Journalist David Richardson was at the Amex covering the match for Sky Sports News.
At halftime, Marco Silva’s team was one goal behind and ranked second overall, due to Evan Ferguson.
Once again, the Irish striker caught the Whites off guard in possession, making no mistakes and giving Bernd Leno no chance.
In the second half, Silva changed his side drastically very quickly.
Rodrigo Muniz, Andreas Pereira, and Harry Wilson came off the bench in a triple change made by the Portuguese.
Raul Jimenez, Bobby De Cordova-Reid, and Harrison Reed were the players who had to make way.
Although Jimenez was upset about being substituted off against Brighton, the Fulham player didn’t have much of an influence this time around.
After Aleksandar Mitrovic left, he has a lot of shoes to fill, but he doesn’t feel up to the task just yet.
The fact that Muniz, his replacement, was within minutes of scoring the game’s first goal speaks volumes.
Jimenez fails to score for Fulham again against Brighton
According to Richardson, the £5.5 million player was understandably unhappy to be replaced. “Jimenez is still without a goal for Fulham in the Premier League this season,” Richardson said of the player’s reaction to being substituted.
“He didn’t really kick today.”
Jimenez didn’t have a single shot in the 58 minutes he played and only completed seven passes.
He failed to finish the one dribble he tried and lost five of his seven duels.
Jimenez’s colleagues at Fulham weren’t playing at their best either, so it wouldn’t be fair to hold Jimenez exclusively responsible for this and fail to acknowledge Brighton’s excellent defense against him.
Considering Carlos Vinicius wasn’t even on the bench following his poor performance against Chelsea, Jimenez will be angry he wasn’t given more time.
The longer his barren stretch continues, the more pressure there will be on the Mexican, and he will be desperate to put an end to it quickly.
There aren’t many easy-to-replace options available to Fulham.
Vinicius has only six goals in the English top tier, while Muniz hasn’t even scored in the Premier League.
Fortunately, Joao Palhinha is the player with all the skills, and his goal in the second half gave the opposition a crucial point.
