Having gone winless in your first six games and conceded goals at a rate of almost two a game, there are worse ways to recover than a pair of gritty 1-0 victories.
It is still early days in the Alvaro Arbeloa project at Fulham but the optimism that a narrow but entertaining opening-weekend 3-2 defeat to Chelsea had brought from his debut in the dugout had waned with that run, which had left them stranded bottom of the Premier League.
That openness which had initially seemed a welcome tonic from the sometimes pragmatic Marco Silva era had quickly become a problem, with the Cottagers losing 3-2 again – this time to previously winless Crystal Palace – and shipping two late goals to Ipswich earlier this month to lose at Portman Road too.
Something had to change, and after six league games with his players Arbeloa felt he had seen enough to know where that lay.
“We have been learning from our mistakes, and obviously we are a team in a process,” he tells Sky Sports. “We are improving, we’re working hard and for us to be a very solid team is so important.
Saturday 31st October 7:45pm
Kick off 8:00pm
“Of course, I have to adapt to my players – they are the most important thing. It’s not just about my ideas, it’s about them and their qualities, their talent.
“We’re not the best team in open games, we’re much better controlling the ball, the transitions. We’re a much better team in this way.
“You can only control what you can control. That’s what you want to do. We cannot control what our opponents want to do but we have been learning and improving, working on our mistakes.
“We can be aggressive when we press, but sometimes you need to drop into a low block or a medium block. There are moments for everything in a game. At the end of the day, we have to be a complete team.
“In every process there are some ups and downs. That’s normal, but we’re on the right track.”
Conceding an average of 1.69xG per game was never going to be sustainable. And it has left Arbeloa adopting, quite suddenly, a significantly more conservative approach.
Building from the back has seen Fulham let just 0.67xG go across their last two games, a reduction of almost 80 per cent. Those 1-0 wins against Coventry and Hull have not been as entertaining as the early matches – but entertainment doesn’t go far when you keep losing.
Striking the balance remains a work in progress. Now record summer signing Gonzalo Garcia, who Arbeloa labelled one of the best strikers in world football upon his arrival, has found life increasingly tough going with Fulham’s less front-foot approach.
The 22-year-old has made the second-most off-the-ball runs, and attacking runs, of anyone in the Premier League this season. But despite showing flashes, he has not scored a league goal since a promising opening-weekend debut against Chelsea.
“We can give him better service, especially from wide areas,” says Arbeloa. “We need to look for him when he runs. He has the pace, he has the power.
“As a team we can do better in the final third. It’s something we’re working hard on.
“But at the end of the day he has to do many things well, and I think goals will come. For me, it’s important as a manager that the strikers do their work for the team, and the goals are their reward.”
Fulham fans are eager to see more potency from their side since that pivot to a more defence-first mentality, but there is also a wish to see them see out games better.
The Cottagers have conceded a league-high five goals in the final 20 minutes of matches and dropped five points in that period – second only to Bournemouth.
Despite his Premier League experience as a player, it’s something Arbeloa is still coming to terms with in management compared to his brief experience in LaLiga last season.
He said: “It’s more physical here, more direct, especially in the last 15-20 minutes of games when it’s less controlled.
“They’re more open games, and you have to be ready for those moments where the game is more open.”
If Fulham ever had to be ready, a trip to face Aston Villa – led by a manager Arbeloa says he considers among the best in the world – now is that time.
After two wins against newly-promoted teams, this will be as big a test as any of just how much learning has been done from that tough start if better times are to follow.
Watch Aston Villa vs Fulham from 8pm on Saturday live on Sky Sports Premier League, kick-off 7.45pm.
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: skynews.com
