When the Ghost of Christmas Present makes its way to Mike Rigg’s house tomorrow night, a picture showing the importance of Ross McCormack will be painted.
Given the other headlines at Fulham at the moment it is easy to ignore the importance of someone we already have. Ross McCormack has been indispensable for Fulham this season and it is important that this fact is not lost in our current managerless mire..
His 12 league goals lead the team. Strike partner Moussa Dembele is in 2nd place with 9 goals but is potentially leaving the club in January having yet failed to sign a new contract. With this in mind, Ross’ goals will likely become even more critical as the season wears on.
It is not just goals though, McCormack leads the team with 6 assists and 34 chances created. With our defence more porous than an industrial sized colander, McCormack has been the main reason our offence has stayed alive, and thus kept Fulham afloat in the process.
Put another way, McCormack has scored in all of our five league victories and in three draws. His 6 assists have also all come in games we scored points (spread across 1 win and 4 draws). His free kick at Bolton last Saturday was just the latest in a long list of examples of Ross carrying us on his own back since his arrival at the club 18 months ago.
We live and die by the performance of our talismanic Scot. When he has off days, and he does have them, the team as a whole suffers. Within our five victories, only one of his goals was actually the Game Winner. When he plays well so does the rest of the team.
When he doesn’t play well the team struggles. In the games without a McCormack goal or assist, Fulham have only amassed 6 out of a possible 33 points available.
So whilst our new manager must sort out our defensive struggles, keeping and getting the best out of Ross McCormack must also be a priority.
With our on-going underperformance and being still without a manager, the upcoming transfer window looms ominously just around the corner. Should McCormack decide he has had enough, the grim reaper would have Fulham in his sights. For all of our sakes, let’s hope that when the Ghost of Christmas Future reaches Mr Rigg, the vision includes Ross McCormack.
