Player Ratings: Fulham 2-2 Ipswich

Bloody hell, Fulham. Eight games undefeated sounds so brilliant, and don’t get me wrong, it is largely impressive. However, I weirdly think we might look back at this run of fixtures and see it as the moment we spurned the chance to have a historical season.

We’ve played 10 matches this season against the bottom nine teams, and our record reads: two wins, six draws, two losses. For a team with our ambitions it’s just not good enough. Fulham didn’t deserve to win today; I thought Ipswich defended well, but we didn’t make it particularly hard for them, and I thought we were far too easy to counter-attack against.

Despite all of this, I thought we showed impressive resilience to get back into the game twice, and thankfully, our penchant for scoring and conceding late goals worked in our favour this weekend.

Darren Bond

I have never done this before. Marco Silva didn’t want to say too much about the referee after the game, in an attempt to avoid retribution, so I’ll say it for him. I can’t remember the last time I saw such a spineless, gormless, incompetent 90 minutes from a referee.

From big decisions to the insignificant ones that don’t have a meaningful impact on the game, Bond was consistently wrong. He couldn’t work out if he didn’t want to be the talking point today or if he wanted it be all about him. Leif Davis’ challenge on Harry Wilson is as simple as a ‘denial of an obvious goal scoring opportunity’ red card gets, yet Bond didn’t have the bottle.

He was then the only person South West London that didn’t see Morsy’s foul on Wilson. As everyone turned to look at him, Bond froze, cluelessly gazing at Wilson, before inexplicably pointing for a goal kick. A howler so bad that VAR took all of about 10 seconds to send him to the monitor to change his decision. A moment that was made infinitely more ire-inducing when he blew his whistle for an Ipswich penalty almost before Liam Delap had hit the floor.

Sprinkle in his decision to book Andreas Pereira for one of the best challenges you’ll see and his inability to have any sort of control over Ipswich’s time wasting and gamesmanship and Darren Bond has earned himself four paragraphs, which I’m sure will make him very happy. 0/10

Bernd Leno

Right, let’s actually do this properly now. No blame laid at Leno’s door for either goal, in what was otherwise a pretty quiet afternoon for the German. However, one moment sticks out for me, which demonstrates why Bernd is still so important to this team. At 2-1 down, having just made two very aggressive substitutions, he threw out a rock-solid left palm to deny Nathan Broadhead, whose shot was really travelling. If that goes in, our unbeaten run would’ve been finished. I had the perfect view of it from the Hammy End and I think it’s a very impressive save. 7/10

Timothy Castagne

I thought he picked up some good attacking positions in the first half, and for once we actually looked more dangerous down the right-flank. However, the shift to a back four at half-time (which was absolutely the correct decision) seemed to throw Timmy off a bit. Unsure of whether to stick or twist, his impact on the game dwindled. Very naïve, and out of character, to dangle his leg in the box as he did, and whilst it’s so soft, he shouldn’t be giving Delap the chance to go down there. Not vintage Chestnuts today. 5.5/10

Issa Diop

Feels really unfortunate that Issa was the one dragged at half time. I really don’t think he did much wrong. Only misplaced two of his 37 passes, looking fairly composed in possession. Defensively, he didn’t have to do very much, but when you consider his two other centre-backs both made some poor errors, he was probably unfortunate to be subbed off. I imagine today ends the Frenchman’s run in the side as we revert back to our usual formation, which is a shame because he’s impressed me over the past two months. 6.5/10

Joachim Andersen

Something still seems a bit off with Joa. I thought he was really poor against Bournemouth, and while he was better today, I still wasn’t overly enthused with his performance. Liam Delap is a handful, it’s what he does, but I would expect our burly Dane to be able to outwit him. However, I think he lost that battle today. With the ball, the conditions ended up being a bit too blustery for those long, raking diagonal passes, with over half of them not finding a teammate. Hoping he’s still just building up fitness and will be back to his composed best soon. 6/10

Calvin Bassey

This guy has a lot of credit in the bank, so I think we just have to let it slide. A moment of panic, not realising how much time he had, as well as a bit of misfortune. He should obviously do better, but it’s quite cruel that his shanked clearance is the perfect assist for Szmodics. Other than that, I thought Calvin was pretty decent, and is getting more and more confident, and therefore more influential, with the ball at his feet. 6/10

