SAKA, ANTONY AND 10 PREMIER LEAGUE STARS HEADING TO THEIR FIRST WORLD CUP
Fulham finally got back to winning ways over the weekend, grabbing a historic 2-0 win over Everton at Goodison Park.
That was the Whites’ first ever win at Goodison Park in the league, and as you can imagine, the man who grabbed all of the headlines after the game was Josh Maja.
The new signing netted twice on his first start for Fulham, and while Maja deserves every single bit of credit he is receiving. We have to argue that there was another more inspired switch that Parker made on Sunday.
Indeed, Ola Aina played as a left wing-back against Everton, and it’s fair to say that he was a key component in Fulham coming away with all three points.
The Nigerian grabbed an assist for Maja’s first goal, and he was generally a strong defensive presence, as he has been all season.
For months, Fulham fans have debated whether Antonee Robinson or Joe Bryan should start on the left, but there’s now a new contender, and he’s put his hat firmly into the ring.
In one game on that left side, Aina has already bettered Robinson’s assist tally for the season, and on top of that, he helped keep a clean sheet.
We know it sounds ridiculously simple, and we don’t want to dumb anything down. But sometimes football is as simple as scoring goals at one end and stopping them at the other, and that’s exactly what Aina provided vs Everton.
Robinson and Bryan both provide different things, with Robinson being a speedster who can drive into the final third, and Bryan being a great passer who can cross from deep, but it seems as though Aina brings about the best of both worlds, and with Fulham finally having a fox in the box like Maja, Aina may be the answer to the longstanding left-side conundrum.
What this means for Robinson remains to be seen, it’s incredibly harsh for him to lose his place as he’s been excellent all season, but his role may have to be slightly adapted going forward.
