Jack and Loz Not Sent to Coventry - Blog 190

Date: 2nd October 2021

Opposition: Coventry City

Score: 4-1

Fulham assist: Neeskens Kebano

MOTM: really?

Lunch: Jack - garlic bread and Stilton; Loz - cheese and tomato bagel

In the words of the renowned football pundit, Bonnie Tyler, “Every now and then we fall apart.”

On Wednesday night we were unconvinced by Fulham’s win over Swansea. Mitro’s hat trick was superb but it was also a trompe l’oeil - it masked the deficiencies of a midfield which was overrun and a defence which flirted with chaos.

On Saturday the team travelled to Coventry. Marco Silva said the side would be too tired to play so soon after the travails of Wednesday, but picked most of them to start anyway, unaccountably omitting Tosin and Seri.

Coventry don’t play like a team just promoted from League 1. In the first half they played like a less refined and more brutal version of Fulham. In the second half they just played much better than Fulham.

There were warning signs early on of the devastation which was to come. Coventry looked full of intent and desire. They had a point (or 3) to prove after their midweek loss and some full throated fans behind them. What they lacked in finesse they made up for in determination, with their pressing being reminiscent of Leeds. Fulham looked, from the off, like the tank was empty. The lone moment of brilliance in the entire match was Kebano’s corner delivery which led to the own goal. But taking the narrow lead into the break gave the Fulham players a foolish false confidence.

Rarely in the history of Fulham, or indeed the world, has so much gone wrong so quickly as it did in the second half at Coventry. On Wednesday we caught a glimmer of the Triangulo do Ruina as the defence struggled and floundered and panicked. On Saturday it reappeared in all its terrible glory as the defence simply collapsed. The first goal was hideous, the fourth goal was excruciating. The penalty was a travesty (but why did Robinson stick his leg out?) and the third was a decent strike but what was our midfield doing to let Coventry get into positions to dive in the box and shoot from outside it? Oh, that’s right, nothing.

We don’t like to single out players for criticism (unless they’re on loan from C*****a) but there’s no need to single anyone out: they were all (with the possible exception of Harrison Reid) appalling. Gazzaniga is turning into a liability, someone has cast a spell on Tim Ream robbing him of both his defensive and leadership abilities, Mawson was average (and that’s average by his own standards, not by the standards of a Championship defender), Robinson ran around a lot but was more of a hindrance than a help and whilst Denis had some good moments he can’t play 3 high intensity games in a week as wing back any more.

We once described Onomah as “statuesque in the wrong way”. This would have been an improvement on whatever he was attempting to do on Saturday which was mainly waving his arms around and getting in Tim Ream’s way. Other than his corner deliveries, Kebano offered little and Bobby Reid a good deal less. Harry Wilson seems a shadow of the player he was before his injury and Mitro was forced to spend more time defending and dropping deep than attacking the Coventry goal.

Seri was introduced too late to have any impact, Muniz was invisible and the less said about Cav the better. Our supposedly large and strong squad suddenly looks feeble and disparate. Dropping Tosin was a mistake and, whilst we know Bryan was injured on Wednesday, we missed him.

However, this catalogue of criticism isn’t the worst we have to say. It has felt for a while that when Fulham go behind there is no way back and this match crystallised that sentiment. The team doesn’t deal well with setbacks and on Saturday it crumbled in the face of adversity. The players had no answer to Coventry’s commitment and Marco, like so many of his predecessors, had no Plan B.

We like Tim Ream a lot. He’s intelligent, introspective and he’s a gentleman. But do you want a gentleman as captain of a Championship side? Don’t you need someone who can grab players by the scruff of the neck and throw them into the fray? A man who shouts orders, and points fingers, and takes the blows, not just the blame?

Marco and the team need to spend the international break doing some Sky Blue Thinking. We could have gone top of the league on Saturday, instead we’re languishing in the play-off places and, without finding some new ideas and some much needed resilience, it will be all too easy to stay there.

Random musings:-

- it was nice to see Coventry’s owner in a sky blue coat

- let’s not forget this was the Jimmy Hill Derby, a man who did so much for both clubs and really deserves the title of legend

- the referee turned professional misconduct into an art form, but he’s not the reason we lost

- we know it was a lunchtime kick-off and there’s a petrol shortage but there were a lot of empty seats

- on the subject of petrol, we really feel for the travelling fans.

This is a bad way to go into the international break. We have said it before and we will say it again: consistency is the key to this league and Fulham are erratic, unsteady and now face an uncertain future: a fragile team sliding down the table.

But now there are two weeks off. And we need every day of them. And there are 35 games left. And we’re going to need every one of them too.