Fulham are set to travel to the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium as they face a freefalling Thomas Frank’s side in a late Saturday kickoff.
The Lilywhites have shipped nine goals in their last two games. But there is some sense of similarity in two varied performances. Two creative midfielders from both the teams are in. Eberechi Eze and Vitinha were given that space to shoot and score from central spaces outside the box.
So for Marco Silva, coming into this game, he would also be wanting to make the most of this quite clear weakness that the Lilywhites have been showing. And this is the perfect weekend where he can unleash former Arsenal star Emile Smith Rowe, someone who knows all about punishing Tottenham already.
Why would Fulham be looking unleash Smith Rowe vs Tottenham?
The Hale End graduate is at his best when he comes into the pockets of spaces late. He has this knack of drifting off the front line and suddenly showing up unmarked between the lines.
Fulham do have a few options to put in a few more sequences which are structural. But if Silva is looking to do more of a replication of what Eze and Vitinha just did to Tottenham in the past week, then starting Smith Rowe should be among the plans.
For the North Londoners, these days the biggest problem is not only individual errors (like Romero’s against PSG) but also how they give a lot of space in midfield zones.
We have seen the Lilywhites’ double pivots ball-watching as the likes of Eze and Vitinha glide themselves into shooting positions at (and around) the edge of the box.
And ideally this is where Emile Smith Rowe also comes alive…
The Hale Ender is good at arriving late into spaces rather than standing between centre-backs (he has already scored a goal against Tottenham exactly doing so). Andy is also good at driving off the shoulder of midfielders and then having small bursts into the gap just when the ball is being worked into the final third.
Given that this Tottenham side are struggling to track these runners, those delayed movements from ESR would be a nightmare to deal with.
In the current structure at N17, we see the centre backs already being occupied to maintain that compactness while full-backs are either drawn wide or are caught in between being compact, and the holding midfielders are too slow to step out. So ideally this could see just one clever movement from Smith Rowe to have himself free to receive on the half-turn in exactly the zones Tottenham hate defending.
If Fulham and Silva go and try setting up with an extra presence between the lines, it could work well for the visitors. In gameplay situations, this should have Raul Jimenez pinning the back four while wide runners are stretching the pitch before that inward pass. This is where Smith Rowe coming in late can recreate the same problems Eze and Vitinha just exposed.
And another thing with ESR is that he is not only good at arriving in those spaces but also has that ability to finish from those areas. The Lilywhites have just been punished repeatedly by clean strikes from the edge of the area. Eze had three of those, while Vitinha’s hat-trick had a couple of those where he was barely pressured as he shaped to shoot.
And Smith-Rowe carries a very similar sense of danger.
If you give him half a yard on his stronger foot, then he is quite happy to pull the trigger from around 18 yards, especially if he is up against a Tottenham midfield which has recently been slow to close down and a defence that drops too deep. He will have opportunities for those situations.
Author Opinion
Ideally Tottenham are quite vulnerable when it comes to these situations of late. And in Smith Rowe, Thomas Frank is set to come up against another player who is quite good at taking advantage of that.
While ESR has not been starting games for Fulham of late, this is just the sort of game where Marco Silva would be looking to pounce on his technical abilities.
Hopefully this time around the Lilywhites do have a structure (or a plan) to combat that.