Antonee Robinson

As dynamic as ever but not quite as impactful. Ipswich’s compact shape meant there was never much space for him to exploit. Defensively he maybe should do better for the first goal, but that does feel really harsh. Other than that, Ipswich got very little joy down his flank. Fulham are going to need to work out how to create chances when the Robinson threat is nullified, because teams are increasingly aware of how brilliant he is. 6.5/10

Sasa Lukic

Sasa at times seemed to be trying to control an entire midfield on his own, which I thought he did admirably. Moved the ball about well, drove us forward, and did his best to stifle counters. I thought we looked dreadful after he got taken off, with no-one able to progress the ball from defence to attack, which highlighted how important he was when he was on the pitch. 7.5/10

Tom Cairney

After the best cameo in the history of football against Bournemouth, this was a bit more of an understated TC. Given how deeply Ipswich defended, this should’ve been the perfect game for him. I always trust him to be able to find that killer pass, but he wasn’t able to get into those trademark positions frequently enough to hurt the Town. In hindsight, maybe he would’ve been the ideal player to sub on, rather than off, in that second half. 6.5/10

Harry Wilson

In a world where referees are competent, Wilson would have had another decisive say in a Fulham game. His run and subsequent touches were the perfect example of why he’s been so dangerous in recent months, making those runs in off the right, through the middle of the pitch. I will say his reaction after being clipped for our penalty is disappointing. We all felt exactly the same, but he simply can’t react like that, and Jedi does well to keep him out of trouble. He’s still playing cracking football and regularly looks like our most threatening outlet. 8/10

Raul Jimenez

In his career he has buried 38 out of 40 penalties. What more can you say? His composure his so impressive and he now looks on course for double figures this season (eight so far), which would be a really commendable achievement. Beyond that though, I thought his overall game was strong. Held up the ball well, but most importantly, he never gave up. He never stopped running, he never stopped believing that we could get back into the game, and it’s his smart work and relentless running that meant we managed to steal a point. 8.5/10 – man of the match

Alex Iwobi

I was really surprised to see him subbed off so early. I understand it was to allow for us to play two strikers, but he certainly hadn’t played badly, and we rely on him so much to make things happen, that it felt weird to drag him off when chasing the game. When he was on the pitch, he was tidy but not spectacular. There was a fantastic nutmeg and bit of trickery in the first half, and he created a couple of decent chances. I think he’s due a rest as he’s going to be vital again in 2025. 6.5/10

Substitutes

Emile Smith Rowe (46′ on for Issa Diop)

I wanted more. This felt like a big moment for Emile, and I really wanted more from him. He’s drifted out of this side due to injury and tactical decisions, and today was his moment to make a statement. You pay the big bucks for players like him to drag your whole team up, create moments out of nothing, give you that spark that you’re missing. However, that second half largely passed him by, and he definitely should’ve tested Walton when the ball arrived at the back post. Despite all of that, it’s his lovely outside of the boot through ball that sets Raul in behind to win the penalty. So maybe he did have his desired impact? I still think we need to see more, not living up to that big fee yet. 6.5/10

Rodrigo Muniz (63′ on for Alex Iwobi)

I think Roddy is learning how to be a super sub. For ages now we’ve said he seems fairly impotent when he comes off the bench, but today was another impressive cameo. He provided a different outlet, allowed Fulham to pump the ball long, and he held it up well. We smelt heaven when he shaped into his trademark scissor kick, but it wasn’t to be. I didn’t really like how the Whites played with two up top, but Rodrigo definitely made life hard for the Town defenders. 7/10

Andreas Pereira (63′ on for Tom Cairney)

Bit of an odd one from AP today. Despite all of the fury in the stands, I think he might have been the angriest man in Craven Cottage. He came on, seemingly trying to prove a point, but was clearly riled up by something. I appreciated the endeavour and desire, once again, output was lacking, including some really dreadful corners. Tried to grab the game by the scruff of the neck and turn it in our favour, which we did, just maybe just directly due to Pereira… 6/10

Adama Traore (79′ on for Sasa Lukic)

It was at this moment that the game descended into carnage. There was no actual formation after Traore came on, we just started playing random football. Not Adama’s fault, but the game wasn’t really set up to make the most of his talents. However, I thought he showed a couple of flashes down the right and he definitely unsettled Davis. Don’t think there was enough chance for him to warrant a rating, but thought he contributed positively.