Roy Hodgson has admitted that he won’t be fielding his best side for Fulham’s make-or-break Europa League trip to Basel on Wednesday.
The Fulham manager has an eye on Saturday’s meeting with Manchester United and has prioritised the Premier League fixture against the defending champions ahead of a game Fulham must win if their European adventure is to continue. On the plus side, he hopes to call upon Dickson Etuhu, Danny Murphy and Andy Johnson in Switzerland.
We won’t be playing what we consider to be our best team. That’s the team that will be playing against Manchester United. We will be playing other players who need games and we’ll be playing players that are obliged to play because we have three players suspended.
Greening, Nevland and Konchesky are suspended thanks largely to the lamentable fate we have suffered at the hands of two referees when we’ve played Roma. When what happens to us at home and away against Roma in a competition it definitely takes off the shine and to be frank we didn’t enter this competition to win it.
Teams like Liverpool and Roma, those types of teams, maybe enter the competition to win it. We entered it for experience and for the joy it gives our supporters and we’ve given them fantastic value at home in all the games we’ve played. We’ve certainly not let ourselves down away from home. We won’t let ourselves down in Basel. We want to win, we’d like to win and we’ll try to win, don’t worry about that.
If I was Basel I’d be a bit concerned because they also need a result. If they lose they’ll go out quite possibly so the pressures every bit as much on them. I’m looking forward to seeing Danny Murphy and Dickson Etuhu and these guys back in the team. I’m hoping Andy Johnson might be able to play some minor part in the game. That would be a tremendous bonus if he could.
Our focus to some extent is on the Manchester United game at Craven Cottage. When Manchester United come to town and you’re Fulham that’s a big game so we’re interested in that one.
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