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Daily Fulham- Cherries on top
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Gavin looks back on a disappointing evening for Fulham as they succumbed to defeat against Bournemouth at the Vitality Stadium.
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Transcript
00:00:01
Speaker
Every club. Every day. The Global Sports Podcast Network.
Dissecting Fulham's Poor Performance
00:00:07
Speaker
work Hello and welcome back to the Daily Fulham Podcast brought to you by the Global Sports Podcast Network, bringing you the latest news and views from across the Premier League and women's football.
00:00:18
Speaker
My name is Gavin Ruffell and today I am looking back on the Monday Night Football. A Monday night to forget for Fulham as they went down one nil to Bournemouth at the Vitality Stadium. A very disappointing the result, very disappointing performance.
00:00:32
Speaker
One that would have left Marco Silva very frustrated. At the end of the game because they would have come into this encounter with a great degree of confidence. At least you would have fought anyway following that victory against Liverpool last weekend inflicting a rare defeat on the soon to be champions.
00:00:48
Speaker
But as I said, it was a very disappointing night on the South Coast as Fulham failed to score in an away game for the first time since the opening season. day unsurprisingly they did go into this one with the same team that won against Liverpool and you would have been hoping for a similar performance to get a similar result and probably would have been a good time to play Bournemouth given their run of form they've struggled in recent times when you consider where they were a couple of months ago it was looking as though they were likely contenders for the Champions League but their form is really nosedive so that turned out to be a really important win for them on Monday and there's a lot to unpack here so let's get into it then
00:01:26
Speaker
Marco Silva, prior to the game, he spoke about the need to mix the game up, knowing that Bournemouth, they like to go man-to-man, is fully aware of their high press. So yeah, I would have thought there would have been a great degree of confidence going into this game that Fulham could make it back-to-back wins, get a positive result, and then maybe start to look up the table rather than be too concerned about the team's loaner
Bournemouth's Dominance and Fulham's Struggles
00:01:46
Speaker
table. But that confidence would have had the way right from the outset as they can see the first goal the game.
00:01:51
Speaker
Inside 53 seconds and it's a really poor goal to give away, isn't it? Fulham actually have the ball quite high up but then lose it. Robinson tries to cross it in and gets cleared. Comes out to Castagne and then he gifts possession a away to Alex Scott. Alex Scott just drives drives forward, plays a pass.
00:02:08
Speaker
And it's a bit of a sloppy pass to be perfectly honest. But Anthony Robinson, he can't sort his feet out. He almost stumbles over the ball. And in doing so, he just puts it on a plate for Semenyo. who's able to grasp possession.
00:02:20
Speaker
He still has a lot of work to do, however, but then he just strides forward. And i think Anderson's also at fault for the goal. His body positioning is a bit all over the pace. He doesn't know which way Semenyo is going to go. Does he go to his left? Does he go to his right?
00:02:33
Speaker
So he's a bit indecisive. And Semenyo, in the first minute, he unleashes the shot and he he tucks it away in the bottom corner. It's a great finish because early on in the game, maybe you're not quite up to the pace with the game and It's easy maybe to thrash at that, but he just coolly slots it in the bottom corner.
00:02:48
Speaker
All your best play plans go out the window, don't they, when you concede a goal so early on in the game. and It seemed like that had a knock-on effect for Fulham in the first 15-20 minutes. They couldn't quite settle into the game. They couldn't quite make a recovery from that. and There was actually a chance for Tuna, really good opportunity.
00:03:04
Speaker
Bournemouth work it well. They string a few passes together and it comes out to Kirk, as on the left side. Given time to venture forward, Sessegnon just lets him stride forward. Castagne is tucked in at this point and then he floats the ball out to the back post where Alex Scott heads it down and it falls perfectly in the path for Evan Nielsen. and He just gets too much elevation on it and cracks his effort onto the bar.
00:03:25
Speaker
Given the form he's in, you would have expected that to nestle into the back of the net and it to be 2-0 on Mountain to climb for Fulham. Very sloppy 15-20 minutes for Fulham though and and for Timothy Castagne especially.
