Hughes: Fulham on the up

Fulham manager Mark Hughes has insisted there is more to come from his team in the second half of the season.

Hughes has endured a difficult time since his arrival in the English Premier League’s off-season and has struggled to cope with the burden of being Roy Hodgson’s replacement.

Fulham reached the final of the Europa League last season but have fallen flat under Hughes this campaign, with the team languishing in the relegation zone.

But ahead of the visit of West Brom on Tuesday, Hughes was confident Fulham can improve.

“By virtue of the training sessions we do on a daily basis, the players have a baseline and a body of work within them that enables them to be stronger during the second half of the season,” he said.

“Some players become jaded in the second half of the season but more often than not my players become stronger due to the level of intensity and how we approach training sessions.”

“We don’t look for quantity of work, we look for quality. If we get that quality sessions are cut short and we look to the next day. It’s all about the quality of work we do with the players.”

“We know what’s ahead of us and it doesn’t faze us. We feel very confident in our ability to climb the league very quickly.”

Mark Schwarzer is representing Australia in the Asia Cup in Qatar so David Stockdale will deputise in goal for Fulham.

Stockdale said: “I’ve got a chance to fill Mark’s boots whilst he’s away on international duty and I hope to give a good showing again and prove that I can follow up what I did at the start of the season.”

“Mark’s absence is dependent on how successful Australia are in the Asia Cup,” Hughes explained. “I’m sure they’ll reach the latter stages of the competition so we’re looking at three to four weeks I would suggest.”