Scandinavian pair Sander Berge and Joachim Andersen have no doubt that Brentford will present a real threat to Fulham’s fine home record in the west London derby at Craven Cottage on Monday.
Berge and Andersen told Premier League Productions that they are fully familiar with the threat posed by Thomas Frank’s outfit, who themselves have a significant Scandinavian contingent.
Berge said:
“[They will be a] tough team. I’ve played Brentford over the years and they’re a physical, strong team. Everyone knows their tasks and role in that team. Very competitive, a lot of firepower up front – athletic, quick players in [Yoane] Wissa and [Bryan] Mbeumo. Generally a solid team, experienced, play to their strengths, so it will be a difficult game.”
Andersen added:
“It’s a really difficult team. I know many of their players, they have many Danish players, a Danish coach. For me, it’s always a fun game because some of my really, really good friends [play for Brentford]. Like Sander said, they have good, offensive players and they’re scoring a lot of goals but, as we’ve been seeing, they’re also conceding a lot of goals, so hopefully there will be some good chances for us.”
Both Berge and Andersen are quietly content with Fulham’s start to the season – despite firmly believing that Marco Silva’s side should have picked up more points from their first nine fixtures.
The centre back said:
“I think it’s been okay. We would have liked a few more points, and we should have had that – disappointing late goals against us. But overall it’s been alright, it’s been positive, but I think there’s a lot of room for improvement, which is what we’re trying to do every week on the pitch.”
Berge feels that the team is gradually beginning to gel as several summer signings are bedding in.
“There have been some great performances from the team, and also some difficult games where we’ve struggled more, which will always be the case in the Premier League. We had some tough equalisers in the last minutes – West Ham, and now at Everton. That’s four points [dropped], and you get punished a lot at this level, but I think we’ve been gradually showing progress, the team is gelling more together. As time goes on, for us being new, it helps, building relationships on the pitch, you get more into the structure and how we want to play, and I think we’ll see that more and more in the weeks to come. Villa and City were obviously two tough games with the quality in their teams, but we have to build and keep going, and we know what to do to take the next step and push forward, and close the gap to the real top teams.”