00:03:37
Speaker
Had a good game I felt against Liverpool but his performances have just been too inconsistent recently haven't they? And with Kenny Tetre now back to full fitness he can't afford those inconsistent performances because he's got a very good right back ready to take his place.
00:03:51
Speaker
Mouni struggled to get into the game for the first 20 minutes. I think there was talk from the commentators about maybe his fitness, some concern about his movement seemed that he was slightly hampered.
00:04:01
Speaker
After that initial nervy, sloppy 20 minutes with Fulham, weren't able to get a foothold in the game, weren't able to recover from that ah shock to system, conceding in the first minute. They did find their way into the game and they had some chances their own. Munez has a really good opportunity. It was a mix-up at the back between Sanessi and Tyson. Munez is able to take advantage of that, gets the ball out in front of him. His first touch takes him a little bit wider goal, but the two centre-halves can't get back to him. He's at a slight angle in the penalty box and then just unleashes a shot.
00:04:33
Speaker
Doesn't quite get great contact on it and it and it goes wide. But after that, Fulham started to take control in terms of possession and in terms
Missed Opportunities for Fulham
00:04:40
Speaker
of territory. I felt Bournemouth were doing well in preventing Fulham's wide men from getting crosses into the box, which is what we know they like to do.
00:04:47
Speaker
They were forcing Fulham to attack through the middle, which is something they're not always quite comfortable in doing. However, there is an occasion where Wobbe does get a delivery into the box. and Fulham should score from it. He measures across to the back post, inched perfectly, and then arriving onto the scene is Ryan Sassignan, and it's it's a really good chance.
00:05:06
Speaker
Free header from about four or five yards out, and he can't get enough power on the header to direct it on goal. It's a comfortable, comfortable save for Kepa. Catching practice and that maybe the Sessegnon has fell to a guy that's not confident in using his head.
00:05:20
Speaker
I don't know how many headers he would have scored in his career, but judging from that opportunity there, looked like a guy who didn't believe in himself from that situation with the ball falling to him on the head and bore him off escape.
00:05:31
Speaker
But Fulham were ending the half the better of the two sides. There was a slight flashpoint towards the end of the half where Sanessi's booked for a challenge on Anderson. Very forceful challenge. Does win the ball but goes through his opponent as well.
00:05:45
Speaker
Quick check from VAR but a yellow card is given and I felt that was the correct decision. Not enough in it for it to be any more than that. So it looks like the teams are going to go in one niil at the interval. But there is one big moment before the whistle goes and it's a big save from Bernd Leno on the stroke of half-time.
00:06:01
Speaker
It actually comes from a long period of born possession where I think they keep hold of it for about a minute and and they get it out to the right, Fulham's left, and it's Alex Scott who just drifts in. He tries a deaf little pass but inadvertently ends up playing a one-two with Sander Berger and it opens up for him on his left foot and he tries to drill a low one into Bernd Leno's near post. The goalkeeper has to be alert to tip it behind.
00:06:24
Speaker
To prevent Bournemouth from going into the interval at 2-0. I mean, that would have been a killer, wouldn't it? Conceding in the first minute and conceding in the last minute of the half. But no, good reflexes from Leno and it remains at 1-0.
Can Fulham Turn the Game Around?
00:06:36
Speaker
Half-time, there's obviously work to do. Started the game in the worst possible way and it took them a good 20 minutes to settle into the game. Felt at this stage, it was still in the balance. Fulham have had success in turning around deficits. Meanwhile, Bournemouth has struggled to keep clean sheets in recent times. So...
00:06:54
Speaker
I still felt there was all to play for and there was a way back into this game for Fulham because we know they usually do score away from home as well. I'll come on to the second half action shortly, but let me just tell you a little bit about our sponsors.
00:07:09
Speaker
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00:07:23
Speaker
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00:07:44
Speaker
So we're looking for a reaction from Fulham at the start of the second half to try and get them back in the game and to be honest they started the second half just as they started the first half. It was more sloppy play, the passing was really poor.
