Fulham (A) Pre-match thoughts, team news, possible line-ups & prediction

“It’s a key spell for us. The first seven games have been very, very positive in lots of aspects of our play, but maybe not in terms of the points delivery and the amount of games we’ve won. We have to be mindful of that.”

This was Eddie Howe’s message ahead of our final run of fixtures before the World Cup, suggesting now is the time to turn promising performances into points.

Believe it or not, this is the longest we’ve gone without a win since Howe took over almost 12 months ago, with us failing to take all three points since that opening day victory over Nottingham Forest.

There’s been plenty of positive displays, seeing us have more of the ball and create plenty of chances, however we were toothless in that 1-1 draw with Bournemouth before the international break and must respond at Craven Cottage on Saturday.

Fulham have been by far the most impressive of the three newly promoted clubs so far. Aleksandar Mitrovic’s superb form has been a huge part of their success, but Marco Silva has made them more competitive in all areas of the pitch, leaving them 6th in the table and unbeaten at home.

It’s a big game. Win and we’re back on track, putting lingering doubts from that tepid Bournemouth display to bed, but a defeat or another toothless draw could turn an average start into a poor one.

Team news

Bruno Guimaraes and Callum Wilson have both been passed fit to play, but Alexander Isak looks set to miss out – despite Eddie Howe insisting his injury doesn’t look serious following his withdrawal from the Sweden squad.

Allan Saint-Maximin is “very close” to returning, but he and Chris Wood (rib) will undergo late fitness tests to determine if they’re able to make the bench. Elsewhere, Elliot Anderson is fine after a minor knock kept him out of that 1-1 draw with Bournemouth.

For Fulham, they’ll be without a key player in Joao Palhinha, with the Portuguese midfielder suspended after picking up his fifth yellow of the season in their win at Nottingham Forest before the break. Aleksandar Mitrovic picked up a knock while playing for Serbia, but he’s expected to be fine.

Predicted line ups

(4-3-3): Pope – Trippier, Lascelles, Botman, Targett – Joelinton, S Longstaff, Guimaraes – Almiron, Wilson, Fraser.

Eddie Howe may have two defensive dilemmas going into this one. Does he start Lascelles over Schar – as he did at Anfield – to help deal with Mitrovic’s power and aerial prowess and will he opt for Burn or Botman?

The latter withdrew from international duty to focus on club football, with reports suggesting he was ‘frustrated and surprised’ to be left out of our draw with Bournemouth. As an imposing centre-back who’s barely lost an aerial duel all season, I fancy him to partner Lascelles at Fulham.

He and Lascelles often played together over pre-season and could be the ideal mix to handle Mitrovic. Howe could easily opt for Schar and Burn – his preferred partnership over the past six months – but I’ve got a sneaky feeling we’ll see a few changes in that department.

In midfield, I see Sean Longstaff returning in a deeper role, allowing Bruno Guimaraes to push further up the pitch alongside Joelinton. This would see Willock drop out, which isn’t ideal, but if Bruno is to operate in that preferred ‘No 8’ role, Longstaff is our only ‘No 6’ while Shelvey remains out.

In attack, Callum Wilson looks ready to return at just the right time, with injuries to Isak and Wood over the international break handing our No 9 the ideal opportunity to come back with a bang.

Predicted Fulham XI: Leno – Tete, Adarabioyo, Ream, Kurzawa – Reed, Cairney – Willian, Pereira, Reid – Mitrovic.

One to watch: Aleksandar Mitrovic – Only Erling Haaland has scored more Premier League goals than the former Mag this season, with the Serbian also scoring four goals in two Nations League outings over the break. A real handful with a point to prove who could cause huge problems if we’re not strong enough or allow too many crosses into the box.

Prediction

All eyes are on Mitrovic, but Palhinha will be a big miss for the hosts, as no player in Europe’s top five leagues has completed more tackles so far this season. Without him, there could be some steel missing from Fulham’s engine room – something the likes of Bruno Guimaraes will gladly exploit.

It won’t be easy – Fulham have enjoyed an unbeaten start to the season at Craven Cottage and we arrive on the back of a disruptive international break and poor display against Bournemouth – but I’m backing us to come away with a hard fought yet well deserved win.

Wilson to bag a brace on his comeback in the capital and Newcastle to

Prediction: Fulham 1-2 Newcastle

About Olly Hawkins

As a Junior Magpie since birth and season ticket holder, I eat, sleep and breathe all things NUFC! Here at the blog, I aim to bring you news, views, match reports and transfer exclusives as and when I get them.

73 thoughts on “Fulham (A) Pre-match thoughts, team news, possible line-ups & prediction

  1. I seem to be in a minority of 1 when I say it was not a poor display against Bournemouth, it was poor finishing and ability to get in the box at times. We had a zillion-billion-million crosses, corners, free kicks – just failed to get the final touch. We hit the post twice. Should have won at least 3-1.

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  2. I am OK with Olly’s team but I think it will be Willock and not Longstaff who starts.

    As I said on the last thread, I think we will play Lascelles at some point as he seems to offer more in the opposition box than Burn and Schar. If we are going to bang in so many crosses we have to have someone who knows what to do with them, even if he is a worse defender than the other 2.

