Fulham go in search of back-to-back away wins at Portman Road this afternoon, although they will have to do without their sharpest performance at St. Andrew’s on Tuesday night. Jay Stansfield, who Gordon Davies identified as possessing the predatory instincts to break his club goalscoring record, is back at Birmingham City after the League One club parted with £15m to sign the England under-21 international just before the transfer window slammed shut. Marco Silva will now have to find the goals from the senior squad’s two recognised strikers in Rodrigo Muniz, who has yet to score this season, and Raul Jimenez. It is quite reasonable to reckon that the Whites couldn’t turn down an astonishing amount of money for a player who played just ten games for the club, but the forward line looks more than a little light.
Reiss Nelson has arrived from Arsenal – having turned down the chance to sign for today’s opponents when the Cottagers came calling – and it was telling that the club’s press release announcing the successful completion of that deal referenced that the winger could operate as a centre forward. There’s no doubting the exciting talent that Fulham have acquired for Silva this summer – the sizzling approach play of Emile Smith Rowe alone is tantalising – but the Whites have lacked a number nine since Aleksandar Mitrovic abruptly departed for Saudi Arabia this time last year.
Stansfield’s sale shouldn’t impact Silva’s plans for this tussle against the Tractor Boys. The main reason why he signed a seven-year contract that trebled his wages was to be guaranteed a game. Blues fans will hope that this statement signing is as totemic for them as Chris Coleman’s decision to drop two divisions was for Fulham in 1997. Silva’s Suffolk starting eleven shouldn’t be too much of a surprise when it comes through at 1.45pm, with Joachim Andersen surely slotting in alongside Calvin Bassey in central defence whilst it may be too early for Sander Berge to add heft and height to the engine room given the rustiness of the Norwegian’s midweek outing in the second city.
Ipswich might have lost their first two games but Silva was at pains to praise their ‘unbelievable winning mentality’ under Kieran McKenna during his press availability earlier this week – and the Portuguese head coach remains absolutely right. Town’s back-to-back promotions were brilliant achievements build on their back of an expansive playing style and honest endeavour. The manager was pivotal to that – and, it was refreshing to see the Fermanagh-raised tactician opt to stay with the side he’d steered to the top flight in sharp contrast to Enzo Maresca.
Ipswich’s moves in the market have been shrewd with a commendable focus on young talent, like Omari Hutchinson, Jacob Greaves and Liam Delap, alongside Championship captures in the shape of Burnley centre half Dara O’Shea and Sammie Smozdics, who has been superb over the last couple of seasons with Blackburn. They might have missed on a conventional target man to lead the line, although given Armando Broja’s failure to take his chance at the Cottage last season he may not have been the ideal solution. Interesting, two rumoured Fulham targets of old ended up at Portman Road: Kalvin Phillips has the opportunity to resurrect a career that three years ago saw him named as the England player of the year by adding a bite of bite to McKenna’s midfield, whilst Jack Clarke gets another top tier chance to shine after his sensational showings at Sunderland.
McKenna has talked about wanting to make Portman Road into the sort of fortress that it was when the former Fulham favourite Sir Bobby Robson achieved things nobody thought possible. The Town faithful will see this afternoon as a chance to pick up the win they need to get their Premier League adventure under way – and it is crucial that Silva’s side match their intensity. Ending their woeful record against newly-promoted opposition on the road is vital. The stats are staggering: Fulham have won just six of their last 47 top flight away fixtures against teams that have just come up – they have drawn 18 and lost 23.
MY FULHAM XI (4-2-3-1): Leno; Tete, A. Robinson, Andersen, Bassey; Lukic, Pereira; Traore, Iwobi, Smith Rowe; Muniz. Subs: Benda, Castagne, Diop, Reed, Cairney, King, Sessegnon, Wilson, Jimenez
