Cyrus Christie was pleased with his workout during Fulham’s 0-0 with Reading yesterday and is looking forward to the challenge of establishing himself as the club’s first-choice right back in the Premier League.
The Irish international was one of the Whites’ best performers in their latest friendly outing at Aldershot and was unfortunate not to score after a strong first half run. Christie, who arrived from Middlesbrough in January, has had to wait for his chance to make an impact in Slavisa Jokanovic’s first team and was pleased with his side’s showing after a couple of tough weeks of pre-season training. He told FulhamFCTV after the final whistle:
It was good to get a run out. It was a good 60 minutes. We put in a lot of work, obviously, over the last few weeks. We’ve been working hard and doing a lot of sessions. The lads looked fit out there today. I think we played really well at times, obviously in pre-season there’s going to be a lot of rust and we’re going to make mistakes, but I think the lads showed heart. We pressed, we run, we made great recoveries and I think on another day we win by quite a bit out there.
Christie had high praise for some of Fulham’s young stars who got an opportunity to display their talents in the second half against the Royals.
We’ve got some great youngsters here. Steven Sessegnon came on early doors and here’s a very talented player. Matt [O’Riley] obviously came on and Tyrese [Francois] and Moritz [Jenz] … they’re a great set of young lads and they came on and they did really well. They’re pushing for places in the team and that’s what you want as a young boy, you want to be given opportunities and I think they are at a great club for that in Fulham.
He was pleased with his own performance and knows that the coming campaign represents a big challenge for him following the departure of Ryan Fredericks.
I feel I played quite well today. I made a couple of mistakes with passes but that’s common in your first few games back in pre-season. I came in January knowing what the situation was. I knew about Freddo and what was happening – it was just about being patient and you can’t complain. The lads were playing fantastically. Ryan Fredericks had a great season and he fully deserves his move. For me now, it’s about trying to hit the ground running and enjoy life in the Premier League.
Christie is confident that he knows what Jokanovic wants having observed Fulham’s style of play from the sidelines during the second half of last season – and also acknowledged that the side might have to tweak their approach as they adjust to the quality of the top flight.
I got to know the lads more and know what the gaffer wants from me. You can do as much as you can in training, but you can’t really replicate what you do in a game. For me now, it’s about playing games. Obviously it’s going to be a different proposition, we obviously dominated a lot of the ball last year in the Championship – coming into the Premier League now, it’s going to be a lot tougher, we’re not going to have as much of the ball. We’re going to have to be a lot more solid and not as expansive.
We’re going to have to change the way we play at times, but we’re looking to still keep our identity and the way we play and hopefully we can have a great season in the Premier League and stay there for many years.
