Recap: Silva's side see off Sunderland
Sammy looks back at a positive weekend at the Cottage
A post international break win where we also played well? Marco really is a genius.
To say Saturday’s victory was much needed was an understatement. For the first time in his Fulham career, Marco Silva felt the Premier League media vultures circling, with an unprecedented gaggle of journos turning up to his press conference when often it’s Jack Kelly on ones doing the Lord’s work.
Marco wasn’t really under that much pressure, but a loss on Saturday would have been fairly catastrophic given our upcoming fixtures. We’d have taken a win by any means necessary, but the fact it was a deserved one was a lovely tonic to what’s been a worrying few weeks for Fulham fans.
I found it tough to analyse exactly what I thought of the win post-match, which is probably illustrated in the Quick Take that Drew and I recorded. Both of us were happy, but also somewhat restrained in our praise. A number of people I spoke to immediately post match puffed their cheeks and said something along the lines of “we made hard work of that” and I think our mood reflected that.
In hindsight though, we were possibly a tad harsh, I was quite stunned to find out that we took 24 shots after the recording! We were definitely the better team on the ball, but I don’t remember creating too many clear cut chances and throughout the match I really felt like we missed Muniz. I can’t deny that Raul worked his socks off, but he didn’t offer much presence in the box - that was until he clinched the crucial goal!
Maybe this is now the moment where Raul goes on a hot streak, but I just think that we have to find a plan B for when/if Raul runs out of gas.
One subscriber to our YouTube suggested a front 3 of ESR, Wilson and Chukwueze - which I do definitely think could be an option. I don’t think it would work every game, but I do think Harry has the attributes to play ‘false 9’.
However we should run through some of the other positives, as there are plenty. Firstly, Samu Chukwueze was electric off the bench, so much so that George Rossiter gave him a 9/10 in the player ratings! High praise indeed from GR, but not without merit.
Ever since his cameo at Bournemouth, I’ve been convinced that Samu will have a much greater impact this season than Kevin. He feels like a Champions League quality player, and surely it’s a matter of time until he gets a start. Interesting to see him play so well on the left, when previously we’ve only known him as a right-sided player.
In his regular column, Owen McDonald praised Fulham’s defence who kept their third clean sheet of the season. Marco Silva also lavished praise on the backline during his post-game dressing room talk, which was interestingly published by the club on Sunday, not something they do very often to my knowledge.
I don’t know how anyone could want a change of manager after watching this video, I would walk over broken glass for that man.
My own praise though goes to Alex Iwobi, who I thought was brilliant in the ‘8’ position alongside Berge. Iwobi’s movement means that our team had a lot more passing options than normal - he also has the ability to beat a man with skill, opening up the game on numerous occasions. There were a couple of risky passes that a better team might have punished, but overall he has to be an option, not just when Lukic is suspended.
There will be occasions for the more defensive Sasa/Sander axis, particularly when Iwobi trots off for AFCON at Christmas, but for now, I’d love Marco to give this midfield partnership a bit of time.
I’m hosting the podcast later today with Dom Betts, Sarah Keig and Drew Heatley - it’ll be out on Monday afternoon for you to enjoy, and then Jack Kelly and Joe Sansom will be hosting the Jack and Joe Show which should be out on either Tuesday or Wednesday. Lovely to have a win to chat about!
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