Positives and negatives: Sheffield United 3-3 Fulham
Written by Sammy James on 31st March 2024
Sammy looks back at the good, bad and ugly from our crazy 3-3 draw against Sheffield United at Bramall Lane.
POS: Muniz’s scissor practice
We’ve been waiting for the moment that a Rodrigo Muniz scissor/bicycle kick would go in since the Championship season. Law of averages dictated that one would go in eventually, but for it to be a 94th minute equaliser was just ridiculous.
He is prodigiously talented, works hard and is a team player. Write him off at your peril, the lad’s gonna hit double figs and he only started playing in February.
"He's one overhead kick away" – @DanSCooke97
"It's coming!" – @GeorgeCoops
Muniz's scissor was manifested during our post-Spurs podcast 🔮 pic.twitter.com/IRjTQwPnEw— Fulhamish (@FulhamishPod) March 31, 2024
POS: Silva’s last roll of the dice
The beauty of having a strong bench is that in moments of crisis you have plenty of weapons at your disposal. Silva brought on the cavalry of Adama, Decordova-Reid, Tete and Cairney all to try and rescue the game and boy did it work.
BDR scored a bullet, Cairney looked like he was playing against school children and Adama sent the Blades backline for a spin cycle. Fulham’s strength right now is truly in depth.
POS: Bottle in spades
Embed from Getty ImagesIf you’d have offered us a draw before kick-off, we’d have all said no, but when we thought it was 4-1, I’d have bitten your arm off. There were big flaws in Saturday’s performance, but this team has big, big character and belief – that cannot be denied.
NEG: Defence cut open
Embed from Getty ImagesFulham’s defence at points in that second half lost complete control. Ben Brereton-Diaz is a good player, but we made him look like the second coming of Diego Maradona at times. The Bassey/Tosin partnership make it look like football is too easy at times, but they also do have the ability to buckle under pressure.
NEG: Over-confidence bordering on arrogance?
Sorry to say it, but Fulham’s first half performance at Bramall Lane needs discussing. Yes, we were clearly the better team, but there’s a thin line between confidence and arrogance.
For me, we bordered on the latter at times. Andreas Pereira was impressive throughout, but the trick pass in the first half hour was totally unnecessary and sent out the wrong signal. Do that shit when you’re 3-0 up, not at 0-0.
Whilst that was a visible example, I think the whole team was guilty of treating this game like they could just rock up and comfortably win, and we were a marginal offside decision away from this being a complete humiliation to one of the worst teams this league has seen since Huddersfield Town.
We need to show the intensity that we did against Tottenham in every game. Had we done that on Saturday, this would have been the walkover we all predicted pre-match.
