Player Ratings: Stoke City 1-2 Fulham

The scores on the doors from Fulham's victory at the bet365 Stadium.

Fulham rolled on into the last 16 of the FA Cup with a come-from-behind victory away at Stoke. Strikes from Kevin and goal machine Harrison Reed got the job done in a game that required a lot of hard work despite Fulham’s relative dominance throughout. Two games from Wembley with a number of lower league sides still in the hat at this stage, Marco Silva may sense another opportunity for a day at Wembley, maybe this’ll be the year he actually gets us there. Here’s the ratings from an entertaining cup tie…

Benjamin Lecomte

Think this performance was probably his most impressive. Really liked the proactiveness and accuracy of his distribution, a stark difference to the way Leno plays most weeks. The two highlights of his game came either side of half time. Firstly from an early Sorba Thomas drive, which Lecomte saved superbly with his feet after it came through a sea of bodies. But even better was his save from Cisse, coming in from the left side, where Lecomte got the narrowest of touches with an incredible dive to push it onto the post. Not at all at fault for Jun-Ho Bae’s terrific strike to put Stoke ahead. 7.5/10

Timothy Castagne

Where do I start? Absolutely rubbish. Let’s start on the ball; losing it a ridiculous 17 times. His crossing was often abysmal (zero successful crosses from six attempted) from promising positions, including one where he had six options in the box in the second half and played it behind all six. Defensively he was even worse. Completely at fault for the first goal where he’s 20 yards off the play and allows their winger to run without challenge for 30-40 yards in transition, allowing Stoke a goalscoring opportunity that they took. That happened three or four times in the game, including in the build-up to the incredible save Lecomte is forced into from Cisse. He constantly got turned inside out by Stoke’s forwards, too. In 10 duals against his Championship opposition, he won just four, while also getting dribbled past multiple times and making a number of silly fouls. An absolutely dross performance which makes it hard to believe that he’s a well-capped Belgium international. 2/10

Issa Diop

Had to defend for two different positions so often because of how utterly terrible Castagne’s positioning was, and deserves great credit for doing as much. Unbelievably reliable on the ball with all of his 55 passes in his own half finding their intended target, a reliability we might not have thought possible in him a year or two ago, especially coming into cup games rusty. Looked stronger than Stoke in every facet when defending against them, and always showed really good pace when turned back to his own goal. Another solid job filling in. 7/10

Jorge Cuenca

Felt he did well again. Love the aspect of his game which feels very Spanish in how he is just so good at anticipating the play. It meant that many passes attempted beyond our back four in the first half were cut out with relative ease by Cuenca quite frequently. His 12 clearances proves that point to a tee, that number being double the number of clearances made by any other Fulham player. Good on the ball as ever for the most part, too. 6.5/10

Antonee Robinson

Admittedly against lower league opposition sure, but an improved performance no doubt. This was a day where we saw the qualities we were so fond of last season. His eight ball recoveries were testament to a defender that looked more focused in his defensive work and had that burst of pace we know he has to get back when needed. That speed seemed more evident up front too, where he linked well throughout with Kevin and showed a much better variety of attacking runs beyond the Brazilian. 7/10

Harrison Reed

Reedy wasn’t perfect today, far from it. And he probably shouldn’t start on a weekly basis over Berge, granted. But he does show what a player in that position should be offering on a more frequent basis. Even Harrison offers 10 times the goal threat Berge does, driving one over the bar early on and eventually scoring the winner following an instinctive interception. Those interceptions were key to his game throughout, snapping into second balls, something Berge also doesn’t do enough. Sure, Reed is older, slower, took a poor corner quite often in this one etc, but on performances of late, I think he can feel hard done by not seeing more opportunities. 6.5/10

Alex Iwobi

Not as bad as Castagne, granted, but another proper poor performance from Iwobi, something we have seen far too often this season, especially since his return from the African Cup of Nations. In the first half especially he gave the ball away so often with such weak passes. There just seems to be a complete lack of confidence there in general, with such a massive lack of inventiveness in his game right now. His headed effort that went wide from eight yards out about half an hour in was a sitter that summed up one of his worst showings in a Fulham shirt. 3/10

Oscar Bobb

Definitely grew into the game a massive amount. Did feel in the early stages that he was drifting inside a lot through a frustration of not being in the game enough and maybe for the first half an hour was actually really poor. But the more he got on the ball, the more he influenced the tie. Had one or two touches or quick turns on the break that made him look absolute genius and gave us excitement of what else is to come. Forced a good block just after half time that looked to be drifting inside the left post from the edge of the box. Never ever stopped trying to drive us forward either, carrying the ball over 300m in total. 6.5/10

Josh King

Another that grew into it after I’d got frustrated early on how little he was showing for the ball and how weak he was tracking back in transition. 37 touches total signifies that and is very unlike Josh. But there were so moments of magic. His first touch out of the sky just before half time prior to creating a chance for Muniz was superb. Then in the second half he had a couple of really good chances on the right side of the box that he created for himself by beating a man. But overall, I’m slightly disappointed at him only really having two or three moments rather than putting a full performance together in a good opportunity for him in the starting XI. 6/10

Kevin

Clearly Fulham’s standout player. While Bobb and King struggled to influence the game for prolonged periods, Kevin never ever stopped running at his man and beating them. Some of the crosses at the end of those runs were divine and merited better finishes from the likes of Iwobi and Muniz. Arguably he could have had a hat-trick. He almost scored a near replica of his Old Trafford goal, but was stopped by Simkin in the Stoke goal, who was marvellous on the day. Then on the verge of half-time, Kevin misses a bit of a sitter with King waiting in a better position. He did get his goal in the end with a cute finish that proved to be the winner late on. He never gives up, he knows the talent he’s got, and now the goals and confidence to match those traits are coming too. 8.5/10 – man of the match

Rodrigo Muniz

Probably a bit frustrated that the efforts he put in today on his return to the starting XI didn’t merit a goal, but certainly played a part in our win. Showed so much strength so often his hold-up play which frequently helped us in transition. Made a decent attempt of a number of half chances but never truly came close to beating Simkin. Probably unlucky not to win a penalty in the first half too, after being rather forcefully hauled down by Phillips in the box. 6.5/10

Substitutes

Emile Smith Rowe

Really liked the intensity ESR played with when he replaced King with 15 to play. Could have easily not seen the appeal of being a sub in a cup tie but the tempo with which he pressed was fantastic and played a part in forcing the goalkeeper into the mistake he makes to allow our winning goal to happen. Those sort of things like high intensity, confidence in how you’re playing etc all come when you’re in the consistent form Smith Rowe has found now. 7/10

Raul Jimenez

On the contrary, Raul disappointed me massively. The effort, the running, the intensity Muniz had played with, whilst occupying Stoke’s backline really well for 75 minutes, was all lost when Jimenez came on and never showed any signs of putting a shift in for his side. Very strange from a player who usually does the exact opposite. 5/10

Harry Wilson/Sander Berge on too late to be fairly rated.

Marco Silva

It was hard work as cup ties go but I think Silva set us up well. To have Iwobi, Bobb, King, Kevin and Muniz all on the field allowed us to continue to play positively and sustain attacks, which eventually got us the win, why that doesn’t come out in the league games more often, I don’t know.

Thought the subs were all made at the right time, even if Raul in particular didn’t have the desired impact. Maybe would have liked to see Iwobi and Castagne replaced based on how negatively they were influencing the team’s performance but there’s an understanding there that minutes for the regular league starters needed managing, especially for Tete. 6/10