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Fulham 1 Huddersfield 0 | Talking Points

Aleksandar Mitrovic was the Fulham hero at Craven Cottage on Saturday afternoon, as his unbelievably important late goal gave his team the three points against direct relegation rivals Huddersfield.

It was a brilliant finish from the boot of Mitrovic, surely Fulham’s most important player, a finish that lifts his team off the foot of the Premier League table for the first time in eight weeks of play, and subsequently dumps Huddersfield at rock bottom instead.

How important will this be for Fulham?

Indescribably important. This is, potentially, the kind of last minute escapes from the clutches of a dour draw that have saved worse teams than Fulham from relegation in the past; simply put, Fulham needed to win, and won.

Their day was all set to be defined by a lack of aggression, an inability to attack what should be regarded as highly beatable opposition, and perhaps that final goal should not let the squad off the hook in that regard. However, judging from Claudio Ranieri’s celebrations at the late goal, it is hard to believe that he would currently care about the level of performance one bit; this could be the three points that save Fulham from returning to the Championship, and he knows it.

Can Huddersfield survive playing the possession game?

Elation at one end, heartbreak at the other; Huddersfield played a neat passing game at Craven Cottage but struggled to create clear chances, and even when they did they found Fulham goalkeeper Sergio Rico in fine form. At the end of the game the possession stats surprisingly favoured the away team, with Hudderfield controlling about 56 percent of the possession at the full time whistle, and even more than that at the half-time interval. They were heavily outmatched by Fulham in every other stat however – twelve shots inside the box for Fulham, as opposed to Huddersfield’s five, tells its own story.

David Wagner has his principles, and Huddersfield didn’t stay up last season by playing negative football; perfectly epitomised by the fact that their survival was pretty much guaranteed by grabbing a point away to Chelsea. It feels risky however, even naive, to think that this approach is going to keep them up this time around – they’ve gone to a relegation rival, determined to retain possession and control the game, and have been caught on the counter in the 91st minute.

Ranieri’s extraordinary response to Kamara’s penalty miss betrays how costly it could have been

Fulham’s prayers were answered in the 80th minute of play when, following a looped cross into the box, Chris Löwe blocked Aboubakar Kamara’s pass with his hands and the penalty was given. What happened next was extraordinary; both of Fulham’s previously designated penalty takers, Tom Cairney and, most obviously of all, Aleksandar Mitrovic, were muscled off their previously decided duties by Kamara himself, clearly believing that, having technically won the penalty, it was his right to take it as well. Predictably, after such a fight to take it away from his teammates, Kamara missed it, much to the exasperation of just about everybody.

In his post-match comments Ranieri was anything but diplomatic – he said that he “told him [Kamara] to leave the ball to Mitrovic… he didn’t respect me, the club, his teammates and the crowd”. The question now might not be ‘will Kamara leave the next penalty to a teammate’ but instead, ‘will Kamara be on the pitch to have that opportunity?’ The player has always been a frustrating figure, but this is more than just a misplaced pass or a wayward shot – he is at Ranieri’s mercy.

Does Ranieri know his best team?

His substitutions suggests he still does not. Ranieri always manages to spring a surprise in his starting line-ups and another came here, with Luciano Vietto deployed up front alongside Mitrovic, with fan-favourite Ryan Sessegnon benched once again. The first half was passive to say the least and Ranieri responded; taking Seri and Mawson off and putting Kamara and Le Marchand on, a move which effectively put three up front for Fulham and resulted in a brighter second half.

Taking Mawson off was unexpected, and Vietto was sacrificed soon after with Sessegnon coming on and making the crucial impact with his assist for the goal. These substitutions betray a potentially worrying idea that, despite his reputation as ‘The Tinkerman’, Ranieri is still not entirely sure about the best players at his disposal. This was the kind of occasion that did not demand experimentation, and yet Ranieri did just that. Without Mitrovic’s late goal, would questions have been asked of the Italian?



Huddersfield will rue their passivity – is there a way back from this? 

Thanks to this loss, Huddersfield will end 2018 bottom of the table, with potentially their most damaging defeat of the year fresh in the memory. Of course there is still every chance that Wagner’s side can regroup in the new year, but this is the second damaging defeat in a matter of weeks, after their pretty calamitous home loss to Newcastle (a result that, despite being partially undeserved, remains no less painful).

They may try and fix their problems in January but they would be wise not to overspend, in case of relegation, and also not to expect the miracle cure to their woes. They are a decent enough defensive side but their attacking personnel could do with a total overhaul. Dominic Solanke has been linked, on loan from Liverpool, but more would be required. Would they go to Huddersfield? Should they go? It will be fascinating to see.

Jack Hall

An MA Film Studies graduate who now writes about Fulham FC for 90MAAT and any movies that take his fancy in his spare time. Recently saw his football club, Swansea City, get relegated and people were right, the Championship is much more fun.

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