Leno heroics earn a draw at Brentford

A string of late saves keeps the score 0-0 at the Community Stadium

After being marooned across a series of trains last weekend I’m back! But Fulham aren’t, and our race for Europe is turning into more of a traipse. Today’s derby against Brentford was not an advert for the Premier League, as we played out a low-quality goalless draw against Keith Andrew’s side to remain in 12th in the table. It was not an advert for Silva’s side, and in truth Bernd Leno can take most of the plaudits for his second-half saves, preventing us from another defeat with a reminder of his worthiness as our number one. On this evidence, our dreams of a return to the continent will have serious work to come to fruition.

First Half

It wasn’t a thrilling start. Accusations of Fulham being on the beach won’t abate with the snoozy lull much of our half was played with. Lukic earnt an early yellow card for halting an attack by pulling Schade to the ground - not unreasonable, but a little egregious when a little later Jensen hauling Smith Rowe to the floor in a position far closer to goal didn’t receive a booking. Arguably the advantage being played, Wilson being dispatched by Smith Rowe along the right and firing a shot into Muniz, took Tierney’s mind away from the incident. It was Fulham’s best piece of play for 30 minutes - we played in a bit of a stupor, cantering around the pitch without much of a purpose and struggling to muster anything to threaten Kelleher. Cairney entering the team moved Iwobi out wide, who took time to warm into his left wing position, and a series of overhit passes to Sessegnon from Andersen saw us squander possession needlessly.

Brentford had the energy early on, using Schade, Thiago and Ouattara to charge around our half in search of the ball. Their through balls were a touch more accurate than ours, Damsgaard threading a clinical pass into dangerous areas more than once. But their killer touch, perhaps numbed through drawing each of their games since February, wasn’t there. A one-touch pass from the Dane let Ouattara bound into the final third, but Andersen marshalled him well to see him produce a tame shot for Leno to smother. The Burkinabe was involved again, tripped by Bassey on the edge of the box following a smart bit of pressing from Brentford, but upon receiving the advantage over-played their move and were forced away from goal. A third involvement, following Yarmoliuk intercepting another woeful Andersen pass and Damsgaard slipping him behind the backline, needed Leno to come off his line to smother the shooting opportunity - thankfully the offside flag would have spared us anyway. Kayode attempted to use his own pace to strike, striding from defence into attack, but Bassey used his own muscle to shut the move down when the right-back knocked the ball past him.

This was enough to shake Fulham awake, and we saw a marginal improvement in the second phase of the half. Lukic taking a bit of aggression to Brentford across their half, combined with Cairney getting on the ball more, let Fulham string together a few decent sequences, eating ourselves into Brentford territory and decreasing the threat their paciest players had of charging at us. Some combinations along the left between the captain, Iwobi and Sessegnon gave us an inroad to the box, forcing an awkward Kelleher push away for a corner at one stage and a handful of shooting opportunities in the aftermath. Brentford’s work in the box was solid though - with Muniz in second gear and dangerman Wilson hugging the wing, van den Berg commanded the box and prevented Kelleher from having to make a save. Our closest effort was one his intervention put off - Iwobi and Cairney combined to get Sess, moving central, in a shooting position inside the box, but under pressure from the centre-back he smacked his shot well over the bar.

And then, disaster. A smart interception from Smith Rowe set Cairney away through the middle. Schade charged back into defence to block Cairney’s lay off and the ball ricocheted leftwards, perfectly arched for our winger to join the play… until his hamstring went, forcing Iwobi to pull up and slump dejected on the floor. He departed for Chukwueze, likely for the last time this season, and lulled by the setback our attacking energy fell away. It made for a sour end to the half, the injury falling either side of dangerous corners for Brentford, Jensen’s from the left being flicked on by Schade, and via Muniz needing a goalline clearance from Lukic, and Damsgaard’s from the right fell via clearance to Schade, whose pass to Lewis-Potter let him drag the ball back to deceive the defence and lift the ball over them for a shot. Only his rushed execution spared us a late concession, the ball flying comfortably over the bar - we would need to be much sharper in the second period to turn the game our way.

Second Half

There was certainly an increase in energy from both sides at the start of the second half, but it wasn’t well spent. I don’t think there’s questions over the motivation of these sides to take a victory off a West London rival, but the execution was clumsy, dire at times, and made for dismal viewing at times. Kelleher turning Muniz on the edge of his own box might have been the highlight (and even that was caused by his own poor first touch!) Players bundled into each other repeatedly, Collins catching a stray arm from Lukic and his own teammate on separate occasions. The standard of passing was appalling - at one stage, a comical sequence around the centre-circle saw possession switch between sides four or five times in a row.

