Fulham verdict: Lookman’s a luxury and Andersen was well below par
The alarm bells are tinkling after Fulham after lost 2-1 to Leeds.
There was a moment with five minutes to go when Scott Parker, lips compressed, was caught staring into the middle distance.
It’s the look that says he was thinking about something else – like life back in the Championship.
It also looks as if the wider game is almost up, because this wasn’t so much a lost opportunity as a deserved win for United.
Fulham were allowed precious little time to settle on the ball, and when they did, they ran out of ideas in the final third.
There was none of the one-touch swiftness Leeds offered in attack, and in the end, lofted crosses into the box were the mark of a side deep in trouble.
In the first half, Joachim Andersen looked as rattled as at any time since he joined the club.
Lunging at passes, jostled out of his stride, hurried clearances: it’s not what we’ve come to expect from the unruffled Dane.
But in amongst the pell-mell action, he hooked a leg at a corner to score his first goal for Fulham.
It was a moment to savour, because in the second half he like the rest of the defence were constantly on the back foot.
Bad night for Ade
Ademola Lookman is becoming a luxury.
When he scuffed two shots in the space of three second-half minutes, Leeds scored the winner in between.
The first horrible miss with the goal gaping saw the visitors break away and scuff one themselves, although this one from Raphinha beat Alphonse Areola to sneak inside his near post.
Lookman then half hit one on the turn that dribbled away, and defenders are now wise to a player who stands on the ball just inside the box hoping to cut inside and get away a shot.
He tried it a couple of times in the second half and got nowhere.
At the very end, he was naively caught offside with Fulham on the attack. It might as well have been the final whistle.
Yes, he has potential, but potential doesn’t get you Premier League points.
No defending from the front
Fulham attackers can’t defend.
This might have been an obvious thing to say 30 years ago, but everyone has to do everything in modern football and Ivan Cavaleiro and Lookman can’t.
The Portuguese was caught ball watching for the real Leeds goal when Jack Harrison ran inside him to centre for Patrick Bamford’s hit and 1-0.
Although Luke Ayling’s earlier looping header was fortuitously offside, keep your eye on Lookman in the replays.
He just allows the United right-back to wander off him for a free header at the back post.
Work needed at both ends of the pitch for the pair.
VAR delivers
The Whites have been on the receiving end of VAR decisions this season.
But these things even themselves out.
The home side were given the elbow when denied a very good goal against Tottenham at the beginning of the month. It cost them a point as technology made the decision.
This time the elbow of Tyler Roberts saved them when Ayling headed in as the TV screen confirmed.
In the end the disallowed goal didn’t matter
But on a wider point, when an elbow is the difference between a good goal and no goal, maybe Parker has a point that VAR will eventually stifle the excitement out of the game.
A different Fulham
So how many starting players were left from the side beaten 4-3 at Leeds in September?
Answer: four; Areola, Harrison Reed, Andre-Frank Anguissa and Cavaleiro.
Head coach Parker defended his selection at Elland Road by suggesting that rookie side would have learned.
But he had neither time nor intention of watching the process unfold, and it’s no coincidence the arrival of Tosin, Andersen and Ola Aina changed a porous defence into a mean one, at least, until the last two point-less defeats.
The interesting thing is that September’s backline in Yorkshire included Michael Hector, Denis Odoi and Joe Bryan, who are ideal for the Championship – and might well be in Fulham’s this coming September as well.
Parker’s team are going to have to do something extraordinary over the last eight matches, and hope those around them don’t.
It’s not looking good.
