I genuinely can't think of a better game to sum Fulham up than the one we've had tonight. I'll preface what I'm about to say by saying that we are too, but Ipswich were just so bad tonight. This is the 4th time we've played Ipswich since we've come down (and probably the longest gap between Away Games at a team ever), and this was by far and a way the worst I've seen them play against us. Obviously I can't comment on Ipswich because I haven't seen them every week, but tonight it got to the point where Ipswich were ironically cheering their first Shot on Target. Of course, because we're Fulham- we just couldn't put them away with all of the chances we created and then Knudsen popped up with a late equaliser for the Draw.
I suppose if we're looking at positives to take from today, and there definitely are some which I'll try to highlight as this Review progresses. Unless we decide to make a habit of repeating Friday Night's result, we're safe now. My whole thing over the last 3 or so Months has been I don't care how we stay up, as long as we actually do. Unlike last year, where I didn't have any faith in Kit when it came to giving him a whole Summer to make "his" squad and improve the team to the point of a Playoff push. Simply put, I believe that Jokanovic is the right man to take us forward- and after a whole Summer under Slavisa with some (hopefully) good and ambitious signings as well as clearing all of the deadweight from the squad we'll be much better off at the start of August.
On the subject of deadweight, in reference to the Team Selection and the number of changes we made today- I really don't get what some peoples complaints were. We'd just lot 5-0 on Friday, and especially 2nd Half just completely bottled it- why shouldn't Jokanovic have made multiple changes? It's great to see that Jokanovic isn't afraid to make multiple changes after a bad performance. I'm not a Dan Burn fan, I know I've been relatively neutral on the subject this season so you may not be aware. But changing the Centre-Back pairing that shipped 5, isn't a bad thing. Especially with Madl out, I don't see what was wrong with Slavisa taking a look at Hutchinson either- because it's his job to determine who he wants to retain for next season.
Right then, onto the goals. I won't comment on the night Dembele had at the Football League Awards, because it's literally impossible for me to not be biased. However, he's popped up with another goal- and it was a really good one tonight. As Parker broke into the box, I was begging for him to just cut it back to McCormack- so full credit to Parker for having the vision to put the ball across the box- as well as to Dembele for getting enough power on the shot to beat Bialkowski. Enter the danger zone for Fulham, also known as the last 10 Minutes of a Football game. It wasn't exactly identical to our goal, but Knudsen's late equaliser was close enough, in that it's another ball across the box and a powered shot that just couldn't be kept out. It's annoying without a doubt, but I would have taken a Draw going in- and I'll stick to that now.
Bettinelli hardly had anything to do for probably about 65 Minutes, but as Ipswich grew into the game once we scored he did well when required to. Obviously it's another game without a Clean Sheet for Bettinelli, and this one especially must be annoying for him- but there's not much he could have done for the Goal and we just have to hope Bettinelli gets at the very least a competent defence in-front of him for next season.
Speaking of the Defence, we'd made 2 changes to it from the Brighton game with Burn and Hutchinson coming in- as well as a positional change with Stearman going back to Right-Back. You can definitely say we looked more solid than we did against Brighton, but that's not exactly a high bar to surpass. In these next three games I'm expecting another few defensive changes, because Jokanovic has to work out who he wants to keep on- with Defence being the obvious area that needs to be completely turned over. In my opinion the priority in Defence should be finding a proper partner for Madl, the Hangeland to his Hughes if you will. We need that for the spine of the team, because you'll see in all of the successful teams with the exception of Boro they've had a settled Centre-Back pairing.
It wasn't exactly the most testing of games for our Defence today, but on the whole I do feel like they've played well(ish) for the most part. If there's one thing to say about Hutchinson; while it's obviously not his job to score- I've got no idea how he hasn't scored 1, if not 2 Goals today. We've been lacking a proper aerial threat at Set-Pieces all season, so while we didn't score from one today- that was a positive I suppose. Hutchinson's in with a decent shout of MOTM tonight, and it's a shame we didn't get a Clean Sheet to mark his return to the team. Fair-play to Dan Burn, he's come in and done a decent job today. I still wouldn't renew his Contract in the Summer though, we need to completely reboot of our Defence in the Summer- and to me, Dan Burn who simply isn't good enough to be playing at the level we wish to play at next season should be one of the ones to go.
Ream was decent tonight, I can't see Tim Ream being around as anything more than a bit-part player next season, and if I had to guess I could see him going back to the MLS this Summer. I'm sure there'd be some takers for him, and we could probably get a decent(ish) fee for him. I'm not sure what the future is for Richard Stearman, who's had an alright game tonight. He's come here expecting the be one of the first names on the Team Sheet of a team pushing for Playoffs- and he's ended up being in and out of the team in a Relegation Battle. It all depends on how much Jokanovic rates him I suppose, and if he wants to stay when he's not guaranteed to be a starter. I do see value in him for next season, I suppose it's just a "wait and see" type scenario.
