Player Ratings: Fulham 0-0 Southampton

Rarely have I ever watched a game of football quite as boring as that one. Rarely does a Premier League fixture in this era of football had such little quality and excitement attached to it. This is going to be a difficult write up…

Bernd Leno

The stats say Southampton had a shot on target, which whilst being news to me is fantastic because it gives us something to talk about. Southampton’s whole game was focused on a clean sheet, with very little inspiration in Fulham’s defensive third. It left Leno with a very quiet day, claiming rare crosses doing his best to stay awake. 6/10.

Timothy Castagne

Fairly anonymous, especially in the first half where not only did he have very little to do defensively, but the Belgian also seemed allergic to going past the halfway line against a team who wanted all eleven men in their own half, which was strange. Put in a couple of crosses in the second half but never found his intended target. Hard to know if this performance was down to a lack of minutes or as a result of the team’s mentality overall, but it was poor. 5/10.

Issa Diop

I don’t know how big of a compliment to say that Issa was our best defender on a day when we rarely have to defend but for me, he was. Every time one of Southampton’s attacking contingent dared to cross the halfway line, Diop was far too strong, easing them off the ball every single time and doing it calmly and authoritatively each time. Andersen may be back, but I don’t think he’ll come straight back in considering Diop’s form. 6.5/10.

Calvin Bassey

Worried me slightly with the franticness of his game in the early stages. In a situation where Fulham had little to worry about, Bassey seemed to be a tad unfocused. Passes went astray once or twice early on. Then Tyler Dibling, in a rare forage forward, left Bassey for dead far too easily on the halfway line, leaving Diop to clean up the mess. Bar that, he was fine, but they were slightly worrying moments nonetheless. 5.5/10.

Antonee Robinson

Look on the bright side, if any of the big club’s scouts came to the Cottage to keep an eye on Jedi here, they may have gone back to their respective scouting departments with a fairly bog standard report. This wasn’t a typical Robinson performance. He didn’t bomb forward often and when he did his crosses looked as menacing as they may have done three or four years ago when some fans believed Joe Bryan was a better full back, effectively, they were poor. 6/10.

Sander Berge

Finally we come to a player I can speak relatively positively about, and yet I’m left worrying over a potential injury, with Berge left hobbling down the tunnel with what looked like a nasty knock to his shin or ankle. When he was on the pitch, Berge cleaned up everything that came his way on the halfway line and quickly redistributed the ball into the Southampton half, allowing other players to…well…not do much with it. Slowly becoming a fairly un-droppable member of this midfield…if he stays fit. 7/10.

Tom Cairney

Considering the lack of available midfielders and the excitement around Cairney following his equaliser away to Tottenham swiftly before he earned his suspension, this was such a disappointing display in a game where he probably would’ve wanted to chaperone the 17-year old next to him. I can rarely remember watching a Fulham game with the skipper in and wondering whether or not he was on the field, he was that anonymous throughout. 5/10.

Josh King

It’s so easy to over-exaggerate how well a young academy debutant has played because of the excitement surrounding their involvement, but Josh King is completely deserving of his praise here. On a pitch lacking quality or energy, he was constantly showing for the ball and showing quality on it. You could tell there was an eagerness early on to impress, the teenager playing the game at 100 miles an hour, which helped him to block a Dibling effort at one end and get on the ball at the other. He was brave in possession and strong in his midfield duels, something which can’t be said for some other senior pros on the field. 7.5/10 – Man of the match.

Harry Wilson

Can’t fault Wilson for at least having a go in a truly tepid game of football. While nobody else seemed to want to go near either goal, Wilson was trying the spectacular to bring the game and the Craven Cottage crowd to life. 25 minutes in he set up a chance for himself by bouncing a ball off his knee into a shooting position 20 yards out, volleying narrowly over. Another long range went over minutes later, and in the second half he got on the end of an Adama cross at the back post, only to see a close range effort wonderfully saved by Ramsdale. He threatened more than most, but to no reward. 6.5/10.

Alex Iwobi

Considering how focal Iwobi has become in our forward line recently, he is the one you would have most have hoped for a big performance from in this sort of game. Yet, bar two efforts from the left corner of the box which came to nothing in the end, as well as a low pea-roller late on, Iwobi drifted in and out of the game like he’d normally drift inside and outside of defenders. Maybe it’s tiredness or just an element of frustration with the flow of the game, but it was an uninspiring showing. 6/10.

Rodrigo Muniz

God knows what happened to our normally energetic, bullish Brazilian here, but Muniz was really off it, even more so than the other 21 on the pitch contributing to such a shoddy showing of sport. Muniz, who so often bullies defenders in the air, had the air of a man unable to bully a kitten. He showed no fight, no endeavour to get into the box and no desire to win this game on his own like a young, enthusiastic striker should in a drab 0-0. Jimenez has to start at the Bridge after this. 4/10.

Substitutes

Adama Traore (61’ for King)

Baffled by some of the criticism I’ve read about Adama online after this game. Traore created our best chance, with a wonderful cross to the back post that found Harry Wilson in a great area. He came the closest to scoring for Fulham, with a strong low effort just brushing past the post late on. He took men on when others looked scared to and wasn’t afraid to use both feet to get the ball in the box. He was arguably our brightest attacking threat all game and yet he’s copped a lot of abuse for apparently not tracking back once in added time? Baffling, he was sound, a really decent cameo off the bench. 7/10.

Raul Jimenez (61’ for Muniz)

Definitely added an energy and aggression that was missing from Muniz for the first hour of the game. Sometimes that aggression was slightly misjudged with a couple of poor tackles, one which resulted in a booking. Had a decent volley in the box blocked by Sugawara, which was more attacking intent shown by most in a penalty area on the day. 6/10.

Sasa Lukic (74’ for Berge)

Looked uncharacteristically uncomposed on the ball as soon as he came on, which was strange considering the game was hardly being played at a terrifyingly fast pace. Made a couple of worrying passes that against better opposition may have been jumped upon. Still, with the lack of midfield options right now, we could really do with the Serb fit for Boxing Day, with a worrying looking reoccurrence of his shoulder knock on show at the end of this one. 5.5/10.

Martial Godo (74’ for Cairney)

Obviously our bench options were scarce but throwing Godo on here felt a bit weird. He’s not Premier League quality, as harsh as it sounds for most of his Wigan spell he wasn’t League One quality. Being a lower league player is absolutely fine, but how he’s made a Premier League squad over someone like Callum Osmand who is actually doing something to prove his worth at this club, is beyond me. Godo lacked quality and looked afraid to beat his man here. 5/10.

Carlos Vinicius (87’ for Wilson) came on too late to be fairly assessed.

Manager

Marco Silva

Silva got so much wrong here. The team selection looked bold before kick off with the number of changes made against a relegation threatened team and quite quickly with the performance on the pitch looked borderline arrogant. There looked to be so little game plan, with no clear attacking patterns and attacking players rarely venturing into the Southampton box. If there was no plan A, imagine my shock when, despite having 15 minutes to change things at half time, nothing changed in the second half. Like most Fulham games, the Whites came out from the break looking uninspired and demotivated, and whilst it continues to be an issue, I’ll continue to mention it. The lack of full back involvement going forward against a weak defence was weird. The substitutions not only came on too late, but to bring on Godo in that scenario was hardly fair on a young winger as he is. The players were poor, but sadly for this one, the manager was the worst of the lot in my eyes. 3/10.