Was our brief switch to a back five a success?

Undoubtedly the biggest talking point in terms of how Fulham set up in December and into January was the move to a back five against Chelsea, Bournemouth and Ipswich, and the five points it helped us to achieve against difficult opposition, which ultimately was nearly seven, if not for a late Bournemouth equaliser at the Cottage. With suspensions for Andreas Pereira and Tom Cairney and injuries for Harrison Reed and Sander Berge to negotiate, plus with the return from injury of Joachim Andersen at the back, the remaining options available to Marco Silva led him to make such a change.

The most noticeable change came down Fulham’s left hand side, where Antonee Robinson was afforded more freedom to get forward and stay forward. For the first half of the Chelsea game, it was remarkable to see Jedi almost utilised as a regulation left winger, giving Iwobi more freedom to either overlap or roam inside towards the penalty area. Robinson’s pace in those positions were utilised brilliantly, completing more dribbles than usual, winning more fouls than any Fulham player across the two games, and completing multiple key passes in both games, including one assist in the Bournemouth game to take his tally to the season for seven, as well as producing the cross, which led to our equaliser at the Bridge.

I also thought it was interesting the way that Fulham looked to play out of the opposition’s press in these two games. Against two teams that play for managers like Maresca and Iraola, whose principles include the desire for a high, aggressive press, and playing a new system, I was mostly impressed with how Fulham conducted their business. Bernd Leno’s number of passes were down in these two games compared to normal, perhaps due to the additional centre back option to pass to from our own defensive third, removing the potential risk coming from your goalkeeper spending time on the ball.

What was especially interesting was the positions picked up by the central man of the three in these games, Joachim Andersen, who in possession was frequently looking to pick up pockets between our backline and midfield to open up additional gaps and passing avenues for Fulham to use to negotiate the pressing of the opposition. Bar a slight Issa Diop mishap against Bournemouth, I thought Fulham adapted to playing out with a back three quite coherently and confidently.

What the change in system did show up was the struggles Andreas Pereira faces in a two-man midfield. It did show off just how good and how important the legs of Sasa Lukic are, who had to cover a lot of ground and produce an obscene number of defensive actions to make up for the lack of positional discipline shown by Pereira in those areas. Lukic’s six tackles against Bournemouth was the highest of any Fulham player, his number of interceptions at the Bridge only second to Calvin Bassey. Pereira, especially against Chelsea, was bypassed far too often in the middle of the park, and a system where the midfield has less bodies and less protection from defensive full-backs made it even clearer the qualities that the Brazilian lacks. He can be creative and press well at times, but you need to do so much more than that in a Premier League midfield duo.

What we can say is that the Ipswich fixture, and then the cup tie with Watford, it seems Silva was mostly using the back five as a matter of convenience with the players available to him and that it might not be something we see as much going forward. The struggles to create against Ipswich in the opening 45 minutes led to a return to Silva’s normal back four in the second half, in which Fulham eventually snatched an undeserved point, if we’re honest.

Against Watford, it was a back four again and a comprehensive victory, admittedly against Championship opposition. While the back three gained decent points, it ultimately does not suit many of this squad who are so bought into Silva’s methods, which have always been a 4-3-3 until now. Still, it was fascinating to see the manager innovate, admittedly only due to a lack of availability in midfield.