Positives and Negatives: Fulham 0-0 Southampton
Jack Stroudley looks back at Sunday’s goalless draw with Southampton.
Well that wasn’t very festive of you Fulham I must say. Following a positive few weeks against those towards the top of tree it felt like a foregone conclusion that Fulham would comfortably dispatch of Southampton, oh if only football worked like that. A point apiece on a drizzly and dark day on the Thames means that Fulham miss the opportunity to move up to as high as seventh at Christmas and the chance to be on a record number of points at this stage of a Premier League season. Football, eh? Anyway let’s get into the talking points from a not so super Sunday.
Positives
The King’s Speech
The only crumb of comfort to come from today was the first Premier League start for Josh King. I’ll be honest I was very sceptical when finding out that the 17-year-old would be playing today, he proved me wrong. I thought particularly in the first-half he was at the centre of the limited bright moments we had. Just three misplaced passes alongside seven duels won and three tackles showcased that not only was King willing to drive forward and create chances but also press and get stuck in when needed. I can’t see him starting unless we are without Pereira or Smith Rowe but a very good showing in the 62 minutes he got.
Negatives
Drab and dull
If I had a time machine I wouldn’t go back to any poignant time in history, I’d rewind to 1:59pm on Sunday and do something more productive than watch Fulham v Southampton. I thought that the visitors defended well and frustrated us with most of our chances being speculative efforts from distance which failed to trouble Aaron Ramsdale. Between both Raul Jimenez and Rodrigo Muniz neither of our forward men mustered a shot that wasn’t blocked, wide players failed to make an impact and midfielders struggled to pick out key passes. It was overall a day to forget to Fulham who didn’t really knock on the door, rather just looked at the metaphorical door from afar.
More points dropped
Fulham once again showed an inability to pick up points in games that they should be winning. One point against Southampton, a 4-1 defeat against Wolves, a point at Ipswich, a 94th minute equaliser against West Ham, a 95th minute equaliser against Everton. It’s becoming quite frustrating now and is something we haven’t usually seen from Silva’s side in the Premier League. During the last two campaigns we’ve been strong against the sides that we are expected to get results against but this season feels like a bit of a step back from that. We’ve paired that with an ability to pick up points against the top sides so are thankfully still in the pack, but it’s something we need to change if we want to keep up with other European contenders.
A missed opportunity
Today felt like a golden opportunity to build on what has been a positive month for Fulham with a convincing win at home against a struggling side with an interim manager, so naturally we played out a game as boring as you’ll see. I said last week after Liverpool we needed to be getting a minimum of seven points from Southampton, Bournemouth and Ipswich at home which now leaves us needing to win those next two home fixtures. It’s so frustrating because Fulham feel like such a nearly team at the moment and with the sheer quality of the rest of the division I’m slightly concerned if we continue to drop points in games we shouldn’t that we’ll once again find ourselves with nothing to play for come March.
