Mateo Kovacic scored twice for Manchester City as they came from behind to beat Fulham 3-2 at the Etihad Stadium.
The Croatian struck either side of half-time after Andreas Pereira had given the visitors a shock lead following a sensational backheel assist from Raul Jimenez in the 26th minute.
Jeremy Doku, who came on for Jack Grealish with half an hour to play, scored with a venomous strike in the 82nd minute before Rodrigo Muniz pulled one back with two minutes to play.
City held on, however, and the victory puts Pep Guardiola’s side second in the Premier League, a point behind Liverpool after they beat Crystal Palace 1-0 earlier in the day.
Here, Sam Lee breaks down the key talking points from the match.
How did Kovacic perform in Rodri’s absence?
The Croatian had a fascinating game; he crashed in a much-needed equaliser, via a deflection, from a rare City corner that did not seem to lead to a counter-attack, and then he put City ahead with a brilliantly taken effort not long after the break.
On the other hand, he contributed quite a lot towards Fulham’s breaks, namely by giving the ball away cheaply. There will be obvious comparisons to Rodri in these circumstances, and the two complement each other very well, although Kovacic is just not the same type of player as the Spaniard. He will take a more front-foot approach with direct passes, which carry the risk of not coming off.
Mateo Kovacic has scored both of Manchester City’s goals against Fulham.
He last scored more than once in a club match in August 2014, when he netted a hat-trick against Stjarnan of Iceland for Inter in the Europa League. pic.twitter.com/YKX1qZxwXk
— Opta Analyst (@OptaAnalyst) October 5, 2024
Generally speaking, Guardiola’s City teams prefer less of that, especially in the very middle of the pitch where a misplaced pass can spell grave danger. This might be why Guardiola is so keen to have Lewis in the middle too, even in addition to Ilkay Gundogan and Phil Foden (the sheer amount of players in there might make up for a lack of physicality).
“I like when I have support, obviously, because I haven’t played so much there on my own,” Kovacic, who was man of the match against Fulham, told reporters during pre-season. “I think it’s more difficult because you have to cover the space better because you’re on your own, you’re not in a two. “So it’s It’s more difficult, but it’s a thing that I can improve, and if there’s anywhere you can improve I think it’s here at City.”
Fulham’s fast breaks and fantastic assist
The Fulham counter-attack threat was obvious and City struggled to deal with it. Whether it was from an unsuccessful City corner or from open play breaking down, the visitors were fully prepared to fly forward at speed, and the hosts struggled.
Traore was one obvious outlet, especially against the physically inferior Rico Lewis, or into the space that the 19-year-old is permitted to vacate, but one of the most dangerous breaks in the first half came down the right-hand side, which ended up at Traore’s feet.
City normally keep on top of these things by battling hard to win the second balls whenever they drop, and although they put the effort in, sometimes they came off second best, or perhaps did not quite have the nous on the day to anticipate where the ball would drop. This was especially true for Perreira’s opening goal following a sublime no-look backheel assist from Raul Jimenez, which fell perfectly for his team-mate just in front of Ederson.
Whenever Fulham did break in the first half, which was exactly every few minutes, but enough to keep City honest, it looked like Guardiola’s men simply could not keep up with the players running the other way. In the second half, City kept a lid on things for nine minutes until Traore barrelled through three players, which seemed to prompt Guardiola into bringing on Walker — but as a centre-back rather than a right-back, so Lewis could continue where he was.
The logic seemed to make sense: get more of Lewis’ upside and have Walker there to cover the downside. In reality, Traore soon outsprinted Walker and really should have got Fulham level, and there was another break before that which City got back to snuff out, having lost the ball out on the wing.
Lewis vs Traore: A microcosm of the match
It would be overly simplistic to boil the whole scenario — or indeed the whole game — down to the individual battle between Lewis and Traore but there are some parallels. Lewis, and City, are built for crafty, intricate passes between the lines. Traore, and Fulham, are built for running fast into open spaces.
Both approaches have their merits and both caused problems: City had by far the most shots, passes and possession and of course, as a result, the most goals, but Fulham caused plenty of problems and after going ahead they could have doubled the lead soon after from another fast break.
This was seen in the Lewis v Traore battle: Lewis brings a lot to City, especially when they are looking for extra men in midfield, those who are very tidy in small spaces, and that caused Fulham problems.
But his height and build do not make him suited to brawny battles and they do not come more brawny than Traore, who himself has one or two flaws, but was able to focus more on his strengths. He shrugged off Lewis with the scores level, only to be denied by a fine Ederson save, and it was he who should have made it 2-0.
He also could have equalised after outsprinting Walker, who had been brought on as a substitute to stop exactly that happening, but Ederson saved again. Lewis soon ended up in midfield permanently (he picked up an Erling Haaland knock-down and drove up the pitch to supply Doku for the third goal) after Guardiola shuffled the defence. But for 78 minutes it was an interesting clash of styles for players nominally in opposing positions, and one which summed up the overall flow of the match quite well.
What next for Manchester City?
Sunday, October 20: Wolverhampton Wanderers (Home), Premier League, 2pm UK, 9am ET
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(Top photo: Gareth Copley/Getty Images)
