Player ratings: Fulham 3-1 Sheffield United

George Rossiter is back with the player ratings.

Fulham bounced back from the derby defeat to take all three points against Sheffield United on a sunny afternoon at Craven Cottage. A two-goal victory that could have been more on another day should help fill Marco Silva’s side with confidence heading into the international break. Our best wishes go to Chris Basham and we wish him a speedy recovery after his awful injury in the first half.

Bernd Leno

It honestly feels like Leno either has nothing to do in a game or is the best player on the pitch because he’s probably been given too much to do. The man had zero saves to make in the first half and barely had a touch of the ball. The second half wasn’t much different bar an easy save from an Oli McBurnie header and the away side’s goal which deflected off about four men before finding it’s way into the German’s net. 6/10

Timothy Castagne

He always looked calm and confident on the ball, showing his quality throughout. Defensively Castagne had very few shaky moments and never allowed Sheffield United any joy down the left, other than their goal which ended in an unfortunate deflection. Linked well with Bobby down the right and to be honest he just doesn’t feel like a player with a nuclear moment in him which is really promising. 7/10

Issa Diop

For all of his shaky moments and mistakes we’ve seen on occasion from Diop, the Sheffield United goal was nothing but bad fortune, and hopefully it’s not a bad muscle injury that keeps him out for a while. While he was on the pitch he defended the box well and looked far too strong for their forwards, especially in his duels with Cameron Archer. 7/10

Tim Ream

Tim is only the eighth man to make 300 appearances for the club – that is some achievement. He continues to show just why he’s been trusted to play all of those games across his near-decade at the club. In play, he was superb defensively. His challenge in added time in the first half was good, but to stand up and instantly spray a pinpoint 60-yard pass to Bobby on the wing was spectacular. His instant compassion for Chris Basham by calling over the medical staff and staying with the Sheffield United defender to reassure him until they came, was a sign of the man he is. We are so lucky to have that man as a leader at our football club. Here’s to the next 300 (maybe). 7.5/10

Antonee Robinson

In the week, Jedi was left out of the next USA squad, apparently to allow him to rest and deal with a developing sporting hernia. The fact he is still able to play as well as he is with that sort of thing happening to his body is borderline ridiculous so fair play to him. When Fulham are the dominant side in the game and on the front foot, there can’t be many better attacking full backs in this division, his early cross for Bobby into the six yard box was evidence of that too. 7/10

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Joao Palhinha

It’s actually quite a nice luxury for Joao Palhinha to not have to do much. Like it’s great seeing him at his best taking the game to his opponent but when he doesn’t have to it’s a good sign that Fulham are performing well and being the more positive side in a game. When he was called upon he was nothing but solid, with a number of good tackles and interceptions, as we’ve come to expect by now. 6.5/10

Alex Iwobi

Nice to see the Nigerian make his first start in the Premier League and showed a lot of promise in it. He’s a completely different profile of midfielder to Harrison Reed and offers a hell of a lot of pace through the middle, which was useful in counter attacking scenarios. Nothing quite fell his way on the day but it wasn’t for the lack of trying, and some of the positions he got into were very promising. 7/10

Andreas Pereira

Andreas’s brilliant pass for Bobby’s opener almost made everything else about his game all the more frustrating. The ability always seems to be there but it’s far too rarely on show. For all the promising running, his long-range efforts went nowhere. For all the good areas he got in, the correct pass was lacking far too often. The Brazilian should offer so much more output wise for what he has in the locker. A run of games for Tom Cairney may be the kick up the backside he badly needs. 6/10

Bobby De Cordova-Reid

Bobby’s play for the opening goal was brilliant, his movement to find the space in the final third was superb and the finish was inch perfect. And it should have been his second, with an early chance from a Robinson cross not quite finding the net. BDR added a lot of variation to our attacking play, finding space out wide as well as inside of his full-back. He never lets the side down and proved his worth again here. 7.5/10

Willian

Early on the Brazilian had a great chance to shoot from range with Wes Foderingham well off his line… but he didn’t. If that was a sign that Willian’s confidence was at rock bottom, the rest of the game proved otherwise. Finally this season, we saw him run at defenders with pace like he did so often last year, causing Jayden Bogle and co so many issues. Everything he did was at twice the speed of recent weeks and his goal late on was the cherry on top of a really reassuring performance. 8/10 – Man of the match

Carlos Vinicius

Vini finally got his opportunity after weeks and weeks of Raul Jimenez struggling to make an impact on this side, and did well in place of the Mexican. His hold-up and link-up play were both very good throughout and were pivotal in the making of the opening goal, as he held off a Sheffield United player to release a counter attacking opportunity. Not many goal scoring chances came, but when they do we can be confident that he’ll have a good chance of taking them. 7/10

Substitutes

Tom Cairney

Subbed on after 70 minutes for Andreas Pereira

It made such a difference to have a player playing the ball forward from midfield and looking to be positive. His ‘goal’ is one of the funnier ones I have seen, described by Fulham’s twitter as a ‘ferocious strike’…enough said. 7.5/10

Calvin Bassey

Subbed on after 70 minutes for Issa Diop

Instantly made efforts to defend on the front foot and made no mistakes in doing so. Was brilliant in pushing Fulham up the field and building attacking momentum, even eventually ending up on the right wing himself momentarily. 6.5/10

Rodrigo Muniz

Subbed on after 78 minutes for Carlos Vinicius

Every single time he comes onto the pitch he gives 110%, which is always refreshing to see. Got into some promising positions and did well to fight off a defender to get Willian the ball back for the third goal. 6.5/10

Harry Wilson

Subbed on after 78 minutes for Bobby De Cordova-Reid

Added energy in the wide areas late on and had a fantastic area bounce off the post after cutting inside to shoot from distance. 6.5/10

Harrison Reed

Subbed on after 78 minutes for Alex Iwobi

Made some really good passes into good areas in the dying minutes and helped to up the tempo as Fulham went onto seal the win. 6.5/10