Fulham’s Christmas report card – Silva lining as Whites look to have tactics and personnel to make Premier League survival a reality
Richard Cawley assesses Fulham’s start, grades the boss, picks out the best performer and which player needs to deliver more as the Premier League season gets set to resume on Boxing Day.
GRADE THE START: B+
When you consider Fulham’s previous attempts to stay up in the Premier League in recent years, this has been an excellent opening to the campaign.
Marco Silva’s side are ninth in the table and on 19 points with 25 matches to play. To put that into some kind of context, they only got 28 in the 2020-21 season under Scott Parker when they finished 18th.
Fulham have been brave offensively and not been fazed by the heavyweights and they were desperately unlucky last time out against Manchester United, Alejandro Garnacho’s ultra late goal sending them to a 2-1 defeat at Craven Cottage.
Also got to factor in that Aleksandar Mitrovic struggled with an ankle injury in the lead up to the World Cup which saw him miss matches.
GRADE THE BOSS: B+
Silva is coaxing more out of Fulham’s players than predecessor Parker and you can see that with the way in which American duo Antonee Robinson and Tim Ream have acquitted themselves in far more confident fashion.
Fulham are 15th for completed passes (5,896) but Silva has set the west Londoners up to punch highly effectively on the counter with only six teams scoring more than their 24 goals.
BEST SIGNING: JOAO PALHINHA
It’s a sign that Fulham got their recruitment better this summer that Brazilian pair Andreas Pereira and Willian have both had big impacts on the team. But Joao Palhinha has been immense.
The 27-year-old has made the most tackles in the Premier League (65) with Leeds’ Tyler Adams (52), second in that chart, trailing a fair way behind.
Also a threat from set-pieces, the defensive midfielder looks a snip at £20million from Sporting Lisbon.
KEY PERFORMER: ALEKSANDAR MITROVIC
For so long the Serbian sharpshooter has been the talisman for Fulham – 105 goals in 189 matches. He is fourth in the Premier League scoring charts with nine in 12 games.
He’s top for efforts on goal with 56 – one more than Tottenham’s Harry Kane and four ahead of Manchester City’s Erling Haaland.
Needs to stay fit as deputy Carlos Vinicius is a grafter but is still waiting for his first goal since arriving from Benfica in September.
NEEDS TO PRODUCE MORE: HARRY WILSON
Has struggled to get back up to speed after a knee injury suffered in a pre-season friendly against Aston Villa which kept him out until October. He was also unable to make much of an impression for Wales at the World Cup.
INJURED PLAYERS
Israeli international Manor Soloman underwent knee surgery in August in a behind-closed-doors match but tweeted this week that he is back in full training.
Neeskens Kebano is unlikely to be fit again this season after rupturing his Achilles in training.
IDEAL TRANSFER ACTIVITY:
Fulham could do with at least one more wide attacking option with Kebano out but Solomon, who has played just 24 minutes of Premier League football, will feel like a new addition.
Another striker to take some of the workload off Mitrovic would be lovely too.
NEXT FOUR LEAGUE FIXTURES:
December 26 Palace A, December 31 Southampton H, January 3 Leicester A, January 12 Chelsea H
BY RICHARD CAWLEY