What's the mood around the club off the back of last weekend’s win over Huddersfield Town?
The mood around Fulham is much better than it was a couple of weeks ago but then beating the team in third place 5-0 will do that. Those inside the club have wanted to be low key about expectations this season. They were a very well established Premier League club until three years ago. Slavisa Jokanovic has said he wants to consolidate and build but it wouldn’t be a surprise if internally they weren’t looking to make the top eight.
Is that an ambition shared by the fans?
The fans have been a little shellshocked by the last three or four years. For a long time they weren’t a sacking club but then it all went wrong with bad managers and unsuitable players coming into the club. Fulham have a good core of supporters that expect a lot and this is the best bet that they have had in three seasons to make a charge for the Premier League.
What were the key areas Fulham looked to strengthen in the summer?
32 players have come in or out since the summer. Last season they scored goals and conceded goals in equal numbers. This season the defence has been more solid, however it would be hard to have conceded more, but without Ross McCormack and Moussa Dembele they had found goals harder to come by until last Saturday.
Who should Bees fans be aware of this evening?
Tom Cairney was probably the only buy in the summer of 2015 that really worked out, the rest of them really struggled. He was nominated for the August Player of the Month award this season and has been playing well. Sone Aluko has done well since coming in from Hull City on a free. He was wonderful against Huddersfield Town, beating defenders and being involved in two of the goals. The centre-backs, Ragnar Sigurðsson and Tomas Kalas, have made Fulham look a lot more solid this season too.
Finally, what sort of game do you expect this evening?
Fulham will look to keep the ball and be patient especially as they play with only one striker and one in behind. If they play it long it will, more often than not, come straight back. They have looked to play football and will look to pass their way into the final third rather than going long.I am fairly sure it won’t be 3-0 to The Bees this time round although I was very impressed when I saw Brentford play Queens Park Rangers last Friday. Fulham have looked good going forward this season so I think there will be a lot of chances for both sides. Something like 2-2 seems the type of scoreline you might expect.