'Outstanding' Fulham ace hailed by Bayern legend, 'special' £19m teammate outshines Haaland
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Ahead of Fulham’s meeting with Manchester City on Saturday, Pep Guardiola highlighted four dangermen at Marco Silva’s disposal.
Alex Iwobi, Guardiola said, was playing the best football of his career at Craven Cottage.
Not for the first time, the Manchester City boss spoke glowingly about the domineering, diagonal-playing Dane Joachim Andersen. Guardiola praised Fulham frontliners Raul Jimenez and Adama Traore too. Praise which soon felt prothetic, the former Wolves duo threatening to roll the years back to 2019 and inspire another famous win away at the champions.
Jimenez’s sublime backheel assisted Andreas Pereira’s opener at the Etihad. And if Traore had the same composure in front of goal as Mateo Kovacic or Jeremy Doku – outpacing even Kyle Walker on one occasion – then perhaps it would have been Fulham rather than Man City who ended up on the right side of that 3-2 scoreline.
It is testament to the depth and the quality of the squad Fulham have constructed, meanwhile, that two of the players singled out for praise after Saturday’s five-goal thriller were not even part of that quartet Guardiola raved about in the build-up.
Instead, it was two men at the other end of the pitch to Traore and Jimenez who received their flowers.
Calvin Bassey hailed for silencing Erling Haaland in Man City vs Fulham clash
Centre-back Calvin Bassey has come a long way since looking like Bambi on ice at Ajax; commanding, confident, and helping keep Erling Haaland at arms’ length with that Bassey and Andersen partnership growing in stature by the week.
“I think Bassey is very important and I thought he was very good [against Man City],” former Dutch international and ex-Aston Villa skipper Ron Vlaar, scarcely able to believe this was the same Bassey who lasted just one season in Amsterdam.
“You see him do things on the ball that we are not used to in the Netherlands. If you think back to his time at Ajax, he was very insecure. When he had the ball, you could feel [the nerves] in the entire stadium.
“Then, he lost the ball very often. [At Fulham] you didn’t see that. Not at all.
“It is special that he plays in the Premier League with full confidence. That is nice to see. Ajax didn’t buy him for nothing. It just didn’t work out at all, except for a few moments.
“We did not see Haaland at all. Bassey and Joachim Andersen made him completely harmless. That is a very big compliment.”
Bayern Munich legend backs Bernd Leno’s Germany call
Behind Bassey and Andersen, meanwhile, stands one of the most underrated goalkeepers in European football.
Bernd Leno might have lost his place in the Arsenal net early in the Mikel Arteta era but, down the road at Craven Cottage, the former Bayer Leverkusen glovesman is deserving of a mention in the same breath as Fulham icon Edwin van der Sar these days.
Leno caused a stir back home in Germany this month.
The 32-year-old turned down a place in Julian Nagelsmann’s squad for the October international break, telling reporters that he would rather stay at home than travel as Germany’s third-choice goalkeeper.
Stefan Effenberg, the Bayern Munich legend and 1992 European Championship finalist, knows where Leno is coming from while praising the way he has breathed fresh life into his career at Fulham.
“I can understand that. Leno is an outstanding goalkeeper. He proved that in the Bundesliga and the Premier League,” Effenberg says.
“So, if he decides not to go as a third goalkeeper, then I can understand that. There are other factors too, such as more time for the family.
“I would also say: ‘Take the few days off, relax and enjoy the time’.”
