Marco Silva made significant tactical switches to his team as they beat Aston Villa 1-0 at Craven Cottage. But what were they and what does the manager say about them?
Fulham could have easily been accused of being too stale in their defeat to Liverpool and their draw against Brentford.
Failing to score in either match and, in all honesty, not looking remotely close to scoring against Brentford, it seemed like they were too easy to play against both in attack and defence.
So, against Aston Villa, something surely needed to change if Fulham were to get the points that they needed to remain in the run-in for European places.
And that is exactly what happened, Fulham were far more subtle in their attack and defensively looked extremely solid.
Against Brentford, their hero was Bernd Leno at the death.
Against Aston Villa, he made just one save.
But what were the tactical switch-ups, why did they work and what did Silva have to say about them?
What were the tactical switches in Fulham’s 1-0 win over Aston Villa?
When the lineups were announced at 11:15 UK time on Saturday, it looked like a very standard Fulham team.
But, two minutes into the game and you could clearly see there were quite major tactical shifts from Silva.
He had opted for a 3-4-2-1 formation, much like the one used by Oliver Glasner at Crystal Palace.
Timothy Castagne slipped into right centre back, Calvin Bassey at left centre back, with Ryan Sessegnon deployed as a left wing back and Harry Wilson, Fulham’s star man, acting as a right wing back.
It was certainly a bold move and one that left Unai Emery immediately on the back foot.
How did Fulham’s tactical shift against Aston Villa work?
Fulham pressed extremely high, in the first half especially, which gave almost no time for the likes of Matty Cash and Lucas Digne on the ball.
Emiliano Buendia, who scored in the reverse fixture in September, was provided zero space and although Villa did have decent counter-attacking chances through Morgan Rogers and Ollie Watkins, they were largely nullified from creating sustained periods of pressure.
It was also shown with the goal, with Castagne surging forward into the midfield and whipping in a wonderful ball for Sasa Lukic to head at Emiliano Martinez, before Ryan Sessegnon put away the rebound with aplomb.
What did Marco Silva say about the tactical shift against Aston Villa?
Speaking to TNT Sports, Silva said: “The way they defended, yes [I am happy], the hard work from Harry Wilson is not easy.
“It just speaks about us as a team as well, our best goalscorer so far, our best player so far this season, doing that incredible job up and down to mark Lucas Digne.
“We knew we had to give steps forward with Matty Cash staying in that position, with Buendia, to make us press a bit higher and the way we did it in the first half was the plan, definitely.
“Great cross [from Castagne], we knew that the way we were going to switch a side for the first goal is a little bit simple, we attract on the left-hand side and after we went for the right.
“Great cross from him, the timing from Sasa Lukic in the box was very important for Sessegnon, and it is a moment that we come from the left and then the right.
“To have that many players inside the box, three or four players inside the box, is crucial for us at this moment in the season.
“We knew we had to attack them quickly if you can to beat the pressure and that was the case but it is nice to see three or four players in the box.”