Rewind back to May and everything was magnificent at Fulham.
A place in the Premier League secured after beating Aston Villa in the play-off
final. The summer brought anticipation and excitement with a spend of over £100M
on players including Jean Michael Seri, Andre Schurrle and Aleksandar Mitrovic.
However, fast forward to the present day and Fulham find themselves rooted to
the bottom of the Premier League after just 1 win in their 12 matches. They
have the worst defence in the league and an attack which is rather dry. The likeable
Serb Slavisa Jokanovic did a magnificent job at Fulham during his 3 years but a
lack of Premier League experience, poor performances, a 6-match losing streak, a
lack of adaptability in tactics and an unsettled team with constant change ultimately
cost him his job.
The man whose replacing Jokanovic is ironically the man who brought
the Serb to English football in 2000. Yes, dilly ding, dilly dong is back in
English football. Claudio Ranieri makes his return to England for the first time
since his departure from Leicester. Since that triumphant spell, Ranieri spent
a season in charge of French club Nantes guiding them to mid-table but an argument
and breakdown in relationship with the Nantes owner saw him sacked back in May.
Fulham owner gave Jokanovic the dreaded vote of confidence but clearly, he felt
a change was necessary and going for an experienced Premier League manager
could be a wise move but Ranieri has plenty of work to do.
Fulham’s big problems are clearly at the back. A constant
changing back 4 and goalkeeper changes have seen Fulham not keep a clean sheet
and have the worst defence in the league. 31 goals in 12 matches is simply not
good enough and Ranieri must find a solution and fast to make Fulham more compact
and solid defensively. Their defensive stats don’t make good reading either.
Tackles per game: 15.4
= 14th
Interceptions per game:
10.8 = 12th
Shots conceded per
game: 16.3 = 3rd
Conceded goals from
open play: 23 = 1st
Counter attack goals
conceded: 2 = Joint 2nd
These are not good reading and Ranieri must quickly sort
their defence. Ranieri must also decide which keeper to go with. Spaniard
Sergio Rico has played the greatest number of matches with Marcus Bettinelli who
was magnificent in their promotion campaign demoted to the bench and feeling
unhappy. Jokanovic’s constant defensive changes have meant Fulham lacked a
consistent backline this season. The likes of Dennis Odoi, Tim Ream and Ryan
Sessegnon have struggled in adapting to the Premier League and new signings Alfie
Mawson and Maxime Le Marchand cannot find a place in the team consistently. The
pressure is on Ranieri to improve Fulham’s defensive frailties and fast otherwise
their chances of avoiding relegation will be extremely slim.
Attacking wise Fulham have only notched 11 goals in their 12
matches with 4 of those coming in their sole victory against Burnley. 10 of
their 11 goals have come from open play with just 1 from set pieces and
certainly Ranieri must try to get more goals from set-pieces as they are key
moments in any game of football. Their stats show their problems offensively
Shots per game: 12.3
= 13th
Shots on target per
game: 3.8 = 14th
Dribbles per game: 7
= 13th
Ranieri clearly has work to do in the forward areas with Aleksandar
Mitrovic has scored nearly half their goals and they must tap into his abilities
more if they are going to stay up this season. But he cannot do it all on his
own with goals not being spread around the team very well. Only Mitrovic, Andre
Schurrle, Jean Seri and Ryan Sessegnon have scored in the Premier League this
season and that isn’t good enough. Ranieri must get his ideas across quickly to
get Fulham going this season and his opening fixture is a crucial home game against
fellow strugglers Southampton. Ranieri and the fans need a performance from the
players to really ignite their season and a win over a rival could spark them
into life.
Ranieri’s appointment at Fulham was meant with general positivity
and the likeable Italian knows he needs results and fast to save the Cottagers
season. The fans will no doubt demand more from the players due to the excess spend
in the summer and arguably they should be doing better but as many promoted
teams know the transition from Championship to Premier League is tough and takes
time but unfortunately, time isn’t an option in football anymore as Jokanovic
found out. Claudio Ranieri has yet to battle relegation in England having been
successful at Chelsea and Leicester, but this could be his toughest assignment
yet. Keeping Fulham up would be another terrific achievement in an already illustrious
managerial career which has seen him manage some of Europe’s biggest clubs. He
is ready for a fight and he will install that fighting mentality into the
Fulham players and he will get them going but he needs a positive run of results
to install that belief into the Fulham fans. Ranieri may just bring back buying
pizza should Fulham gain their first clean sheet of the season in the next few
weeks and its certainly an incentive for improvement. Fulham need to save their
season and Ranieri will be confident he can deliver safety for the Cottagers but
it will be a rollercoaster ride full of classic Ranieri comments and excitement.
No comments:
Post a Comment