Kevin McDonald believes Fulham’s strength in depth could prove priceless as their Championship promotion bid comes down to the wire.
The Scottish midfielder hailed Denis Odoi’s fantastic performance at Derby County yesterday after the Belgian defender was a late replacement for the injured Tomas Kalas and feels Slavisa Jokanovic’s squad is much stronger after Fulham’s additions during the January transfer window. Speaking to FulhamFCTV after the final whistle yesterday, McDonald said:
The good thing about the team now is we’ve got such strength in depth and competition for places. We’ve left a couple of good, good players at home and obviously Kalas has missed out through injury. We brought in Denis Odoi and I thought again he was fantastic. This guy comes in at whatever position, he’s going to give 110% and I thought he was really, really good. He was up there for man of the match, defensively. He might go under the radar but I thought he was fantastic.
The 30 year-old also acknowledged the difference Aleksandr Mitrovic has made to Fulham’s general play, alongside the Serbian striker’s three goals in as many matches.
He gives us the platform to play. Teams are going to press us and he gives us that option to have that long ball to Aleks. He holds the ball up, he’s so strong and he’s given us a real different dimension to the team. In the last few games he’s been fantastic and I thought again today he bullied the centre halves and he put into a really strong performance.
McDonald revealed he was disappointed that Fulham hadn’t wrapped up the win long before half time after scoring twice in the first 22 minutes at Pride Park.
It was nice. Personally, I went in frustrated at half time because we had so numerous chances and so much space I really thought we should have been in there 4-0 up. I knew that, once this crowd get going and once they get a goal, it’s hard place to play. It showed in the second half – we really needed to defend for our lives in the last twenty minutes or so.
The former Sheffield United midfielder knows that the Blades will represent another real test of Fulham’s promotion credentials when he renews acquaintances with his former employers at Craven Cottage in midweek.
It was a hard game when we played there. They throw everything at you, a bit of a gung ho team. I think it will be even harder at home t;his time so we’ve got to be prepared, rest up and a couple of days training. We’ll be ready to go again on Tuesday.
