After several years on an interminable slide, Fulham are showing signs of life under Slavisa Jokanovic but are probably still a couple of players short according to our resident Whites fan Konk.
Assess Fulham’s season so far — seems to be going well?
Konk: It’s going alright — after only winning one match from nine in September/early October, we’ve now picked up seven wins and three draws from 12, with the two defeats coming against Brighton. We seem to be heading in the right direction and gaining a bit of momentum (we’ll now go and lose our next ten games). We’re playing some lovely football and receiving plenty of plaudits from opposition fans, players and managers. For the first time in a while, we look coherent as a side, but the club really need to back Jokanovic in the window and allow him to strengthen key positions.
Performance wise, we’ve done okay against the top ten: by common consent we’ve outplayed Brighton twice (but lost both 2-1 after leading), beaten Newcastle, drawn at Leeds, tonked Huddersfield and Reading 5-0 at home, drawn at home to Wednesday and Derby, won at PNE and beaten Barnsley at home.
However, In the summer, most Fulham fans would have highlighted an urgent need to sign at least one quality centre-back and centre-forward, and that feeling persists. We’re playing some lovely stuff and watching us against Brighton, you got the feeling that with Dunk and Murray in our side rather than theirs, it would have been us challenging for automatic promotion rather than six points off the play-offs.
Given that McCormack and Dembele both left last summer, is it a surprise it’s going as well as it is? How have you done it?
Konk: Ream and Cairney are the only current regulars from last season, so we’ve got a more or less completely new starting XI. I thought we’d be about where we are in the table, but the quality of football at times has exceeded my expectations. The biggest change for me is that the team now has plenty of pace, we’ve found a great balance in midfield and things have been tightened up a bit at the back. Without pace in the side, it’s obviously much harder to stretch play and get behind defences, whilst our own defence had been shambolic for several seasons. There was always the hope that if we became a bit less fragile, we wouldn’t need to replace all of McCormack and Dembele’s goals, and that goals would be spread throughout the team. That seems to have been the case, because at the moment we’re joint second highest goal scorers and we have the third best goal difference.
Presumably lots of praise for Slavisa Jokanovic, and yet there’s a feeling from him he’s not being backed in the transfer market — any danger you could lose him? What’s the story?
Konk: Jokanovic is doing a great job. We’ve dramatically improved our playing style and to completely overhaul the squad, and spend very little money doing so whilst also losing McCormack and Dembele, is a great achievement on his part. In the summer he was publicly critical of the club’s transfer policy, so he’s not afraid to speak his mind and he’s now said that it’s important we make a couple of new signings in January. The feeling is that he won’t hang around for long if the club fail to back him. We’re close to being a very decent side and we apparently have plenty of room within FFP to spend some serious money, so he’s right to put some pressure on the club to show some ambition.
Any January transfer activity in the pipeline? Presumably the Chris Martin situation is priority one for sorting out?
Konk: Martin started on Saturday after declaring himself unfit to play against Brighton and Cardiff, so it looks like he’s accepted he’s probably not going back to Derby in this window. Missing the Brighton game was particularly annoying as we generally outplayed them and missed a penalty at 0-0; Martin would presumably have taken it and he seems to be the only player who can actually score them (although he’s missed one too — we’ve missed five so far this season). From the outset, Jokanovic has said there was no way Martin was going back to Derby and the club presumably backed him on that. Despite my reservations, Martin’s clearly a decent striker at this level, and given the current lack of alternatives, it’s crucial that he’s in our starting XI.
There are no strong rumours of targets at the moment, but if we’re going to get to the play-offs or have a chance of winning them, I think we need a Lewis Dunk type centre-back and a centre-forward capable of filling in for Martin and scoring regularly when called upon.
Any danger of any stars being picked off — Tom Cairney must be attracting attention playing as he is?
