When Fulham overcame Aston Villa to win the Championship play-off final in May 2018, many football fans thought that Fulham FC would struggle in England’s top division. To try and prove doubters wrong over £100 million was invested in bringing in new players to keep them from relegation. After such reinforcements were made in the months of July and August, Fulham exceeded expectations in transfer efficiency and in fact many thought that they would finish in the top half.
Fulham Football Club, based on the bank of the River Thames, are currently sitting in 19th position in the Premier League after having a dreadful start to this season. Fulham fans thought they would excel after brilliant performances in the Championship but some of their league results have confirmed that they are in danger of going straight back down to the second division, where they have spent their past four seasons.
So what went wrong for The Cottagers?
One of the main reasons why Fulham are struggling to adapt to Premier League life is that they have an unstable defence. Fulham fans last season enjoyed watching free flowing attacking football where their victories came from outscoring their opponents. In the Championship they could get away with conceding goals – they would just score more. However against world class strikers who are ruthless in front of goal, their shaky defence has been caught out too many times. On average Fulham have conceded 2.22 goals per game whilst no other team in the league averages above two per game. They have also conceded four or more goals on four different occasions. They have let in over 50 goals and only won three games out of 23 played.
Scoring hasn’t come easily to them either: they have scored only six times in their last eight games and have only won one match (against bottom club Huddersfield). They do have a brilliant striker – Aleksandar Mitrovic – who has ten goals this season, however apart from him no other player is on the score sheet nearly often enough.
A lot of pressure has been put on Fulham after spending large amounts of money on players in the Summer Transfer Window. However, the players purchased haven’t fulfilled their price tags. For example, defensive midfielder André Frank Zambo Anguissa cost Fulham £30 million and has only played two Premier League games all season. In addition player chemistry has been a huge problem for the club. There has been a lot of controversy over Aboubakar Kamara, a French winger who doesn’t shy away from the headlines. He recently stole – and subsequently missed – a penalty from Aleksandar Mitrovic, a man I certainly wouldn want to mess with! Manager Claudio Ranieri has recently stated that “he felt like killing Kamara,” after the incident against Huddersfield Town. Kamara has now been arrested for assaulting staff members during a yoga session…
Their disappointing first half of the season has certainly underwhelmed Fulham fans and they have their opinions on what has gone wrong. Fulham season ticket holder Fergus Briston said this: “The main problem is that players don’t play for the shirt. There is no desire to win. Players who worked hard in the Championship, who have fought for the club are not playing. There is no unity in the team.” Life long Fulham fan Xander Wright thinks that problems lie elsewhere: “Our starting eleven – especially our back four – is constantly changing so no chemistry is built between players. We need to establish what our best team is and stick to it.”
What next for Fulham? Is there any hope?
Currently, the Cottagers are seven points from safety and five points off 18th placed Cardiff. There are just fifteen games to play in a 38 game season. With an FA Cup weekend in full swing – a competition they are not involved in – they have some time to prepare for some big fixtures that are coming around in the next few weeks.
Their next home game is against 13th placed Brighton where a win would boost the confidence of fans and players, yet they will still need to give more to have a chance of staying up. Fulham have only picked up two points away from home all season, so they will have to produce points from as many home games as possible. This will be a tricky feat though, as they welcome both Manchester clubs, Chelsea, Liverpool and Everton to the Cottage in the upcoming weeks.
However there is still hope. A spirited performance against Spurs showed signs of improvement and the loan signing of ex Liverpool player Ryan Babel could help boost their scoring stats. This could go right down to the wire though as their final two home games are against Cardiff City and Newcastle United, 18th and 17th place respectively. If you can, get yourself down to Craven Cottage and support the players. They really need it.
Do I think they will stay up? No I don’t.
