Player Ratings: Nottingham Forest 0-0 Fulham

The player ratings after an excruciatingly dull afternoon in Nottingham

My partner has really taken to Sunday afternoon naps this year; they’ve become a bit of a routine. I rarely join her in said slumber, but this game really tested my ability to keep my eyes open, as well as my belief that I enjoy watching football.

While it’s true that a point away from home isn’t ever really a bad thing, this wasn’t good from Fulham. We continue to see a lack of creativity and cutting edge, which is a serious concern given how generous we can be defensively. Either team could have won it but neither deserved it, so 0-0 feels about right. However, we do have VAR, and Dan Ndoye’s toe, to thank for getting us out of jail when it seemed like Forest had taken the lead.

Our first clean sheet since the 27 December is welcome, but we’re now nearly 330 minutes of football without scoring ourselves. The only reason it’s not longer is because, regardless how long it felt, the referee legally had to end the game after 90 minutes, otherwise, god knows how long it would have taken us to find the back of the net.

Full transparency: I can’t make a strong case for anyone to be awarded player of the match, so I’ve simply decided not to. Not that nobody played well, I just don’t think anyone really stood out. If you had to push me, I’d probably say either Calvin or Jedi.

Bernd Leno

An unremarkable game for Bernd, which he’ll be relieved about. Forced into two saves, both of them fairly routine. Came off his line at one point and did what he should have done against West Ham, which was simply not faff about. Otherwise, not much to note. 6.5/10

Kenny Tete

Looked good in the first half, keeping Gibbs-White very quiet. The second half was a different challenge though, with Ndoye offering threat in behind, and Kenny struggled a bit. He’s the deepest defender when Ndoye is fed through on goal, and I really think it’s luck rather than good defending that he’s just playing the winger offside. He did make a superb sliding block in added time to thwart Awoniyi, but it was his fault he was onside to begin with. I also thought he left Wilson a bit isolated in attack, not offering enough overlapping threat.

This feels a bit overly critical because he wasn’t bad, I just know he can be much better. 6.5/10

Joachim Andersen

I disagreed with his inclusion and today’s performance has only reinforced that I think Issa Diop should be starting. He was fine in the first half, but as soon as Forest started trying to go over the top, his lack of pace became a huge issue. It unsettled the whole back line and put us under repeated pressure, in a way that simply wouldn’t happen with a more mobile centre-half.

On a wet and windy afternoon, his persistence with the massive diagonal balls was irritating, given only four of the 13 found a teammate. The clean sheet is a positive but it really wasn’t a reassuring display. 5.5/10

Calvin Bassey

A real roller coaster of a display from Calvin. He should have put us ahead in the first half and a was lucky that an unnecessarily clumsy foul in the penalty area was flagged for offside.

However, outside of that, I thought he was the Fulham player who most looked up for the fight. There were some big tackles, smart bits of defending, and some good work progressing the ball forward. He does stress me out at times with how frantic he can be but I do also love how fun he is - take the rough with the smooth. 7/10

Antonee Robinson

Definitely his best performance since returning from injury. Neither Hudson-Odoi, nor Omari Hutchinson has much joy down his flank and he felt more dynamic going forward.

Still nowhere near what we’ve seen from him in the past, particularly offensively. The overlapping runs were sporadic, when previously they were relentless. However, promising signs that we might get back to that point. 7/10

Sander Berge

I thought he really stood out as our worst player in the first half. Too passive, too weak, perfectly demonstrated when he was shrugged off the ball by someone smaller than him, and his response was to give away a free kick on the edge of the area and receive a yellow card for doing so.

He made one successful tackle and lost five of his seven duels; he’s six foot bloody five…

The second half did feel like an improvement, particularly once Lukic nestled next to him in the middle, but it wasn’t great. 5/10

Alex Iwobi

Another player who had a mixed afternoon. At his best he was picking up pockets of space in between the lines and causing Forest to panic, at his worst he was simply passing the ball straight out of play. Felt like there were multiple occasions where he had a great opportunity to have a shot or play a killer ball, and he chose the third option - drift an aimless cross to no-one.

His influence on the game definitely subsided and he was absolutely gassed by the end. 6/10

Oscar Bobb

Felt like a really good moment for him to announce himself as a Fulham player today, but he was totally anonymous. For the first 45 it was as if the ball was demagnetised to him, always finding its way to a different player. After half time, I think there was a concerted effort to get him into the game more, but he just couldn’t get control of it. Rightly dragged off for Chukwueze. A disappointing, but not concerning, performance. 5/10

Josh King

I made a note early on that Josh King looked to no longer be playing on instinct. He seemed to be overthinking it, maybe lacking some confidence, which is understandable. That being said, he seriously grew into the game and I thought he looked the most dynamic of our front four.

He dropped deep at times, pulling Sangare out of position and creating gaps. He also did well further forward but was probably guilty of taking too many touches, a symptom of his lack of recent game time. 6.5/10

Harry Wilson

Very little to report. He took one absolutely excellent corner just before half time, which I’m still not sure how we didn’t score from. Other than that he got trapped out wide and never got into the positions where we know he can be deadly. Great to have him back though. 5.5/10

Raul Jimenez

An incredible effort to be there today, given the passing of his father. An elbow to the jaw was not an ideal start to the game, and whilst it didn’t quite happen for him on the pitch, I’d just like to use this section to say what an incredible professional Raul is. To show such dedication for your job and the shirt, at the end of what will have been a horrid week, is amazing and deserves to be commended. 6.5/10

Substitutes

Rodrigo Muniz

Perhaps the biggest positive to take from today is that Roddy looked like he might be back. His performances recently have been abhorrent, but this was so much better.

Incredibly unlucky to not score with his first touch; the block from Aina is superb and there’s not much more Muniz could have done. His hold up play looked far better, he roughed up two of the most physical centre-backs in the league, and he just gave us a bit more oomph. Hopefully a sign of things to come. 7/10

Sasa Lukic

It was about bloody time that Sasa got back on the pitch and I think he looked pretty good. His first appearance since January and he showed what we’ve been missing at times. He got up and down the central areas well, putting himself about and providing some control. Won’t be surprised if he starts next week. 6.5/10

Samuel Chukwueze

Another player who’s struggled lately and looked a bit better today, although was probably the least effective of the substitutions. We’re really missing the fizz he was giving us earlier in the season 5.5/10

Tom Cairney

Was on the pitch just about long enough to get a rating. Perfectly executed what he’d clearly been instructed to do, which was retain the ball and try to control the last 15 minutes. It worked in the sense that it nullified Forest’s threat but it did stifle our attacking play a bit as well. Overall though, a positive impact from TC. 6.5/10

Ryan Sessegnon came on too late to get a rating, however, showed enough threat in those few minutes to suggest that he really needs to be tried in that role further forward again.

Marco Silva

Other than Andersen, I thought he got the starting XI right. It was, on paper, a positive side that looked like they’d take the game to Forest. It didn’t quite go as planned and he made changes that I agreed with and did swing the momentum back towards us for the final half an hour. There were no baffling decisions like we’ve seen in the past week and a half.

Where I’m struggling is the attacking shapes. Three blanks in a row is pretty unprecedented for this side and it feels like a long time ago that we praised Silva and the brand of football he instilled. I do also think that the blame isn’t entirely at his door. He’ll bemoan a sloppiness and slowness that he isn’t asking of his players, which I think is very valid. However, it is on him to find the solution.

This wasn’t a terrible result but the performance was not at the appropriate levels and unless he fixes it, we’re going to see a really drab end to a magnificent reign. Burnley at home needs to be a win, but I think it also needs to be fun, we need to find a spark. 6/10