What a fantastic win over Leicester City that was on Monday! I think it was the most disciplined and professional performance of the season. Lessons were definitely learnt from the Everton game where we gave too much away in the first half. It was a great, great performance. I’m really pleased for everyone, especially Ademola Lookman and Ivan Cavaleiro who showed great character to bounce back from their penalty misses.
My old mate Tony Cottee had been doing some bits for Leicester’s media channels, so of course I spoke to him straight after just to rub it in. Fulham deserved the win. Leicester had more possession, but that’s not everything in the game. It also shows how we’re adapting as a team. Last season we were having up to 70 per cent possession in most games. Now we’re turning it round the other way and showing that we can win games on just 30 per cent possession. That’s a perfect example of how disciplined the performance was.
When Harvey Barnes scored, I was so nervous that I couldn’t watch the last five minutes so I turned it off! I switched back on for last few moments and was so pleased to see us get over the line. It would have been a travesty if we had conceded again as it was pretty much the perfect away performance. Everyone was talking about the standout performances of Lookman and Cavaleiro, myself included, but I thought Harrison Reed was exceptional. He’s come back into the team and I think he’s been absolutely brilliant. He epitomises the attitude that we’ve got to have.
It was a daunting run of Leicester, Manchester City and Liverpool, so it’s great that we’ve already got three points in the bank. Obviously it goes without saying that the next two fixtures will still be two of our most difficult games this season. But Leicester away was too, so if we put in the same disciplined performance in these next two matches then who knows what could happen.
That said, it could be a good time to play these teams as it’s Champions League this week, and they’ve both got another one next midweek. In my opinion, pre- and post-Champions League is when you want to be coming up against the top teams. Brighton was a good example of that as they played Liverpool in between two European fixtures, and ended up getting a very well deserved point.
We can go into Saturday without fear. The boys will take confidence from Leicester and just need to replicate that the best they can. Frustrate City when we’re not in possession, and be brave when we do have the ball, try and play our football. That’s what we did at the King Power Stadium and it was very effective. We have to settle for the fact that we’ll probably only have 30 per cent of the ball again, but when we get it we have to try and be brave. If you break the press of Manchester City, you can get through them quite quickly, especially with players like Lookman, Cavaleiro and Bobby De Cordova-Reid, who has played very well and worked very hard recently.
It will be brilliant to have some fans back at the Cottage for the Liverpool game. Hopefully the ones lucky enough to be there will be nice and loud. It will be such a nice novelty for those fans so I would just say try and enjoy it. And also enjoy seeing the new structure going up. I was up on the scaffolding that’s been put up for the commentators at the Everton game, and I was marvelling at what was behind me. It’s going to look absolutely brilliant. I think we’re going to have probably the best stand in the Premier League, allied to the fact that it’s in the best location.
Like everyone, I was shocked to hear about Papa Bouba Diop at the weekend. He was excellent for us, wasn’t he? In those years he had at Fulham, he was top drawer for the Club. We probably had him at his peak, although he did of course go on to win the FA Cup with Portsmouth. Whenever I saw him he always had a smile on his face. He was a big, six foot five geezer, very physical, very athletic, but he always played football with a smile on his face. And that’s the way it should be. I’d describe Papa as a proper Fulham player, someone who loved the game and played with a smile on his face. 42 is no age to go, absolutely no age whatsoever. As a Club we’ve lost plenty of great players early – Bobby Moore, Georgie Best – but this is even earlier. It’s a tragedy and you can only sympathise with all his family and friends.
