Rene Meulensteen has shared that defender Calvin Bassey keeps making the same mistakes at Fulham as he did at previous club Ajax.
Meulensteen was speaking on TalkSPORT (24/10 9:11am) after a disappointing evening for Marco Silva’s side.
Fulham went into last night’s match against Tottenham with a poor league record against the North London club.
The last time Fulham beat Spurs in the Premier League was all the way back in 2013 thanks to a Dimitar Berbatov goal.
Marco Silva went into the match knowing he would be without two of his four senior centre-backs.
There was a place on the bench for Luc de Fougerolles who starred in pre-season but captain Tim Ream was partnered by Calvin Bassey.
Bassey was starting just his second league game for the club and won’t want to look back on this match too closely.
Playing in an unfamiliar role as a right centre-back, he gave the ball away twice in dangerous positions and Tottenham capitalised each time.
Son Heung-min and James Maddison helped yesterday’s hosts return to the top of the league, leaving Fulham looking over their shoulder.
Meulensteen has suggested that he had seen the mistakes Bassey made for Fulham yesterday already.
The 23-year-old will likely be required to start against Brighton on Sunday who will be hoping they can force the Nigerian international into making the same errors.
Meulensteen unimpressed with Fulham defender Bassey
Speaking about his old club and yesterday’s defeat, Meulensteen said: “The thing is this, there’s always a meaning to what you do.
“So, if you choose to play out from the back, you want to have the players that technically have the qualities to do it.
“Now that was one mistake with Fulham because I’ve seen [Calvin] Bassey numerous times for Ajax making the same mistake because those two passes you cannot expect players of that level to play a ball that poorly into midfield.
“If you then are out of position with the other centre-backs and full-back and the rest of your defence is not there, then that’s exactly what’s happened against Tottenham.
“But I have to give credit to Spurs and Ange [Postecoglou] because this is a typical aspect of Ange’s game.”
It will be interesting to see if Silva changes Bassey’s role in Fulham’s next game especially considering Meulensteen has said this is a known issue for the defender.
Bassey’s best football has been played either as a left-back or a left-sided centre-back and Silva might be tempted to shift Ream onto the right instead.
He’s created a fantastic partnership with Antonee Robinson and losing that would be a blow.
But considering Fulham are struggling to score goals, they need to find a way to keep them out so they can give their attackers the best chance possible.