The recently appointed manager believes the team can climb up the table.
Rene Meulensteen, Fulham’s recently-appointed Head Coach, is calling on his players to motivate themselves by remembering what it feels like to lose.
Before beating Aston Villa 2-0 last Sunday, Fulham had lost six league games in a row and were 19th in the Premier League.
Fulham are still in the relegation zone, but the win over Villa owed much to an exceptional team performance which will have gone some way to restoring the players’ shattered confidence.
And Meulensteen is keen to ensure his players continue to learn from their bad run of form.
Speaking to the club’s official YouTube channel, the Dutchman recounted what he told his players in the dressing-room after the win over Aston Villa.
Meulensteen said: “Remember how bad you felt the times that we sat here and you didn’t get the result.”
The new Fulham boss has certainly brought a new mentality to the club. Previous coach Martin Jol said after several losses that the opposition were simply better than the South West Londoners.
We are unlikely to hear such soundbites from Meulensteen, who firmly believes a winning mentality is central to success.
“I will always prepare the team to win. That is, I think, an obligation of any Premier League team,” said Meulensteen.
“Every game requires a top performance,” Meulensteen said. “(You should) give yourself the best chance to make sure you come out with the best possible result.”
Meulensteen went on to compare the potential achievement of beating Everton tomorrow to a significant result from earlier in the season.
“If West Brom can win there (Old Trafford) against Man United, then why can’t we go and win away to Everton?”
One of Meulensteen’s key players, centre-back Philippe Senderos, believes his team have shown enough ability in their last two games to climb up the table.
“We showed in the last few weeks that we have enough to not be in this situation,” Senderos said.
Senderos will be tasked with keeping Everton’s in-form striker Romelu Lukaku at bay tomorrow in search of a clean sheet.
If Fulham can somehow stop Everton scoring, they may even have a chance of winning the game.
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