard most teams would dream of.

Defensively they were strong, far too physical to be battled out of the game. Scott and Adams are a decent pairing - I think Adams has really matured into an intelligent deep-lying player, and was a good spine for Bournemouth across the game. Scott was everywhere too, and is drawn to the action in all departments of the sport. The centre-backs fought valiantly - Senesi has a clever pass on him as well, with a fair few balls floating over everyone to Evanilson - and whilst the fullbacks did seem the best route for Fulham to get into the box, it was far harder to accomplish than it ought to have been. Petrovic, of course, made the saves he needed to in order to give Bournemouth the win going forward.

Stormy Weather for Ful

And yet! They trailed the game with time running out, and but for some glaring errors might not have ended in such jubilance and ecstasy. We must turn to Fulham - what happened tonight that has left us so forlorn? We have to look at the mentality of the defence - there were some horrible errors against Aston Villa, and again today, which point to a lack of concentration far too frequent in our defeats across Silva’s tenure.

A few are frequent failings. Castagne is not a warrior like Tete - a fiercer right-back stops Semenyo reaching the box in such minute space, let alone get past him. Diop was very good for large parts of the game but is skittish on the ball and too prone to mistakes, as we saw for the Semenyo goal. There is a drop off between him and the regular starters. Not that they all proved it today - Bassey avoided the worst of the defensive moments but still played a Bambi-esque role in far too many moments and needs to rediscover his strongest moments at the back.

Not that the backline had it easy today. Lukic was spared the chagrin of the comeback but was struggling next to Berge, again - the pair have slowed in recent weeks and were toiling after a very short window of time. The Norwegian is a defensive necessity, with the grit to take the ball in dangerous positions and, in better moments, an awareness of where to offload the ball to his teammates. When it doesn’t click though you find yourself counting the seconds he spends on the ball, waiting for something to happen, opposition content to stroll back into place. And Cairney… the captain is a hero, a fantastic craftsman of the ball, and responsible for many quintessential moments of the last decade following Fulham, but it has long been documented that he doesn’t have the legs for full Premier League action, let alone a frenetically-paced bout against Bournemouth, and sadly Kluivert demonstrated this towards the end. We need to be on the ball if he plays, because when opponents take momentum attackers get easy access to our final third.

Of course, our midfielders could point to the malfunctioning forwards for our shortcomings today. For all the difficulty of starting a game without Muniz or Jimenez, there were some seriously rancid performances from a few in white today. Wilson had a horrible evening and got hauled off, though Iwobi did improve later into the game far too many attacks weren’t played with anywhere near enough penetrative power, and Kevin’s early excitement seems to have dissipated and be in urgent need of a kickstart. King is still a bright spark but it must be difficult being expected to play so many roles and even lead the line in Fulham’s attack at this moment. Traore, and disappointingly Smith-Rowe, were on a hiding to nothing coming off the bench to a wall of players today - they’ll need to massively up their end product if they want to get back into the starting line-up.

The positives have to be clung to and taken into the next game. Sess continues to play valiantly deputising for Robinson, and should hopefully be trusted in a proper attacking role when the American returns to action. Chukwueze looks a shrewd signing, blessed with pace and tricky footwork, and surely warrants a start at RW after his assist (which could have been multiple!) today. I would also commend Andersen, who has quietly returned to being our most dependable figure at the back (albeit because others have been struck with injury or lost their way). However, an international break sits between now and Arsenal’s visit to the Cottage. We can only hope a little time away refocuses the mind, and gives Silva the chance to recalibrate his misfiring troops.