Jack and Loz at the Cottage - Blog 295

Date: 29th December 2024

Opposition: Bournemouth

Score: 2-2

Fulham goal scorers: Raúl Jiménez, Harry Wilson (“he’s done it again”)

Weather: a bit foggy

Atmosphere: a bit frustrated

Sub Of the Match: partly due to a drop-off from recent very high standards, no one shone enough to be MOTM although Leno made some excellent saves, Lukić worked very hard and Harry Wilson (“he’s done it again”) continues to impress. But that’s not to say that there wasn’t an outstanding performance on Sunday afternoon. The autumn of Tom Cairney’s career is proving to be truly golden. He entered the fray in the 68th minute and immediately added bite to an overrun midfield and took control of a runaway rodeo of a game. Tom is still very much a Premier League player and he’s still completely Fulham through and through.

Lunch: Pret

Post-match hot chocolate: Costa

There was always going to be a touch of After the Lord Mayor’s Cliché to Sunday’s match, following as it did so closely after Fulham took a wrecking ball to Stamford Bridge on Boxing Day. There was also the danger that the euphoria generated by the derby win would give us a false sense of invincibility. Both of these factors meant in-form Bournemouth were far from ideal opponents.

The match got off to a bad start before it….err… started when Bournemouth’s sharp featured but dully dressed manager made Fulham attack the Hammy End first. Very few things annoy Hammy Enders as much as this (although a red card not being awarded when it should have been is one of them. But we’re getting ahead of ourselves.)

Marco Silva, not being a fan of change for change’s sake, stuck to the formation that demolished Chelsea and we were interested to see how the Famous Five would perform at home. The only slightly controversial decisions were Raúl keeping his starting place after Muniz’s heroics and Harry Wilson (“he’s done it again”) replacing Adama. But both Raúl and Harry justified Marco’s faith - but we’re getting ahead of ourselves again.

Once we’d overcome the disorientation of the teams being the wrong way round, the game plan became clear. The Famous Five would do their thing and everyone else would try to catch high-pressing Bournemouth on the break. Unfortunately, this didn’t work very well. From being urgent and driven but controlled during the second half of the destruction of Chelsea, Fulham became erratic and panicky. We’ve never watched a game where we conceded so many throw-ins, or a game where so many of our own throw-ins went straight to the opposition.

Everyone gave the ball away far too often, especially Andreas; there were very few concerted attacks and quite a lot of faffing around at the back. Fortunately, Bournemouth looked ragged and the encounter had such a Championship feel about it that no one would have been surprised if Scott Parker had materialised in one or other dugout as a belated Ghost of Christmas Past.

Amongst all the disarray, there were two notable Moments in the first half. The first was when Fulham won a rare corner. Having done nothing up to that point, Andreas put in a perfect delivery, Bournemouth forgot to mark Raúl and our Mexican striker placed his header neatly in the bottom corner of the goal.

The celebratory mood turned darker when, almost immediately after the goal, one of the Bournemouth players tried to kill Antonee and was shown only a yellow card. Hyperbole aside, the most annoying thing here is the lack of consistency - Tom got sent off against Spurs for a similar challenge with less intent. The Bournemouth player was allowed to play on and fortunately Antonee was just about still in one piece.

The Club needs to make a collective New Year’s Resolution for 2025 - stop conceding goals just after half time. It happens far too often and either the team’s mentality or their half time snacks need to change. Both Bournemouth’s goals showed that the Famous Five is a work in progress which will probably be quickly and quietly scrapped like a large national infrastructure project. Andersen was at fault for the first goal - he looked the most tired and jaded of a tired and jaded team and playing as the central centre back didn’t suit him. It’s a hard role though - a bit like when you’re in the middle of the central 5 seat block in an aircraft and the air hostesses in both aisles ignore you so you end up with no dinner.

Things improved as they often do (although, in the interests of balance, we also have to say that they sometimes don’t) when Marco made some subs. We’ve already sung Tom’s praises but this really was a stellar performance from him. His composed conducting created the space for Harry’s goal - a header with shades of his effort during the ruination of Chelsea but without Pedro Nero’s roly poly contribution. Iwobi passed the ball to Antonee who crossed it with a right foot most of us didn’t know he had and Harry simply Did It Again.

Fulham were in the lead again but it didn’t feel secure. Bournemouth were tenacious, Fulham were deteriorating and Adama Traore had come on but rather than sprinting at the opposition he was strolling around the pitch. No one was surprised when Issa Diop made his first mistake for ages and Bournemouth levelled the match.

This feels like a fair but frustrating result in a game too far at the end of a long and exhausting month; at the end of a long and challenging year.

Random musings:-

- Has any Fulham player (other than Ryan Sessegnon) been more warmly applauded when warming up than Rodrigo Muniz was on Sunday?

- It was lovely to see Club stalwart Sandra Coles receive her Forever Fulham award at half time

- The ref was decisive but got lots of decisions wrong - the non-red card being the obvious one but the foul on Diop in the Moments before the second goal and (from Bournemouth’s point of view) the disallowed goal being other big controversial calls

- The Cottage was packed. The Bring Two Mates for £10 certainly paid off although it meant there were lots of people milling around who’d either never been in the Hammy End before or who didn’t know how the alphabet works

- The fracas after the red card incident could have turned nasty. You can tell things are about to escalate when both goalies have to step in

- On the subject of the Bournemouth goalie - he made some amazing saves in the second half (annoyingly)

- Five Defend Badly at Craven Cottage is not an Enid Blyton book and nor should it be.

Before anyone even thinks about Dry January, Fulham have done Unbeaten December which is an astonishing achievement considering the fact we have played most of the other top half sides (and Spurs). This run has helped take us to 8th place in the table - a remarkable feat for a team still reeling from major departures.

We are now at the turning point of the year, the half way mark of the season. Inexorably, the days will start to get longer. But what will Fulham do? Our brilliant but unpredictable team could carry on dropping points like slippery footballs, frustrating their fans and manager alike. Or they could cut out the errors and push on up the table.

In a year when the Club has tested our patience with off-field decisions, two things are incontrovertible. Through good results and bad, through fantastic football and desperate football this group of players are bound together by a belief in each other and the Club. They will keep fighting for us.

And their manager is the real deal. One of the best we’ve ever had; in terms of alignment with the fans’ values and convictions, the best by a margin. We are Marco Silva’s Fulham. But he is Fulham’s Marco Silva which, as he might say himself, is just as important.