Fulham were widely expected to regress this season. As much as they tried to prolong it, they lost the very public battle of retaining João Palhinha, the important cog in their midfield opting to sign for Bayern Munich in the summer. Adding to the challenges, they have not had a reliable goalscorer since Aleksandar Mitrovic’s departure a year earlier and lost several first-team players in the past transfer window. Yet early results have dispelled concerns of a decline. Fulham sit sixth in the Premier League – up from 11th at this stage last season.
The departure of Palhinha posed a unique challenge: try to replace an irreplaceable player or adapt without him. Marco Silva opted for the latter. Without their midfield destroyer, the manager has pushed Fulham higher up the pitch, now deploying the fifth-highest defensive line in the league, behind only Manchester City, Brighton, Tottenham and Arsenal (Fulham ranked 17th last season).
The former Crystal Palace centre-back Joachim Andersen has become the linchpin in the system revamp. The Dane has transformed Fulham’s buildup play, using his passing range to pick out Alex Iwobi, Emile Smith Rowe and Adama Traoré with long diagonals. His technical prowess also ensures the opposition rarely disrupts the new high line.
“We really pushed the board [to sign Andersen],” says Silva. “The club made the effort and we are delighted to have him with us because of his leadership, maturity, understanding and knowledge about the Premier League. We need to assemble a team with certain types of attributes. Andersen has them all to be honest.
“The quality is there, the way we want to play, the way we want to build from the back with a back four. He is already a great tool for us to use, and I think he is going to be a really important signing for us. He has already shown that.”
Rather than pairing a ball-winner like Palhinha with a traditional box-to-box midfielder, Silva has restructured the midfield to allow Sasa Lukic and Andreas Pereira, along with Traoré, Iwobi and Smith Rowe, to win the ball back collectively, rather than relying solely on one player to recover possession in deeper areas.
“When you don’t concede the goals, it is not just because of the back four or the goalkeeper,” says Silva. “It is up front with the way our striker and offensive midfielder start to press. The organisation from our midfielders is really important to help the back four. We’ve been improving in that respect.”
Having players that have featured at other clubs in the Premier League, especially together, has made this system change a lot smoother. “It took a little bit of time for Adama to be at his best level [after he first signed]. This season it is completely different,” says Silva. “He had a proper pre-season and now he has to try to keep his level because he is not an easy player to stop when he’s at his best.
“His partnership with Raúl [Jiménez] is special. We all know what they had in the past at Wolves. So many assists from one to the other to score. They connect with each other well, even off the pitch, and that is always going to be a good help for us.”
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Fulham are off to their best Premier League start in 20 years, with just one loss, and that against Manchester United on the opening night of the season. Though Silva has downplayed talk of European qualification, a top-half finish seems well within reach. However, a major test awaits against Manchester City on Saturday. The champions have won their last 16 meetings with Fulham in all competitions – the longest streak of any English side against another. Fulham have not won at the Etihad Stadium since 2009 and last season they conceded nine goals in their two league meetings.
A defeat to City would certainly not derail Fulham’s progress or diminish the impact of Silva’s system overhaul. But their performance will be a crucial measure of whether the team is ready to take the next step. Although Pep Guardiola is missing Rodri, the Fulham manager has noted a new “unpredictability” to City’s play, especially in how they create chances for Erling Haaland.
“Any team in the world would miss something if you lose a player like Rodri because he is a player that is almost impossible to find another one like him but, clearly, they have other solutions, and if someone is going to have solutions it is City,” says Silva. “Rodri is a special player, and of course that is not good news for Pep. But that is Pep’s problem. We have to look at ourselves and see how we will approach the game.
“With a striker like [Haaland], they decide if they want to press a bit more or attack straight with him from behind. They have the capacity not just to start from the back but they have a No 9 that can link them and hold the ball for long enough before others come. We are aware of it and let’s hope we will be able to play our game.”