Season Preview: Fulham

Overall Outlook - Last season, Fulham were a classic average team.  At home they were good enough to get points from the vast majority of their matches with most of those being wins.  The downside came on the road where only Hull had fewer wins than Fulham's 1 - that's right, 1 road win.  Certainly a great deal of their focus was on their oh-so-close Europa Cup campaign but with little change outside of the manager's seat there isn't much reason to expect a charge up (or down) the standings.  I think Mark Hughes will do a nice job with Fulham when he'll be back in an environment like Rovers where he won't be in over his head with player egos.  Another finish between 10th and 14th seems realistic but they REALLY need another goal scorer (Roque Santa Cruz anyone? Craig Bellamy?)




Projected Starters - Schwarzer, Pantsil, Hangeland, Hughes, Konchesky, Duff, Etuhu, Murphy, Dempsey, Zamora, Gera

In the Rotation - Senderos, Baird, AJ, Greening, Davies, Riise, Elmander

Kicks - Assuming they're healthy (a big IF) Duff and Murphy are they guys who take the kicks.

Newcomers

• Philippe Senderos, D - Not much to discuss in the way of newcomers at Fulham so far this summer but I think this is a nice pick-up.  Arsenal lost confidence in the Swiss International but he had some success before losing that confidence and maybe the change of scenery will make a big difference.  He's certainly a nice back up.  If he gets a run of matches fantasy managers should give him a look;

Rising Youth

• Chris Smalling, D - Oops, Fulham doesn't really have much of a recent tradition of bringing young players along through their system and while Smalling was only around briefly he was set to be one of the few to make it to the big time at Fulham.  Before he really had the chance to do that, he was lured to Old Trafford.  This really just underscores that fact that Fulham really need to focus on getting some results from their youth teams;

Fantasy Breakdown

• Best - He may be past his best but Damien Duff is still a reliable fantasy player when he's healthy.  Remarkable really that a winger not named Giggs has such longevity.;
• Best Value (non-newcomer) - Late last season Chris Baird was a great value playing consistently with many of the appearances being in midfield.  The downside coming into this season is that many of those appearances were due to either injury or rotation in anticipation of Europe Cup matches.  If Baird is relegated to the bench more regularly then Bobby Zamora becomes the best value on the roster among the regular starters;
• Best Projected Value - OK, AJ will never again be the guy who scored 21 goals for Crystal Palace in the Premier League in 2004/05.  That said, if he could play more than 25 matches and get 13 to 15 goals this season he'll represent excellent fantasy value.  If not, then Gera and Dempsey seem to be the only two players who have much potential to improve on their career averages and become better values;
• Worth Considering With Good Match-ups -  Schwarzer, Pantsil, Hangeland, Duff, Dempsey, Zamora, Gera
• Worth Knowing If He's Starting - Baird, Senderos, AJ