Wilson wins again as Fulham take three points at Turf Moor
Goals for Smith Rowe, Bassey and the Welsh Wizard outweigh Burnley in 3-2 victory
Who said winning away from home was hard? Fulham vanquished their poor form at Turf Moor and take three points on the road for the second time in a row with a Wilson-inspired 3-2 win over struggling Burnley, and whilst Scott Parker’s side gave us a good contest over the evening our top flight quality was enough to push us towards a much-needed victory. There’s problems for Silva to fix, especially given the departures the Africa Cup of Nations is about to inflict on the club, but we’ve taken a decent step away from the relegation zone, important given most of the sides beneath us are playing tomorrow.
First Half
Burnley’s latest attempt to survive the drop has hit dire straits, and the opening few minutes demonstrate why. They were lively from the start, Hartman and Brunn Larsen combining well on the left and Ugochukwu fizzing around dangerously around the box; the latter won a free kick off Berge right in front of goal, and but for a well-timed jump from the wall the Norwegian might have tested Leno.
Yet their defending has been a consistent failing across the season, and it gifted us an early opener. Every side concedes corners - Iwobi’s lofted through pass fell nicely to Chukwueze, Ekdal dealt with the winger, Jimenez was quickest to the loose ball and from his pass Robinson won a set-piece. However, teams with ambitions of sustained top-flight football cannot do what Burnley did from Wilson’s corner, letting the ball fly low through the box for Smith-Rowe to tap in from point-blank range. It was horrible defending, be it Hartman mistiming his block at the near post or half the Burnley team losing Smith Rowe entirely for an unopposed shot at goal, and quite overtly demonstrated the gulf in concentration between the two divisions.
Scott Parker has a decent Burnley team here though, and their performances don’t necessarily match their string of defeats. Brunn Larsen accelerated away from a limp Wilson challenge and dinked a pass into the box for Ugochukwu, dashing away from the backline, that required a strong bodyblock from Leno off the line, and produced a couple of corners, the second of which needed an acrobatic backwards dive to keep from going in. Our possession - pretty as it looked - wasn’t quashing home spirits, and they had the confidence to build the ball up from the back and move it around the pitch progressively in search of an equaliser.
Our lead was in jeopardy, but our players didn’t realise it. Passing from their own box, Hartman and Brunn Larsen combined again to find Cullen in space in the centre. Smartly, he played a ball through to Ugochukwu, running through the middle into our box, who slotted the ball low besides Leno. It wasn’t good enough from Fulham - Berge was far too loose from Cullen, Robinson, still readjusting to life back in the team, got caught in two minds moving towards the wing and opened the channel up for Ugochukwu and Bassey’s complacency saw the midfielder breeze past him. This year’s promotees have the nous to capitalise on moments like this, and with Brunn Larsen, Broja, Ugochukwu and Foster all boosted by the goal to run at our defenders, a nervy spell began for Fulham.
Or it might have, if Burnley didn’t shoot themselves in the foot again. Their attacking energy had recentred play and moved them further from their goal. Bassey deployed a lofted through ball to try and advantage this - Ekdal got their first but miscued his defensive header, which the intelligently-placed Smith Rowe latched onto to smack a cross across. Esteve booted it away, Ekdal did similarly from the resulting corner, but Robinson collected it and had the vision to spot Wilson, running behind an advancing backline. The timing was excellent, as was the exquisite touch Wilson took to stop the ball going out - it let him lift it into the six-yard box, where Bassey, still up from the corner, leapt higher than Tuanzebe and Ekdal for an easy header. Really poor defending again from the hosts, and the lead restored for Fulham.
The defending had completely disintegrated for both sides. A wild passage of play saw Andersen haul Broja down for a yellow card at the halfway line, Cullen whip the quick free kick into the box for Broja - only Leno’s quick reaction to come off the line stopped Broja equalising again - and Berge, sweeping up amidst the furore put a pass through Burnley’s heart for Wilson to dribble onto, forcing Dubravka to push the ball away. This frenzied situation suited Burnley, who were getting on the ball and putting it into dangerous areas. Towards the end of the half, Ugochukwu set up a chance for Foster that he lashed over the bar, took a smart pass from Cullen nicely with his chest to volley sharply at goal - again, Leno’s low dive to the right was vital - and Esteve towered above all to win the resulting corner, but put his header well over the bar. Great keeping and a bit of good fortune was all that stood between us and ceding the lead again.
