It was good to catch up with Louis Saha on the Fulham Fix, I haven’t seen him in a while. It’s always nice to catch up with players you’ve played with in the past. It’s good to see a proper Fulham legend. He’s definitely one of the Fulham greats. Going back to that year, the trio of Barry Hayles, Luis Boa Morte and Louis scored maybe 60 goals. I’m not sure if it’ll get beaten for Fulham! They made our jobs a lot easier. If you’ve got different options for your front men, they give you good options on the ball.
Bramall Lane is a tough place to go. Apart from the Chelsea game they’ve only been losing by the odd goal. The lads were unfortunate to concede the penalty but any point away from home in the Premier League is a good one. Strikers go through periods where they won’t score goals, he missed from the spot that day but what you get with Mitro is hard work, aggression and leading by example. Defenders always know they’ve been in the game coming off at full-time after facing him. If he’s not scoring, he’ll be affecting the game in other areas. He’s a focal point. He will always play on the edge which puts fear into defenders, I’m sure he’ll still be the first name on Scott’s team sheet.
We know Tom Cairney’s quality and that started to show in his goal against Palace. He was a key cog in our promotion years and he's our Captain. He’s very good on the ball and rarely gives it away. I like to see him further up the field to play that killer pass and scoring from outside the box. He’s good at getting it off the back four and getting us playing but seeing him at his best is in between the lines. He’ll hit the target most times if given the chance.
It was important for us to start strongly and take the lead against West Brom. We got the lead with a nicely worked goal for Bobby and a great strike with his left foot from the right-back Aina. It was a brilliant strike. To top off an excellent performance we kept a clean sheet which is priceless to build on. We did build on that against West Ham, we were in that game from minute one. We looked organised. The rules of the game have changed so much over the years. ‘Is he affecting play or isn’t he’. ‘Was his arm onside or offside’. The rule needs to be sorted ASAP. It’s similar to the handball rule - what is handball? If it hits a hand now, regardless of the situation, it’s a penalty. If Haller is stood offside and affecting the game, then he should be given offside but unless the powers that be come out to make it black and white you play to the whistle.
I’m a positive person and the penalty incident will fire Lookman up even more. He’ll be determined to make things right. I don’t think he’ll ever take a penalty like that again but he’s a young lad. The manager and players will have said what needs to be said. You can’t think about the press or trolls. It’ll make him hungrier as he’s been one of our better players, he’s raised the standard. When he first came on against Brentford he did really well and scored a top goal in Sheffield. No one is perfect, we all make mistakes.
Scott is trying to find the best combination to fit, and the two new centre halves have done very well together and have looked solid. It’s up to the boys who are out of the team now to try and force their way back in. As long as they have the white shirt on their back and they’re keeping clean sheets, long may that continue. In the earlier games we were gifting goals - but we’ve been really promising in the last couple of games which gives a foundation for the other lads.
You only concentrate on your next game. The next one is Everton at home. I expect us to start on the front foot at home. The boys will be used to not having the crowd there now. You have to win your home games to stand any chance of survival. We won our last home game, and long may that continue. If we approach the game in the same way of being hard to beat, we stand a good chance. The players can only prepare for the next game. It’s international break now so the players will come back and Scott will go through his approach. They’ll spot weaknesses in Everton and stick to a plan. You can’t think about who you’ve got in the period afterwards even if that is Man City and Liverpool. We need to take the game to teams at home and avoid giving away silly opportunities.