Fulham’s Danish midfield dynamo believes that calm and focus is the key to ensuring the Club’s Premier League survival.
Twenty-five year old Leon was one of Roy Hodgson’s key January signings, moving to South West London from German side Werder Bremen. The hardworking Danish international slotted straight into the midfield and immediately played a role in obtaining a crucial point away at Bolton and the home win over Aston Villa.
A natural grafter, his contribution was immediately obvious, and having had previous experience of a relegation dogfight whilst on loan at German club Mainz last season, it quickly became apparent that he had the attributes required to help the Whites’ crusade for Premier League safety.
If proof were needed of how quickly he took to the Fulham cause, Leon’s passion was there for all to see in the home match against West Ham, when he became the voice of 20,000 Fulham fans in his protestations at the decision to allow Nolberto Solano’s controversial winner, and paid the price with dismissal by the match official.
“I can’t explain what was going through my mind. It was an overreaction from my point of view, but I just shouted out what I think everybody wanted to shout out, because it was so obvious,” he recalls. “But that’s in the past now, these things happen in football.”
His return to the team after suspension coincided with the creditable draw away at Blackburn and memorable home win over Everton, marking him out amongst supporters as a truly valuable piece of Roy Hodgson’s Fulham jigsaw. And the place he quickly won in our hearts for his efforts on the pitch is more than reciprocated.
“The fans have been brilliant, I love them,” he enthuses. “As I’ve said before, that’s why we play football; no fans, means no football. [Pausing in contemplation] It’s difficult to explain, but it’s just so nice to have the support the way they give it, especially at away matches. Even though we’ve had some periods where we’ve been feeling down, they were still there, like against Man City, and that’s brilliant.”
Although he confirms that morale was given a significant shot in the arm by victories over Manchester City and Birmingham, Andreasen believes that too much confidence isn’t necessarily a good thing, as he underlines the importance of a methodical, focused approach to what promises to be a full on battle of an encounter this Sunday.
“When we think that we’ve won it and people think that we’ve won it, that’s when it’s most dangerous. Take the game against Sunderland. People thought we were going to win that, and maybe we did as well, but it didn’t happen. So we need to think the exact opposite way. We need to focus on the game, focus on what Roy tells us to do and just play our game, not go into it feeling overconfident that we’re going to beat them, because this won’t be easy.
”The main thing is concentrating on how we’re going to play. So let’s just keep our minds straight, go do our job, and hopefully we’ll get a win.”
