The League Cup will sit absent from Fulham’s trophy cabinet for another year. Crystal Palace have continued their streak of positive results at Craven Cottage with a 1-0 win, won through our favourite combination of wayward abandon in front of goal and utter recklessness managing our defence. Eddie Nketiah scored an unforgivably easy goal in the first half, after a hatful of chances were squandered by the team, and we failed to muster a response in over an hour of football. The result? A night that saw our pretty possession play stained with hideous performances from several men in white has let a frankly uninspired Palace side claim victory over us, and make it to the quarter-finals of an increasingly open cup draw - one we will be watching from the sidelines, yet again.
First Half
Could Fulham turn their recent fortunes around against Palace tonight? Beaten four times in four home games against our visitors, an ugly run including being dumped out of the Cup by Eberechi Eze and binning two leads to lose 3-2 last month, there was a wave of energy around the team as they stepped out onto the pitch today. Certainly they started with bite, dominating possession and pressing high to pen a passive Palace into their own final third. We operated high up the pitch, our backline stepping forward to put Fulham on the front foot in the game.
It certainly looked impressive, and in the context of a miserable few weeks for Pierre Sage, his team slunk backwards into a cautious 5-4-1, Nketiah stranded from the action. With Iwobi and Palacios drifting around in the middle, Robinson and Tete very advanced along the wings and Berge and Larsson stepping around the box to link play, a lot of moves were attempted around the box. Tete worked particularly hard along the right with Bobb, bypassing a stodgy Chilwell to unlock a route into the box.
Not for the first time though, our chances weren’t being taken. A freekick won by Bassey needed a strong clearance to repel Iwobi’s delivery, but the midfielder’s corner to Tete was far more accurate and unmarked in the six yard box the right-back needed to do better than put his header into the sidenetting. Iwobi continued to be involved, storming down the right to collect a long pass and whipping a cross into the middle that Muniz headed into Lerma. A handball decision would have been harsh, and wasn’t given - Berge collected the rebound and moved it left for Robinson, who had space on the left but dragged his effort along the floor for Henderson to stop with his legs. The right channel continued to bear fruit, Tete asserting himself to win a corner against Chilwell - Bobb’s delivery was excellent, but Andersen slammed his header over as he stormed onto the cross.
We’ve been here before - the “better” team but unable to convert it into the one statistic crucial to the result. Slowly, Palace started finding a few passes, coming out of their shell to remind us they were a presence in the game. As another set-piece, earned by Tete’s dribble drawing a foul from a trailing Guessand, was squandered by a Muniz foul before Bobb’s cross could even reach the box (or, by Muniz heading the ball into the floor for Henderson to smother), Palace grabbed their moment. An inattentive Iwobi reacted too slowly to the bounce of the ball, letting wing-back Mingueza pounce, seizing possession from the stumbling midfielder. With Robinson marooned in attack he cruised along our left, curling the ball into the box before a frantic Bassey could cut across and reach him. Andersen, sauntering into the box, was oblivious to the run of Nketiah, standing docile as the ball flew into the box; the striker needed no invitation to stride in front of him, touching the ball to guide it towards the goal, out of the reach of Lecomte’s hopeful dive. From nothing, their first attack of any substance, Palace led the game, aided by pitiful work in defence.
Back on the ball, Fulham tried to up the ante and grab a quick equaliser, but Palace had snatched an advantage and had the motivation to lock into their defensive structures. Muniz found even less space amongst the centre-backs as he struggled to beat them in the air for Bobb crosses. A deflected cross from Tete saw Robinson chest down the ball for Berge to volley over, the deflection yielding a corner that Lerma cleared well, and a crafty one-two between Bobb and Tete saw the winger loft a ball for Berge that he headed comfortably over; indeed, it was a painfully familiar story as we went into the break.
Second Half
Frustratingly it was Palace who had the first opportunity of the second half, using some of their conserved energy to ride our opening move, Muniz making a clumsy foul on Richards in the process, and put a few bodies around our half. The evening might have truly soured with their first attack, as a loose ball into Tete saw the right-back stumble, Guessand devouring the space and snatching the ball off him. Thankfully Lecomte was alert and blocked the acute shot the winger tried, keeping the deficit to one.
Palacios tried to get involved more, forcing Lerma into a yellow card on a breakaway. The Iwobi free kick was good again, Andersen winning the header wide in the box and Bassey putting Henderson under pressure to earn a corner, but Palace’s aerial comfort continued to keep them secure. The Spaniard made another good move, dispatching Robinson along the left, and at speed the left-back whipped the ball into the box, forcing Ahanor to make a decent block to stop Muniz reaching it. It seemed to unpiece Palace, as the furore from the corner saw Hughes give Ahanor the ball under pressure - the centre-back awkwardly scuffed the ball to Muniz, right in front of the box, but Rodrigo managed only a swipe at the ball that rolled straight to Henderson.