It's not a coincidence we've conceded 5 in 5 since Rohan Ince has came back in the team, and the one game he's had to miss we've shipped 5 in that one game. In short, and it's a point I've made for pretty much my entire time doing these Reviews- we need a proper DM to protect the Back Four. If it meant we could sign Ince permanently, I'd be all for Brighton going up this season, because I really, really rate him. He's turned into a key part of the team, after not even being a part of it for the first 2 or so Months of his Loan Spell. Whether it's Rohan Ince or someone like him, we need to be signing a Holding-Mid this Summer. I thought Ince did well today, he's never going to be a remarkable player in the sense of Goals/Assists and general "flair"- but he knows his role and he does it well.
Christensen didn't exactly hit the heights we know he's capable of tonight, but I did think in comparison to the majority of his performances this season he did pretty well tonight. He looked like making something happen quite a lot tonight- albeit against a fairly tepid Ipswich Midfield and Defence. I thought Tunnicliffe did well enough today, it's kind of hard to judge our Midfield in this game- because Ipswich didn't really offer much and pretty much just let us play our game without too much pressure up until Dembele's Goal.
Parker's turned in another good performance tonight, and I don't think it's a coincidence that we conceded once Parker took his leave tonight. Parker's arguably our most important player at the moment. Taking Parker off on Friday after Brighton's 3rd was Slavisa waving the White Flag, and the players followed suit. Tonight, we obviously didn't completely bottle it- but Parker's such an important character to have on the pitch. I suppose if Parker was younger he wouldn't be at Fulham, but hypothetically if Parker was younger and able to play 46 Games a Season there wouldn't even be a question about renewing his Contract whatever the Cost for next season.
I'll be interested to see what's said about McCormack in Jokanovic's Pre-Match Press Conference on Friday, because he didn't look completely comfortable when he was taken off- which was presumably the reason he was taken off in the first place. It wasn't McCormack's best game of course, but he's still done well I felt for the most part tonight.
Dembele's obviously gotten another Goal, and he's had a reasonably good game tonight. The obvious elephant in the room with Dembele is simply where he's going to end up playing next season. I've still got a very small hope that we can convince Dembele to sign a new Contract.
To give an example, I'll use Demarai Gray's new contract at Birmingham that they gave him last summer. Birmingham got to hold onto Gray for a little while longer, Gray got (presumably) a lot more than he was previously making- and both sides reaped the benefits of Gray playing regular Football which I doubt Dembele could get yet at the majority of Top Level Clubs just because of how raw he still is. Included in that was obviously a Release Clause that was probably below what Gray was worth (which Leicester of course activated in January). Even if we did just keep Dembele until January and then got say 4-5 Million for him- that's better than waiting over a Year for a Tribunal to decide the fee or getting a nominal fee if he moves abroad.
It was good to see Tom Cairney back in the team tonight after his injury, and he's going to be a key player for us next season. I'm going to go into a lot more depth in one of my Post-Season Blogs- most likely the one where I turn Scout and suggest players we could sign- but suffice to say I believe Tom Cairney's a player we can hang our hats on. Baird's come on for Parker late on, and didn't really get a chance to do much. I'm going to be interested to see how Ryan Fredericks fits into the team/squad next season, because I do believe he will have a role to play. He didn't really do much tonight, but if he can stay fit next season he'll be a good player for us.
It's always gutting when you concede a last minute Equaliser/Winner, and especially with how many we've conceded this season (and over the last 3-4 Years) it just gets ridiculous. With that said, I would have taken a Draw coming into the game- and the Draw tonight also means we've only lost 1 of the 5 Games we've had Post-International Break which was Jokanovic's first real chance to just work with the team on the Training Ground Non-Stop. In short, it's not all Doom and Gloom. We can pretty much look toward the Summer and Next Season now with tonight's result and MK Dons not beating Sheffield Wednesday, but we're not done yet and the Reviews are back again on Saturday for the Forest Review where hopefully we can get a Win before we go to Brentford.
Thanks for reading as always, as was the case last season- I'll be doing some Posts once the Season's over along the lines of Signings and all that stuff which we're hopefully already planning and putting those plans into action. Just off the top of my head, with Charlton being Relegation today- I'd be getting Johann Berg Gudmundsson's Agent on the Phone and putting a bid in for him at the earliest possible opportunity (I'm not sure if we had the Transfer Embargo for a Window, or a Date-Date type thing). Thanks again for reading, as always I hope you've enjoyed the Review. Season Tickets will be tomorrow morning, so keep an eye out.
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