Second Half
Unsurprisingly, Burnley entered the second half in good spirits. Scott Parker is many things but his relationship with players, built through his graft in the Championship, means his teams have a lot of fight, and you’d imagine the extra incentive of beating us, his former employers, might have fed into his half-time wisdom. Brunn Larsen continued to cause problems, making a cutting pass into the box that Bassey narrowly diverted away from Broja. Our defence were in their headlights, and a series of close interventions were needed to repel the hosts.
Of course, with Burnley’s team becoming more fervent in their efforts to chase the win, this also brought Fulham’s pace into the game. Robinson had been flimsy at the back, but being in the line-up activated another element to our game. His pace and versatility on the left meant the overlaps and movement of Chukwueze could be used to expose a brittle Tuanzebe at right-back. Smith-Rowe enjoyed taking the ball through understaffed parts of the pitch, shunting it wide with the cool support of Iwobi and watching the chaos of a scrambled backline unfold around them. If we’d been a little sharper, we’d have scored earlier in the half; some loose passes in the final third from our speedsters spared their blushes.
Not that Burnley were the only side on the cusp of being exposed at the back. Another moment of mayhem saw Fulham almost capitulate entirely - from a tame throw in, Smith-Rowe carelessly sliced a backpass into the path of Brunn Larsen, again well-positioned to trouble Fulham’s defence and now through on goal. Leno’s heroics continued though - he surged off his line to parry the effort away from harm. His defence almost blew it for him in the aftermath- Andersen bumbling around the ball as they tried to clear it saw the clearance fall straight to Broja, who almost won a penalty from the intervention Bassey had to put in to stop it. He had his own comedy moment seconds later - an ambitious run out from defence with the ball took him through the frenzied Burnley team all the way to their box, but with several teammates unmarked to his left he sliced the shot hopelessly off the target.
The manic nature of the game had distracted Burnley from their defensive duties, and minutes later it cost them again. Cullen and Florentino had more zonal responsibilities as deeper midfielders yet had yielded them, allowing Fulham to once again challenge the backline. Berge got it to Smith Rowe, who moved into Burnley’s half to find Chukwueze on the wing. Ahead of the trailing midfield, he had the vision to play the ball behind the scrambling backline, finding Harry Wilson free on the right. He wouldn’t be held from scoring - the Welshman curled the ball neatly into the far post, away from Dubravka’s dive.
At 3-1 down, with Fulham enjoying a cushion and starting to dominate proceedings, Burnley might have faded from the game - but Parker’s team weren’t finished yet. The ineffective Florentino and a tiring Foster departed for Marcus Edwards and Zian Flemming, two forwards with the intelligence to work industriously around Broja. This was dangerous for us - whilst Broja had been bested in the contests he’d fought with Bassey and Andersen, the space around the box wasn’t being maintained properly, something the pair started advantaging. A moment of hesitation between Bassey and Tete saw the ball stormed onto by Broja - though they stopped him, the loose ball fell to Edwards, producing a corner. His presence around the centre linked nicely to Ugochukwu on the right, pulling players out of position and winning free kicks to probe the final third.
Time ticked on, and Fulham continued to make their way through the game, hitting Burnley on the break when they could escape Burnley’s pressure. We could have sealed the game with 15 minutes to go - Robinson, on another maraud down the left, found Chukwueze entering the box, away from Tuanzebe again. Though the cross didn’t result in a shot, Tuanzebe’s fumbled pass to Cullen in his own box let Wilson nick it right in front of goal. His lay off to Robinson should have presented the fourth goal - he instead blasted it over.
Silva decided to make his own changes, switching Iwobi and a truly exhausted Jimenez for King and Lukic. This, combined with Burnley putting the energy of forward Anthony, right-back Sonne and later attacking midfielder Tresor on, created adverse conditions for Fulham. Iwobi was important for taking pressure out of the game with his passes, and unleashing attacks with his visionary passes from deeper positions - Lukic failed to achieve the same. King, meanwhile, had the same problem as Raul - whilst he pressed with more energy than the Mexican, he was detached from the game floating around the middle, and with limited service couldn’t get the ball away from Fulham’s final third.
Inevitably, pressure started to mount. Sonne gave a real challenge to Fulham’s left, using the space on the left to play balls from deep and move creatively along the flank. One such pass went into the box and was knocked down by Flemming - Tete’s attempt to clear fell to Edwards, who returned the ball to Flemming, requiring Leno to save the resulting effort. We needed to sharpen up, rapidly - but Fulham didn’t learn their lesson. Through Anthony in the middle, to Hartman on Burnley’s left, a cross fell into the middle - Flemming knocked the ball along to Sonne, free of the left back, who chested it down and fired a shot beyond Leno for 3-2. Another defensive episode with lackadaisical marking - Burnley had a chance to salvage the game.
