Why Fulham Should Sign Ben Marshall Ahead Of Sunderland
Sunderland, as well as long-time admirers Fulham, are still interested in taking Ben Marshall from Wolves before deadline day and it’s surely the Londoners who can make more use of him.
Despite keeping hold of valuable asset Tom Cairney, Fulham manager Salvisa Jokanovic knew his midfield may need reinforcement and so Ibrahima Cisse and Oliver Norwood were both brought in. Despite these signings, the boss completely rebuffed Nottingham Forest’s advances when it came to Kevin McDonald too and it appeared his midfield would be as solid as ever.
That midfield though extends into a three behind the central striker most of the time and it’s in this area they have been severely weakened this term until now. For whatever reason, Sone Aluko was allowed to leave and head to Reading and the manager originally saw it fit to deem Ryan Sessegnon only as an attacking left-back.
Sessegnon has now been pushed forward though and is in rousing form as expected, though Fulham could always use more creativity given the way they play. The manager has tinkered this season with playing a 4-3-3 instead of the 4-2-3-1, deploying misfiring striker Rui Fonte wide and trying numerous players on the left.
Surely, it’s blatantly obvious that to have Cairney in the middle of the three and Sessegnon on the left of it is the best attacking solution. The selection headaches can be saved for the right-wing and left-back.
Sadly though, this seems to be yet another case where a manager becomes very stubborn and refuses to believe anyone other than him, in order to see what is needed. With Matt Targett now in the squad, however, they have a proper left-back in the team and so their forward-thinking midfield may have a very different look.
As I’ve written before, Fulham could do a lot worse than give Ben Marshall a whirl in this squad. He played for Paul Lambert, a manager who knows him so well, in an underwhelming Wolves team last season. In the left of the three behind the striker, Marshall managed an average rating of 6.79 which, in a new team to him and one struggling going forward, was a good effort.
He is up for sale right now given the riches Wolves have in this position and would make a very good signing for someone and, for what it’s worth, I’m sure he’d rather be challenging for promotion rather than fighting relegation.