After seemingly clawing back a point from the brink of defeat, Fulham fell to yet another gut-wrenching, last-minute loss at the hands of Manchester United. It was a massive shame for Kevin especially, whose breakthrough moment was instantly overshadowed. Onto Everton we go.
Bernd Leno
Considering we conceded three I don’t think a major amount of blame can be placed at Leno’s door. Both the first and third were way out of reach, and while the second was another instance of Leno conceding at his front post, Cunha’s effort was so powerful and high in the net that it becomes more excusable. Made important saves at the start of both halves too, from Mbuemo in the first where he quickly got out of goal to smother the opportunity, and then an equally smart stop to deny Amad in the second. 6.5/10
Timothy Castagne
Not bad – would definitely still rather Kenny Tete – but not bad. Think the only time Mbuemo/Cunha on his side really had much success was when they inverted and had more of a go at the centre backs. Made the most defensive contributions of any Fulham player at one end and going forward put in a nose-bleed inducing four crosses, showing improved effort at that end of the pitch. 6.5/10
Joachim Andersen
Genuinely starts to feel almost like how we saw Issa Diop a couple of years ago, where you saw the player that was in there, but had the constant scaries over what could happen. There was nothing major to shout about from Joa here, he contributed to starting a lot of attacks and defended okay for the most part. But the laziness and inept nature of his defending for United’s winner is disgraceful. He leaves Sesko in miles of space, hangs out a lazy leg when the cross comes in and struggles to recover in time to block the shot, which won United the game. Infuriating. 5.5/10
Jorge Cuenca
Probably travelling down south feeling rather sorry for himself, if we’re honest. Had the relief of not giving away a penalty thanks to VAR, only for the resulting free kick that was given to lead to the opening goal. Then in the second half, had a goal controversially disallowed through no fault of his own. Was very steady bar that with a couple of big blocks and looking good as ever on the ball. 6.5/10
Antonee Robinson
Another genuinely worryingly bad performance from Jedi who we can now confidently say is in a terrible run of form. Since his return from injury he’s just off the pace massively, literally and metaphorically. This horrid trait that’s crept into his game of constantly over-committing into tackles, getting nowhere near the ball or man, and then no longer having the recovery speed to resolve it, is troubling us on a weekly basis. He also lacks any invention going forward, only ever offering the occasional overlap and poor cross afterwards. Everything that was good about his game last season seems to have disappeared on the treatment table. 3.5/10
Sander Berge
Not too bad today, I thought. The triangles Manchester United have been utilising and the speed at which they’ve been executing them through the middle of the park under Carrick have been spellbinding at times in the last fortnight, so it was nice to see Berge (for once) using his body well to make a number of good interceptions in the middle of the park. Pushed us on a lot in the latter stages too as we looked to get our share of the points. The frustration comes when he inevitably doesn’t do these things for the next 17 games. 7/10
Alex Iwobi
Weirdly subdued, and I think you could probably say that for both games since he returned from AFCON. Iwobi just doesn’t seem to be expressing himself as he usually would. There’s no lack of intent or effort; he did his fair share of running and always showed for the ball, but the final pass from him always looked strangely safe for his standards, which often led to possession being turned over against us because he was playing weak passes sideways and backwards, which put teammates under pressure. I don’t think he’s the type of player that should have a team high of 96% passing accuracy, he’s at his best taking more risks. 5.5/10
Harry Wilson
Had one of those games where he just never really got any of his ‘moments’. Surprised he even managed to get two shots away really, I just don’t recall many occasions on which he got into any good positions in the final third throughout. Worked hard to help Castagne against the rotating threats of Mbuemo, Cunha and Shaw. Just a very average performance, which is fine – it happens. 6/10
Emile Smith Rowe
A genuinely baffling decision to bring ESR off from Silva, who just continues to blossom into a key man in this side. Smith Rowe was doing so much of what you like to see from a fluid attacking midfielder, drifting around the oppositions area, linking play with those around him. Off the ball, he’s a valuable presser and in recent weeks has added real aggression to his game in duals. I just think he’ll continue to get better. 7/10
Samuel Chukwueze
To start and play with the energy he did after the passing of his mother in recent days was unbelievably admirable. Thought at times his attacking play was dangerous but a tad predictable in the way he continuously opted to take his man to the byline and put attempt to put a cross in, but I also think a lot of that came from a lack of support from Robinson. Incredibly harsh for him to be judged offside for Cuenca’s goal too, considering you literally cannot score (or be offside) with your elbow. Nice one, VAR. 6.5/10
Raul Jimenez
Thought the way he defended his man for United’s opener was sickening, giving absolutely no attention to Casemiro as he burst in to score, simply tracking the ball’s trajectory with no awareness that his Brazilian counterpart had gained a yard on him before the ball had even arrived. The effort he showed throughout however, was superb as ever, and to have the energy to burst into the box after 83 minutes and win a penalty, which he expertly put away, was superb, and levelled out the poor defending previously. 6/10
Ryan Sessegnon
I actually thought his half-hour cameo was as good as any Fulham player on the day, especially with the noticeable increase in quality in that position from what Robinson had been offering. Defensively he offered more protection against Amad and going forward got into so many pockets of space, one of which led to a beautiful piece of inter-play with Kevin, gaining Sess an assist. 7.5/10 – man of the match
Kevin
Horrifying that his ‘moment’ was effectively squashed with the immediate Sesko response. However, the way in which he constantly pushed United back towards their own goal was so exciting and then the strike to equalise was absolutely out of this world. Those moments will come around more often for him, I’m sure of it, he’s seriously talented. 7/10
Tom Cairney
With the added time, he effectively got a decent 25 minutes, even though he replaced Chukwueze with 10 to play. Think he just continued a decent little run of form in the way he offered us more control centrally and took charge of how we got the ball forward in the final stages. 6.5/10
Calvin Bassey came on too late to be fairly assessed but it goes without saying it’s a shocking decision not to take a yellow card in the buildup for the winner.
Tactically thought he got most things spot on. The United goals come from poor defending, which was out of his control, but the way he actually set us up to nullify the way United interchange so well through the middle under Carrick, while also speeding up our own build up at times to harm United on the break, was really good, we just failed to take any chances early on. Probably should have bought Robinson off earlier but the subs were mostly spot on. In hindsight maybe Bassey for Cuenca was unnecessary and cost us but that’s hard to judge. His gameplan deserved a point, which we were harshly denied. 7/10