Player Ratings: Fulham 1-1 Manchester United

Here are all the individual numbers after the Whites secured our second point of the season.

After the Crystal Palace result, I think if you’d offered me a point from both Liverpool and Manchester United, I’d have taken it.

However, I wouldn’t say I’m ecstatic about yesterday’s result. It feels a bit like a missed opportunity after taking the lead, and especially because I think this United team are not very good.

I’ve got some concerns; Manchester United’s 26 shots, 17 of which came from inside our box, is worrying, and if it wasn’t for a combination of some profligacy from their forwards, and some great work from Leno, we could have lost this game.

We did have chances of our own, but the way we retreated in the last 15 minutes and the fact we look knackered towards the end of every game was disappointing to see.

Despite all of that, you can’t help feel harshly done by when you concede a deflected equaliser in the 89th minute; that’s bad luck that we didn’t need.

Bernd Leno

A vintage Bernd Leno performance. A couple of superb saves, one from Lisandro Martinez, the other from Bryan Mbeumo, were a big reason as to why we didn’t lose this game.

I’ve been critical of him for a while now, as have many others, so for him to produce a performance like that makes me happy, and gives me a bit of hope too. 9/10 - man of the match

Timothy Castagne

I thought Castagne was one of the players who really benefited from the gung-ho football Arbeloa started the season with. He was given the remit to relentlessly get forward and impact the game in the final third.

However, one of the tweaks to give us more solidity has been forcing Castagne to play more of a holding role, sitting much deeper. I think it’s the correct move for the team, but it doesn’t suit Timo as much and feels much more like a Kenny Tete role. He did fine, but not much more than that. 6/10

David Affengruber

A performance that proved his man of the match display at Anfield wasn’t a fluke. Him and Bassey together looks like they could be a really good pairing.

I was struck once again by his ability on the ball, in particular the way he wraps passes through the lines, into the feet of our attackers. It cuts out the opposition press and gets us running at their back line; it’s really effective.

Was probably lucky that Matheus Cunha stays on his feet before squaring it to Bruno Fernandes, who hit the post, in the first half, otherwise I think it’s probably a penalty. However, he’s incredibly unlucky that it’s his deflection that saw Fulham concede late. Football eh? 7/10

Calvin Bassey

Every week I talk about what a fantastic leader Calvin Bassey is, so I apologise as it’s probably getting a bit repetitive. But Calvin Bassey is a fantastic leader.

He does brilliantly for the goal, both to win the ball back and then show the attacking intent to make something of it. It’s something he did all game. It can be both quite affronting and exciting to look up and see that your centre back is making a driving run into the box, but I thought he added real threat and picked the right moments to make those runs.

He’s a huge asset and quickly strengthening a claim to be my favourite player in the squad. 8/10

Antonee Robinson

He struggled in that first half against Mbeumo; it looked like he was being done for pace and strength, and at times outwitted too. The second half was better, and we looked more solid down his flank, however, I don’t think he was quite able to contribute in the way that he wanted to in the final third. 6/10

Shea Charles

Not as silky in possession as we have become used to in his early Fulham career. He felt a bit sloppy at times on the ball, with a couple of bobbly touches and misplaced passes.

However, I thought his big contribution was out of possession. The defensive awareness that he shows and the ability to sniff out danger were vital. Particularly as that game got deeper, he was always the man who was on hand to intercept cutbacks and crosses into the box and really helped out our backline.

We can talk a lot about the tweaks that Arbeloa has made tactically, but simply by playing Shea Charles, he has added far more balance to the side. 7/10

Sander Berge

We’re starting to see signs of the player that we know he can be. He’s always very composed in possession and very rarely gives the ball away, but particularly since he’s been paired with Shea Charles, he looks more effective out of possession.

I think it stems from knowing he can trust his other midfielder to support him, and it gives him a bit more of a licence to be more expansive. The fact that he finally had a shot on target is testament to this and very positive to see.

