Player Ratings: Aston Villa 3-1 Fulham

Here are your player ratings for Fulham's defeat at Villa Park.

Fulham’s mental frailties under Marco Silva and another dose of abhorrent officiating both showed their ugly faces in this one as Fulham capitulated from a goal ahead to comfortably fall to defeat at Villa Park.

Bernd Leno

The brutal truth is that Leno was far less to blame for the three goals than the catastrophic defending that led to them. For the first goal, maybe better positioning could have prevented being lobbed by Watkins, but ultimately it felt like he had to react to the poor defensive play of our centre-back pairing. Thought his distribution was stronger than normal too. 6/10

Timothy Castagne

I think he stepped into Tete’s shoes rather admirably here. It still frustrates me that it takes him about an hour before he allows himself to step into his opposition’s half and show any attacking intent, but some of his balls over the top for Wilson to chase caused issues for Villa. Defended better than any of the rest of the back four in my eyes, with the most defensive actions, but also may have been lucky not to face punishment for a rash tackle on Digne. 6.5/10

Joachim Andersen

For the most part he was OK, but really there are two things I want to pick at. Firstly, misjudging the flight of the ball over the top to Watkins when the England international equalised was poor. My main gripe, however: if this man is going to be frequently wearing the armband going forward, as has been suggested and encouraged, you have to show better leadership when things are falling apart at the back and momentum is against you. Andersen just seemed to hide in those calamitous moments at the start of the second half, which wasn’t good enough. 5.5/10

Calvin Bassey

I’m not far off suggesting that Jorge Cuenca gets a Premier League start. Bassey reacts so slowly to Watkins going through on goal for Villa’s first and like Joa, doesn’t defend greatly throughout. But his confidence on the ball is just absolutely shot to pieces and it’s so obvious to see. So often he was caught in possession and just looked so slack, an error early on in the game nearly saw McGinn equalise from the edge of the box. Whether the events of the United game have stayed in his head, his form and confidence needs to turn quickly with Fulham facing a difficult run of Premier League fixtures. 4/10

Ryan Sessegnon

Well, Sess isn’t the man I thought we would deploy in this 2025 long throw in renaissance era, but here we are. It turns out he’s got a solid lob on him. Was quite frustrated at how little he was trying to overlap throughout considering that’s such a strong part of his game from left back. Nice to see Sess still try to be positive at 3-1 down when it looked like some others had thrown it. 6/10

Sander Berge

I’m not sure where to start here but I thought Berge was dire. When fans are starting to wonder what a player offers beyond ball retention, to have a game where your first touch is constantly poor and you’re losing possession relentlessly is not a great look. He was overran in midfield constantly and completed just one tackle. No key passes, no shots, no completed dribbles past a Villa player. Berge was completely off it here. 3/10

Sasa Lukic

Like Berge, thought Lukic was overrun in midfield too and as a result in the first half acquired a fourth yellow of the season (side note, it’s impressive how often he gets yellows but never gets sent off). The difference came in how Lukic continues to add more to his game going forward, with two shots and two key passes here. I’ve said in recent weeks he was due an assist from a corner, and while I expected Joa to profit from one, Raul will do. 6/10

Josh King

I’ll get the controversial negative out of the way; despite the bias of many Fulham fans, King absolutely dives and it’s a habit he has to eliminate from his game. The boy has to wise up and either let Martinez initiate contact or push the ball gently and score, anything but diving. Bar that, he was by far the best player on the pitch. It’s incredible how confident he is in his talents. His decision making on the ball is amazing for his age and could’ve led to a goal early on as Martinez was forced to save low, and a penalty when his next strike on goal was prevented controversially without punishment by Cash’s arm. He seems desperate for his moment to arrive, and it will, just not by cheating, please Joshua. 8/10 – Man of the match

Harry Wilson

I thought he read Castagne’s long balls really well throughout and made a number of quality runs in behind. One particular one may have seem him offside, but on the off-chance he wasn’t he definitely should’ve finished past Martinez when he went through one on one 15 minutes in. Loved how aggressive Harry was in his duels too, putting in a couple of potentially uncharacteristically meaty challenges in the first half to make his mark. 6.5/10

Alex Iwobi

A really hard-working display that potentially went under the radar considering his lack of attacking output on the day. Iwobi was constantly providing defensive cover for Sessegnon to allow the pair to cope with the threat posed by Cash and Guessand. While the attacking moments were limited, his roaming into the centre in possession allowed King to find plenty of space in the left channels. 6.5/10

Raul Jimenez played only a few minutes and annoyingly got injured, but scored a gorgeous header to put us ahead.

Substitutes

Adama Traore

He had the rare pressure of coming on just 10 minutes in to play a position he was extremely unfamiliar with. Though it was poor for Adama to give the ball away for the second goal, I don’t think he had the disaster-class some fans want to accuse him of. The pressing wasn’t great and a couple of late passes were overhit around him, which was frustrating. Really liked in the first half especially how he made so many runs through the middle which occupied the centre-halves so frequently and allowed Wilson and King tonnes of space around the box. His crosses continue to look more dangerous and composed, too. 5.5/10

Emile Smith Rowe and Kevin came on 65 minutes in with Silva looking to change the game, but sadly neither were able to influence the game. Smith Rowe was picking the ball up too deep to effect the game due to the team’s inability to get the ball forward after going behind. Kevin, like every cameo post-Leeds, was all fart and no poo. 6/10 for both

Samuel Chukwueze was perhaps the pick of the second half subs, looking especially dangerous in his 10-minute cameo as he was brought on alongside Antonee Robinson. Chuk showed frequent willingness to run across the front line, as he did against Cambridge, and had a decent effort go over the bar. Jedi finally added some overlapping impetus on the wing from full-back but bar that was ineffective. Both came on too late to be fairly assessed.

Marco Silva

There are a few positives to look at to start with. Lukic’s corners continue to prevail and adding Sessegnon as a long throw threat continues to show we can add set piece prowess to our game again this season. I quite liked the Adama sub, but ultimately why on earth is he selecting three wingers on the bench with young Kusi-Asare in reserve?

Beyond that, there are lots of negatives I’m afraid. Berge and Lukic were constantly being run over; Fulham lacked leadership and Silva simply couldn’t fix the swing of momentum. Instead of going more positive, Silva made like-for-like changes in the front four that made little to no difference in the game because tactically nothing had changed and Villa had us sussed at a time when they were full of confidence.

His stubbornness to change things cost us and his inability to fix things from a mentality point of view is a reoccurring issue over multiple seasons. Ever since the FA Cup day at Old Trafford with the red cards, Silva has shown time after time that he can lose it, but when he does, so does his team. His passion is regularly infectious, but sometimes he could do well to almost shut up and set a better example. 4/10