How Babel arrival has unlocked Mitrovic potential

Gameweek 24 showcased the best and worst of Fulham’s Fantasy Premier League assets.

Despite going 2-0 down in the early stages, the Cottagers fought back to win 4-2.

How they are progressing under Claudio Ranieri is the focus of this latest Scout Notes article.

Fulham 4-2 Brighton

Goals: Calum Chambers (£4.2m), Alexandar Mitrovic x2 (£6.6m), Luciano Vietto (£5.3m) | Glenn Murray x2 (£6.3m)

Assists: Joe Bryan (£4.8m), Ryan Babel x2 (£5.5m) | Martín Montoya (£4.3m), Pascal Groß (£6.7m)

Aleksandar Mitrovic (£6.6m) finally delivered on his attacking threat of the past few weeks by netting a brace in Fulham’s spectacular comeback win over Brighton on Tuesday night. The Serbian international’s volume of shots since his last goal in Gameweek 20, saw J0e‘s Goals Imminent table predict big things for him in Gameweek 24, to accurate effect. Not surprisingly, Mitrovic had more efforts on goal than any of his colleagues, as he continues to be their most dangerous player.

“We gave some good balls to Mitrovic. He is very dangerous with the crosses into the box. He is a goalscorer. He plays this way, covers the ball, fights for every ball and gives spirit to everybody.” – Claudio Ranieri

New signing Ryan Babel (£5.5m) has really hit the ground running since joining Fulham. After impressing on his debut in Gameweek 23, the former Liverpool man followed that up by registering two assists against Brighton. Despite playing just 145 minutes from a possible 180 in the last two Gameweeks, only three players in the whole league have played more key passes than Babel in that time. Meanwhile, the 32-year-old has had a chance every 24.2 minutes since his arrival, better than Mohamed Salah (£13.6m), Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang (£11.3m) and Sergio Aguero (£11.3m) in that time.

“I think we showed very good performance and also Babel gave us some experience and leadership. Every time he get the ball he was very calm and tried to do something good for the team. The others follow him.” – Claudio Ranieri

However, in the cases of both Mitrovic and Babel, it might be worth holding off on seriously considering anytime soon as their run of fixtures over the next few months looks very tough. Between now and Gameweek 32, Claudio Ranieri’s men are scheduled to welcome Manchester United, Chelsea, Liverpool and Manchester City to Craven Cottage.

Fulham’s manager demonstrated his ability as a motivator once again on Tuesday night. In the first half, his side had managed just one shot on target and were 2-0 down after just 17 minutes. Despite that bleak outlook at half-time, the former Leicester City boss got his players rallied for a barnstorming four-goal second period. He also made tactical changes, ditching the 3-4-2-1 in the 27th minute replacing Tim Ream (£4.2m) with Tom Cairney (£4.6m), and bringing Luciano Vietto (£5.3m) on for Andre Schürrle (£5.6m) at half-time.

“I give always confidence to my players and positivity. I said we are in the match, we must continue in this way, move the ball quickly and try to find the solution between the lines with Cairney, Babel, Mitrovic and also Vietto.” – Claudio Ranieri

The Cottagers were helped in their quest by an excellent Calum Chambers (£4.2m) goal which swung the momentum in their favour just after half-time. That was his first attacking return of the season after showing signs of offensive promise for some time, as well as operating in a central midfield role.

However, whether the Arsenal loanee is worth signing for our squads still remains under question. As a defender in FPL, Chambers continues to suffer from Fulham’s woeful defensive displays. The Cottagers remain the Premier League’s most scored-on side this season, having conceded 53 goals. The fact that Glenn Murray (£6.3m) was allowed to run riot in the first half speaks volumes. The Brighton man had not scored at all since Gameweek 15 and was still chasing a first away goal since a penalty against Southampton in Gameweek 5. Nevertheless, Murray was allowed more shots than any other player at Craven Cottage and could have scored a hat-trick had he been more accurate.

