3 wins out of 3, 6 points out of 6, 3 Goals scored and only 1 conceded in the league. What has Jokanovic done to my Fulham eh? I do have to laugh that Preston were involved in our last little unbeaten run at the back end of last season, and if we beat Leeds on Tuesday they'll have been the "middle game" of us winning 3 out of 3 in the league again. The 2-1 win back in April really set us on our way to survival, and while I'm not getting my hopes up (yet) the win today has really given some belief both to me and I'm sure the players that last Friday wasn't a one-off performance and we could be capable of really doing something this season.
We didn't have everything go our way today, I think that's pretty safe to say. However, when we had our backs to wall we didn't buckle under the pressure- which was basically our trademark last season. We more than did enough to get the 3 Points today in my opinion, and even if we didn't- it doesn't matter because we got the points on the board. This is a point I was making back in the latter stages of the 14/15 season when talking why I wanted Allardyce, I don't care how we win as long as we do win. If we go up to Leeds on Tuesday and produce the worst performance ever and scrape a 1-0, I'm perfectly fine with that. Every point counts, and us not conceding a second goal today could be a difference maker in April- you never know.
The reason I'm talking about not really caring how we win, is the fact both of our goals were pretty "fortunate" shall we say. I legitimately have no clue how the ball managed to reach Sone Aluko's head for our first. The ball was rebounding all over the place, and I think the ball was effectively smashed off McDonald and that turned into a looping cross that Aluko managed to turn in. It's one to watch on the Football League Show tonight. If we saw our Goal of the Season on Tuesday, this one may well be the last on the list in-terms of ranking them come May. There was nothing fortunate about Tom Cairney's build-up for our second goal. We all know what Cairney can do, and this was really a prime example of it. He was getting past Preston players for fun, and it was just a joy to watch. The fortunate part came when Cairney put Smith in and he hit it straight at Lindegaard first time around. If Lindegaard could've directed his save a bit more, or just got a bit lucky with it not going straight back to Smith then he'd have blown his chance.
The Preston goal was bit concerning, specifically when talking about Odoi. Odoi was great going forward and defensively for the most part last Friday without a doubt, but you can't ignore his incident early on where Ayoze Perez got in behind him and he could've been sent off just because he did a back flick to get past Dummett. This was a similar incident in that Odoi seemingly just got a bit lost and ended up next to the player Kalas was marking which meant the Preston player at the back post was completely unmarked and left Button helpless. It's not worth dwelling on when we've won, but it has to be said because on another day we may not be winning and it'll be brought a bit more to the forefront.
Unfortunately Button couldn't make it 2 Clean Sheets out of 2, but as I've already said he couldn't do much for Preston's goal. However, despite conceding I thought Button did quite well on the whole. He didn't really have much to do it does have to be said, but when called upon he did well- and it's good to see generally just how much Button talks to Madl and Kalas and just in general.
It's hard to really get an accurate representation of how good our defence is off the back of his game, just because of the lack of a threat from Preston in general. However, you can only play against the team in front of you- and I thought Kalas and Madl did really well today (again). It's just so weird to know we've got two Centre-Backs on the pitch that can actually do that weird foreign thing called "defending" isn't it? I will say that I've still got my concerns over the height of Kalas and Madl, and really the team in general- especially if other Managers see that all 3 goals we've conceded so far this season have been from crosses and try to exploit it.
Aside from his being at fault for the goal in my opinion, I thought Denis Odoi was quite solid. There weren't any ridiculous skill moves today, but he had a job to do and he did it for the most part. I can't help but think Odoi would be perfect as a Wing-Back when/if we go for a 3-at-the-back, because we will at some point of the season I'll happily put money on it. When talking about Preston's goal, an argument could perhaps be made about Malone getting beaten before the cross went in and Malone perhaps doing better- but personally I wouldn't put it on him. As with Odoi, I thought Malone was generally solid, in a much different role than the one he played last Friday in the sense that we had to really dig in today.