We weren’t doing enough, and Arbeloa recognised it, introducing a-listers King, Cairney and Castagne for a patchy Palacios, an indifferent Larsson and the ever-reliable Tete. Our captain tried to weave his quality into the game, cutting through the lines with incisive passes, though he’d need better than the wayward touches Robinson was offering, miscontrolling the ball on the touchline to end an attacking move. More composed was Iwobi, collecting a brilliant forward ball from Cairney and taking strike at goal, the deflection earning another corner that Palace needed to deal with. Sensing the danger, Sage brought Mitchell and Wharton on for physical relief and defensive structure, shifting Palace further into consolidation of their lead.
This, of course, increased the need for poise and clinicality in the final third. Palace, for all their talent, offered scant little going forward, content to ward their box and frustrate us around it. It was Cairney who found a rare shot on target for us, on the end of a nice move orchestrated by Iwobi and assisted by Robinson’s overlapping cross along the ground… with a touch more fortune his kick wouldn’t have clattered into Richards on the block. Castagne and King resumed their chemistry with a confident Bobb along the right, piecing together slick passages of play against a busy Mitchell. One such move led to yet another corner, taken by Bobb, flicked on by Castagne and reaching Iwobi in the six-yard box. He wrapped his leg around the defender, needing virtually any touch to put the ball into the net… the one he managed conspired to hit Henderson from point blank range, and the equaliser continued to elude us.
The game dragged on, our quality starting to slip away, typified by Robinson nutmegging himself trying to collect a Berge pass. It was becoming yet another match where the build-up play failed to produce shots - let alone shots on target - and as Arbeloa threw on Gonzalo Garcia to add another striker to the mix Palace looked quite comfortable, and with substitutes McNeil, Pino and Kamada forming a revitalised frontline we started to look vulnerable on the break, their snappiness catching us on the back-foot. Robinson’s ugly evening continued, Mingueza taking it off him deep in our half and moving it centrally to Pino, who slipped McNeil through; Lecomte was sharply off his line to deny Palace a second. A Berge shot into a defender saw another break, Kamada soaring clear of Andersen and dispatching McNeil, who wriggled free of Bassey to find clear air before the box but curled a gentle effort for Lecomte to catch.
Kevin arrived from the bench, our last chance for a hero to emerge from the darkness - his composure was far less than the previous substitutes, at one point spinning a corner straight out of play from the flag. Robinson’s horror evening continued as he struggled to manage Palace’s attack, and with Castagne operating as a right-winger Mitchell had the freedom to glide along the left without opposition, playing a pass central beyond a pitiful attempted block by Andersen. Kamada slicing the ball wide to spare us the ignominy of conceding a second. Robinson’s evening threatened to turn into farce, his confidence evaporating with each second - skewing the ball into Palace hands from a good position and killing our momentum once again.
And yet! These two maligned players combined on the left for Fulham’s last clear opportunity, Kevin threading a pass through to Robinson on the overlap, finally ahead of Mingueza and into the attacking channel. His cross was accurate, sailing into space in the box, and Garcia, quiet up until now, had space away from Lerma to take the header… straight into Henderson’s path, who easily palmed the ball away. It was the final blow to our confidence - stoppage time took a descent into the abyss, with Robinson wasting some good dribbling from King with a rotten touch to knock the ball out of play again, and Cairney lifting a cross out of bounds for one last blown attack. The full time whistle put us out of the cup, and out of our misery, Palace had beaten us once again.
Misery, thy name is Fulham
A staggering ten (10) home matches have passed without victory over Crystal Palace, who on current form are nothing close to the Glasner side beat us on route to winning the FA Cup or even the side that we conspired to give three points to last month. Their 1-0 win today was not a Mourinho defensive masterclass, or a lesson in control from one of the great Italian outfits, but a reminder of the consequences when basic tenets of the game are ignored - fail to take your chances, and simple mistakes will prove fatal.
We had three very scoreable chances fall to defenders capable of scoring strong-foot shots or headers from inside the box in the first half before we conceded, any one of which would have changed the course of the game. Muniz, Cairney and Iwobi all had shots on target that might have found their way into the net with a touch more composure, or in Iwobi’s case even the slightest degree of fortune. Around these moments were dozens of crosses, through balls and set-pieces that with the slightest tweaks would have connected intricate attacking play to a man in the right position. Yet an unpleasant zero sits in our goals column. What is going wrong for us in attack?
