Player Ratings: Fulham 2-1 Brighton & Hove Albion

The ratings are in following a last gasp winner at the Cottage.

We’re back to winning ways after last week’s poor performance - but we didn’t make this one easy. Here are the ratings.

Bernd Leno

Not the first time he’s exposed his struggles to save either a long range effort or something towards his near post, let alone both at once. Yes, the defending for their goal wasn’t the best, but he shouldn’t get beaten from there. Leno was lucky not to be at fault for a second too, seriously misjudging a ball into his box which never ended up going out and left him vulnerable to being chipped from the angle. Only redeeming feature from a poor performance was a great save to deny Welbeck at 1-1. 5/10

Timothy Castagne

Yes m, a few balls were targeted over his shoulder in the first half, but I thought for the most part Castagne gave a decent showing of himself. Made a couple of really decent last-ditch interventions in the first half, including a block on the line to deny Kadioglu from making it 2-0 in an empty net. Had our best cross of the game too, finding Kevin at the back post, nearly leading to a goal. Consistently decent defensively in the second half as Fulham pushed on a bit more. 6.5/10

Joachim Andersen

Best he’s played for a while. Can’t exactly say error-free as such because he got lucky that Brighton had a second disallowed while he defended so passively. Bar that, he was good, heading everything out the box, especially in the first half. His passing looked more accurate than it has in recent weeks and eventually resulted in a gorgeous long ball into Chukwueze to assist our equaliser. 7/10 - man of the match

Jorge Cuenca

A performance that was as solid as ever, which was potentially more impressive considering the pressure of Bassey returning from AFCON. Made more clearances than any Fulham player, continuing to prove how ridiculously good he is at reading the game. Had a decent headed effort go over the bar in the first half and blocked a decent Van Hecke strike just after half time. They were the highlights of a generally steady rather than spectacular game. 6.5/10

Antonee Robinson

The general consensus must have been that Jedi simply could not have played as badly as he did at Elland Road, but he gave it a bloody good go. Continued this terrible trend post-injury of over-committing far too easily in duels and seemingly not having the same recovery pace to make up for it. His pass accuracy stats were abysmally bad for a full-back that literally looked like he’d break the Premier League record for assists in a season by a defender not 12 months ago. If he starts at Old Trafford, serious questions will be asked of what he has on Marco Silva. 3/10

Sander Berge

Another who just shouldn’t justify his place next week, but that comes as no surprise. The moment in the second half where he loses the ball, fails to use his frame to regain it, struggles to track back and ends up clumsily fouling his man for a booking sums up every single little detail of how much of a passenger he is nine times out of 10. He was so passive in trying to close down Ayari’s strike and the way he passed the balls to shadows throughout the first half was despicable. It’s the same so blooming often. 3/10

Alex Iwobi

Considering the love he’d received for his performances at AFCON and the absence of Lukic it’s no surprise that he came straight back into the midfield, but it definitely wasn’t his best game. Very passive on the ball throughout and despite how he got about in the first half, that energy later on wavered off the ball too. Also noticeable just how awful his corners were time after time. 5/10

Harry Wilson

Definitely looked the most threatening player in the first half in terms of the way he was running directly towards goal more than others and found so much space in and around Boscagli. A mix of poor decision making in the first half and a fairly anonymous second half showing had me relatively frustrated come the latter stages, but once again he stepped up and, despite poor goalkeeping, he can’t be faulted for striking a wonderful free-kick to win the points and provide another wonderful moment in this season he’s having. 6.5/10

Emile Smith Rowe

Not sure how to get a paragraph out of this. Didn’t play as aggressively off the ball and compete in duals the way he did against Leeds. Didn’t really do anything on the ball, looking neat and tidy throughout, just not in the right areas. Didn’t do anything right or wrong, basically. As middle-of-the-road of a performance as you’re ever likely to see. 6/10

Kevin

Feel sorry for Kevin to an extent, and I’m definitely not enjoying the level of scapegoating towards him. Beyond his transfer fee it’s easy to forget this is a young kid in a new environment that gives more to the team than most in effort and ability, he’s just not getting those moments yet like a Harry Wilson constantly is. He defended better than Robinson did on the left side and had a couple of ‘wow’ moments inside Brighton’s full-back that nearly got us into wonderful attacking positions. He needs to continue to be backed before he loses too much confidence in himself. 6.5/10

Raul Jimenez

The man had our most shots, most key passes and made more defensive contributions than most of the 10 outfield players that started in white. He’s 34, gets around better than most, and you only wish sometimes we had nine more of him so he could focus on being in the number nine position all the time. When he did manage to be, he came closer than anyone else in the first half, turning Brighton’s defence beautifully from close range before being denied by Verbruggen 25 minutes in, before having a swivelled volley blocked just minutes later. Would’ve been MOTM had either of those gone in. 6.5/10

Substitutes

Samuel Chukwueze

Superb to see that a heartbreaking penalty miss to deny Nigeria potentially progressing to the AFCON final didn’t get Chuk down here. He came on for Kevin and went at Brighton from the off and while a lot of what he tried didn’t come off, he showed one moment of true quality to get in behind his man, beat the offside trap and cooly finish beyond Verbruggen to get us back into it. 7/10

Ryan Sessegnon

Was an instant improvement on Robinson at left-back going forward and getting back. Offered so much more of a threat with Chukwueuze than Jedi ever did for Kevin and constantly pushed Brighton further back on that side. Defended admirably, especially in the closing stages up against the fresh legs of Minteh. 7/10

Tom Cairney

Offered control and quality on the ball that was lacking so much from the original pairing of Iwobi and Berge, made even more evident by playing alongside them. Loved his captaincy at the end after Wilson’s goal too, completely focused on calming his team down, showing leadership Andersen often fails too when wearing the armband. 6.5/10

Josh King on too late to be fairly rated.

Marco Silva

Hard day to judge for the manager. The way we came out the blocks with the squad available to us felt exciting after such a shocking showing at Leeds. But the way we went behind and then failed to recover for so long was awful and he seemed to do nothing to change that. The subs worked, for sure, but felt at the time like they were so obvious to make and came way too late, luckily they hadn’t. The faith in Robinson and Berge failed once more and with any sense he’ll replace them next weekend (he won’t).

We won, so it’s hard to be massively negative, but the football throughout was no better than against Leeds for the most part, but a win is a win. Also, the set pieces were terrible bar Wilson’s free kick, and the sooner he bins off this corner routine with two players going over to take it, the better. Had this not been a win, it would be incredibly easy to be far more critical in both writing and rating. 5/10