Fulham manager Marco Silva has to give young winger Martial Godo an opportunity with the first team next season after his brilliant performance against Manchester United last night.
The 20-year-old England youth international was fantastic once again up against Aaron Wan-Bissaka for Wigan Athletic in the FA Cup.
Described on commentary by Ally McCoist as ‘tremendous’, Godo appears to have a huge future ahead of him.
Fulham have an exceptional academy, but all too often it appears as though the club fail to help those young players take the final step into the senior set-up.
This season, fans have seen cameos from Luke Harris before he departed on loan to Exeter City, where he was named in the team of the week after his debut.
Luc de Fougerolles and Devan Tanton have featured too, but right now sending our best youngsters on loan seems like the best option.
They could follow in the footsteps of Martial Godo, who won the PL2 Player of the Month award with Fulham’s Under-21 team before joining Wigan for the rest of the season.
Since then, he’s starred for the Latics providing six goal contributions in League One in under 1,000 minutes of action.
His dynamism and directness make him an exceptional option and with the likes of Willian nearing the end of their careers, having Godo among Silva’s first team next year might be a very useful option.
Fulham should look at Godo next season
The 20-year-old attacker will be part of the club for a little while longer having signed a new deal last summer.
His performances caught the attention of the England set-up and alongside Jay Stansfield has earned recognition with the Young Lions.
Godo showed early on against Manchester United that he wasn’t overwhelmed facing Premier League opposition for the first time in his career.
Not only that, coming up against Wan-Bissaka – one of the best one-on-one defenders in the top flight – and coming out on top on multiple occasions is something even top wingers struggle to do.
He completed all but two of his passes yesterday, playing one key pass in the opening minutes that should have led to Wigan taking the lead.
Godo was successful with three of his five dribbles and while he lost possession 13 times, that’s expected from a player trying to make things happen in dangerous areas.
There are things Godo still needs to work on, but at 20 he has plenty of time to improve and Silva will be thinking very hard about keeping the youngster at Fulham next season.