I think one clear problem is confidence, typified by watching the performance of an individual like Antonee Robinson tonight. We have the moves, we can watch the team pull strings out of the opponent’s bow, we can dominate all the attacking statistics, but when we have the ball in the final third, there’s a hesitancy that lets doubt and fear creep into our game, the edge shifts back to the defender, the attack breaks down. Robinson has not suddenly shifted into a cadaver but his confidence ebbed away, leading to mistakes so amateurish you’d think a doppelganger had assumed the position. Amongst the calamitous errors he made crosses a team with a touch of goal-scoring assurance would have scored - clearly the man is not a busted flush just yet!
As risible as he was for much of the evening I can’t help but feel greater scrutiny should be applied to Andersen, returning to the starting line-up for the cup. His defending throughout the evening was horrible, most obviously when he was outmaneuvered by an otherwise uninvolved Nketiah but across many disquieting moments watching him stagger behind the play, unable to operate at the speed of the action. Arguably without the concession Fulham still have a chance to out-gun Palace on penalties… in frustrating games like this you need your defence, particularly your most experienced defenders, to have their eyes on the game. Compare Bassey or Tete to the Dane’s efforts tonight and it is clear to see why he has been dropped.
Given how much attacking the team did to no avail, it feels pointless offering any praise - harsh for many of the players involved, like Bobb, a player with a noticeable spring in his step, or Tete, fighting hard to earn his starting place back from Castagne. Iwobi had some nice moments on the ball but his gaffe that led up to the goal is hard to overlook. Palacios did too little until far too late into his time on the pitch. The Berge-Larsson pairing lacked the dynamism to crack a defensively congested Palace side, certainly when compared to the work Charles has done in recent weeks, though Berge deserves some praise for at least trying to step forward in the action. Cairney showed some quality off the bench, Castagne was productive down the right and King continued to demonstrate his role as our attacking star, but these pieces are not enough to turn the tide against a Premier League outfit.
I suppose it brings us onto our main problem… where will our goals come from? Muniz is adored by a lot of the support and with Garcia’s struggles for fluidity (again, does a striker with the world at his feet put a gilt-edged chance like the one he received straight into the keeper’s path?) there is an obvious case to put him back into the team - it’s one I and many others have found ourselves arguing. An ugly truth, though, is that the man is not as reliable a striker as the image we construct of him suggests, and his passion and energy around the pitch don’t actually translate to enough goals to be an instant solution. This isn’t to say he is a poor player - his pressing is strong, and before Garcia ended up occupying the same areas as him he made himself busy around the frontline - but the goals aren’t going to automatically come for him, as evidenced by the difficulty he had even winning the ball ahead of the Palace centre-backs, let along making Henderson work to make a save. It’s a troubling situation to find ourselves in, not least as Arbeloa has a cup exit and a run of tougher games to try and resolve the conundrum in.
Sage Stages a Siege
We’ll offer Palace some praise by saying that they defended well in the second half and made life difficult for us as the chasing team, as any good defence should. The centre-backs, Richards in particular, had a solid grasp on their tasks, and the times they were beaten saw Dean Henderson showcase why he goes to international tournaments with England. Personally though I thought they were quite fortunate to be heading through and essentially relied on our inability to function as a proper team against them (again!) The chaotic opening spell of the game, had we managed to find the net once, would have forced Palace to creep out of their shell and expose the flanks to an even greater degree than we saw in the game.
Unlike in previous years we weren’t outplayed by technical brilliance - barring the final stage of the game with Fulham tired and running out of ideas they seldom attacked with any coherency, relying on defensive mishaps and opportunities from the blue. Chilwell/Mitchell and Mingueza were camped alongside their centre-backs for the majority of the game, Hughes, Doucoure and eventually Wharton spent more time blocking than distributing in midfield and the attackers were willing runners more than a formidable frontline, the substitutes generating more in 20 minutes than the starts in 70. Nketiah scored his chance and his team are through, but they have a lot of areas to improve on should they wish to progress.
But perhaps they won’t? Maybe they’ll draw Bradford City and Fleetwood, and flex their top flight muscle over the lower league outfits. Perhaps they’ll get Bournemouth or Sunderland, sides with similarly patchy starts to the season like ours, and be able to outgun them in a straight fight. Manchester City and Liverpool will be tough, but they can always repeat the tricks of tonight, and sneak a victory against teams stretched with European duties to manage. It is for everyone at Fulham to ponder - once again we are looking at the cup from the outside, another missed opportunity to add to the substantial mound at the Cottage.
God, I miss Mitrovic.
Robinson must leave!!!!!