Fulham boss Chris Coleman hopes to dig his side out of their mid-season crisis by bringing in some new faces during the January sales.
The Cottagers slipped to seventh in the Barclaycard Premiership following Wednesday night’s defeat by Middlesbrough and next face an Everton team buoyed by their 1-1 draw with Arsenal.
Fulham have endured a wretched spell since December 6, losing four of their last five league matches, and Coleman now faces two major tests of his fledgling managerial career.
Star striker Louis Saha has to be kept away from the clutches of Manchester United while the club’s slide down the Premiership must be halted, with Coleman planning a raid in the transfer market to help end the slump.
“I am not kidding myself about who I will be able to sign this month – I won’t be able to bring in much better players than I have already got. And I am not sure I would want to do that because I have still got a lot of faith in the lads,” he said.
“What I do need is some more bodies to give me strength in depth. I need a deeper squad so that the players wearing the jerseys can be pushed. At the minute I just have not got enough players to do that.”
The confidence which marked Fulham’s performances earlier in the season has started to drift away in recent weeks but rookie boss Coleman is ready to inspire his side through their dip in form.
“One or two players have suffered a loss in confidence. We are making individual errors which we were not earlier in the season. All teams go through bad patches and we are no different,” he said.
“It is a test and a learning curve for me because I have had it relatively easy until now, but I will attack things head on.”