I don’t think he should have been subbed off when he was, and we could have done with a bit of his composure in those last 15 minutes when our backs were against the wall. 7/10

Oscar Bobb

I think we all hoped that his goal midweek at the London Stadium would help instil a bit of confidence in Oscar Bobb and see him impact the game in a greater way.

Unfortunately, I thought yesterday was a bit of a typical Bobb performance in the Premier League, where he looked tidy without really producing anything of note.

His one memorable moment was after a good piece of work that saw him create space for a shot, only to drag it wide. I probably want him to do slightly better from that situation. 5.5/10

Josh King

Another good performance, but probably the first time this season where he didn’t look, by far and away, our best player. I thought United kept him reasonably quiet, but he has a fantastic ability to still pick up pockets of space, get on the ball in dangerous areas, and really panic opposition defences.

Sammy mentioned recently that the clear next step for Josh is to start being more clinical, whether that be in front of goal or creating chances in the final third. He does so much brilliant work, and it’s just that extra 1% or 2% difference that will see him consistently start scoring or providing assists.

I’m certain he’ll get there, but that next level of Josh King probably would have scored yesterday with either one of those chances that he had at the back post in the first half.

It’s also evident that it’s an incredibly physically demanding role for him, and his best work seems to always happen within the first 60 minutes of a game. He significantly fades towards the end as he continues to build up his physicality. 7/10

Alex Iwobi

Watching back the highlights, I was struck by how Alex Iwobi was involved at the heart of pretty much every opportunity that Fulham created.

This role on the left flank is made for him; something in between a winger and a central midfielder, which perfectly describes Alex as a player.

Five chances created, not a single misplaced pass. He’s an incredibly intelligent footballer, and I think it’s a testament to his quality that the two managers he’s had at Fulham consistently find ways for him to be a starting player because of the quality he possesses.

Similar to Berge, I wouldn’t have subbed him off because his composure on the ball was something we really missed in the dying embers of the game. 7.5/10

Gonzalo Garcia

After an electric start to his Fulham career, I’m starting to see that Gonzalo still has a way to go before he’s a Premier League bagsman.

He struggles in the physical battles with opposition centre-backs, and maybe that’s harsh because, against Harry Maguire and against Liverpool last week, he’s coming up against some of the most physically imposing defenders in the league. However, he struggles to make life difficult for them by just being a bit too lightweight.

I’d also like to see him stay more central and be a threat in the penalty area, as he has a tendency to drift wide too frequently, and we lose our box threat. He had a couple of half chances, and he probably should do better with at least one of them.

He only managed 17 touches all game, which shows just how much he struggled to make an impact. 5.5/10

Substitutes and manager

Given the way Fulham set up tactically after our substitutions, I think it’s quite tricky to fairly evaluate any of the subs. We had so little possession towards the end of that game that no one really made an impact.

I thought Kevin looked lively, but he really doesn’t look comfortable on that right wing.

I’m not sure it was the right scenario for Cesar Palacios to be subbed on as we tried to see the game out, as I mentioned on the Quick Take.

Then Larsson, Muniz, and Andersen were all subbed on too late to give a proper rating to anyway.

Alvaro Arbeloa

An unchanged XI from our point at Anfield shows that Alvaro is starting to work out who his best 11 players are and how they fit into one team.

There’s undoubtedly a better balance and structure over these past two games, and it has to be acknowledged that points against the Big Six should never be sniffed at.

However, yesterday really feels like a missed opportunity, and to be winless going into the international break is not a great feeling.

The first improvement that we asked for from Arbeloa was to find a less kamikaze way of playing football, and he’s managed to do that. The next thing I’d ask of him is to work on how he changes things during games. I thought his substitutions were detrimental to our performance, particularly taking off Berge and Iwobi, and I thought we sat far too deep when trying to see the game out.

I hope he learns from this as well, but we did feel like the architects of our own downfall in this game.

Things are certainly better than they were after three games, but we’ve still got a lot of work to do. 6/10

Finally, just a word for Peter Bankes, who I thought officiated the game woefully.