You could see what both sides were trying. Cairney continued to enjoy himself, cruising around the pitch waiting for a gap to slot the ball into, but his teammates couldn’t find their own clinicality. Chukwueze and Sess’s speed took them into good positions on the left yet the Englishman’s flakey touches let him down repeatedly, the most egregious being a hideous touch in the box that saw him rush a lay off to Lukic, meaning he skied his first-time shot. Brentford’s faster set of players weren’t threatened by these attacks and took the opportunity to switch play quickly with long, aerial balls. Lewis-Potter excelled here - be it from his own half or in the space Castagne and Wilson left him on the right, he sent missiles across the pitch for Ouattara to capitalise on. The best of these, a cross over the box to his feet, let Ouattara move the ball goalside of Sessegnon and smash a shot at goal; Leno was firm and took the speed out of the move.

A flurry of Brentford chances forced Silva’s hand. A Jensen free kick narrowly sailed over van den Berg’s head, an Ouattara cross saw Kayode head a ball on-target for Leno to catch and a Jensen ball into the final third from a deep wide right position was headed down by Schade ahead of Castagne, prompting a Damsgaard volley on the bounce that narrowly travelled wide. Fulham made the first of their intentional changes - King and Jimenez arrived for Smith Rowe and Muniz, the latter of whom had failed to make an impact in the game. But Brentford were on the front foot, and our fresh legs were spent chasing our hosts around the park. Damsgaard continued to shine, playing balls into the pockets of space appearing around our defence - solid work from Bassey and Andersen kept the ball from being turned goalwards - or even touched in the box - by Igor Thiago.

Brentford weren’t the only team with a malfunctioning top scorer. Wilson, enduring one of his poorer games of the season, was fortunate not to be penalised for a decidedly clumsy challenge on Damsgaard by the sideline. In the aftermath, a nice sequence of passes that worked us back into Brentford’s final third, Lukic curled a killer pass over the defence for Wilson to take, sneaking ahead of Lewis-Potter. But it was met with a rancid touch, too poor for a shot or a cross, that saw our clearest opportunity of the game trickle aimlessly out for a goalkick.

Slowly, the hosts drew closer. Ouattara continued to fizz on the right, getting the better of Sess to put a cross towards goal that Leno had to punch away, and doing the same with a corner. Robinson came off the bench to attempt to remedy the situation, along with Bobb for the captain, but it left us exposed in the heart of the team, Lukic the sole recognised central midfielder on a yellow and struggling to keep the team moving as he’d done earlier. Lewis-Potter, now flying down the wing, won a foul off a clumsy Bobb challenge - Jensen’s delivery was good again, and needed Leno to tip yet another cross over the bar. The keeper was in action moments later, rushing out of his box to stop Thiago Silva devouring a hefty clearance ahead of our backline.

The signs were ominous, and Brentford committed their defenders to the attack. Kayode’s long throws had been dealt with well for most of the game, but it only takes one to change the game - one barrelled into the heart of our box, into the swarm of red that had made a home there. Lewis-Potter, ever eager to be involved in the action, leapt like a salmon and flicked the ball goalwards. Free of Andersen, it looked to be going in - but it struck Thiago, unaware of the ball’s location, and Fulham scraped out of crisis.

But incredibly, it wasn’t the closest we came to sinking. A horrible piece of play from Andersen let Thiago steal the ball from him. Damsgaard played an incisive ball down the left, guiding it through our ailing troops. It came again to Lewis-Potter, breezing away from Castagne, who drilled a ball into the box for Ouattara in the middle to gather. Leaning away from the ball, the forward curled a close-range shot towards the net at close range - only to be denied a certain goal by the outstretched arm of Bernd Leno, who’d reacted brilliantly to divert the ball over the bar. Bassey’s jubilant reaction summed it up - he’d saved us from collapsing at the death (albeit after Collins headed the resulting corner wide with a free header). The emotion of the moment likely exhausted the players for the rest of the game - the final chance of note, a free kick won by a nice piece of trickery by Bobb, saw a poor delivery cleared simply by Collins and the rebound shot sliced well off-target by the Norwegian. Truly, Leno was the man to thank for the point.

Faltering Fulham

Here’s an ugly statistic - Fulham have not scored a goal in the first half for nine consecutive games. Here’s another one - Fulham have failed to score a goal whatsoever in five of their last six games. What’s going on?