To his credit, Silva did make effective changes here - Castagne arrived to make the team a back five, and Traore’s substitution gave us pure pace to harry Burnley players on the ball. It was vital, too - Burnley effectively had Cullen in midfield, five forwards roaming ahead of him and Sonne inverting to try and deceive Robinson on the right. Thankfully the team chose this moment to lock in, erasing the earlier arrogance to steer us towards the finishing line; a late throw was bungled by the hosts, and the sanctuary of the final whistle guaranteed the three points.
Harry Wilson, once again
Harry Wilson is a marvel, a sensation. He has always had a flash of brilliance in him but this is the most consistently exceptional form we’ve seen from him since the Championship promotion season. Obviously Burnley helped us out with their shambolic defending from the corners, but there have been plenty of moments we’ve failed to make the most of - you might argue it’s endemic to the club! Wilson has stepped up to meet the challenges we’re facing at the moment, and today struck a fantastic goal to complement two wonderful assists.
His magic is pulling the weight of the attack at the moment. Smith Rowe is clearly enjoying linking with him, and looks much closer to the Arsenal days with his attacking runs and slick passes around the team. Chukwueze, whilst still a brilliant dribbler, had a slightly wayward radar for a few moments (though did do well to find Wilson for the third goal, and is still an awesome option for the left). He could do with Kevin and Sess, when he returns, putting him under pressure for the starting berth on that wing to keep him sharp. Poor Raul Jimenez resembled a zombie today, and did more defensive work than he made attacking contributions - surely Kusi-Asare is worth saving the Mexican’s last remaining energy reserves?
It was nice seeing Robinson back - even in his recovering state, the man is a blast of energy on the left, and gives us so many options to exploit defenders with. Iwobi clearly liked having him back, and played a range of brilliant passes down the left channel today. This, however, leaves us with a problem - right as the American returns, we’re losing Chukwueze and Iwobi from the positions around him (and Bassey next to him!) We saw Lukic struggle to match the tempo of the game when he entered for Iwobi, and without Bassey’s physical attributes to bail us out of defensive predicaments more will be asked of the rest of the defence, something that recent weeks have shown is proving taxing. Without Leno’s saves today Burnley would easily have taken victory - Fulham need to work out how to stay alert in the key moments at the back, because better sides can and will exploit our constant brain lapses (and have, repeatedly this season)
The End of Parkerball?
Scott Parker is a curious man. There will always be part of me that defends him - he took us back up to the Premier League on the first attempt following a truly terrible relegation in 2019, and until things fell apart towards the end he had us very close to safety at points in the season as well (we forget how dismal things were for us in the Premier League in the 13-14 and 18-19 campaigns compared to Parker’s effort, sometimes). You can see some of his better elements in the team today - Burnley had a lot of energy, tried some inventive tactics on the ball to get the ball into dangerous areas and actually had more possession and shots that Fulham over the course of the game.
I really like their attack, too - Broja was a little rudderless but Foster and Brunn Larsen gave our fullbacks headaches across the game with their acceleration and aggression, Ugochukwu appeared in all the most dangerous places to test Leno, Cullen had the eye for a pass throughout the contest and the substitutes introduced a dynamic element to the match that made managing things difficult. We had to switch to a back-five to truly nullify the opponent, because there were too many players in our half to properly shut down the threat.
However, they are on a terrible losing streak for a reason. Parker was often accused of being a dull, uninspired tactician with us but this Burnley team swing the other way, where the exuberance and freedom in attack has led to defenders unable to switch on for the critical moments at the back, and a midfield constantly bypassed when their possession play fails to yield a goal. Ultimately this incompetence required them to score three times to even earn a point, something that is true in far too many of their games, and when you add this to the gulf that already exists between Burnley and the average Premier League outfit, the task becomes insurmountable. You wonder, if the defeats continue, whether his third attempt at life in the Premier League will meet a cruel end.
It matters not for Fulham, who move back towards the familiar comforts of mid-table. And, with Newcastle up next in a League Cup quarter final, Marco may have a smile on his face - a win secured, an extra day’s rest, and knowledge that our opponents will be coming back from a fiery experience at the Stadium of Light in the first top-flight Tyne-Wear derby for a decade. Small pickings, perhaps, but Fulham need to take them - there’s a serious chance of making the last four of the cup, and victory, inspired by our triumph here, could transform the shape of this season.