Dan Cooke discusses his desire for Fulham to be able to break out of the current rigidity in pursuit of some more creative flair.
Marco is meticulous. It’s an essential trait for a manager at the top level - you need to be a perfectionist. You need to be constantly tweaking, adapting, evolving. Marco has done that gradually since he took charge and I’m in awe at how far he’s brought us.
Compare that Championship-winning side with the one we see today, and while initially the tactics might not seem that different, I think there’s a definite contrast. It’s a largely necessary evolution. A team wins the Championship every year, but not many of them go on to have the sustained stability that we’ve seen from our Fulham.
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The early Premier League campaigns were driven by an ability to be better than teams of a similar stature. However, we lamented our inability to get results against the big boys; we’re football fans; we’re insatiable. Marco knew this and he rectified it. He tinkered away until he’d formed a team that could beat Chelsea, Liverpool, and Arsenal. Beating them in ways that weren’t flukes, but with performances that vindicated the countless hours he’ll have spent in pursuit of those points.
However, as mentioned, we’re never fully satisfied - and we’ve picked a new stick to beat Marco with. This new Fulham team that have stood up to the big bullies and refused to hand over their lunch money, seem to have forgotten how to dish out some wedgies of their own. We used to be great at swatting away teams below us and Saturday was a stark reminder that something needs adjusting in order to get some mojo back.
Control
The word that I keep going back to is “control”. I think it’s the foundations on which anything that Silva does tactically is built. He often speaks about it in press conferences, however, I think his vision of control has changed as we have evolved as a team.
That first season in the Championship was about domination. We “controlled” a game if we got on the front foot, boxed our opponents in and just relentlessly tormented them with our plethora of attacking talent. Forwards were given the freedom to express themselves and we were absolute brutes.
We were all well aware of how different the Premier league is and it’s so commendable how Marco has cemented us as a stable side. However, I do think in seeking a side that can punch upwards, we’ve started to lose some of the joy in our football. Why? I think it goes back to this idea of the changing definition of control.
Previously the focus was on what we dowith the ball, through this evolution I think we’ve seen a shift to how we can control gameswithout it. By holding opponents at arm’s length, funnelling them into areas of the pitch where we feel comfortable, then getting ready to pounce, we’ve found a formula that produces results in games where we’d previously get nothing. We strive to not let our opponents dictate the flow of the game, so while they may have possession, we are attempting to control what they do with it.
This requires a much more rigid structure fulfilled by players who are able to follow instructions and be disciplined. This is where I think trust has become a big factor. Players like Iwobi, Berge, Lukic, and up until this year, Andreas Pereira, have been relied on heavily by Marco. They know the patterns of play; they don’t divert from the game plan; they are controlled.
Unfortunately, I feel this has spilled over into games where we could be evoking more of that old mentality. The patterns of play that were once repetitive are now monotonous. Players who have had a rigidity drilled into them for when the big hitters come to town, seem unable to break out of this structured mentality when we need a spark.
I really want to see some of that freedom come back into our football. I wrote a piece about howbringing Iwobi into central midfield could be an exciting switch and Saturday was further proof that it’s something we should consider. You know exactly what you’ll get from Berge and Lukic but that’s not necessarily always a good thing. We need some randomness, something unexpected, unscripted, in order to find that zing again.
This is what got us all so excited about Kevin, and I anticipate that Samuel Chukwueze will evoke similar feelings. They are wingers who will make decisions based much more on feeling and intuition, as opposed to instructions. Unfortunately, this is why I won’t be surprised if it’s a while before they’re getting consistent starts because while we’re spilling over with excitement, desperate to see what Kevin does when he next gets the ball, I think that unknown is something that Marco Silva will be apprehensive about. He’s gotten used to players doing the expected, carrying out his painstakingly prepared game plans.
I know he’s not a defensive manager - in fact I’ve criticised him in the past for being too cavalier. Currently though, I think we’ve gone too far the other way. If we can find that balance, if we can establish the right definition of control in the right games, then I’ll have to find something else to moan about.
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