West Ham United won’t have it all their own away against Fulham – especially if the Cottagers play like they did against Tottenham on Saturday – but Jarrod Bowen may be in luck as he aims to end his goalscoring drought.
The Hammers skipper is four games without a goal in the top flight. And while Nuno Espirito Santo is backing Bowen to prove that class is indeed permanent – ‘he’s been huge for us, he’s the club captain and everyday, he gives his best’ – concern is rising among a West Ham United fanbase holding out for a hero.
Fortunately, in Fulham, Jarrod Bowen could find himself up against rather accommodating opposition.
Why is Jarrod Bowen struggling when we need him most?
Fulham’s left-back weaknesses plays into Jarrod Bowen and West Ham United hands
Of the 42 goals the Cottagers have conceded in the Premier League this season, 42 per cent have come down their left side compared to only 31 per cent down the right.
Antonee Robinson and Ryan Sessegnon offer a real potent threat going forward but, defensively, they can often be found lacking.
Opportunities for Bowen to break in behind on the counter down West Ham’s right-hand flank, then, should present themselves at Craven Cottage.
As Marco Silva sweats on the fitness of Harry Wilson – his Welsh wizard suffered a twisted ankle on Sunday – the Fulham boss also has a decision to make between Sessegnon or Robinson.
The latter was arguably the best left-back in the league last season – and the top assist provider – but has struggled since returning from a lengthy injury absence.
And while Tottenham’s consolation in Sunday’s 2-1 defeat technically came down the right – Crysencio Summerville will come up against Silva’s most defensively-reliable full-back in Kenny Tete – Sessegnon did not cover himself in glory.
A lofted Archie Gray cross towards the back post, and Sessegnon caught in no man’s land as Richarlison halved the deficit. Should El Hadji Malick Diouf or Summerville find themselves in a position to fire a ball across the face of Bernd Leno’s goal, Bowen should be sniffing out an opportunity to bounce at the back stick.
“Ryan [Sessegnon] looked good going forward, but I do just worry about him defensively,” the Fulhamish fan site wrote after that Spurs victory. “In the first half, he was responsible for some poor clearances that led to unnecessary Spurs chances and then he was caught out for Richarlison’s goal, leaving the Brazilian with a routine header at the back post.
“Both left-backs have had defensive errors in them recently.”
Sander Berge can be got at in Marco Silva’s midfeild
At centre-half, Issa Diop was ‘brilliant’ against Tottenham. Should he keep his place alongside Calvin Bassey [Joachim Andersen is available again after illness], Diop may feel he has a point to prove against his old employers.
On the right, the tough-tackling Tete is likely to prove a stern test of Summerville’s recent resurgence.
And, even if Wilson does not make it, Silva can still call upon an exciting and highly-technical frontline containing Samu Chukwueze, Oscar Bobb, Emile Smith Rowe, Raul Jimenez and Alex Iwobi [Iwobi turned down West Ham for Arsenal as a youngster and comes into this game after scoring a stunner last time out].
But if the left-back spot is Fulham’s Achilles heel, then Sander Berge is another potential weak link for Nuno’s visitors to exploit.
Berge is a steady passer of the ball and a tall, imposing presence in front of Silva’s back four. Where the former Burnley and Sheffield United giant is lacking, though, is in the mobility department.
West Ham face a familiar face at Fulham…
Speaking to The Guardian following a solid debut season at the Cottage, Berge admitted that he needed to add a nastier streak to his defensive game.
“I can be more brutal, more nasty and more aggressive,” he said. “Maybe I don’t look that aggressive. I try to win balls but maybe more the clean way so I’m trying to mix that up a bit.”
“You need [that aggression]. In the ‘six’, you’re covering a lot of ground and football these days is a lot of counterattacks.”
Despite being the deepest of Fulham’s midfielders, though, Berge still ranks in the 45th percentile for ‘possessions won’, per Data MB. That places him much lower than any of Nuno’s four central midfielders; Soungoutou Magassa, Freddie Potts, Tomas Soucek and Mateus Fernandes.
Mateus Fernandes could be the key to open up the Cottagers
Speaking of Fernandes – the West Ham schemer shone against Liverpool despite a 5-2 loss on Saturday – Nuno possesses one of the most explosive, athletic number eights in the league.
Get Fernandes in and around Berge with the space to accelerate past him – as he did to set up Summerville’s opener away to Burnley last month – and this could be another very handy route to goal for the Hammers at Craven Cottage.
See, for instance, Fulham’s 2-0 defeat by Everton at the Hill Dickinson Stadium a few weeks ago. For the disallowed Thierno Barry strike, Berge stood too far off Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall at the edge of the box, while Sessegnon did nothing to prevent a cross.
Give Fernandes and Bowen this amount of time and space tonight, and Marco Silva could once again be spitting feathers towards a Fulham side high on talent and technical ability but often lacking in consistency and aggression.
“We lost the game through the physicality,” Silva said. “We could not handle at all the physicality of the Everton side.
“In my opinion, you can lose football matches because of other things, like they are better than you. But you cannot lose football matches because of the physicality of the football match – never.
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