00:07:57
Speaker
Iwobi pass out of play. Berger pass out of play. Anderson pass straight to Kürkez. Robinson is a time where he can't keep the ball in by the touchline. Ball just rolls under his foot.
00:08:09
Speaker
They just lost control of the ball so many times in the first 10-15 minutes of that second half. And on most of those occasions, they weren't under any great deal of pressure from Bournemouth.
00:08:20
Speaker
Watching it, I'm thinking, how on earth can they be this bad? These are Premier League footballers and they can't make a pass. It was more
The Substitution Mix-up
00:08:28
Speaker
National League than Premier League. To go with the awful passing, there's a mistake from Calvin Bassi, which allows Utara to step in. Quick feet in the box, pulls it back to Tyler Adams.
00:08:40
Speaker
He stabs at it and Leno's able to save his near post. Marco Silva was obviously livid with what he was seeing on the sidelines because he made a triple substitution.
00:08:50
Speaker
Eventually, because this took an awful long time to come about, So we saw Traore, Kearney and Jimenez come on for Sessegnon, Berger and Meniz. And the reason it took an eternity is because of confusion about one of the players going off. And that was Ryan Sessegnon, who Marco Silva confirmed after the game that that was never the attention. But his number did come up nevertheless and Fulham weren't able to change it. So Ryan Sessegnon remained on the bench for the rest of the game.
00:09:16
Speaker
Which is a bummer for me because I had just drafted him into my fantasy team. So i got robbed of an extra point there. But anyway... To be honest, at that stage, you could have taken any one of those players off. And it would have been justified.
00:09:28
Speaker
Troyer was one of those subs that came on and you're wondering, you always wonder with him, are we going to get the electrifying version of the player are we going to get the version that promises much and delivers nothing? So for the first fifteen twenty minutes of the second half, it was sloppy Fulham playing.
00:09:42
Speaker
They weren't peppering Bournemouth's goal. They were having a lot of possession.
Lackluster Impact from the Bench
00:09:47
Speaker
but eventually they do create a couple of chances for themselves but they are from distance awobi creates a bit of space for himself there's a shot from the d but it's a comfortable save for kepper lukic likewise from a similar sort of range again it's straight down kepper's throat Another substitution, we see Emile Smith-Rowe come on for Pereira. I certainly felt watching the second half, I felt like Bournemouth were there for the take and that Fulham could muster a goal somehow, then there was a chance for them to possibly turn things around, given Bournemouth's...
00:10:19
Speaker
lack of confidence at that stage given recent results so with all these subs on you are looking for one of them to make an impact to make that difference grab the game by the scruff of the neck turn it on its head but instead it was just more of the same they were just as ineffective as the guys that they had replaced there just seemed to be a lack of cohesion and spark in that fulling team all through the night there is a rare opening for bournemouth in the second half Again, it's a mistake from Calvin Bassie at the back. Evan Nilsson skins him, tries to go around Leno, but Leno's able to smother him, gets a piece of the ball as the attacker goes down, or at least it seemed like he got a piece of the ball. She was pretty inconclusive looking at several replays whether he did get a touch or not, but the original decision stood well.
00:11:05
Speaker
So penalty claims were waved away.
Fundamental Errors in Fulham's Play
00:11:08
Speaker
Fulham's final change saw Willian come on for Lukic. Would he make much of a difference? Well, the answer is no, despite some corners in the second half and few more crosses than we saw in the first half.
00:11:19
Speaker
Fulham getting it into the final third. Bournemouth were largely comfortable and they managed to see the game out. I think the last piece of action in the game saw Tom Cairney pass it straight to the to the advertising hoarding. So that pretty much summed up Fulham's performance on the night.
00:11:35
Speaker
It kind of looked like they'd all been out on the lash the night before and still hadn't recovered from the hangover. Just a very poor performance from Fulham. And I will give my final thoughts after this quick message.
