Jack and Loz at the Cottage - Blog 75

[Friendsoffulham]

Jack and Loz at the Cottage - Blog 75
Date: 6th March 2018

Opposition: Sheffield United

Score: 3-0

Weather: following the departure of the weather system named after Fulham's number 32 it felt positively balmy at the Cottage on Tuesday night

Atmosphere: Craven Cottage has seen it all in 139 years: good days, bad days, almost the end of days. Now the glory days are coming back and the old ground was rocking to the rafters

Opposition fans: a good turn out from the Blades fans. We weren't too impressed with their playlist of songs however which seems to consist of "The blades go marching in" and one that literally goes "Sheffield United, Sheffield United, Sheffield United." Easy to remember the lyrics though

Opposition kit: the red and white stripes with black trim are so busy that you can't read the names and numbers. Fashion fail.

MOTM (football): Aleksandar Mitrovic was loaned to Fulham by Newcastle as a striker. Soon, Fulham will be suing Newcastle under the Trade Descriptions Act because Mitrovic is not a striker. He is: a defender from the front, often found winning the ball in midfield, sometimes collecting passes by the touch line, good at tackling, even better at winning the ball back, best at hold up play, great at bringing others into the game and an all round team player. Only after all of that is he a striker. Oh yes, and he's on fire as well.

MOTM (non-football): Kevin McDonald applauded the crowd as we chanted Marcus Bettinelli's name in response to an outstanding save which kept the score at 1-0

Pub: we went to the Blue Boat from which we were politely ejected at closing time with some other members of the Fulham family

Five games ago Fulham started a run of six matches which fans approached with fear and trepidation. We were to play all the teams around and above us one after the other with barely any recovery time in between. It looked like a North Face of the Eiger task combined with a Marathon de Sables timetable.

There was speculation as to how few points we would get, how many places would be lost, worry that we may slip out of the play off places altogether.

But to Slavisa Jokanovic and his Fulham team no task is now too big, no run of games too hard or too long, no opposition who can't be out thought and outplayed. We have blogged already about the superb wins against Aston Villa and Wolves. On Saturday Fulham went, through the snow, to Derby and won again taking our unbeaten consecutive games to 13. When your only slip in such treacherous territory was a 1-1 draw away to Bristol City on a freezing Wednesday night you know you are outstandingly good. So outstandingly good that you should be in a different league.

Of course, because we are Fulham fans, we approached the game with the Blades, easier opposition on paper than we've had for a while, with anxiety. At the same time as wondering just how far we can go, we are all also wondering at what point the unbeaten run will come to an abrupt end and we all know how disappointing that is going to be.

The Blades set up well for the match and imposed their style (if you can call something so unstylish a style) of play for the first 20 minutes or so. In contrast to the beautiful ballet enacted by Fulham and Wolves, United performed more of a country dance. There were long balls, hoofing, endless headers, wild shots, agricultural clearances, lack of control and loss of possession (and not all of this was from the Blades....) but they did what a lot of teams can't do and stopped Fulham playing our game. Temporarily.

We have been ambivalent about Tom Cairney lately. He may not have returned West Ham's flirtatious winks but he seemed to like the attention. Last year's star man hasn't shone all that brightly this year: fewer appearances, fewer goals, fewer plaudits. It probably didn't help that we were winning without him, that Oliver Norwood could take his place on the pitch and Kevin McDonald could take place in the dressing room. But Tom is more resilient and more tenacious than we gave him credit for. On Tuesday night, he let United have their way for a while then he grabbed the game by the scruff of the neck and didn't let go until the final whistle. He deserved his goal and he deserves the plaudits again - he played like a true Fulham captain and a master of the game. And all without a hair out of place.

Tom took control, the tide turned and suddenly Fulham were on top. United couldn't touch the ball. The build up to Mitro's first goal was 35 passes long. By contrast the second goal seemed to come out of nowhere. One second the ball was leaving StefJo's foot and the next it was in the back of the net leaving the goal keeper bewildered. And that is the key to Fulham's performance on Tuesday night: so many passes so quickly played it was one conjuring trick after another; a game of smoke and mirrors in which there was only going to be one winner.

Mitro, as we alluded to above, is a fantastic player. A premier league player. But neither he nor Matttttt TTTTTargetttttt look out of place at Fulham because they are playing in a team which has reached Premier League standard. We are ready, willing and more than able to step up.

Random musings:-

- we don't often criticise Slav but we have to admit to being disappointed with his run across the pitch as he was late back from half time. Is that really the pace and gait of a former athlete???

- on the other hand Slav got the subs right for approximately the 14th game in a row. Ojo's brief had clearly been to run himself ragged for 60 minutes before being replaced by the more refined skills of Piazon, Norwood played well when he came on and it was good to see Fonte briefly even if it only reinforced the fact that he's not as useful in the hurly burly of a Championship front line as Mitro

- we once wrote about Richard Stearman's scattergun approach to defending. That appears not to have changed

- whilst Mitro was MOTM for us and we were very impressed with Tom it has to be said this was an all round terrific team performance with almost no unforced errors from anyone. One of the most tantalising prospects of possible promotion is keeping this group of players together. In the meantime we are incredibly lucky to watch such dynamic and exquisite football week after week

So the unbeaten run stretches further as does the record of clean sheets at the Cottage and number of home wins. After Preston on Saturday our opponents get a little easier which would often mean nothing but this team is so dominant that another side will need a lot of magic or a lot of luck to beat them. The problem is that whilst we keep winning so do Villa and Cardiff. We ramped up the pressure with the win over Derby but they both have games in hand and time is beginning to ebb to their side.

It is hard to put into words just how good this Fulham team is and how incredible it is as a Fulham fan, after years of struggle and stress to watch your team win easily week after week. The question is, can we get to the end of the season still unbeaten? That really is the £170,000,000 question because if we don't then we probably won't finish in second place.

https://werdsmith.com/p/ZtbbsJ94HE

[Fernhurst]

Another enjoyable piece. thank you