Tim Ream insisted that he wanted to play every single minute possible of Fulham’s season after returning earlier than expected to Marco Silva’s starting line-up following his World Cup exploits.

The 35 year old defender, who starred as the United States reached the second round in Qatar, started at left back in this afternoon’s 1-1 draw with West Ham as the Whites warmed up for the resumption of their Premier League campaign on Boxing Day. Ream – one of the revelations of Fulham’s fine return to the top flight – told Hammyend.com afterwards that he is happy to fill in wherever he is asked to.

“I had a conversation with the manager yesterday. He said that I’d played left back at Forest, play left back the way I play left back not the way Antonee plays left back because he’s a little bit younger than me and has a little bit more pace than me. Listen, I’m happy to play. I’m happy to play left back, I’m happy to play centre back, I’m happy to play wherever the manager needs me. I want to put my very best foot forward and do the very best I possibly can.”

Ream revealed that the Fulham squad are disappointed not to have more points on the board after an encouraging opening to their latest Premier League campaign – particularly after stoppage time setbacks against both Manchester City and Manchester United sent the Whites into the winter break on a sour note.

“We’re obviously going to look to push on and build on our good start. At the same time, I think we understand that there’s a little bit of disappointment because we feel we could have had more points on the board. That is what we’re going to look to do. We’re going to look to carry that form into the second half of the season.”

The dependable defender still feels he is making up for lost time after watching most of Fulham’s 2020/2021 campaign from the sidelines – and reiterated that his ambition is to stay in Silva’s first eleven.

“Personally, it is the same goal every single season. I want to play every single minute that I possibly can. At the minute, I’m there and there’s the potential to play every single match. As long as I’m doing that and as long as the team is doing well and push on for the remainder of the 23 games, we’re going to be in a good position.”