Friday Fulham Stuff (16/11/18)...

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3 Top-class players Ranieri can target in January to save Fulham from relegation including Chelsea outcast

Three signings Claudio Ranieri should make to save Fulham from relegation

Fulham are rock bottom in the Premier League at the moment but hopes will definitely be lifted after the arrival of new manager Claudio Ranieri. The former Leicester City manager lifted the Premier League with the Foxes and has now replaced Slavisa Jokanovic.

The Cottagers have conceded a record 31 goals in 12 games so far. They have also failed to maintain any sort of cohesion and stability in the midfield. Claudio Ranieri has to dive into the transfer market in January and add some fresh faces.

Fulham are in dire need of some quality and the only way they can keep themselves in the Premier League is by bolstering their ranks. Here we take a look at three players Claudio Ranieri can target in order to lift them out of the drop zone.

Javier Hernandez (West Ham United)

The Mexican striker has fallen down the pecking order since the arrival of Manuel Pellegrini. The Chilean brought in a number of new arrivals in the summer, which has seen Chicharito's game time diminish.

But he is one of the deadliest poachers in the Premier League. Having plied his trade for teams likes Manchester United and Real Madrid, Hernandez will definitely provide the Cottagers with the cutting edge required up front.

Davide Zappacosta (Chelsea)

Zappacosta made the move to Chelsea last season but has made just more than 20 appearances since then. The established Cesar Azpilicueta has maintained his supreme form and the Italian has found game time hard to come by.

But he is a lively full-back who loves to maraud up and down the field. Current Fulham right-back Cyrus Christie has been poor since the start and that is why Ranieri should go for Zappacosta. The Italian is defensively good and also provides well going forward.

Morgan Schneiderlin (Everton)

Though the Frenchman is one of the highest paid players in the Everton squad, he's barely playing any football. The arrival of Andre Gomes and the superb form shown by Idrissa Gueye has seen him fall down the pecking order.

Fulham need a defensive holding midfielder in their squad and a change of environment would do the former Manchester United midfielder a world of good.

He definitely is talented and probably requires a Premier League winning manager to change his fortunes. His arrival should stop Fulham's habit of leaking goals this season.



https://soccersouls.com/2018/11/16/3-top-class-players-ranieri-can-target-in-january-to-save-fulham-from-relegation-including-chelsea-outcast/

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Slavisa Jokanovic – Simply a Fulham hero

Even if you didn't want to, it was easy enough to construct a case for Slavisa Jokanovic to go. Fulham were bottom of the Premier League after twelve games and the early sparkle of their performances had long since dwindled out. It appeared as though his bold possession-based game and attacking philosophy had brutally met its match in the unforgiving world of the top flight. He couldn't decide on his best back line, never mind his bad eleven, and there was an alarming lack of fight from a side that used to put their bodies on the line. And yet, when the news came on Tuesday morning that he'd be replaced by Claudio Ranieri, there was a sense of shock and profound sadness.

The bond between Jokanovic and the Fulham fans was forged firstly in a moment of genuine turmoil for the football club. Fulham's senior officials had badly bungled the follow-up to sacking Kit Symons and the Serbian arrived in south west London with the Whites in serious danger of plummeting into League One. Jokanovic couldn't even strengthen a badly unbalanced and threadbare squad with a transfer embargo to navigate through in his first few weeks. His response told us a lot about the character of the man – he grinned and bore it and gradually hauled his team away from the relegation zone, not through the scintillating football that we came to know and love, but at times seemingly through the sheer force of his well.

The serious surgery undertaken on his squad in the summer of 2016 troubled some, with the departure of Ross McCormack and Moussa Dembele leaving his side looking light in the forward areas, as a host of new faces arrived in double quick time. Scott Malone soon established himself as a world-beating, offensive full back whilst Sone Aluko began to dazzle on the wing. The assured first steps of Ryan Sessegnon into senior football at the tender age of sixteen were encouraged by Jokanovic, who – following a promising League Cup debut at Leyton Orient – handed the teenager a first league start at Elland Road. Just as he would going forward, the steely Sessegnon hardly let anyone down.

Jokanovic's forward-thinking style took a while to transmit itself to the team, with unsteady starts to the campaign in both of Fulham's last two Championship seasons. But his boldness was eventually rewarded with some of the most spellbinding football ever produced by a Fulham side, including the one that decimated the First Division under Jean Tigana all those years ago. You might point to the aftermath of that desperate December afternoon in Sunderland as the moment when Fulham's fortunes definitively turned – but, for me, the fearlessness with which Fulham poured forward to beat Sheffield United by the odd goal in nine, showed just how bold Jokanovic's charges could be.

