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Much has been written about Fulham’s misfortunes so far this season, be it disallowed goals or controversial decisions, the Whites have never been far from the topic of discussion. However, the event that arguably had the most impact on Fulham’s fortunes this season was the injury to Brian McBride.
The American striker was carried from the field of play in Fulham’s home match against Middlesbrough, having injured himself in the process of scoring his team’s opening goal.
“I always knew that Brian would be a big miss,” said Manager Lawrie Sanchez when he reflected on the impact of McBride’s injury. Since the Boro match, McBride successfully underwent surgery and is now on the road to recovery.
“You try and pencil in dates for a player’s recovery and we are targeting the 22nd of December for him to be available for selection,” Sanchez added. “I think English football has to be played with a big centre forward. In Kenwyne Jones Sunderland seem to have shown that. You need an aerial presence; all the top teams have that. Brian is one of the best in the Premier League and it’s been a hard gap to fill.
“David Healy had formed a reasonably good relationship with Brian. They played with each other at Preston so they knew each other. David Healy does need someone to play with because he’s not going to win the aerial challenges but if he plays off a big front man, and he certainly does that with Northern Ireland, it benefits his game tremendously.
“Once Brian went, we didn’t have a target man. Clint [Dempsey], to be fair to him, has had a go at it and has done well. But we can’t afford to miss players of Brian’s quality – that’s why the front two have been mixed and matched all season since then.”
Last Saturday’s match against Sunderland saw the introduction of loan signing Shefki Kuqi. The Finnish international replaced David Healy with 20 minutes remaining and certainly looked a handful in attack – so is Kuqi now an option in attack?
“We haven’t really had the chance to get him in the team at the moment,” Sanchez explained. “If I had put him in I would have had to leave someone else out and I didn’t think his fitness levels were right. But he’s in the squad now and is one that we’ll be looking at to get involved.”
