Thursday Fulham Stuff (13/02/14)...

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West Brom: Pepe Mel hopes to have five players back for Fulham

Pepe Mel and his West Brom squad jet out to Jerez to prepare for Fulham

West Brom hope to have FIVE players back from injury in time for next Saturday's game against Fulham.

Pepe Mel and a 25-man squad are flying out to Spain today for a six-day training break in Jerez.

Claudio Yacob (hamstring) and Nicolas Anelka (knee) are not travelling but should resume full training late next week.

Jonas Olsson, Billy Jones (both hamstring) and Stephane Sessegnon (groin) have travelled out and are expected to train with the squad during the coming days.Also travelling are youngsters Wesley Atkinson, Donervon Daniels and Kemar Roofe.

Albion will train in Jerez during the coming days. There has been speculation in Spain that the Baggies might play a friendly against a Spanish side - but there are no plans to do so.

JEREZ SQUAD: Foster, Myhill, Reid, Olsson, Popov, Ridgewell, Morrison, Sinclair, Brunt, Lugano, Anichebe, Dorrans, Amalfitano, Vydra, Mulumbu, Gera, McAuley, Dawson, Jones, Sessegnon, Berahino, Thievy, Atkinson, D Daniels, Roofe.   


http://www.birminghammail.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/west-brom-pepe-mel-hopes-6705866?

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Gritty Fulham show they can pull off an incredible escape

When the disappointment of this cruel defeat subsides, Rene Meulensteen will take comfort from another promising performance that suggests his side can avoid relegation.

Fulham remain bottom of the Premier League but they look ready for the fight and showed enough again last night to give Meulensteen hope of staying up.

"You can see the improvement," said the head coach, whose side are without a win since New Year's Day.

"We just need to get that break, get those three points on the board and build from there."

If Fulham continue to play with the energy and desire they demonstrated against Liverpool at Craven Cottage, Meulensteen (below) will be increasingly optimistic of engineering an escape act. Fulham, who are four points from safety with an inferior goal difference to all of the teams above them, had Liverpool on the back foot in spells and twice led before eventually succumbing to Steven Gerrard's injury time penalty.

The home side look a team revitalised and the players must now build on this performance  as they aim to go on a late-season rally.

There was an intensity about Fulham that has too often been missing this season. They frustrated Liverpool, pressed their opponents into mistakes, kept Luis Suarez relatively quiet and deserved at least a point. Lewis Holtby, on loan from Tottenham, was again excellent.

"The new players are definitely making a difference," said Meulensteen. "We played well, were well organised and, with the effort the boys put in, a defeat like this is very hard to take. We have to take it game by game now but the energy and spirit in the team is good and some of the displays last night were excellent."

If Meulensteen did have two games to save his job then he can sleep a little easier after a couple of encouraging displays against Manchester United and Liverpool.

Any doubts among the Fulham hierarchy over his ability to turn things around have been answered.

Owner Shahid Khan has been in London this week and, along with chief executive Alistair Mackintosh, he will have been pleased by what he saw against a Liverpool side who are now only four points behind leaders Chelsea and have to be considered genuine title contenders.

Fulham have 10 days to regroup ahead of a crucial trip to 17th‑placed West Brom, who will be buoyed by their late showing against Chelsea on Tuesday, and Meulensteen will know the game at The Hawthorns is one his side dare not lose. Victory a week on Saturday would move Fulham within striking distance of a cluster of clubs above them.

A derby with Chelsea is then followed by a huge trip to second‑bottom Cardiff but how important this fixture was should not be underestimated either.

After the confidence gained by Sunday's draw at Old Trafford, a heavy defeat here could have drained morale and been terminal to their survival chances. "We have still got to play Chelsea and Manchester City but  we have got also winnable games," said Meulensteen, who again showed that he is a manager who can come up with an effective game plan.

Meulensteen will also argue that £11million deadline-day signing Kostas Mitroglou, who scored twice for Fulham's Under-21 side yesterday, is close to full fitness and that will improve the situation further.

If Mitroglou and Holtby can forge a bond, that will only strengthen the belief among the players. Defender John Heitinga said: "We are fighting really hard and we still believe."

Fulham remain odds-on to go down but if Meulensteen's side continue to play like this there is no reason why they should not extend their top-flight stay into a 14th consecutive year.


http://www.standard.co.uk/sport/football/gritty-fulham-show-they-can-pull-off-an-incredible-escape-9126124.html