The only properly notable thing about Scott Parker's performance today was him missing a chance that really should have put us 3-1 up and made the last 10-15 Minutes relatively comfortable. I said this in the Orient Review, Parker is mostly remarkably unremarkable- but he's in the team to do a job and he did it. I will say I was surprised to see Parker starting today- but with the type of game it ended up being late on it was good to have him on. It's remarkable that Parker's managed two 90 Minute shifts in less than a week isn't it? I'm interested to see how we shape up on Tuesday now Jozabed's in the mix now, because the Parker/Tunnicliffe spot is the one most threatened in my opinion. Kevin McDonald's spot isn't threatened at all, and rightly so. He didn't have an "amazing" game today, but positional awareness wise he's one of our better players and he's just generally a bloody good player.
The trio of Cairney, Ayité and Aluko are going to be giving a lot of defences problems this season. Cairney's gone up a gear in these early stages of the season compared to what we saw last season in my opinion. That's not even a criticism of Cairney last season because he was still one of our better players, but in these first two games he's actively looking to beat men and just generally looks like more of a consistent attacking threat. You don't have to look further than the Smith goal for evidence of that, but his play in general was really good today and for me he's MOTM.
Stupid Yellow Card aside, Floyd Ayité's looking like he's got "Signing of the Season" potential after Newcastle and then today. I highlighted it last week, but it's worth repeating- Aluko and Ayité are so key to how we want to play that goals aren't the be all and end all with them. It's exactly why I was happy to see McCormack go, however good McCormack is- we couldn't play like we've done so far with McCormack in the team. Ayité's general play was just great, and it was good to see Ayité getting so much of the ball because it showed we'd done our homework in that Preston are struggling at Right-Back. While goals aren't the be all and end all, they definitely help, as we got with Aluko's goal today. As already said, the goal was pretty fortunate but it was still a good header under pressure for Aluko to get the goal- and then his build up play was really good in general. I didn't really have Aluko as a proper "#10", but I can't argue with results- and the 100% record so far this season speaks for itself.
I do find it quite funny that if any Striker for any other club had scored 2 in 2 they'd be a guaranteed starter, yet with Smith we're actively searching for a replacement. I'm not saying that's a bad thing, because despite him scoring 2 in 2 he's just not good enough to be starting every game. There's a role for him to play at the club without a doubt- but especially now we're looking like a proper team if we can just bring in a properly clinical Striker who fits the system our chances of pushing for Play-Offs will go up infinitely. With all that said, Smith did really well today. He scored one, in my opinion the goal he scored just before Half-Time should've stood (which balances out the Beckford one late on if he was on-side) and his hold-up play in particular was really good today and his going off caused a notable shift in the dynamic of the game. So basically, short-term this Smith form is great- long-term there's not a chance I want him starting every game.
The Subs Slavisa made today were mixed, although after my criticism of Tuesday it was good to see him use all three available to him. As I've already said, Smith's going off and being replaced by Woodrow caused the balances of the game to shift a little bit. I don't know if it was directly because we lost Smith or the fact that Preston went up a gear and were pressing us more- but our hold-up play was non-existent once Smith went off. Christensen was a good option to bring off the bench, and as I've said a few times his type of game is suited to the system we're playing- so I'd expect him to be used similarly going forward. Ream for Malone was basically just to waste time as much as anything else, but Ream's definitely more suited to Left-Back so I won't complain about him being used in the role he was used in today.
Make no mistake, today was not an amazing performance. We rode our luck at times, and especially 2nd Half we were second best for the majority. However, at all times we looked like a proper team with a sense of togetherness and commitment I haven't seen from a Fulham team for quite a while. We all know we're not going to win every game, nor do we expect to- but as long as I see a team that's committed to the cause and are putting 100% in every game I'm satisfied.
I'm absolutely determined to enjoy this while it lasts, because for the first time in over 3 years we've got a team that I can look at and get excited by. I think we all acknowledge that Play-Offs/Promotion are a step too far this season, but if we can keep an upward trajectory for the most part over the course of the season then we could have a really good foundation for a proper push next season. We've got a few immediate hurdles, namely getting more players in ASAP so we don't have (probably) the smallest squad in the league. There's no point setting deadlines on them though, Jozabed took a while but he's now over the line- and as long as we've got the required players in by September I'm happy.
Unfortunately, this Review is where I leave you for basically the next two weeks. I'm flying out to New York on Tuesday, and if there's no delays I should be arriving just as we kick-off against Leeds. I'll be missing the Leeds, Cardiff and Boro Reviews, so hopefully you don't miss me too much and there's still an unbeaten run to talk about when I get back. Thanks for reading as always, you could almost get used to this "winning" thing couldn't you?
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