For club managers, the March international break is a final opportunity to take stock and prepare for the decisive phase of the season.
If you’re Fulham head coach Marco Silva, that does not just mean a push for the club’s second top-half finish in three seasons. It does not even mean trying to qualify for any old European competition. There is also an outside chance of Champions League football being played at Craven Cottage come September.
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The 2-0 home win against Tottenham Hotspur in their most recent match on March 16 means Fulham lie eighth in the Premier League with nine games remaining. Three points separate them and Manchester City in fifth — a position that would be enough for a 2025-26 Champions League spot based on the latest UEFA coefficient standings.
Throw in their FA Cup quarter-final at home against Crystal Palace on Saturday, and it is puzzling why Fulham have not had more praise. Andoni Iraola’s breathless Bournemouth and Thomas Frank’s versatile Brentford have received plenty of plaudits for their jarring, disruptive styles, but Fulham are above both in the table as we head into April.
Though Silva might prefer for his boys to keep flying under the radar, it is time to give the 47-year-old his flowers for what has been a stellar season.
Silva’s formation is nominally described as a 4-2-3-1, but it looks more like a 4-3-3 when Fulham are in possession. With last summer’s signing Sander Berge acting predominantly as the sole pivot to instigate his side’s build-up, the remaining midfielders push forward to form a triangle on either side of him — typically Emile Smith Rowe on the left and either Sasa Lukic or Andreas Pereira on the right.
While Smith Rowe, Alex Iwobi and Raul Jimenez will often drop to support Fulham’s build-up from advanced areas, it is not uncommon to see their broader shape resemble something akin to the image below, taken from that win over Spurs.
Forming triangles is a key theme in Silva’s approach when progressing into the final third, with wide rotations between a central midfielder, wide attacker and full-back being a common pattern you will see in Fulham’s chance creation.
This has been particularly prevalent on the left, with 41 per cent of Fulham’s attacking touches coming from that third of the pitch, the fourth-highest share among all Premier League teams.
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Iwobi might start wide as Smith Rowe advances inside, but the two can easily switch roles, while tireless left-back Antonee Robinson marauds on the inside or outside to create an overload on the flanks.
A perfect example can be seen during Smith Rowe’s goal against Newcastle United at the start of the season, as the 24-year-old drives forward to find Iwobi before getting a return ball inside the box to poke home.
Robinson’s overlap was not found, but the run disrupted Newcastle’s defensive line and helped create the space for the Arsenal academy graduates to combine.
It was a similar story just weeks earlier at Ipswich Town — a sequence started by Smith Rowe’s ball to Iwobi on the wing before an overlapping run from Robinson. This time, the left-back’s run is found as he crosses deep to the far post to Adama Traore, arriving from the right wing for a first-time finish.
Run the tape on Fulham’s goals this season, and you will see plenty more examples of crossing sequences like this, with Robinson often at the heart. The 27-year-old is having a sterling season, with a career-high 10 assists bettered only by Liverpool’s Mohamed Salah in the Premier League.
Anyone who has watched Fulham play this season will already know that crossing is an integral part of their goalscoring diet. No team averages more than their 17.5 open-play crosses per 90 minutes, but it would be understating Silva’s tactical acumen to suggest that this method of chance creation is a one-dimensional, hopeful ball into the box.
The choreographed routines in Fulham’s off-ball runs come from hours of work on the training ground, with match data from SkillCorner showing how frequently they flood forward — they rank in the top 20 per cent of teams across Europe’s top seven leagues for overlapping and underlapping runs this season (illustrated in the graphic below).
Add in their volume of ‘cross-receiver runs’ — a run towards goal to receive a possible cross — per 30 minutes in possession, and it is clear that each of Silva’s players knows exactly what their attacking responsibilities are, whether they receive the ball or not.
Strikers Jimenez and Rodrigo Muniz are often the primary targets of such chance creation, but support will also come via players making late runs into the box from midfield.
Using data from Footovision, Fulham lead the Premier League for crosses with second-line team-mates arriving into the box (4.8 per 90 minutes). Let’s go through a neat example.
