Felix Magath was “satisfied” after watching his Fulham side secure a 2-0 victory over Sky Bet League One outfit Crawley Town on Saturday afternoon.
Two goals in quick succession from Kostas Stafylidis and Hugo Rodallega proved the difference, and the Whites Manager was pleased with what he saw.
“Especially in the first half I was very satisfied with the game,” he stated. “It was quite good but at the moment we have done a lot of work in the last three weeks and now we have the time to settle down.
“We’ve done a lot of physical work and now we begin to work on our style of play. This game today was quite good and I’m satisfied.”
Stafylidis’ fine arrowed strike was his second goal in as many games from left-back, and when it was put to Magath that Fulham fans will enjoy watching the 20-year-old this season, he replied: “Not only the Fulham fans, me too!
“He is the type of player I want. He’s a defensive player but he looks to go forward and you have seen that he is dangerous. He has dangerous crosses and he has a good shot so I’m very glad with him.”
This summer has been one of transition at Fulham, with a significant overhaul of playing personnel. It’s a circumstance Magath admits isn’t ideal, but he insists he is building for the future of the Club.
“That is a very difficult situation but we’ll make the best of it,” he said. “We have a lot of new players and a lot of young players. I think I have 18 players under [the age of] 22 so we built up a new team, we built up a new team for the future of Fulham, so we have a lot of work at the moment.
“We have the situation where some players were at the World Cup and they are still on vacation. They come back the next days so we don’t have a full staff together at the moment so we need a little time to work with the team to progress.”
There has been speculation on the futures of those three individuals Magath referred to, but when asked if they would still be Fulham players come the end of the transfer window, the German was forthright in his response.
“Yeah sure, why not?” he stated. “Right now they had three weeks holidays, so that’s it. The players need a rest and [Kostas] Mitroglou and [Ashkan] Dejagah will come back on Sunday, and Bryan Ruiz is coming back next week because he has played longer in the World Cup with Costa Rica.”
