Nigeria's Alex Iwobi suffered the ignominy of being a first-half substitute in Fulham's away clash at Nottingham Forest.
First-half substitutions are a rare occurrence in football, especially when injuries are not involved. Hence the ignominy when they do happen.
As if yanking off one starter before half-time was not bizarre enough, Marco Silva made three substitutions around the half-hour mark in an attempt to jolt his flatlining team. Alex Iwobi, arguably Fulham’s player of the season, was one of the casualties.
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What happened
Silva’s Cottagers are one of the more exciting midtable teams this season, and they have the results to show for it, including wins against Arsenal, Manchester United and Tottenham.
With three wins in their last five games, Fulham were odds-on favourites to win in their trip to City Ground on Tuesday evening; however, the first-half did not go as anticipated.
Forest were all over their visitors in the opening exchanges and scored the opener as early as the 9th minute thanks to a Callum Hudson-Odoi strike. Fulham made it two, 10 minutes later; this time, Chris Wood was the scorer.
Fulham pressed for more and threatened to run away with the tie, compelling Silva to intervene. The Portuguese tactician replaced Alex Iwobi, Harry Wilson and Sasa Lukic with Willian, Adama Traore and Tom Cairney.
The changes had an effect on the visitor’s play, and they began to apply themselves better, but just before half-time, Morgan-Gibbs White shattered all hopes of a possible comeback, making it three in injury time.
Alex Iwobi’s season for Fulham
Although the Nigerian striker could not help his team avoid a steamroll in the first half-hour, which cost him his continuation in the game, Marco Silva will expectedly rely on him in coming games without any reservations.
The former Everton midfielder has a case for being Fulham’s best player this season. Despite playing as a midfielder, only two players, Rodrigo Muniz and Bobby Decordova-Reid, can lay claim to scoring more Premier League goals for Fulham than Iwobi’s five this season.
And although he has only registered on assists in the league, only Andreas Pereira (2.3) creates more chances per game than Iwobi (1.6). Iwobi also leads in dribbles completed among Fulham players this season.
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