Player ratings: Nottingham Forest 0-1 Fulham

Fulham propelled themselves into the Premier League’s top six with a win at the City Ground on Saturday afternoon. In a game lacking quality or many chances in front of goal, Fulham took their biggest chance from the penalty spot to leapfrog opponents Forest in the table. A win by three or more goals at the Etihad next week would put the Whites above Manchester City in the table…just saying.

Bernd Leno

I mean look, Leno had very little to do in this game. Forest had a single shot on target in the whole game and it says a lot that I can’t particularly remember that happening. To Leno’s credit, he did appear to make a wonder save from a close range Chris Wood effort, but VAR suggested that despite Wood being offside, it did indeed cross the line. Also thought Leno looked better than normal in regard to claiming crosses from opposition crosses into our box. 6.5/10.

Kenny Tete

The way Tete is playing at the moment, if he stays fit you just don’t see a way back into the side for Castagne any time soon. Although his passing looked slightly ropey in the first half he put that right and defensively he was outstanding once again. Eight clearances from the right side of defence showed just effective he was defensively when Forest put us under pressure out wide when Elanga and Hudson-Odoi came on. 7.5/10.

Joachim Andersen

A genuinely monstrous defensive display from the Great Dane. Andersen was vital in both boxes, proving to be both our biggest threat from set pieces whilst also repelling anything that came into Fulham’s box for the complete 90 minutes. 11 clearances alone is a ridiculous statistics and points to his focused, faultless performances at the City Ground. We knew it was a fairly safe move to bring Andersen home this summer, but he’s proving that the money spent on him was worth it with the quality he has bought to the side in replacing, and ultimately upgrading on Tosin. 9/10 – Man of the match.

Calvin Bassey

I love that whilst Bassey builds a brilliant partnership with Andersen, you can see the differences in their game that work so well. Andersen is calm and distributes from deep with long diagonals, whilst Bassey looks to bring the ball forward himself, emphasised by his run into Forest’s half in the second half which resulted in a long-range effort at goal. Defensively sound again and overall a quality showing from Bassey, who made an outstanding late challenge from Elanga who was on the verge of striking from a dangerous position. 8/10.

Antonee Robinson

Definitely offered the bigger offensive outlet out of the two full backs. Especially in the second half when Forest looked more exposed on their right hand side after making their substitutes, Robinson was constantly bombing forward and either creating chances himself or giving Iwobi the space to. Multiple tackles, interceptions and clearances in the game show that he is simply up there as one of the best all-round full backs in Europe right now. 8/10.

Sasa Lukic

Honestly might be the first name on the teamsheet at the moment, which is quite some going after a struggle to make his mark on this side in his first 18 months at the club. While Forest looked to pack the midfield with four central midfielders effectively in Dominguez, Ward-Prowse, Yates and Anderson, Lukic was clearly better than all four of them, marshalling our midfield, breaking up play superbly and keeping things calm when the game ever looked to be getting a bit frantic. 7/10.

Andreas Pereira

Just very meh. The least passes of any of our midfield and the lowest completed passing percentage of any of the midfield too. Very little work defensively which is an aspect of his game that simply must improve if he is going to continue being shoehorned into the number eight position. Had very few touches in general, only Jimenez had less, and was just relatively anonymous in all aspects of the game. Winning our penalty was the only real highlight of his day. 6/10.

Emile Smith Rowe

Probably having to come back a bit too often to collect the ball from deep than he’d like but with Pereira’s lack of positional discipline, Smith Rowe is losing the ability to roam a bit further forward. As suggested previously I believe he may be better off on the left but that’s a discussion for another day. Three key passes and two efforts on goal show that when he’s given that freedom offensively he can be vital for us in the final third. 6.5/10.

Adama Traore

A lot has been made of Traore’s final ball and decision making in the past but it is something that clearly has been improved under Silva and has led to the Spanish winger being a mainstay on the right this year. Even if this performance was slightly quieter than others, Adama produced Fulham’s most dribbles, was our most fouled player and had the best pass completion percentage of any Fulham player, showing how effective had can be in the opposition half on any given day. 7.5/10.

Alex Iwobi

One of Iwobi’s best showings this season in my opinion. I still think there’s a possibility that he should operate more centrally this season but this was a big improvement in terms of his performance out wide. His link-up with Robinson, especially in the second half, was particularly effective for Fulham going forward. Iwobi attempted more passes than anyone else in Fulham’s front six as a result of our dominance on that side of the pitch late on in the game and on another  day would have created or scored a goal himself. 7/10.

Raul Jimenez

I’m quite a strong believer that in terms of an all-round game, Muniz probably offers us more over 90 minutes than Raul. However, Jimenez is proving un-droppable with his current goalscoring form as he became just the second Mexican to score 50 Premier League goals with his calmly-placed penalty here. Tidy performance in general but didn’t contribute too much bar the goal. 6.5/10.

Substitutes

Reiss Nelson (68’ for Adama)

Cut inside nicely a few times to show his obvious ability in terms of ball manipulation but didn’t really create anything to show for it. Maybe would have had more joy had Fulham not focused their attacks down the opposite flank. 6/10.

Sander Berge (68’ for Andreas)

Another steady cameo, although the Norweigan is yet to really stake his place for a starting spot to be honest. In a team that maybe lacks balance in midfield, you would like Berge to kick on considering the money spent on his signing. 6/10.

Rodrigo Muniz (83’ for Jimenez), Harrison Reed (83’ for Lukic) and Issa Diop (87’ for Smith Rowe) all came on too late to be fairly assessed but well done to them for helping us see out eight gruelling minutes of additional time late on to secure the three points.