Joe Bryan (£4.8m) was forced off in the 77th minute with a leg injury, replaced by Ryan Sessegnon (£6.0m).

“Before the cross, he spoke to me. I don’t know, his right leg, I don’t know what happened but his cross was with the left foot and it was good.” – Claudio Ranieri

Ranieri was also able to provide an update on Aboubakar Kamara (£4.5m), who is currently suspended by the club for disciplinary reasons.

“Every day I speak with my owner and the son and if there is some opportunity they help me. But also with Kamara, I don’t know what happened but I am ready to bring him back. I have an open mind, he makes mistakes but he could go back.” – Claudio Ranieri

For Brighton, there was an immediate return for Australian goalkeeper Mat Ryan (£4.4m), who experienced a surprise early exit from the Asian Cup last week. Despite conceding four times in his first game back, he is expected to keep hold of his place again now, with David Button (£4.0m) having deputised in his absence.

Chris Hughton lined his troops up in a 4-3-3 formation, having opted for a five-man midfield against Manchester United and Liverpool in their previous two Premier League matches. Either way, it was still a deviation from the 4-4-1-1 he has preferred this season.

Pascal Groß (£6.7m), Dale Stephens (£4.4m) and Davy Pröpper (£4.8m) formed the three-man midfield, with Jurgen Locadia (£5.3m) and Solly March (£5.0m) flanking Murray in the forward line. There were encouraging signs from Groß in particular who was Brighton’s most creative player on the night ahead of Double Gameweek 25’s Watford meeting.

“It felt as though we got good balls into the box for me to feed off and luckily I got on the end of a couple.” – Glenn Murray

Also providing an outlet for the Seagulls in the first half was Martín Montoya (£4.3m), who got an assist for Murray’s opener.

“I think Martin has adapted very well to the English game. It sometimes takes foreign boys quite a while to adapt but Martin seems to have found his feet immediately. He has been fantastic in defence and hopefully, we are seeing the best of him going forward as well.” – Glenn Murray

However, whether Hughton opts to stick with 4-3-3 for the next match remains to be seen as he accused his midfield of not providing his defenders enough support for Chambers’ second-half strike, which changed the momentum of the game.

“They changed the shape of the team quite early to see if they could get themselves into more advanced positions and you have to be able to cope with that. They (Dunk and Duffy) are up against good players. Mitrovic is a very good player. Vietto comes on and Cairney and they start getting a lot of crosses in. Centre-halves also need support. And if I’m looking at the first goal, where we allow a player (Calum Chambers) to strike from the edge of the box, that gives them a little bit of momentum and certainly, the second goal gives them even more.” – Chris Hughton

Crucially, Brighton were undone by their susceptibility to headed efforts, with three of the four goals scored by Fulham coming in this way. In away matches this season, the Seagulls have conceded 38 such attempts, with only three teams allowing more in 2018/19. Brighton also went into the game with the worst away record outside the Premier League’s bottom three so it shouldn’t be too surprising that they collapsed in the second half. It certainly shouldn’t dictate our thinking over their options for Double Gameweek 25, as they host Watford at the Amex Stadium, where they are typically better at both ends of the pitch.

“As good as we were in the first half, we were equally as bad in the second half. We knew they would come out in the second half and go for it. We knew they would have good possession, but you’ve got to defend well in all of those situations. Once they got their first goal, that gave them some momentum. Once they got the second one, they were then in full flow. If you allow them the space and time to get the crosses in that they did, then you’re asking for trouble. You’re hoping that they don’t show quality at the end of it, but unfortunately for us they did.” – Chris Hughton

Fulham XI (3-4-2-1): Rico; Ream (Cairney 27′), Le Marchand, Odoi; Bryan (Sessegnon 77′), Seri, Chambers, Christie; Babel, Schürrle (Vietto 45′); Mitrovic.

Brighton and Hove Albion XI (4-3-3): Ryan; Bong, Dunk, Duffy, Montoya; Pröpper, Stephens, Groß (Andone 77′); Locadia (Knockaert 71′), Murray, March.