Jack and Loz at the Cottage - Blog 290

Date: 23rd November 2024

Opposition: Wolves

Score: 1-4

Fulham goal scorer: Alex Iwobi

Weather: stormy

Atmosphere: stormy

MOTM: yeah, right

Pre-match: Pret

Post-match: fans from the other three stands were finally allowed into the ground floor of the Riverside for cheap drinks, long moans and to shelter from the weather. On a sunny Saturday after a win it’s going to be amazing there. Afterwards we went to Fabers in Hammersmith which is owned by the stepson of the King. Even fish and chips with a royal connection didn’t cheer us up

In several games this season, Fulham have played well but not got the result we were striving for. On Saturday, Fulham played badly and got the loss we deserved.

Things were ominous from the start. Wolves were a team in need of a performance and a result - the sort of team all Fulham fans know we must fear. The bookies had made us favourites to win - odds which don’t work for a team which likes to be the underdogs. Instead, our opponents were the under-er…Wolves. Plus the match took place after an international break (more on that later) and one of our recent stand-out performers, Sander Berge was mysteriously MIA.

However, things started ok. Or at least, they started like the Brentford match with Fulham having lots of possession in dangerous areas but able to do precisely nothing with it. Once again, overplaying the ball, faffing around outside the box and delivering the final ball in the style of an Amazon driver on a bad day was our undoing.

Until Alex Iwobi decided to take matters into his own… er - feet and strike from outside the box. And what a goal it was! From the Hammy End we watched the ball arc through the rain in slow motion, evading the goalie’s fingertips and gliding into the net.

Fulham were in business! We were going on a European tour!

But, as so often in the Fulham-verse, things unravelled very quickly.

First, Bernd Leno and the defence were so mesmerised by a piece of skill from the Wolves striker that they sat back in awe and watched him score a goal rather than trying to prevent it. Secondly, everyone forgot how to play football.

Mindful of the terrible weather (Marco confirmed in his pre-game chat that he knows it rains a lot in England) the players initially kept passes short and at ground-level but an alarming number went awry. Later, when things got desperate the passes became long and aerial and all of them went awry. The usual smooth but fast paced rhythm wasn’t there, interrupted by so many throw-ins and free kicks that the game was as stop-start as the Amazon delivery driver’s day.

But we’ve faced frustrating opponents and difficult conditions before and dug in and fought hard. On Saturday we barely huffed and puffed before rolling over. Were we too complacent? Certainly, no one played well. Iwobi had his Moment of brilliance then faded out, Bassey started strong and finished invisible, Lukić was up for the battle but couldn’t be expected to play at 100% for 100 minutes. ESR has plateaued again while Reiss Lighting didn’t live up to his name and has probably played himself out of the starting line-up. Raúl gave his best but missed a sitter and was starting him only two days after he flew back from Central America really the right decision….?

Which brings us to something new - our first substantive criticism of Marco Silva.

Of course, all geniuses have off-days. That wasn’t the first time Newton saw an apple fall off a tree was it? How many of Leonardo’s drawings went straight in the vellum recycling bin? And let’s not get started on a Comedy of Errors. Whilst Marco wasn’t on the pitch missing goals and watching others float in, he did pick the starting line-up, he did prepare the coaching plans over the international break and he did make the subs.

It’s too easy to blame the break for the bad result - other teams have players who go away too; plenty of ours actually stayed at home. But the loss of momentum in these Moments is becoming more than a coincidence. “We’ve spoken about it,” said Marco, in his pre-game chinwag. But what did he actually say??? Bearing in mind this is a team which loses momentum in the 15 minutes of half time, they need careful coaching after days away and long haul flights. Are they not getting it? Or are Marco’s tactics so complicated that the players forget them without constant reminders and exposure?

As for the subs, there is a time and a place for a triple sub but that wasn’t it as was later borne out painfully for Joachim Andersen and the rest of us. It was obvious to 25,000 people at half time that Reiss and Emile weren’t up to scratch and needed replacing but the former didn’t happen until 10 minutes and another goal later while Emile was allowed to be ineffective for even longer.

The subs didn’t improve things anyway. Tom didn’t manage to calm the midfield down and Adama didn’t produce anything seriously threatening. Harry hit the bar but it turns out that calls for him to return to the starting line-up were premature.

Marco is no doubt as frustrated as the rest of us (or even more so if all that arm waving is anything to go by) and all his decisions were made with good intent. We were 2-1 down and he had to switch things up - but the changes backfired spectacularly. He will learn and his many excellent managerial qualities will go unnoticed by everyone outside Fulham for a little longer.

Once Andersen had limped off, things went from worse to dire, the players gave up and just wanted the nightmare to be over. Credit to Wolves for their game plan and its execution and their greater determination. For Fulham, hopefully this is just a bump in the road

Random Musings:-

- The Wolves players came dressed as purple Starbursts

- At half time it was established that not only are we not going on a European tour, no one is going on a European cruise either

- It really was good to go to the riverside after the match and thanks for the cheap drinks

- And we managed to say hello to Ivan!

- Reiss removed his shirt. We didn’t care.

Andersen’s fate is yet unknown but we suddenly seem to have a growing injury list and a tough run of fixtures. But, as we saw on Saturday, at Fulham Football Club you have to expect the unexpected all the time.