Everton 2–0 Fulham. Marco Silva’s Fulham tenure hits a new low. One win in seven, and Fulham sit a point off the relegation zone heading into late November. There should be doubts about what this season is about — it’s about scraping survival.
Instead of my normal prognosis of what went wrong in the previous game, I want to do a deeper dive on the situation at the club as a whole. So, where has it all gone wrong at Fulham Football Club?
Silva’s System’s Gone Stale: Fulham Have Lost Their Identity
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Since promotion, Fulham have played the same attacking system — the same shape, the same prototype of striker, and the same attempted pattern of play in build. Simply put, teams have figured Fulham out. We have lost the identity that made us the Premier League hot shots of 22/23.
How do Fulham play? Are we a team that plays on the break? A team that plays direct football? Possession based football? It’s evident for all to see that Marco’s men need a tactical revamp. At the moment we look passive outside of possession and out of ideas in possession.
Fulham continue to sit outside 18 yard box for large swathes of games. If you have a tough tackling six alongside a ball progressing ball carrier, you can afford to do just that — but doing that with a midfield two that offers nothing to protect a back four nor ball progression through the thirds is a fast-track to championship football.
The solution to our midfield issue is a change in system at either end of the pitch. In his first ‘crisis’ as Fulham boss, this is where Marco Silva has to earn his corn. But at the Hill Dickenson, the 47 year old looked out of ideas, and without a plan-b. This international break has to be a turning point in the tactical system we roll out in the next few weeks and months. Major change is needed.
It’s time to move to a more dynamic, fluid, transitional form of attack, with a proper number six screening the defence. That six should be Fulham’s January priority, but till then, I see Harrison Reed as Fulham’s best option to take up that out and out number six mantle. He’s got an engine, he’s scrappy — and besides, did the Ginger Iniesta ever deserved to be dropped from the starting XI in the first place?
Fulham’s Form Has Been Relegation-like Sice March: Has Marco Taken Fulham as Far as He Can?
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Fulham struggles aren’t confined to this season. Since the start of March, Fulham have picked up the second least points out of any team that has been in the Premier League in both 24/25 and 25/26 (20). Add our overall form to the fact that the Cottagers have won just twice away from home since February 26th, and it’s clear to see that labelling the issues of late as seasonal issues is naive. These problems are deep rooted.
Since that FA Cup Quarter Final against Crystal Palace, the feeling that Marco may have taken as Fulham as far as he can has been impossible to shake. With Silva set to leave this summer, it becomes increasingly likely that Silva’s players may be unable to be motivated by a manger they know isn’t in it for the long haul.
The longer this form, and these concerns continue, you have to question if it may be time for Marco and Fulham to come to a crunch decision about their future as a pair.
Either Marco signs a new deal and he’s given full reign of the season — no matter the end result — or the Khans and Silva go their separate ways. While I’ll believe to the bitter end that there is no better man to take Fulham forward than Marco Silva, in a survival scrap, you need a head coach fully invested in the cause.
Fulham Stood Still This Summer — and Are Now Paying The Price
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This summer, I — like many others — made it abudantly clear that standing still is moving backwards in the Premier League, and boy, have I been proved right.
Despite undoubted talents like Kevin and Chukwueze being brought in, you’re only seeing players like Kevin gain their first starts now — in mid November. Where would Fulham be if we had crucial signings done before our pre season trip to the Algarve? We’ll never know. You can thank ownership’s failure to understand how to bed players into a squad for that.
The difference in the Fulham and Everton midfield? Kiernan Dewsbury Hall. Tony Khan and co apparently had the lead on the Toffees to win KDH’s signature — but instead, London’s Original let him through our grasp, and look desperate for a ball-controlling number eight. Dewsbury Hall leading the match in duels won, tackles won, and touches, all while notching up an assist and a disallowed goal, is poetic justice.
A talismanic striker is the cure all solution a side struggling to carve out clear cut chances — and that is something Fulham do not have. Now that Rodrigo Muniz — who looked very positive when he came on — is back on the treatment table, Raul Jimenez playing through injury is Marco Silva’s only legitimate striking option for the next few weeks.
If you’re lucky you can play Rodrigo into a purple patch — but can you entrust the Brazilian as the man to fire you out of a relegation battle? No. Having Raul Jimenez, a 34 year old injury prone striker as his only backup is asking for trouble, but responding to Silva’s shouts for a quality developmental third striker to the gimmick aquisition of Jonah Kusi Asare is pure negligence.
The truth is Fulham never got anywhere close to replacing Aleksander Mitrovic or Joao Palhinha.
Similarities to 13/14 Continue To Mount: Laying Out Where Fulham Go From Here
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The similarities of 13/14 build week on week. We have a decent side, decent players, a Premier League acclaimed manager — but previous summer failings look to have caught up with us.
Don’t let a second half display against the worst team in the league, with ten men, fool you — Fulham are in big trouble this season. We can’t win away, we can’t see out games, we’ve been tactically found out, and we’ve lost the identity that made Marco Silva’s Fulham, Marco Silva’s Fulham.
Blame summer business — I would too — but it’s time for a tactical reshuffle. Lukic and Berge simply cannot play together. We cannot continiue to camp outside the 18 year box, with no purpose of transitioning at speed or playing off a target man.
This is where Marco earns his crust. Utilise the dynamic nature of King, Kevin and Chukwueze — build a counter-attacking juggernaut.
If there is no systematic change, and the calibre of result, and performances stay the same, we have to force Marco into a decision: you sign a new deal, or we go our separate ways