I was in the studio doing Swansea v Birmingham so I missed Tuesday’s remarkable match against Brighton. I saw we were 2-0 down and feared the worst, but that’s some response and belief the lads showed to come back out for the second half and score four goals. Hopefully that is the catalyst. You’re looking for a trigger in the season, and hopefully that can be ours.
You have to show character to come back from two goals down. Of course it worrying that we went two goals down in the first place, but fair play to Claudio for changing things around. The introduction of Tom Cairney early on was pivotal. It meant a change in the system, and it worked. Watching and listening to games as a Fulham fan, you want to see TC on the pitch because he’s exciting, he’s our most creative player. I understand that we’ve got to be tighter at the back and everything, but you’ve still got to get goals up the other end. Mitro needs that supply line, and Tom’s the best form of that.
Personally, I want to see him start on Saturday. He made such a difference against Brighton and we didn’t really sacrifice any defensive stability as we didn’t concede a goal while he was on the pitch. You’ve got to always think what’s the best system you can use that’s going to get the most creative players in it, and then put the workers in and around them. Okay, at the end of the day being tight and hard to beat is what’s going to keep us in the league, but you’ve still got to score goals, which Tom nearly did when he hit the bar twice.
My good pal Tony Cottee was covering the game for Sky Sports and he said Mitro was excellent. And Tony is no mean judge of a striker. He said Mitro was different class, bullying Shane Duffy and Lewis Dunk all night long. And they’re not the two type of guys who you’d think would be bullied, but he said he was brilliant. I watched the highlights later on and his two headed goals were superb. They really showed that he’s up for the fight and he’s ready for it. That’s what spurs people on, winning headers like that. His physicality is top drawer and we used it to great effect on Tuesday.
I was at Southampton-Crystal Palace last night, and the evening couldn’t have gone much better from a Fulham perspective. Both those sides are looking over their shoulder so a draw was a good result for us, plus Palace ended up with some selection problems ahead of our match at the weekend. Wilfried Zaha was shown a silly red card that he’ll be regretting now, and James Tomkins and Cheikhou Kouyate went off injured. Maybe our luck is finally changing? We’ll face a Palace side that’s going to be depleted but they’ve still got players like Scott Dann, Jeffrey Schlupp, Connor Wickham and Christian Benteke who can come into the team, so they do still have options, but their record is nowhere near as good when Zaha isn’t playing.
Despite drawing at St Mary’s, Palace played well and probably should have won. I would say, performance wise, they’re a top half side, but they just lack a finisher. But all their football, their approach play, is good and – for me – they’re in a false position. They’ve been fairly consistent with how they set up in matches but they might be forced into not only a change of personnel, but a change of formation for our game as well depending on who’s available, because they haven’t got the biggest of squads.