Player ratings: Crystal Palace 0-0 Fulham

George Rossiter is back with the player ratings.

Fulham made it back-to-back clean sheets in the Premier League at Selhurst with a hard fought away draw. Some of the attacking output at both ends was hard to watch at times, but an away point at this level is nothing to sniff at. Marco Silva will hope that, in time, he can discover a plan B and the goals will start flowing. It’s safe to say this wasn’t a game that would ever be shown first on Match of the Day…

Bernd Leno

While Leno had little to do in this game (admittedly more than in the Luton game last week), his importance to this side is staggering. As per Peter Rutzler, Fulham’s expected goals against figure is the worst in the entire division, and yet in the early stages of this Premier League season, Fulham have the joint most clean sheets. Smart saves from Eze, Mateta and Edouard showed how alert the German remains even in one of the more boring games he would have played in. 6.5/10

Timothy Castagne

Showed another side to his potential attacking output compared to his first start against Luton, sometimes attempting the overlap past Bobby as well as involving himself in our build up down the right. In general, Castagne’s intelligence on the ball at both ends of the pitch looks to be really impressive and to have already seen a good performance in both full-back positions is really promising. He’ll only continue to grow in this squad. 7/10

Issa Diop

Out of the defensive options at the club, Diop is the one you’d often most expect to have a ‘moment’, but not today. Without being spectacular, he was quietly incredibly solid. In fact, I can’t quite recall any defensive errors from the Frenchman. The pressure he put on French compatriot Mateta late on to prevent a powerful strike heading towards Leno’s goal was potentially pivotal. 7.5/10

Tim Ream

Ream’s early yellow card, while mostly undeserved, evidently frustrated Ream and it bled into his performance for the first half. He wasn’t bad, but some of his passing and positioning was rustier than the normal, calming defensive presence he provides. Those slight errors buffed out as the game went on and his second half showing showed no reasons to worry going forward. 6.5/10

Antonee Robinson

The opportunities provided by Robinson’s overlapping runs and general pace down the left hand side were shown in the opening minutes as he created a really strong chance for Andreas on the left side of the box. Once again, Jedi proved throughout the improvements to his delivery that have been consistently on show at the start of the 2023/24 season. His recovery pace in stopping a Palace attack in the closing minutes just further emphasised his importance to the side. A really impressive display on return from injury. 8/10. – Man of the match

Joao Palhinha

Doucoure, Hughes and Eze is far from an easy midfield to play against, but without coming out of second gear, Palhinha was obviously the best of the bunch at Selhurst Park. First to every challenge, strong in the air and on the ground, it’s all stuff we’re used to now with Joao. Most players would be effected on the pitch had a move to Bayern Munich not surfaced, but not him. 7.5/10

Harrison Reed

One of Reed’s quieter games, but a lot of it feels down to the way Palace tried to attack. Almost everything they did to get success in the final third went through Eze who was picking up some brilliant pockets of space of throughout. This led to Reed often being bypassed in the midfield as Palhinha ended up picking those spaces up in that particular midfield battle. Beyond that, just fairly solid as is to be expected. 6.5/10

Andreas Pereira

This was a performance quite reminiscent of Pereira last season where a better first half was followed by a relatively anonymous second half. His effort from the left side of the box early on was saved well by Johnstone and his passing put others in similar positions on a couple of occasions, most notably one late in the first half to Jimenez. His impact on the game faded but it was still a decent enough showing. 7/10

Bobby De Cordova-Reid

A really quiet game for the most part, especially in the early stages where you could really tell how important the relationships between Tete, Wilson and Reed can be when Fulham attempt to build play down the right hand side. The second half was a lot of the same, bar one great chance created for Jimenez, which ended up missing. 6/10

Willian

While it wasn’t Willian at his best, it was an improvement on recent showings for sure. Seeing the Brazilian cut inside and shoot at speed from outside the box within the first 15 minutes was nothing other than reassuring, and as the second half developed, his confidence on the ball seemed to improve, even if there was nothing to show for it in terms of attacking output. 6.5/10

Raul Jimenez

How do you judge a striker that looks to be doing so much good on the ball, getting in all the right areas, but hasn’t scored a goal in the Premier League for 18 months despite starting a hell of a lot of games in that time? Raul actually finally got the chances the fans have been begging for him to get at Selhurst Park, but his lack of confidence in front of goal was there for the whole world to see. How much longer Marco Silva persists with a striker that doesn’t score goals while Carlos Vinicius sits on the bench is a big question that may need answering. 6.5/10

Substitutes

Alex Iwobi

Subbed on after 75 minutes for Andreas Pereira

Had a positive impact and bought more pace into the midfield but didn’t manage to create a goalscoring opportunity. 6/10

Carlos Vinicius

Subbed on after 79 minutes for Raul Jimenez

Bar a late offside chance, nothing was created for him in his short cameo, which should’ve been a much longer one. 6/10

Harry Wilson

Subbed on after 79 minutes for Bobby De Cordova-Reid

Came on and ran at the Palace defence with pace. Looked more dangerous than Bobby but that’s easy to say when fresh legs run at tired ones. 6/10