In the early morning of April 20, Beijing time, in the 43rd round of the 2021-22 Championship, Fulham beat Preston 3-0 at home, accumulating 86 points in 42 league games, according to the current points situation, Fulham has been determined to be promoted to the Premier League 4 rounds in advance. Fulham have become the Premier League-Championship "lift" in recent years, maintaining a "promotion-relegation-promotion" rhythm for 6 consecutive seasons starting from the 2017-18 season.
The Battle for the Premier League title and the top four is in full swing, while the lower Champions League has taken the lead in answering a suspense: after beating Preston 3-0 in mid-week this week, Fulham, who have scored 86 points in 42 rounds, have qualified for direct promotion four rounds ahead of schedule. Considering that they are up to nine points ahead of the second place in the table with one more game, and it is very likely that the league championship trophy will be in the pocket, which is definitely gratifying. However, for Premier League fans, this West London-based "farmer" is not unfamiliar at all, and in the past 5 years, they have been relegated to 3 degrees of success in 2 degrees, which has long been a standard "lift".
So for them, the most important question for everyone should be as follows: After two fast rises and fast drops, has Fulham, who rebounded rapidly for the third time, learned his lesson and is ready to stay in the Premier League?
It is obviously too early to predict the relegation of the 2022-23 Premier League season now, but compared to Fulham's previous two successful performances, most British media still feel that the team is more likely to become a resident member of the top league again this time. One of the main points is that the way of qualifying has changed, the first two times have experienced brutal promotion play-offs, and most of the finals have won some luck - 1-0 win over Villa in 2018, 2-1 defeat to Brentford in 2020, Fulham are all one-goal wins.
In 2022, the farmer finally came to a "strength crush". Although they are not yet Champions League champions, with a large points lead and a large attacking firepower that exceeds the entire Championship (98 goals in 42 rounds, at least 33 more than other teams), it is no exaggeration to say that Fulham will win the championship. In the past few seasons, with the exception of Norwich, the "exception" who has struggled to qualify in the Premier League a year after winning the Championship, secondary league champions such as Leeds, Wolves and Newcastle have finally retained their top-flight seats.
Of course, the history of other teams can only be used as a reference, and how the future is still up to Fulham and their next response. In this regard, the current situation of the farmers actually looks much better than the previous two times. In the 2018-19 season, Fulham was arguably the Premier League's biggest joke, with boss Sheheed Khan spending hundreds of millions of pounds to bring in double-digit new signings, only to finish second from the bottom of the league. Then in the 2020-21 season, the club's reinforcement adjustment after promotion was also not ideal, and young coach Scott Parker led the team to score 27 goals in 38 rounds, and the offensive firepower was too bad to be relegated.
However, looking at Fulham's "champions squad" this year, if they want to relegate in the Premier League next season, the adjustment difficulty should be much lower than before. The point is that the team has recast a relatively stable squad structure, while also clarifying the tactical routines that operate around the "strong core", and the 27-year-old center Mitrovic is this core. The Serb started in the Premier League from Newcastle in 2015 and switched to Fulham in 2018, but only now seems to be fully enlightened. He scored 40 times in 40 rounds of the Championship, and finally had the charm of the "demon front" in the football manager game of that year.
It should be noted that Fulham were relegated in 2021, and Mitrovic's dud was once one of the important factors, scoring 26 goals in the Championship in the previous season, he only scored three times in the 27 rounds of the Premier League that year. So far, the Serbian center has only scored 11 goals in a single season in the Premier League (2018-19 season), so there is reason to suspect that he is still a "sadistic player", which may not work on the top stage. However, 40 goals in 40 rounds is obviously a big improvement over 26 goals in 40 rounds, and it is not just a bit of luck to be able to break the Championship goal record (the original record of 31 goals, created by Brentford striker Tony last season). Under the transformation of manager Marco Silva, Mitrovic has gone beyond the traditional center line of only fighting against opposing defenders. He became an all-around striker, with the same skill in pullbacks as he did, one of which was as many as seven league assists.
With Mitrovic as the fulcrum, coach Marco Silva's 4231/433 system was propped up. The former Hull City and Watford manager was poached by Everton's high salary but spent only a season and a half with the Toffee before being swept out of the country for a poor record. After nearly two years of dormancy, the 44-year-old Portuguese coach made a comeback in the Championship and replaced Parker, who moved to Bournemouth, as manager of Fulham last summer. He then not only unleashed the potential of Mitrovic, but also created a super frontcourt combination for the team. In addition to the Serbian centre-forward, the team's other attacking pillar is winger Harry Wilson, who came on loan from Liverpool (the contract includes a buyout clause). He has contributed 15 assists and 10 goals in 38 league appearances, and has also temporarily ranked first in the Championship this season.
A particularly noteworthy name about Fulham's frontcourt is Fabio Carvalho. The 19-year-old Portuguese youngster, whose main role is an attacking midfielder, has contributed nine goals and seven assists to the farmers after becoming one of the main members of the first team this season, and the team's direct involvement in the league is second only to Mitrovic and Wilson. However, the rising star will not continue to appear in Marco Silva's squad next season, and due to the refusal to renew his contract, Carvalho parted ways with the farmers at the end of his contract this summer. According to previous reports, his next stop will be Liverpool, and the two sides have privately agreed. The Reds allegedly tried to take Carvalho at the end of the winter window, but the deal was not completed in time, so it was postponed until the summer.
Will the poaching of such a powerful newcomer deal a serious blow to Fulham? Some people think that there will be losses, but they may not hurt the bones. On the one hand, Fulham have other forward options, and will certainly spend money to make up people after the success of the promotion, on the other hand, the club reserve team seems to still have a reserve force worth digging up - in this season's England Reserve League Group B, Fulham U23 has also won the championship early, and the second place is as many as 20 points ahead of the second in the remaining two rounds. If the not-so-poor farmers can learn their lessons and learn from the experience of other promotion teams in achieving relegation by fine-tuning around the original core, their 2022-23 season should be able to make a difference.
Wen | Yan Yu
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