Fulham vs. Sunderland

Fulham returns to action against Sunderland at Craven Cottage on Saturday. Kickoff is at 10am EST on Peacock.

I'm worried. Really worried. This feels like it has all the makings of a crushing defeat for Fulham. Fulham are typically terrible coming out of international breaks. Their Nigernian players are dealing with the shame of missing out on the World Cup. Muniz is out and Raul is not at 100%. And then let's not forget we still have no sign of a return for Robinson. Then there is Silva, who seems lost about what to do tactically with the squad he has. He's been overly stubborn and isn't putting Fulham in the best position to win matches. Meanwhile Sunderland is flying. They'll come into this looking to make a statement that they are not the team that has to worry about relegation, that's Fulham.

Lukic will be unavailable due to his yellow card suspension, but I don't think that is a bad thing. It will force Silva to try something different from what has been a pretty dreary midfield so far. However, I've lost trust in Silva so I'm not sure what he comes up with will be an improvement. I'd like to see Iwobi, Berge, and King in the midfield with Kevin and Chukwueze on the wings and Raul to start. Kusi-Asare has got to be given some time. Yes, we all saw he sucks at PK's, but guess what - so did Mitrovic. If Fulham is going to be without Muniz for a while then Kusi-Asare needs to be given a fair shot to see what happens. He's performed well with other teams and he's a nice tall target for those crosses in the box. Treat him like old Matt Smith and just try bouncing stuff off his noggin into the goal! To keep him off the pitch at this point is ridiculous.

I'll be thrilled if Fulham manage to get a comfortable win over Sunderland - something like the Brentford match would be nice. But I don't see that coming. Instead I think Fulham gets well beaten on Saturday, ends up a spot or two closer to the relegation zone, and we are left wondering what will prompt Fulham to turn things around.