Felix Magath says Fulham’s poor start to life in the Championship means they must win Wednesday’s match against Wolves if they are to retain hopes of winning promotion.
The Cottagers were amongst the pre-season favourites to return to the top flight at the first time of asking, but those ambitions have taken a jolt after their opening day defeat at Ipswich was followed by Millwall’s 1-0 win at Craven Cottage on Saturday. Whilst both performances have shown promise, the German coach knows that losing can become a habit and one that his recently relegated charges must swiftly shake off.
It’s always more pressure if you lose a game instead of winning. We need points – we have to make three points against Wolves now. We not only have to play well, we have to score and we have to win.
If we had played worse [against Ipswich and Millwall] I would be a little nervous but we played well and we have a new team, we have a new situation. There are a lot of new things.
One of the conundrums will be over who should start up front against Wolves. Big money signing Ross McCormack managed little more than an hour at Portman Road and, as a result, was introduced from the bench at half-time against Millwall. The Scottish international is likely to return to the starting line-up, but whether he will replace Hugo Rodallega or start alongside him remains to be seen. The Colombian was largely anonymous when deployed as a lone striker on Saturday and if Magath opts to play with a front two he could turn to Cauley Woodrow, who was impressive from the bench against Ipswich, or hand another chance to Moussa Dembele, who struggled on the opening day.
I have told the players I will give everybody the chance to play. I cannot let everybody play in the first game, so I will have changes in the next games.
It depends how we play and how the result goes. If we have a good game and good result, we will not change so much. If we have no result, like on Saturday, we have to change something.
