Fulham (Away) 16.03.2024

There was a lack of energy, fluidity and understanding that must be due to more than just the absence of Micky van de Ven through injury and going into the two week break for international matches, the option for Ange Postecoglou to put things right is limited, with a large number of players departing to play for their national sides.

It was mild and dry at Craven Cottage as kick off approached and there was still a large empty swathe of seats in their new Riverside stand and the hot tubs that you can watch the match from still need plumbing in.  To generate some atmosphere, little “Come On Fulham” banners had been handed out to the home fans and helping the home fans get excited, it was Tottenham who gave a helping hand.

While Spurs played the ball around quickly from the kick off, James Maddison gave the ball away in the second minute and Muniz was put into box by Pereira, with Cristian Romero blocking his effort with a sliding block and it fell kindly for Pereira, whose shot was deflected just wide of the left hand post of Vicario’s goal by Radu Dragusin. After Robinson had caught Romero on the knee with a loose challenge, the free-kick was played in with some pace from the right wing and it bounced through a group of players to bounce up off the ground and it hit the arm of Castagne, but no penalty as given and an offside awarded instead.

Spurs were getting opened up and Iwobi got in on the right inside the area and his low cross was palmed out as Vicario dived full length on the grass and it fell to Pereira whose shot was brilliantly blocked by Romero. Then Lukic had a shot from ten yards out on the right side that Vicario was forced to save. Tottenham were a little casual in their passing, allowing the ball to be picked off and allowing Fulham to enjoy more of the ball.  Fulham made ground on the left wing with Robinson getting a long way and into the Tottenham box and his low ball across goal was missed by Muniz under pressure from Udogie and then Spurs broke away with Maddison’s lay back from the left giving Son a shooting chance that he put over the bar. More slack passing gave Willian a chance to shoot low, but it was simple for Vicario to fall down behind the ball and then Pereira tried a 20-yard effort that he dragged wide. As Spurs started to string a few passes together, Maddison created a chance for Johnson coming in from the left, but he didn’t really get hold of his shot making it easy for Leno to save.

The high press was starting to put Fulham under pressure and Sarr nicked the ball as the home side tried to play the ball out, winning a corner that was cleared, but Romero played it left for Dragusin to pull it across goal with no Spurs player there to tap it into an empty net.  Udogie’s burst down the left produced a pass inside the box and James Maddison took one touch and then hit a shot without allowing Leno to react but it squeezed just
outside the near post.

Fulham picked up the ball in midfield and Pereira played it to Robinson on the left. His early ball got Muniz in behind Dragusin and he took one touch before steering it wide of Vicario to the keeper’s right. Spurs had just started to get on top of the game, but to go behind three minutes before the break was a tough blow to take.

Udogie was fouled for a free-kick in the Fulham half that led to a corner that was cleared as the ref ended the first half. It was a first half that was as disappointing as last week at Villa, but then it was 0-0 at the break.  Conceding the goal was not what Ange would have wanted, but there was a lot of energy put into the first half by Villa last week and then they ran out of steam.  Would history repeat ?

The second half started with Fulham winning a corner straight away, from the second phase, Pereira put another low ball into the six yard box, but, with two white shirts lurking, Vicario dived out low to claim the cross.  Spurs allowed a massive amount of space in the middle of the pitch and when Lukic  spread the ball wide right to Iwobi. He played in Castagne, whose hard cross came off Lukic’s thigh and across Vicario to make it 2-0.  Needless to say, it wasn’t the start to the second half that Spurs wanted and Fulham were looking like world beaters as we looked sluggish and lacking urgency.

Pereira needed a long spell of treatment to break up the game after he fouled Udogie and when play restarted with a free-kick there was a lack of movement with the Tottenham players not looking to receive the ball.  Another free-kick for a late set of studs into Maddison’s ankle also got the Fulham midfielder a yellow card, having just returned from a two match ban. It was pleasing to see Pape Matar Sarr pile into Palhinha from behind to give him a taste of his own medicine.

Opposition players were being allowed so much space to play, with Castagne getting in behind the Spurs defence indicative that our wing-backs were not pushing high enough and Vicario had to save again.  From the corner, a header was knocked down, Bassey on the left crashed a shot against the post and the ball went across in front of goal where Muniz touched it over the line. 3-0 was a bad enough score-line, but the performance was worse and Bissouma son picked up a yellow for a foul on Palhinha. The game seemed done and dusted with an hour gone.  A free-kick for the booking was played in, Adarabioyo played it back square to Palhinha and the ball hit Jiminez who was in front of Vicario and offside to rule it out otherwise the evening would have been even more embarrassing.

A triple substitution followed with Sarr, Maddison and Bissouma leaving the field with Bentancur, Hojbjerg and Werner coming on and it almost brought a goal. Son’s jinked into a position on the left inside the area and his ball across was out of reach of Johnson, then Johnson’s low ball in from the other side beat Leno, but Werner was behind him and managed to side-foot it wide from a yard out. Timo did then get a shot on target from a narrow angle, but Leno beat it out for a corner, but when Spurs got the ball in a decent position, Bentancur’s shot failed to trouble the Fulham keeper.

The sloppy passing continued meaning that to was Spurs who were having to do the hard yards rather than making Fulham do the running. Additionally, the frustration was shown in committing needless fouls, which allowed Fulham to break up play and stop us building anything, but the home team looked like they were more up for it than us. Johnson got booked for moaning about not getting a free-kick and he was hooked off straight away with Richarlison coming on in his place.

A late diagonal ball into the box from Bentancur picked out Kulusevski at the far post and his header into space in the box was latched onto by Richarlison, but his first time shot was off target, when he should have been more accurate. Son’s passing was awful on the night, giving short balls that his team-mates had no chance of getting and he was weak on the ball when in good positions. It was no surprise when he was taken off with five minutes left and Lo Celso replaced him.

A simple pass around the back of the Spurs defence gave Wilson the chance to shoot from the 18 yard line, but Vicario saved as seven added minutes were put up by the fourth official. The way we played another 70 minutes wouldn’t have been enough as we still were playing passes nowhere near our players.  Werner had a late shot and that flew over the top to sum up the performance that lacked a lot of things. Lo Celso’s weak curler was catching
practice for the keeper, Bentancur picked up a yellow card with an unnecessary argument with Reed, who also went into the book and when Jiminez booted the ball away with seconds left, the referee allowed him to get away with it as he ended the game as soon as it restarted.

Off the back of the Villa game, we should have been itching to play this match instead of looking like all we had to do was turn up to take three points. Fulham played well and pundits reckoned it was their best performance of the season, but they didn’t have too much to play against as we were pitiful.

So, the biggest win of the season was followed by the equal biggest loss of the season and almost cancelled out the good that the Villa result did for our goal difference. Considering that this was the last game before the international break, you might have expected the players to give everything, but it certainly didn’t look that way and with this giving us the chance to go fourth before Villa’s game next week, it was so much more than an opportunity missed. This was the run of matches that was supposed to be where we picked up points and with that run later in the season of matches against the top sides to come, we should have been looking to push on.  Any points from the game would have helped us put more of a gap between us and Mancashter United, so the negatives from the match just kept coming.

History didn’t repeat and the second half ended up being worse than the first. It is hard to put a finger on what went so wrong, as it was almost everything and the drop off in performance was alarming.  Let us hope that it is a blip and that we never see the likes of it again (although with our run-in, it might be a vain hope).

John Lacy’s Love Child

• Spurs failed to score for the first time after finding the net in 39 consecutive Premier League matches.

• It was the first time Tottenham had failed to score in an away game having scored in 18 straight Premier League matches on the road.