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  3. Bl00dy hell, me Mam is an 80 year old pit bull. She keeps picking fights with the carer association looking after my 90 year old aunt who has senile dementia. I keep telling her she will get more flies with honey than vinegar, but at 80 I suppose she is set in her ways 🙂

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  4. I was listening to Wraith’s channel and the “Geordie Dentist” (Drunkard) was talking about all things NUFC finance and all things PL finance. Shouldnt he be talking about teeth? 🙂

    I have a business degree, am a Certified Financial Planner, have a stocker broker and insurance license and dont talk about finance as much as the DENTIST FFS.

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  5. I would never assume I am qualified to talk about teeth, so how is HE qualified to talk about finance?

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  6. Although, I think Bruno needs a filling in his bicuspid and Big Joe needs some teeth whitening gum. Jurgen Klopp could recommend someone. Not the Geordie Dentist (Drunkard) as he seems to be the Geordie Economist now.

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  7. Eric – I think we’ve played better than in the Bmth game, but it wasn’t a poor performance.
    But you are right, the amount of chances we had we should be scoring at least 2 goals – the city, spurs, Lpool forwards would have been scoring 4-5 at least with that many chances.

    I’ve made a big deal of it, but I want to see us being more of a threat from set pieces. It’s an opportunity for goals we don’t make enough of imo – we do with freekicks in shooting range, but crosses in & corners we need to do better.

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  8. I posted this on the last article directly after the Bmth game – I think it got lost with all the messages about IT issues.

    It’s almost an article in itself really:

    After a lot of low score draws in recent games & another lacklustre performance by our attackers again yesterday I thought I’d look at some of the stats.

    Currently we are 4th for shots with 108 (Spurs the same) – only Man City, Liverpool & Arsenal ahead of us – and we are only 10 behind City who are 1st.

    But shots mean nowt if they aren’t on target. So shots on target – we are actually 5th with 38 – behind the same teams but topping that pile is actually Spurs with an impressive 48.

    But shots on target mean nowt if they aren’t converted to goals. So looking at that we actually fall away to 10th with only 9 conversions – immediately off the top of my head I can think of Tripps scoring from a freekick & Isak notching his penalty yesterday – so we’ve only scored 7 from open play.
    As you can imagine City top that pile with a huge 23 and Spurs 2nd with 18 – no surprise with their quality up front. But to put our figures into greater perspective Brentford are 4th with 15 goals.

    I know we have been missing Wilson & ASM – but Brentford should still not be out scoring us when we are creating that many chance imo.

    I bang on a lot on here about corners and the fact I think we should be more successful in terms of goals from them.

    Newcastle top the pile with numbers of corners taken with 53 so far. In Tripps & Target we now have set piece takers who can and do put quality balls into the box – but they are not converted to goals or even shots on target (as in headers).

    We are unquestionably playing better under Howe and being 4th & 5th for shot & shots on target is confirmation we are far more attack minded and usually better to watch (yesterday not so much).

    There’s not much more he can do in terms of shots on target to goals. His job is to make sure the team create – if individual players don’t have the composure or ability to convert there’s little he can do.

    BUT I do think more can be done in converting even as few as 10% of the corners we win.

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  9. I think a lot is said about us needing improved creative players – but those stats show that we are up there with the best clubs in creating chances and shots on targets.

    We need creative players that can score more goals – but what we in our team is better composure, more clinical finishing.

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  10. Harry Kane is brilliant. I was watching the Pen and thought we know where it is going. High and to the goalie’s right. Then he sticks it down the middle.

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  11. Mike Dean is on VAR for our game. I thought he retired. Why doesnt the Liverpool supporting fat fck just leave and work as a consultant for The Sun or summink?

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  12. Hope Eddie can get us a win today. We deserve it as we have been very unlucky. I really like Eddie and want him to succeed. I have really disliked many of our managers under the Fat Man even though they were dealt dead mans’ hands by the said fat man. I was even OK with Rafa. He was not the King, Pharoah or Pope that Ed Harrison built him up to be though. His glory days were well past before he came to the Toon.

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  13. Red Card? For that!!! It happens every game and they get a yellow.

    Just shows again that the Refs and VAR have no clue.

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  14. No Targett or Joelinton in the team. No ASM or Fraser, Anderson yet bloody useless Murphy plays. You have me perplexed Mr Howe.

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  15. Can’t put up links Georgio, the blog owners will be in a heap of dung if you post illegal streams.

    HWTL

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  16. What the hell is this? A fit referee. Not saying a good Ref as I havent seen him yet.

    But he isnt a fatty like Dean, Moss and Friend.

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  17. What a cracking first half and that goal from Miggy 😍😍😍. 3-0 up and a man up. I’d hope we will take real advantage of this a put a shed load past them.

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  18. Could not have been better.

    Saved Wilson and Bruno for next week and hopefully ASM will be back as well.

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  19. That really pisses me off when they just switch off and mess about. Liverpool or City would press and press and put 6 or 7 past them. We just switch off and mess about and then it’s 4-1 instead of 6-0 … a good win but they must stop the sh.it and get more ruthless. Miggy my MotM today, but they all did well.

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  20. Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha.

    Big Fat Steve Bruce loses again at home.

    I will check the table. He was 20th was time I looked.

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  21. Can’t argue with 4-1 and a nice run out for guimares and Wilson on their way back to fitness. Wilson could (should ??) have had a hattrick in first half

    Great strike from almiron

    Good that longstaff didn’t suffer from a nasty challenge.

    Job done .. next 😁

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