00:11:48
Speaker
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00:12:08
Speaker
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00:12:19
Speaker
Don't settle for off-the-shelf solutions made for just anybody. Get what's right for you right now. Like night follows day, a Fulham loss follows Fulham win. That's the fourth straight time that Fulham have won a game and then proceeded to lose the next game.
00:12:35
Speaker
So are Fulham inconsistent? Are they unpredictable? Or are they consistent and very predictable? That's up for you to decide. Maybe they're predictably inconsistent. Marco Silva though, he must have been so frustrated, so angry after the game at what he'd seen.
00:12:50
Speaker
Because you go and beat Liverpool, you go and beat the runaway league leaders and then you back it up with a performance and display like that. and Generally after most Fulham games I always have a degree of perspective. I'm not always so reactionary and extreme as other people are. I always try and see the positives but it was very difficult to see any positives from that.
00:13:10
Speaker
game against Bournemouth. Because I did go into the game thinking that it was a good chance for Fulham to win that that second game in a row, given Bournemouth's probably brittle confidence and and the fact that they have lost home games recently against teams in the bottom half. So it was a good chance for Fulham to possibly put some pressure on the teams above them and maybe...
00:13:30
Speaker
Look at reeling in a team like Chelsea who they play next time around. But again, it's one step forward and one step back. The pass in was nothing short of a disgrace. I know that sounds very harsh, but watching it in that second half, it's just like like they'd never played football before.
00:13:45
Speaker
The amount of times they gave it away... under no real pressure at all he made the triple sub and any one of those outfield players could have gone off the fact that they messed up the substitution is kind of indicative of how the the night went and none of the substitutions did anything Raul Jimenez, there's always this debate about who should start, who's the number one striker, whether it's Muniz or Jimenez. The one thing I would say is when Muniz is a sub, when he comes on, he makes a greater impact than Jimenez.
00:14:12
Speaker
Jimenez, I think his first three touches, he ended up giving the ball away. He's not an impact sub, is he? So that's a dilemma for Marco Silva on his hands, is he? Because he probably wants to start Muniz, given his form, and reward him for the goals he's scored.
00:14:25
Speaker
But at the same time, he knows if he is chasing a game... that Jimenez is not someone that's going to make an impact off the bench whereas Moniz can do that and we have seen Fulham this season they've scored more goals than any other side from substitutes and you were hoping for them to bring new energy and and life to the game in the second half well they didn't did they and I suppose we've got to speak about Emile Smith-Rowe and and what what has happened to this player because he came on every touch was just was heavy and And there's been questions about his fitness and I talk about confidence a lot.
00:14:57
Speaker
And maybe there's a player that's just really at a low ebb in terms of his confidence levels. Because he just looks a shadow of the player we saw at Arsenal. He looks a shadow of the player we saw early on in the season that was showing something.
00:15:09
Speaker
Showing he could affect games, could be a big player for Fulham. Repay the £35 million that Fulham spent on him in the summer. But... he's just he's just a long way short of that form and he needs to find himself again for the end of the season but it's very doubtful he will at this stage I do have some concerns about the midfield as well Berger was hooked for the triple so I think that might be the earliest he's been substituted in a you a game this season and That's not to say he had an infinitely inferior game to Lukic because you could you could have taken Lukic off as well. But that midfield, there's suddenly a bit of concern about that lacking penetration from midfield because because you don't get much in terms of a return from them in goals or assists. I don't think Berger's contributed to...
00:15:52
Speaker
a single goal or assist this season and we know has other qualities but you just want a bit more in in that category and more from lukic as well i feel like after coming back from that suspension we haven't seen the version of him that we saw before the suspension so i wonder if that's the way to go now maybe fulham need to look at a different option in the middle of the park but across the pitch I don't think any one of the outfield players can be pleased with their performance. I think Fulham's standout player on the night was Bert Leno.
00:16:17
Speaker
And he didn't have a lot of work to do. He made a crucial save at the end of the first half and a crucial one at start the start second half. So he's made two saves in the whole game and I think he was Fulham's best player by a million miles. Not a good night at all.
