Player ratings: Bournemouth 3-0 Fulham

George Rossiter has the Boxing Day player ratings.

It was another case of not-so-festive Fulham as the Whites fell to a dismal defeat on the south coast. Marco Silva’s side barely laid a glove on Andoni Iraola’s Bournemouth side as the Spaniard watched on from the stands. Back-to-back defeats to nil leave Fulham needing a big response, with a game against title contenders Arsenal looming ahead of the January transfer window.

Bernd Leno

Leno was lucky to not be the reason we conceded before we actually did. Following a weak flap at a Bournemouth cross, the German reacted too slowly and was unable to collect the second ball, leaving Bournemouth with an open goal had their resulting cross found a player in black and red. When Bournemouth did score, it went right through Leno’s body. The other two goals weren’t particularly down to Leno, but it was a strangely poor performance in general. 4.5/10.

Kenny Tete

Another who looked uncharacteristically poor in this game. Tete had a couple of shaky moments defensively in the first half, which is something we see rarely. We know how effective he can be connecting with Reed and Wilson on the right, but that didn’t translate to a different lineup today and the Dutchman barely ventured forward. Maybe a bit of rust involved, but we know he’s a much better player than this showing suggests. 5/10.

Tosin

Actually quite a good performance, despite the scoreline. In fact, it would be fair to say that without Tosin’s defensive quality, the scoreline could have been much worse than 3-0. An early block from inside the box denied Dominic Solanke, but the sliding challenge to deny Justin Kluivert on the left side of the box half an hour in was even more impressive. Comes away with some credit, for sure. 7/10. – Man of the match.

Calvin Bassey

Again, I just don’t think the centre back pairing in general were so bad in this game, more the issues lay around them. Made a great tackle early on, denying Semenyo when Bournemouth were looking dangerous on the counter. Kept us in the game at 2-0 with a big challenge on Solanke too. Looked really good and composed on the ball throughout, not too much to complain about here. 6.5/10.

Antonee Robinson

Big fan of the early Jon Harley-esque 40 yard half volley attempt, back when there was optimism of a positive result. Robinson had quite a quiet game, nothing stood out defensively errors wise. His overlapping offered plenty of opportunities early on for Iwobi to cut inside and cross, just a shame nothing came of them. 6/10.

Joao Palhinha

A few have suggested that Palhinha’s involvement in recent games has lessened slightly, but this was a really uncharacteristic performance. Joao looked strangely timid in everything that he did. No brave long passes, no crunching sliding tackles of note, just seemingly roaming round like a passenger, something we can so rarely accuse him of. The lapse judgement to bundle over Semenyo and concede a penalty summed up his game. 4.5/10.

Tom Cairney

Similarly to the Burnley fixture, it was irritating to see our most creative player so rarely receive the ball. Perhaps in this case the questioning should be aimed at the tactics of Silva though, employing TC deeper to cope with the Bournemouth midfield threat of Christie and Scott. Cairney didn’t do an awful job of it, but it meant his talents were wasted in a game where we created nothing. 6/10.

Andreas Pereira

Not awful, not great. Early on in the game when Fulham still had something to play for, the main threat came from Andreas’ corners. His variety, using short corners, inswingers and a chip to the edge of the box to tee up Bobby Reid, caused the most issues to Bournemouth’s defence perhaps in the whole game. 6/10.

Bobby De Cordova-Reid

Bobby offers so much normally but in this game he was so painfully ineffective. Every flick or pass just wasn’t coming off for the Jamaican, who rarely found himself in a position to worry the Bournemouth backline. Losing possession in the build up to the home side winning the penalty that led to their second goal was the cherry on top of a poor performance. 4.5/10.

Alex Iwobi

Iwobi combined well with Robinson throughout, and it started to look like they were building a relationship like the one that has been developed between the American and Willian. Iwobi found himself in a number of great crossing positions in the first half, but his in-swinging deliveries never quite found their man. Just like the rest of the team, the final ball just never worked out. 5.5/10.

Rodrigo Muniz

I get why this might look like a poor performance on paper, but no striker is going to succeed when the 10 players behind them are so inept at creating a chance for the forward that wants to score them. There were positives to take for the young Brazilian though. His hold up play with his back to goal in the final third was really useful, and the touch he showed in the box just two minutes in was beautifully delicate. 6/10.

Substitutes

Timothy Castagne

Subbed on after 73 minutes for Kenny Tete

Probably showed more attacking intent in 17 minutes than Tete had done previously but by then Bournemouth were dominant and the game had been put to bed, which probably points to Silva needing to make subs earlier. 6/10.

Harry Wilson

Subbed on after 73 minutes for Bobby De Cordova-Reid

Barely got a touch in the final third, just like the rest of our attackers hadn’t done prior to him coming on. Nice of Wilson to attempt to prevent Bournemouth’s third, unlike some (Lukic, I’m looking at you) who simply stood holding their genitalia rather than putting in any form of challenge. 6/10.

Sasa Lukic, Carlos Vinicius and Fode Ballo-Toure (Subbed on after 83 minutes for Tom Cairney, Andreas Pereira and Antonee Robinson) came on too late to be fairly judged.