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As Traore cuts inside onto his weaker left foot, Smith Rowe arrives into the box from a deeper midfield area — ghosting behind Nottingham Forest’s three centre-backs, who are occupied by Jimenez. After a perfectly weighted ball, Smith Rowe climbs above Morato at the back post to beat Forest goalkeeper Matz Sels from close range.
Digging further into the numbers, only Liverpool and Manchester City have created more back-post chances than Fulham’s 34 in the Premier League this season.
The notable skew towards the left side remains — with nearly double the volume created from that flank — but few teams have such an archetypal attacking pattern as Silva’s side. As the graphic below shows, Fulham will be disappointed not to have scored more based on the quality of chances they have created via such means.
Out of possession, Fulham’s defensive record is one of the best in the league this season. Only Arsenal and Liverpool are conceding fewer non-penalty expected goals than Fulham (1.1 per 90 minutes).
While an aggressive, man-for-man press might be the in-vogue approach for many clubs, Fulham’s stubbornness comes from a disciplined mid-block — often in a 4-4-2 as Smith Rowe pushes up alongside Jimenez and both wingers shuffle back to the midfield line.
According to Footovision data, only Crystal Palace have a higher share of their time in a medium block (as a total of time spent in low, medium, and high block defensive structure) than Fulham’s 64 per cent.
As shown below, their out-of-possession setup can also look like a 4-2-4 depending on the opponent, with an occasional shift to a 5-2-3 as the selfless Iwobi drops in to support his defensive line across the width of the pitch.
On the defensive line, this allows centre-backs Calvin Bassey or Joachim Andersen to step out aggressively and get touch-tight to an opposition forward when required. Meanwhile, Lukic has provided the midfield tenacity and bite required following Joao Palhinha’s departure to Bayern Munich last summer.
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Such a disciplined defensive structure speaks to the idea that every player knows their roles and responsibilities, with Silva seeking stability as much as possible. That is underpinned by the fact Fulham have named the most unchanged starting line-ups of any Premier League side this season.
Tactical setup and style of play aside, having such a settled XI cannot be underestimated when building consistency in an increasingly competitive league.
Within that starting XI, summer arrivals Smith Rowe and Berge have improved Fulham’s technical quality in midfield and allowed them to control games for longer periods — a 53 per cent share of possession is their highest average in the Premier League for five seasons.
In defence, Andersen’s return has been integral out of possession and he still offers the long-range passing that can turn around opponents in the blink of an eye. For context, no Premier League centre-back has attempted more long balls (35-plus yards) or switches of play than the Denmark international this season.
Beyond the starting XI, you could argue Fulham’s wider squad deserves more credit than any other side given their contribution from the bench. A tally of 13 goals from substitutes is the most of any Premier League team this season, with Muniz (five) and Harry Wilson (four) the two highest-scoring substitutes in the division. It speaks to the collective effort from Silva’s squad to fulfil their roles and have an impact, whenever they might take to the field.
If you were being critical, one blot on Fulham’s page would be their inability to hold onto leads this season. Having been in a winning position on 21 occasions, they have only gone on win on 12 of those — with a tally of 22 points ‘lost’ being the joint-second-most in the Premier League (level with Ipswich and one behind Southampton). They have drawn nine league games this season, leaving a niggling feeling of what might have been had Fulham seen out more of their promising situations.
Still, Silva’s side require just nine more points to beat their club-record 53 points achieved in 2008-09 — a season in which they finished seventh before embarking on an unforgettable Europa League run under Roy Hodgson the following campaign.
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Offer Fulham fans anything close to those memories and they would take it in a heartbeat. They might have to do it the hard way, with games against Arsenal, Liverpool, Manchester City, Chelsea and Aston Villa before the end of the season, making it statistically the second-toughest remaining fixture list in the league (based on current position). With the race for Champions League spots so tight, there is a still chance that, just maybe, they could find themselves dining at Europe’s top table next season.
(Top photo: Justin Tallis/AFP via Getty Images)