There were so many magnificent moments during the 23-match unbeaten run that almost carried the Whites to automatic promotion that it is impossible to pinpoint just one. The impacts of Aleksandar Mitrovic, who terrorised Championship defences almost instantly after his arrival on a pivotal January loan from Newcastle United, and Matt Targett, who seemed to have had years of experience of playing behind Sessegnon, were crucial in reviving Fulham's fortunes. Some of those away days were legendary – the euphoria of Mitrovic's late winner at Preston North End was something to be held, whilst the majesty of Kevin McDonald's long-range effort at Millwall will live long in the memory.

Nobody wanted to be in the play-offs, of course, and it seemed like Fulham's history would repeat itself when the side subsided rather meekly in the first-leg at Derby. But, then came the second half revival on one of the great nights at Craven Cottage, with Sessegnon's predatory instincts and an iconic header from Denis Odoi swinging a tight tie Fulham's way. I don't need to recount the wonder of Wembley to any Fulham follower: the ecstasy of Tom Cairney's gorgeously crafted goal, and then the bloody-mindedness of a spirited rearguard that resisted Aston Villa's search for an equaliser after Odoi's dismissal – typified by Oliver Norwood's superb challenge shortly after stepping off the bench.

Jokanovic is his own harshest critic. He will be smarting at just how easily his side was prized open by English football's elite and how frail Fulham looked against Cardiff and Huddersfield, two of their rivals in what now looks like a battle royale to escape relegation. The decision to replace the Serb with Claudio Ranieri may yet prove to be a masterstroke. But my sense is that Jokanovic had earned a little more faith through the glorious football his team had played over the past three years. The fact that Shahid Khan had spent more than £100m in supplementing the squad this summer ultimately counted against Jokanovic, but the coach who imbued Fulham with a distinctive identity and a sense of adventure will always be remembered fondly as a Fulham hero. He deserves nothing less.



https://hammyend.com/index.php/2018/11/slavisa-jokanovic-simply-a-fulham-hero/

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Claudio Ranieri Must Make This England Star His First Signing As Fulham Manager

Things are looking a sniffle more positive in West London with the arrival of 'The Tinkerman' Claudio Ranieri to try and salvage the sinking ship of Fulham F.C.

To be fair, things couldn't have gotten much worse for the recently-promoted side, having recorded the most goals conceded by a Premier League team at this early point of the season, and wallowing rock bottom of the table with just a single win from their opening 12 games.

Though Fulham fans are of course indebted to Slaviša Jokanović's almost three years of service which saw them eventually return to the English top tier, his successor Ranieri's credentials and prestige - with his unbelievable Leicester City triumph still relatively fresh - opens up a bit of a yellow brick road for the Cottagers.

With speculation rife as to who will be the new manager's signings in little more than six weeks' time, one of the Italian's predominant concern should be how to relieve the goalscoring burden currently piled onto the back of forward Aleksandar Mitrovic, who Fulham finally bought in the summer after impressing in the latter half of last season on loan from Newcastle United.

This season, the Serb has a solid return of five goals in 12 appearances, but this haul is currently floundering; the drought of Mitrovic not hitting the back of the net inconveniently coinciding with Fulham's six straight losses.

Liverpool youngster Dominic Solanke gave himself a solid audition for prospective clubs in a scintillating performance for the England Under-21s this week.

The 21-year-old bagged a brace as England saw off the young Italy side, the first coming before even ten minutes were up, and then got the winner eight minutes after the break, slightly before which Moise Kean had equalised.

Much was expected when Solanke decided to make the move to Anfield from Chelsea in July of last year with many expecting the forward to be taken under manager Jurgen Klopp's wing and nurtured to becoming a prominent Red striker. Instead, he and Belgium striker Divock Origi have reportedly been allowed to go out on loan moves in order to further their progression.

If this is indeed the case, then Fulham should indeed be batting their eyelashes in the young man's direction.

Solanke has yet to feature in the Premier League this season, and has made the first team bench only once, in a EFL Cup game against Chelsea.

This pales in comparison to the leaps and bounds his compatriots Reiss Nelson and Jadon Sancho are currently making over in the Bundesliga, which must surely be at the forefront of Solanke's mind, whom attention was brought to ever since his joint-second highest goal tally achieved in 2017 at the FIFA Under-20 World Cup.

When the January transfer window opens up, the Fulham hierarchy should be less concerned with adding to their admittedly heavy summer outlay, and focus instead on the importance of bringing in a player who could well prove to go on a be one of the deadliest marksmen in the English game.



https://www.thesportsman.com/articles/claudio-ranieri-must-make-this-england-star-his-first-signing-as-fulham-manager