Positives and Negatives: Fulham 3-2 Liverpool

Jack Stroudley looks back at a memorable afternoon at the Cottage.

Just when I’m out, Fulham Football Club find a way to pull me back in!

It’s been an extremely difficult week or so for Fulham following last weekend’s dramatic FA Cup exit and a relatively flat performance at the Emirates in midweek. You’d have been forgiven for thinking today was already a forgone conclusion in the favour of the champions elect, up stepped Marco Silva’s swashbuckling Whites to tear up the script and keep the European dreams firmly ajar. It was a truly fantastic performance and a well deserved three points, but what are the main takeaways from a sunny Sunday on the Thames?

Positives

Bullied all over

What a performance, seriously what a performance, every single player in white gave it their all on Sunday afternoon. Last week after Crystal Palace I criticised the squad for lacking the mentality to scratch and claw their way back into the game, not only did they manage to get back into the game they delivered the best half of football we’ve seen all season.

Liverpool were absolutely rattled in that first half and three goals inside 14 minutes showed that. Rodrigo Muniz was his usual bullish self and caused Konate and Van Dijk headaches all afternoon – a sumptuous first touch and finish highlighted the type of game he had.

Andy Robertson must be sick of playing Fulham and Curtis Jones struggled all afternoon against the ferocious press of this Fulham side. That first half performance was combined with an incredibly professional performance in the second 45. Fulham have conceded a lot of goals late and dropped the third most points in the league so you’d be forgiven for thinking that we would face the same fate this afternoon (especially after Luis Diaz halved the deficit with 20 to go). Nevertheless, Fulham defended well, rode their luck at times and gained three well deserved points. Get in!

Reaction, reaction, reaction

I briefly mentioned the disappointing week that Fulham have had and Sunday’s performance was as close to complete you could possibly get. Fulham showed a side of themselves we haven’t seen since before the international break to dictate the game when they needed to while also showing the resilience we have sometimes lacked this season.

Fulham have shown on multiple occasions this season (particularly against the top clubs) if we go a goal behind, we can get back into games and Sunday was no exception. Against Crystal Palace and Arsenal I felt like heads dropped very quickly once we conceded, it was the complete opposite against the league leaders and if anything it seemed to spur us on even more.

Sensational Sessegnon

What a bloke. Genuinely, what a bloke. The fanbase were crying out for him to start following some very successful cameos in recent weeks and boy did he deliver. Out on that right-hand side he caused problems all afternoon pressing from the front and causing mistakes for those wearing red, he took his goal exceptionally well and was unlucky not to have another. We’ve seen recently a slight dip in form from other wide players at the club (in fairness Iwobi was brilliant on Sunday) and I think Sess has now firmly planted his flag down, he’s one of our most clinical finishers and has to start more games.

Negatives

Day trip takeover

There’s not going to be anything negative said about the team/our performance but I wanted to (once again) highlight the problem of away fans in the home end. We’ve become numb to it now and seem to have succumb to the continued incompetence of those in the hierarchy who continue to neglect the core fanbase for a quick buck by pricing out those who have been there through thick and think and prioritising tourists/away fans by making it incredibly accessible for those who have never attended Fulham before to purchase tickets in areas they shouldn’t be in.

Pockets of all four stands jumped up and celebrated Alexis McAllister’s opener on Sunday and while a fair few were chucked out, it shouldn’t get to this point. The club simply have to better, if anything though I think it’s just going to get worse.

VAR-cical decision

Let’s rewind back to the opening stages of the game and if Fulham hadn’t won on Sunday I think this would’ve been brought to the forefront, I’m going to do it anyway! How on earth was Andreas Pereira not awarded a penalty after being taken out by Liverpool keeper Caoimhin Kelleher? I never really like to come on here and criticise decisions but this one was beyond laughable. Thankfully, Fulham won the game but it’s a decision which on another day costs us two points which could be the difference between European football.