Hurzeler: We deserved more

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Albion's head coach reflects on a 3-1 defeat at Craven Cotage.

Bruce Talbot

2024-12-05T23:15+00:00

Albion players thank the 3,000 travelling fans at the final whistle. 📷 by James Boardman.

Fabian Hurzeler felt Albion did enough to beat Fulham.

Instead, their poor record at Craven Cottage continued after two efforts from Alex Iwobi, either side of an own goal by Matt O’Riley, sealed a 3-1 win for Fulham after Carlos Baleba had equalised nine minutes into the second half.

“I thought we created chances to win two or three games, the performance was good but the result is very disappointing,” he said. “I think we deserved much more – but if you don’t take the chances you create you can get punished.”

Iwobi’s first goal followed a mistake by Bart Verbruggen playing out while O’Riley’s own goal came while Lewis Dunk appeared to have been fouled at a Fulham corner.

Lewis Dunk attacks a set piece. 📷 by James Boardman.

“With the first goal mistakes happen in football and I would never judge Bart [Verbruggen] for what happened,” added the head coach. “ If you don’t make mistakes in football there wouldn’t be any goals. We will try to clarify these things and find a solution. It’s the way we want to play, and I’m completely convinced that we will develop ways to clarify how we play out from the back.

“I think it was a foul on Lewis [for the second goal]. It happens more and more when players try to block. It’s becoming more popular at set-pieces and if you don’t make any clear rules about blocking it will change football. It was a foul on Lewis, but the referee didn’t decide that it was.”

Baleba’s goal was a positive for Albion and they have a quick chance to bounce back against Leicester City at the King Power Stadium on Sunday.

Hurzeler said, “I am happy for Carlos. We tried to give him the environment on the pitch where he could improve, and he’s put in some great performances this season. We finished that attack well but it’s not enough to score one, we should have scored more.

“But it’s important that we keep our heads up. We have to learn from the easy mistakes we made and improve; the next chance to do that is on Sunday at Leicester. We have to recover quickly, push ourselves and get the points we didn’t get today.”