Thank you again to Jack over at Fulhamish Podcast for helping us out – find him at @Fulhamishpod on Twitter
1) What was your overall assessment of the match?
Fulham started well enough, and if either Schurrle or Sessegnon put their chances away before the break, then perhaps we see a different game, but I thought the first half we probably edged. That said, if a team was at the Cottage and had the better of it and we went in 0-0, we’d fancy ourselves to win the second half, which is what transpired. That said, I thought we were poor second half and offered very little, when we should have been looking to kick on from a positive showing.
2) Who was your man of the match?
Hard to look past Idrissa Gana Gueye, who was absolutely everywhere for you. Controlled much of the midfield battle, broke up play well, linked passes – a really good performance.
3) Who impressed you for Fulham?
I thought Cyrus Christie did a decent job of marshalling Richarlison, given that he didn’t start and the rich vein of form that the Brazilian is in. Also thought Joe Bryan did well from left-back, and that Anguissa made a positive difference from us in the centre of the park.
4) Who impressed you for Everton?
Obviously spoke about Gueye earlier on, but aside from him, the centre-backs did a wonderful job in keeping Aleksandar Mitrovic out of the game. I was worried about this pre-game after watching Michael Keane’s largely positive return against Arsenal, but together with Zouma I thought they completely locked Mitro out of the game.
5) The first half was tight affair, did Fulham fans sense you could of got something from the game?
It was a positive first half from our perspective, which is usually conducive to optimism at the break, but we do have this Goodison Park hoodoo and thus it proved! There was always the hope that we could get something out of the trip, and the first half strengthened that, but there was also a lingering sense that we might live to regret the Sessegnon chance especially not hitting the back of the net.
6) What did you make of the penalty incident?
Calvert-Lewin has bought that penalty, but that’s part of his game. It’s not a dive but he’s actively engineered contact in order to go down – he did exactly the same against Liverpool last season. Truth is, every fan given the penalty is going to say it’s clever from the striker, and everyone on the other side will say it’s deceptive. It’s part of the game really, and I was most annoyed with Denis Odoi for letting it get to that stage in the first place. Thankfully, from that perspective, it didn’t lead to anything directly.
7) Did Fulham fans learn anything new from their side that hasn’t appeared so far this campaign?
Not really. I think we were disappointed that we didn’t come out stronger in the second period, given that we’ve been better in the second half of most games we’ve played, but that’s just how it is sometimes. There were positives in our early performance though and if things work out differently first half, who knows how it might have turned out.
8) Who disappointed you for Fulham?
I thought JM Seri was anonymous, which is rare for him; and last year’s player of the season Tim Ream was poor – although he gets a bit of a pass because it was his first game back from injury. Vietto’s touch was frustrating, Mitrovic was marked out of the game and Sessegnon lost his composure at the key moment. All individual disappointments but they’ll be things for those players to get behind them before the next game.
9) Who disappointed you for Everton?
I expected more from Richarlison. He had flashes of brilliance but his little battle with Cyrus was one he should have been looking to win on a pretty consistent basis, and it didn’t look that way to me.
10) Was it a fair result?
Sadly, probably, although I think that three goals perhaps flattered you a bit. We didn’t take our chances in the first half and we got punished for that in the second. Such is the way of the world. Fulhamish, some would say.