One area to point at is our injury record. Iwobi trudged off today, and it’s a summary of the season - constant injuries leaving our under-resources squad threadbare in critical areas. Alex has been covering for Kevin on the left and in central midfield, Castagne is covering for Tete, we’ve had to rely quite heavily on the goals of Harry Wilson, also without a break in months, because the man who was supposed to be having a breakthrough season as our leading man has spent the majority of it on the physio’s bench, and his (second) return to first team football has been rushed... We’re not seeing the team at their best because they aren’t fit, have spent most of the season filling in for one-another and desperately need the summer break to get themselves back to match fitness. In the meantime, we get anonymous outings from Muniz, cumbersome passing from the wings and Harry Wilson barely able to put his spark into the match.

Marco will catch a lot of the flak - he’s the man putting the team together, and at the moment it looks disjointed and lethargic. It’s very true that the team is flat, the players aren’t performing and our squad, whilst impacted by injuries, should have the depth to avoid being put on a knife’s edge against a Brentford team we beat 3-1 earlier in the season. It’s also true that we scraped through the second half thanks to Bassey winning so many one-on-ones and Leno’s fine work in goal, and could have faced an uglier scoreline but for their interventions.

There’s a fair few players underperforming in the team at the moment - Andersen was strong with his defensive duties, but on the ball a mess today, and by the end of the game had actively caused a series of calamities at the back for us. Castagne’s shortcomings are well-documented, but Sessegnon is also a concern - he is not a left-back, and if he weren’t having to keep such an eye on his defending he would be able to sharpen up in attack, which was sorely needed. Cairney and Lukic were probably the best players outside the keeper and Bassey but the captain isn’t a 90 minutes man and swapping him for Bobb let Brentford run the game for the closing stages. We looked listless, and it’s not a good look for the team, as despite only being three points away from the European spaces (which could be fewer depending on results elsewhere) it feels a bridge too wide for us right now.

So what’s the answer? Silva has long made noise about recruitment, and there is certainly a good argument to be made given the longstanding weaknesses we struggled with today, but another may point to a larger question - is Marco still the man to take the club forward? I am still in the yes-camp - there are far worse fates for Fulham than “season peters out in mid-table” and we need only cast our eyes down the table to see what that looks like - but there is a rebuild of sorts that needs to happen in the summer, and several components around the club need to ask themselves if they have the financial commitment, emotional energy and motivation to put us back on the path towards challenging for the European places. If Brentford can do it, why can’t we?

Brentford for Europe?

On that thought - and it’s a painful one for many of us - our rivals are level on points with a faltering Chelsea, and are well-placed to make it into one of the European competitions by the end of the season. They have long been cited as a well-run club and they appear to be completing the journey we long for ourselves - elevating out of mid-table battles to get into the same competitions as the “big 6”.

Of course, the team are also winless in five, and have three 0-0 draws in that run as well, meaning there’s an element of precariousness the side could have avoided. Hindsight might ask of Andrews why he didn’t make a single change in the game, even if Brentford had the better of us across the second half, and playing with Yarmoliuk and Jensen when the screw might have been turned by introducing more pace from the bench could have etched out the winner. It could just as equally have let us pinch our own from a counter against a weakened defence though, so there is a counter to that line of thought.

I don’t think there’s too much to moan about from their perspective - whilst the draws are frustrating, it largely keeps them in pace with the rest of an inconsistent set of teams (ourselves included) that hover around the upper-mid-table. Thiago had a poor game in attack today but his presence is a menace, and occupies defenders enough to get Schade and Ouattara the space they need - they too benefit from their full-backs charging down the flank with the pace they do, and with Damsgaard never too far from an insightful pass there’s a lot to be happy about in spite of the goalless draw. Leno alone stopped them from scoring a fair few times - there is a reason he pinched the MOTM at the death. Kelleher also took a clean-sheet too - whilst I am not fully convinced Lewis-Potter is a long-term left-back option, the centre-backs were resolute and kept Muniz or Jimenez from doing anything of note across the whole game. It’s an encouraging place to be in for Brentford, and all that remains is to see if they have the nerve to end their run of draws and get across the line.

It’s still not over for us though. Despite all I’ve written, there’s no reason Fulham can’t also power themselves into these last five games and at least take more fight than they did here into the run-in. There is more chance of keeping a happy, revitalised Marco Silva, and definitely the diamond-like talents of a fully-fit Harry Wilson, if we throw some points together and climb up the table - particularly given how many places may be available for qualification by the end of this season! With three home games and a trip to last-placed Wolves coming up there’s no reason to lay down the sword - our meek outing here does not have to define the remainder of the campaign.