Player ratings: Fulham 5-0 Nottingham Forest
Written by George Rossiter on 7th December 2023
George Rossiter is back with the player ratings.
Fulham put on a five-star performance at Craven Cottage on Wednesday evening, putting an out of sorts Nottingham Forest firmly to the sword. Goals in each half for Iwobi and Jimenez plus a cherry on top from Captain Cairney moved Fulham up to twelfth in the Premier League table. After back-to-back home wins in the Premier League, the Whites will be looking to make it three in a row against West Ham on Sunday.
Bernd Leno
Never easy to judge a goalkeeping performance when your keeper has so little to do. Forest’s single shot on target came 81 minutes into the game, which Leno did well to stay switched on and parry away. Bar a couple of times where Leno cleared an overhit Forest ball over the top of the defence, that’s all there is to say here, other than we love a clean sheet. 6.5/10.
Timtohy Castagne
Came back into the side, assumingly to help slowly aid Tete’s return to the team after injury, and did a very solid job. The Belgian caused Forest left-back Harry Toffolo all sorts of issues, varying his underlapping and overlapping runs to keep Toffolo guessing, while giving Iwobi options and space in the process. Defensively, Castagne dealt well with the threat of Elanga too. 7/10.
Tosin
Really good to see Tosin back, especially after a number of games without a recognised right-sided centre back available to Marco Silva. A couple of weak passes throughout the game showed potential signs of rustiness in his game, but the intent to play the ball forward and confidently take risks on the ball was good to see. 6.5/10.
Calvin Bassey
Dealt really well with the physical threat offered by Divock Origi up front for Forest whenever the ex-Liverpool forward found himself around the Fulham box. Bassey looked a lot more comfortable on the ball in a much more natural starting position for him on the left hand side. The combination of strength, speed and on-the-ball ability between both Tosin and Bassey may make them a really promising pairing going forward. 7/10.
Antonee Robinson
I often think you can judge how well a full-back has done defensively based on how good a game their opposing winger has played, and I cannot remember a single threatening moment in the game from Callum Hudson-Odoi, so praise goes to Jedi there. As his been the case a lot in recent games, the American’s overlapping runs down the left side were a huge threat in Fulham’s attacking play. 6.5/10.
Joao Palhinha
Embed from Getty ImagesDon’t know if we take for granted how good Palhinha is sometimes. His ball retention was out of this world against Forest and was hardly spoken about, every single tackle timed to absolute perfection. The only reason Fulham managed to start an attack for our second goal was thanks to a challenge made by Palhinha near the halfway line. 8/10.
Tom Cairney
There’s a reason Cairney was being compared to Maddison and Grealish in the Championship days, his on the ball ability is outstanding, and his turn for the opening goal to start the attack was outrageously good, and he was involved for the build up for the fourth two. Cairney won his fair share of interceptions in the middle alongside Palhinha, an aspect of his game we’re not as used to seeing, and by the time he put home Fulham’s fifth, it was a well deserved goal for the skipper. 8/10.
Andreas Pereira
Best performance for a long time. There were signs of an upturn in performance at Anfield but this was much better in all aspects. Showed amazing energy early on, getting all around the pitch, including a brilliant defensive recovery from a Forest attack in the first half. Also won multiple set pieces, including a free kick which he nearly bent in himself. A hat-trick of assists shows the creativity he has in his game, which we need to see a lot more often. 8/10.
Alex Iwobi
Embed from Getty ImagesOne of the worries when Iwobi joined was his goalscoring capabilities, those worries started to be squashed in this game with a high quality brace. Both goals included really intelligent runs into the box, both finished with a brilliant calmness past Forest’s Greek keeper Vlachodimos. His quality on the ball, whether central, on the left or on the right, is such an added bonus to our side. 8/10.
Willian
On his 300th Premier League appearance, the Brazilian’s awareness and quality to see Iwobi’s run into the box for the opening goal and pick him out, was proof of why he’s one of the greatest ever South Americans to grace the Premier League. Willian linked really well on the left-hand side, both with the overlapping Robinson and the ever available Cairney in the middle. 7.5/10.
Raul Jimenez
The Mexican was so much more involved with our attacking build up play in the opening stages, showing a willingness to run the channels or come back twenty yards to get the ball. His first goal was a sign of a player coming into a bit of confidence with a brilliant finish. His second goal was a sign of a player who may have finally found that confidence, an audacious back-heel to remind us of what we knew he was capable of from his time at Wolves. Let’s hope this performance truly was a sign of things to come for Raul. 8.5/10. – Man of the match.
Substitutes
Harry Wilson
Subbed on after 63 minutes for Willian
Always seems to make a positive impact off the bench, even if feels harsh that he was there to start with, like it did when the lineup for this game was announced. A really tidy assist for Iwobi’s second and Fulham’s fourth. 6.5/10.
Bobby De Cordova-Reid
Subbed on after 75 minutes for Alex Iwobi
Made some promising runs as Fulham continued to bombard the Forest defence. Met one long ball with a gorgeously controlled backheel mid air that found its way to a teammate which was the biggest highlight I can remember. 6/10.
Fode Ballo-Toure
Subbed on after 75 minutes for Antonee Robinson
Seems a really sensible back-up to have for Robinson considering in every cameo he’s had so far, he emulates his style of play with bombing runs down the left side at a serious speed. 6/10.
Embed from Getty ImagesCarlos Vinicius and Sasa Lukic (Subbed on after 81 minutes for Raul Jimenez and Joao Palhinha) subbed on too late to be fairly rated.
