Player Ratings: Fulham 0-1 Manchester United

Fulham’s frustrating run of form now leaves us with just three wins in our last 12 Premier League outings, with Marco Silva once more watching on as Fulham passed up another huge opportunity to gain valuable points.

Despite a positive looking first half on the front foot, Fulham’s poor mentality once again was on show as Manchester United once more found a late winner at the Cottage. Just beyond annoying seeing the same issues in mentality and intensity week after week.

Bernd Leno

This genuinely might be the shortest paragraph I ever write in the ratings. Came so close to reaching the winning goal, which sadly span over his outstretched arm. The main highlight of his game was picking a ball up in the six yard box and charging into De Ligt like a scrum half charging towards the post for a try. 6/10

Timothy Castagne

Beyond frustrating seeing how little he attacks. Maybe it’s tactical but one decent cross in nearly 100 minutes is so poor considering what Kenny Tete often offers. Defended his box well in the first half, but seemed to lose his head at half time. Came out from the second half and played a criminal pass across his own box which nearly put us in deep trouble, before mistiming three tackles in dangerous positions in the space of about 10 minutes. 5/10

Joachim Andersen

Issa Diop must be wondering why he isn’t making it into this Fulham team. £30m for a defender who offers leadership and a beautiful passing game? We just haven’t seen that often enough. OK, he did decently in duels with United’s number nine but his passing was appalling. Every long pass was just a lumped ball up field that failed to find his man, culminating with a pass accuracy below 68%, and a long ball accuracy of 28%. Did come closest to scoring at the end. 5/10

Calvin Bassey

Compare those stats to Bassey’s passing in this game, with a completion rate of 93%, including three accurate long balls out of three. Looked so much composed on the ball, especially with a turn out of his own box in the first half when surrounded by three United players. Constantly pushed into midfield to help our offensive pressing game, even when some others were reluctant to. 7/10

Antonee Robinson

Two out of eight accurate crosses accurately sum up the issues Robinson had in the final third today, frequently over-hitting crosses beyond the players waiting in the box, which is very uncharacteristic for the American this season. To his credit, defended incredibly well, keeping Amad Diallo quiet for effectively the full game, despite him being United’s biggest threat going forward this season. 6.5/10

Sander Berge

Just offers so much security to the defenders and midfielders that revolve around him with the way he plays and the authority he commands in the middle of the park. Broke up play incredibly well as United looked to attack through the middle of the park, especially through Bruno Fernandes in the opening stages. No shock that he made the most defensive actions of any Fulham player, constantly recycling the ball to perfection to set us on attacks. First outfield player on the team sheet for me at the moment. 7.5/10 – Man of the match

Sasa Lukic

So, so good at breaking up play alongside Berge in the middle, between them they add so much balance to this side that we’ve missed so often this year. Timed his tackles better than normal too, avoiding a ban for a tenth yellow card for a further week. Would like to see him use the extra freedom afforded to him by Berge more sometimes, and to offer more with runs in between the lines to give Fulham an extra body on the edge of the box when we’re struggling to break down a low block. 6.5/10

Emile Smith Rowe

Admittedly faded out of the game in the second half as the whole team did in an attacking sense, but I was really encouraged by what I saw in the opening 45. Received the ball in some beautiful areas, playing some lovely one-touch passes round the corner of his marker and setting Fulham on the counter. Also pressed really high, which set us up in a 4-4-2 out of possession as Pereira had helped to do in the first season after promotion, which was good to see. Just needs to stop going missing as often as he is. 6/10

Harry Wilson

Showed a superb willingness to throw himself into his duels in the first half which many failed to do. One particular challenge on Martinez on the touchline really got the crowd going and not long after he flew into a 50-50 with Ugarte, which should have seen the Uruguayan retrospectively booked. Shame he had to come off injured early in the second half, hopefully that’s nothing serious. 6.5/10

Alex Iwobi

Didn’t feel like Iwobi had the flu for the first half an hour or so here, getting the ball in dangerous areas and driving towards the United defence with intent and forcing an early save from Onana’s outstretched left hand. However, things changed when Silva moved him onto the right hand side in the second half after Wilson’s injury. Regardless of whether it was down to tactical reasons or not, his passing became far less assertive and he had zero joy in the final third. 6/10

Raul Jimenez

Struggled imposing himself against a weak and flimsy defensive line for the second weekend in a row, and once again it felt like more of a game for Muniz to be in from the start. Often didn’t seem in sync with the rest of the attack, especially when Wilson was playing useful balls forward that he just wouldn’t run for. His shots never came close to hitting the target when he did attempt a shot on goal. 5/10

Substitutes

Adama Traore (53’ for Wilson)

Not quite sure why he was playing in an inverted position on the left, maybe Silva wanted Iwobi to provide more support for Castagne, who knows? Looked really dangerous off the bench though. Acted as a battering ram against Man United’s defenders when others went missing. Had one dangerous effort fly past the bar and never stopped pressing for the team. 7/10

Substitutes

Rodrigo Muniz (64’ for Jimenez)

Admittedly I think he would have had more of an impact than Jimenez across the 90 minutes had he started, but we have to judge on what we saw of Muniz when he came on. Ultimately that means judging two chances, including a big one in the final stages, both being fairly rashly volleyed over the crossbar, unfortunately. 5.5/10

Tom Cairney and Andreas Pereira (83’ for Smith Rowe and Lukic) subbed on too late to be fairly assessed.

Manager

Marco Silva

I struggle with his continued stubbornness in team selection, especially regarding Andersen playing over Diop again and not considering a switch up front considering the calibre of defensive opponent. Very thankful we finally use the midfield we are because, knowing Silva, I wouldn’t have been shocked if he persisted with the struggling Pereira in a double pivot all year.

I don’t think he’s utilising Traore properly, whether it’s form the start or the bench, and that was exaggerated by using him from the left today, neutralising his ability to cross on his right foot and losing all of the threat offered by Iwobi. The mentality of this team too, nothing changes at all, and that comes from the manager first and foremost. So many small adjustments need to be made for this team to evolve, and yet the same issues are being spoken of week after week. Beyond frustrating. 4.5/10.