00:16:28
Speaker
And yes, if you look at statistics, they'll tell you that Fulham had more possession, they had more shots on target. But not one of the shots they had on target were any threat to Kepa. I think if I was in goal for Bournemouth, I would have backed myself to say the shots that came his way, just not enough penetration, not enough in the final third, too many players had off performances.
00:16:46
Speaker
Anthony Robinson in particular, this was an absolute horror game for him. He never recovered from that initial mistake in the first minute and he just let it affect him, didn't he? And it may be that he's someone that's in need of a rest, but Fulham don't have any cover at left back, do they?
00:17:00
Speaker
Which is why he's forced to play every game. And maybe that lack of depth there is just starting to catch up on Fulham. A very poor outing for him, but he wasn't the only one, was he? It's a familiar pattern as well, isn't it? And the Fulham can beat one of those big sides, get a result against them. And then the bread and butter games against teams in and around them or in the bottom half, they can't quite get up for it.
00:17:22
Speaker
They lack that intensity that I think Silva spoke about after the game. i think Calvin Bassey said it as well. You've got to have that same level of intensity for whoever you play, not just get yourselves up for the games against the big six. And this is the frustration because they played Chelsea on the weekend on Sunday.
00:17:37
Speaker
And I'm pretty confident you'll see a different version of Fulham. You'll see a version Fulham that we saw against Liverpool where they are up for it. It's a local derby, of course, and it's an opportunity for them to do the double over their neighbours, which they wouldn't have done in an awfully long time, but you can't just pick and choose when you can get yourselves up for a game. You can't turn it on and turn it off like happened.
00:17:57
Speaker
Ultimately, Marco Silva will probably look back this season and feel like they've left so many points out there. And even in this game, I feel like they didn't deserve to get a result just because of the way they played. Not because I felt Bournemouth were great.
00:18:09
Speaker
Bournemouth didn't have to be great to win the game because Fulham just made it easy for them. I believe Heysen or House, I'm never sure how to pronounce it. I think he was named man of the match, at least by Sky anyway. And whilst I think he is a top young centre-half and one to keep an eye on for years to come, think it was just an easy night's work for him, which is more down to the way Fulham attacked and their lack of overall quality than anything he did outstanding in the game. But he did the basics well and that was enough for Bournemouth to get the result.
00:18:36
Speaker
By the way, middle of April now, we've had temperatures of about 20 degrees in the last few days and we've still got Heysen and Calvin Bassey wearing gloves. Come on lads, sort that out. Fulham are in a battle now with Bournemouth and Brighton level on points with both of those clubs now and you can maybe even include Crystal Palace in the mix for that last European spot via the league which we believe will go down to eight places. I think you can forget about the teams in front of Fulham.
Fulham's Inconsistency and Missed Chances
00:19:01
Speaker
If Fulham had got positive result in this game then there may have been a feeling within that they could possibly reel in Chelsea given the fact that they do play them on the weekend and could have gone level on points with them. if they had won at Bournemouth, but now that's not the case and Fulham's form is just too inconsistent. You look at the teams above them, ah the runner form that Aston Villa are in, the runner form Newcastle are currently in, but Fulham just never had any stage the season where they've just been able to put wins together because there's always a performance like the one we saw against Bournemouth.
00:19:30
Speaker
Having said that, still been a good season. They can still qualify for Europe. They can still get their record points tally. Nothing positive on this night. I'll try to find positives if I can, but I just can't from that performance. and Just desperately disappointing, wasn't it? But you move on to Sunday now. You've got to pick yourselves up. You go again for that big West London derby.
00:19:49
Speaker
Full and well. It's been win-lose, win-lose, win-lose, win-lose. So hopefully that means they do get the victory Sunday. the weekend against Chelsea and I'll look forward to that in due course but that'll do it for today's recap on the events at the Vitality Stadium thank you all once again for tuning in and I really hope I can have your company next time on the Daily Fuller podcast every club every day the Global Sports Podcast Network