Turns out it wasn't that hard after all. Southampton They stopped giving the ball away in their own half, adopted a convenience-based approach and kept their second clean sheet of the campaign. Salvation is still a long way off, but a point, just their second away from home, means there is at least something to build on in the post-Russell Martin era.
Southampton's new manager, Ivan Juric, who signed an 18 month contract on Friday, he was in the stands at Craven Cottage, looking out through the bitter rain falling down the Thames as Simon Rusk directed matters from the sidelines. What he oversaw was 90 minutes of very little, which from Southampton's point of view must have been a welcome change. Even the long-awaited arrival of Fulham winger Martial Godo for his league debut did not achieve anything resembling a solution.
“The role of the interim manager when things haven't worked out is to quickly assess where the group is at physically, emotionally, mentally and tactically and offer a way forward in the short term,” Rusk said. “Their levels of effort and concentration were excellent and we hope that can give us a solid platform.”
Juric developed an excellent reputation in his three years at Torino, but a 12-match spell at Roma this season perhaps hints at the main reason he was appointed: there was no compensation to pay. Southampton had held talks with their former assistant coach Danny Röhl, but terminating his contract at Sheffield Wednesday would have been costly.
It is not entirely clear what Juric gains from this situation. A heavy metal fan, he went from his teenage love of Metallica and Megadeth to Obituary and Carcass; In the context of Southampton's season, the jokes are too obvious to be worth making. The official line is that he will not take charge of team affairs until Monday, and Rusk said that in the brief phone conversation he had with Juric they did not discuss tactics, but it was notable that the 3-4-2-1 shape – practically the only formation Southampton had not tried this season is the one Juric preferred in Turin and Rome.
The Croatian can talk about optimism and wanting the team to press harder and be more aggressive, but he is in serious danger of falling into what could be called the Jan Siewert trap. Even if he can improve his performance, it would take something miraculous for Southampton to avoid relegation, which, almost inevitably, means loss of confidence and diminished faith in him.
Siewert, appointed in January 2019 to guide Huddersfield through relegation, was sacked three games into the following season. Many teams have believed it prudent to allow a new manager a close-up view of the team as it fell, to better lead their promotion push the following season, only to find the revival strangled by negativity.
But there were promising signs here. At least Southampton weren't as pushovers as before. Once Aaron Ramsdale, wearing a modified glove to protect his broken finger, flicked Alex Iwobi's early chip over the bar, it was a very uneventful first half. The main interest was to see how long Ramsdale could take a goal kick without incurring the wrath of the referee, Tim Robinson. But given that his namesake once spent a tour of Pakistan batting with Bill Athey, perhaps patience goes with the title.
“Of course we respect them,” Marco Silva said, “but this is the kind of game we have to win at home. The game was always under control but our decision making has to be much better. Players are human beings and sometimes they don't make the best decisions.”
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Fulham started the weekend eighth having lost just four times in the league, but as they play there is the strange feeling that it wouldn't have taken much to make their league position even better. They have led against Tottenham, ArsenalLiverpool, Manchester City and Aston Villa without winning. Otherwise, this also, as Silva said, felt like a “missed opportunity.”
The introduction of Raúl Jiménez and Adama Traoré to a much changed team on the hour increased their threat, Harry Wilson pulling off a notable reflex save from Ramsdale when he met Traoré's cross with a firm volley to the far post.
But this was a day for Rusk, a newly pragmatic Southampton and the glory of nothingness.