Konk: Newcastle are reported to be interested in Cairney and he’s the one who stands out as an obvious target for other clubs. Hopefully our board will have the sense to reject any bids and whilst I think he’s comfortably a Premiership player, he can hopefully get there with us in the next year or two. Fredericks has been excellent and I wouldn’t be surprised to see him move up to the Premiership in the summer. Sixteen-year-old Ryan Sessegnon has been linked with all the big clubs, so will presumably leave at some point in the near future, but he’s a local lad, has his twin brother at the club and at sixteen is reportedly happy with the progress he’s making at Fulham.
Where is the team strong and where is it weak?
Konk: Our midfield trio of McDonald, Johansen and Cairney is probably as good as any in the division. We started off the season with McDonald and Parker together, and whilst neither was doing much wrong, they made for a fairly pedestrian combination and we were often too flat with lots of sideways passing . Plenty of possession, but not too much penetration. The introduction of a box-to-box midfielder like Johansen has really changed the dynamic, and with more movement and drive in the middle and with genuine pace on the wings, we’re now seeing much faster, more direct transitions from defence to attack. Consequently, McDonald is no longer getting closed down as often and instead gets to use the full range of his passing. Johansen and Cairney have both also weighed in with some crucial goals. Attacking, Aluko is guilty of some erratic finishing, but can be great to watch (until the shooting bit) and Ayite is another player who looks to take defenders on, and has the pace and trickery to do so. It’s a shame for us that Ayite is out at the ACN after he’d come into a nice run of form for Fulham.
Aside from the midfield, we’ve got a decent pair of Fullbacks and in particular, I’m a little bit in love with Ryan Fredericks. Fredericks has always looked good, but seemed to pick up injuries every ten minutes. Now he’s had an injury-free run, he’s been excellent. He’s lightning quick, direct, extremely positive and happy to get to the byline before cutting back. Malone has also done really well and is a very handy outlet on the left. Both show a willingness to join/instigate attacks and both can defend too.
With weaknesses, I’m not entirely convinced by Button in goal — decent shot stopper, but doesn’t inspire great confidence with crosses and strikes me as a bit of a flapper at times. Not a bad keeper, but some fans are wondering whether Bettinelli might be due a return.
At centre-back, Kalas is the only one that I especially rate and we’ve really missed him when he’s been injured; Ream and Sigurdsson can be bullied a bit, and Madl is tidy enough, but also perhaps a bit too small and lightweight. We could really do with a strong, dominant Centre-back in January.
Martin is pretty much the only centre-forward on the books that you’d want starting at the moment and if anything were to happen to him, we’d be stuffed.
Are play-offs realistic this year? What’s going to be the difference between making it and not?
Konk: As things stand, if we keep hold of everyone and have a bit of luck with injuries, I think we might nab the last spot. If we sign a decent centre-back and centre-forward, then I think we’re a good bet for the play-offs.
And finally — pleased to say goodbye to Mr Rigg?
Konk: Delighted. He completely disappeared from view after his shambolic attempts to replace Kit Symons, and I’m not sure exactly what he’d been doing since then, but his spell at the club coincided with a miserable time on the pitch and he never came across as the most endearing of blokes. What his departure means is unknown though, as it’s never been clear exactly how much influence various individuals have/had in our transfer policy. In addition to Rigg working his magic, we have had our owner’s son, Tony Khan and his mate, Craig Kline running our analytics program and identifying targets. Neither Khan nor Kline have any background in football. It’s been unclear who’s had what input in our signings since Khan bought the club; does the Manager go to the club with targets, with the analytics then being studied before a deal is sanctioned/blocked or is the manager presented with a list of potential signings by the analytics team and told to pick one? Jokanovic’s comments in the Summer certainly suggested that the Analytics team have the power to veto any of his proposals.
The only thing I liked about Mike Rigg is that he lists Powerpoint and Microsoft Word amongst his skills on Linkedin. I love the idea that he feels that could swing things for him with prospective employers. It’s like a school leaver’s CV from 1991 — If he can also work well alone or as part of a team, there could be a job for him at my place.
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