Fulham head into Saturday’s fixture with Barnsley looking to extend their winning streak in the Championship to seven matches. The Tykes will not have new boss Poya Asbaghi in charge until next week but will be eager to reduce the deficit to safety with an unlikely result at Craven Cottage.
Fulham are currently second in the league, with a win potentially taking them to the top of the table. Marco Silva’s side have been in incredible form of late, having won their last six league games. They will look to continue their form with a win against Barnsley this weekend.
Aleksander Mitrovic has been their most impressive player this season. Only 17 games into the season, the Serbian international has already scored 20 goals and provided five assists. With his current form, he’s on course to break the record for the most Championship goals scored in a season. He doesn’t look like slowing down either. Mitrovic has scored in each of the last six games, with a total goal tally of 11 goals in that period.
The Fulham team was creative from the wider side and especially from the left. They had more threat creation zones on the left side and were more effective in attacking from this side of the pitch. Neeskens Kebano created the highest threat from passes and his passing accuracy was 85%. They also scored their goal from the left side of the penalty area.
Barnsley, on the other hand, have not been able to get into their stride this season. They have only won one of their last 15 league games and are currently 23rd in the table. It will be a huge ask for them to take anything away from the game against Fulham on Saturday.
Despite being second last on the table, Barnsley have a high number of positional attacks in the league. They have attempted 28.39 positional attacks, which indicates they have not been completely reliant on set pieces for their attacks in the game. A positional attack is when the team attacks the opposition goal from open play, which means building-up play and not a counterattack.
Barnsley did lose their last game to Hull, but the attacks they constructed were from the right flank, and Callum Brittain had the highest xT from his passes. Barnsley have failed to create enough chances and be effective in front of the goal. They have scored only 12 goals this season which is the second-lowest tally in the league.
It’s hard to see Barnsley picking up any points from this game, given the form that the two sides are in. Marco Silva’s side should have enough firepower to easily get past their opponents on Saturday.
Fulham predicted starting lineup:
Rodak, Tete, Hector, Ream, Robinson, Seri, Reed; Wilson, Decordova-Reid, Kebano, Mitrovic.
Barnsley predicted starting lineup:
Collins, Andersen, Helik, Kitching, Brittain, Styles, Benson, Williams, Adeboyejo, Woodrow, Iseka.
