Fulham 1 : 2 Manchester United

Manchester United left Craven Cottage and can feel satisfied at a job well done.

They played superbly in places especially in the 40 minutes either side of the interval. But in the end, it would not be false to say that Paul Pogba finished a tougher chance than those Mario Lemina, Harrison Reed and Ruben Loftus-Cheek missed.

Bruno Fernandes hit the post for the visitors but the quality gap was evident. Manchester United have more money and have bought better players than are available to Scott Parker. They don’t quite look like league champions yet but, they surely have levels that they rarely needed to reach at Craven Cottage.

The open transfer window will never close the breadth of that gap but there are gaps that Parker can and arguably needs to fill.

Aleksandr Mitrovic has lost his form, confidence and application. There is no guarantee that any of them, never mind all, will return. He looks very much like a man who needs a change of scenery to rejuvenate his career. Parker was right to give him some time on the bench to see if that would motivate him. However, it hasn’t worked.

He was then given the ultimate slapdown when Parker introduced Aboubakar Kamara off the bench before the Serb. Kamara is not an Premier League level player and it’s hard to think of another club in this division who would sign him, even on a free. You can only speculate what went through Mitrovic’s mind when he heard Parker announce Kamara would be first off the bench.

Fulham’s offensive statistics are not good. Fulham have only scored more than a single goal in four out of 18 league games. They lost two of those and conceded eight in the same games. A consolation goal in the 2-3 home defeat with Everton saves these numbers from looking even worse.

Worse still, they haven’t won any 0f the games where they have scored just one goal. Brighton have bagged at least a double six times, with Burnley and Sheffield United the only side to have scored fewer than the Cottagers.

Neeskens Kebano briefly found a very rich vein of form on the left wing as last year’s Championship season closed. Sadly starting opportunities for him seem less likely this season but unlike Kamara, he could be a decent asset elsewhere in the top division.

Fulham therefore have the capacity to make space, and indeed raise funds, for new signings up front. My instinct is that the saviour may have to come from overseas rather than the English divisions where all likely applicants’ abilities and weaknesses will likely be already well known by opposition defenders.

Wednesday proved that the creativity department is decent but the shooting was terrible. Only Bobby DeCordova Reid has shown the killer instinct in that department this season. If only one of those many late chances had fallen to him, at least David De Gea would have been called into action.

It’s understandable that many Fulham fans have not given up on Mitrovic yet. After all, there were times when his goals carried them. Nor is this a matter of sentiment being the enemy of reality. It could be as little as one goal that restarts his season.

But the transfer window is not open for ever and agents are hurriedly touting their clients elsewhere too.

The club did very well in the last window. Ademola Lookman, Ola Aina, Kenny Tete, Alphone Areola, Antoinee Robinson, Tosin Adarabioyo and Stefan Johansen have all shown themselves to be Premier League quality players and an improvement. Mario Lemina and Terence Kongolo are yet to have sufficient opportunities to show that but the potential is there.

Fans have good cause to trust the chairman and manager’s track record in the market. The question is how much do they feel the need for a radical improvement in the forward ranks asopposed to a mere squad strengthening and one fresh pair of legs?

Fulham: Areola; Aina (Mitrović 83’), Andersen, Adarabioyo; Tete, Reed, Anguissa (Lemina 79’), Bryan; Loftus-Cheek, Cavaleiro (Kamara 70’), Lookman

Man Utd: De Gea; Wan-Bissaka, Bailly, Maguire, Shaw; Fred, Pogba; Greenwood (Rashford 85’), Fernandes (Matic 90+4’), Martial (McTominay 85’); Cavani

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