PL Match Day 1 SOC – Fulham

Welcome to the first Stretford Stateside Stream of Consciousness blog, well, ever! For more about this blog and its purpose, see the about page.

If you’re too lazy to click over to that page, these blogs are going to be synopsis of the games through the structure of the iconic 4-4-2. Each matchday, I’ll give my thoughts on the game via 4 takeaways, 4 players worth talking about, and 2 things worth saying that no one else might be. I’ll wrap it up with some forward looking things. The fun of writing this blog is to let out the fan, don’t worry about being absolutely right, and be unabashedly biased. Without further ado… Stretford Stateside Stream of Consciousness #1!

Quick Summary for Context:

Manchester United beats Fulham 1-0 at home.  Joshua Zirkzee gets the winner in the 87^th minute after coming onto the pitch.  The game stats bear out a solid to convincing Manchester United performance despite the narrow margin.

4 Takeaways:

1. A win is a win, 3 is 3, and 3 is better than 1 or 0.  Rare is the opening game being a must win, but for Ten Hag and the players it felt like without a competitive minute logged in the season there’s already a monkey on the back.  We’re in a weird place as a club where for an extended stretch as a fan I can say I’m starting to fear losing much more than I expect to win.  Not having to endure a week of what ifs and commentary around the club after a draw or loss is a bigger relief than anything.
2. The style isn’t riveting in these games where we are invited to play with the ball at our feet., and it won’t go away any time soon.  It’s not even our preferred style in the Ten Hag system, but possession from around the halfway line via our center backs is going to be welcomed by opponents often this year.  Fulham was more than happy to squeeze the pitch against us and force Maguire and Martinez to dictate the offense.  It did look like Casemiro dropped into the space between those two to become more of a pivotal player in advancing the ball and breaking the defense, which is why I think I came away from the game with good feelings about his performance as a whole.
3. Finishing was shit.  Maybe rusty is a better term even though I hate giving professional footballers some sort of break when it comes to pretty basic chances.  I counted 5 goals that are shoulda, coulda, woulda and we came away with a 1-0 on what I’d argue was the most unlikely of the chances to go in.  More on that in the 4 players worth talking about section.
4. There’s uncertainty in the roster quality and the depth but it felt good to put out a team sheet of players that you look and say “well we can win with that.”  So often last year I was left looking at Jonny Evans name on the sheet, feel like I had sniffed a fresh fart, and realized that prayer was going to be the path to victory because quality sure wasn’t going to be it.  To that end, Ten Hag nailed the substitution by getting the match winning goal off the bench.  Still had to watch Evans get competitive minutes at the biggest club in the world, but 3 points heals all.

4 Players Worth Talking About

1. Bruno Fernandes – He’s pretty clearly our best player. You can’t watch that game and think anything else.  Offensively, the game is dictated by his decisions both off and on the ball for the team.  He missed two chances that we’ve all come to know Bruno to cash in on, and a third chance where he made the right decision to let a shot go from the top of the box but just didn’t execute.  Bruno is going to start executing on those chances as the season goes on and the captain of the squad, the bright spot is that he was collecting those chances.  Playing without a striker for pretty much the entire game did limit his creation of chances from an assist perspective, but whether on purpose or not Bruno seemed to realize that and take some ownership of the attack. We will need that early in the season.
2. Mason Mount – Not one person watched that game and thought “I’m so glad we have Mason Mount on our team”.  However, the performance and positioning was actually definitively solid.  His commitment to the press allowed us to take the ball away in the opponents third 10 times.  I’ve watched enough Ten Hag ball to know that starts with how we apply pressure to the center backs, and Mount’s positioning and work rate was a part of that equation as he funneled balls into the areas where our defenders and midfielders could capitalize on 50/50 balls.  Sure, is he likely going to lose his spot to Zirkzee in the coming fixtures, I hope yes, but Mount’s versatility and ability are going to be a utility player for us all year if he can remain healthy that will help us maintain consistent performances.
3. Harry Maguire – Great shift today. We’ve got to capitalize on these types of performances from players like Maguire.  He’s got the quality to perform at a level that we watched today and what an interception on the 2 v 1 he faced timing the deflection on the pass and eliminating what looked to be a sure goal for Fulham.  If come February when the season and cup runs are slogging, and Maguire can put in performances like that as our 3^rd or 4^th choice center back we are looking at a massive luxury.
4. Amad/Garnacho – I know I said four players, but with the subs it makes sense to talk about these guys together.  Amad played fine.  Wasn’t great, wasn’t poor. His style does seem to help us a lot in these possession style games, but without a proper striker to aim for in crossing situations it does seem his game becomes more one dimensional as he can’t really run past backs off the ball.  Garnacho, to the contrary, comes in and goes maximum effort and immediately applies pressure on the pace of the opposing left backs.   I like the change up that these two allow Ten Hag to play. I also believe both players show signs of being a little streaky, the hot hand tactic may come into play as the season goes on.

2 Things No One Else Might be Saying

1. Casemiro might be the most pivotal player in the squad through the first 10 match days.
2. Rashford’s over the top running will be the key that unlocks the goal scoring of Hojlund/Zirkzee this season.

Looking ahead to Brighton in the early game this Saturday, we’ve got what is appearing to be a unique challenge.  Brighton, on paper, not super scary but the new tactics of a progressive and youthful manager in Hurzeler.  We also face the guy that seems to score every time we face off in Welbeck who I hope Martinez can organize us to not let the wily veteran get free for a goal.

Until next week, thanks for reading!