At his press conference, Chris Hughton spoke about the qualities which Uwe Huenemeier will bring to the team, the current state of his squad and the threat which Fulham will pose on Saturday.
The arrival of Uwe Huenemeier:
“Anybody that we bring in must have the quality to improve the squad, so that has to be the first essential characteristic.“We always want that, but Uwe is also someone that comes with experience and has played at the top level in German football.
“He’s been captain of his team and showed a great willingness in wanting to come here. It’s a great experience for him to play here, but predominantly he’s a good and experienced player that comes into our squad.
“What I see in Gordon Greer, Uwe and Lewis Dunk are three good very centre-backs. We’ve gone through most of, if not all, pre-season with Glen Rea being involved in the first team and doing well. It’s been a really good pre-season for him, but if we’re looking for what we regard as main first-team players then it’s only been Gordon and Lewis.
“Gordon probably missed two-and-a-half to three weeks of that pre-season, so it is an area that we wanted to strengthen and we’re now in a good position.”
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State of the squad: “We’re back in a good position again. We don’t really have any injuries which is a nice position to be in at the moment and we have a very competitive squad. I am delighted for the ones that played in midweek at Southend and most of the players have either now got through 90 minutes or close to 90 minutes in the last two games. We now have a real good overall fitness in the squad.”
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Test which Fulham will pose:* “It will be a big test; firstly they’re at home and the onus is generally on the team playing at home.“They have made some changes over the summer and they’ve got a lot of ability in the midfield four. Those four players will be relied upon to provide a service to the front two to score goals. We know the finishing qualities that Ross McCormack has and Matt Smith gives them more of a different dimension upfront. They can vary the type of game they want to play, but they are the home team and it’s a game they will be desperate to win.”
Kit Symons: “The manager is someone I’ve known for a number of years and has been given the opportunity to take a team forward from last season that, like ourselves, had a difficult season. They’ve had a few changes there recently and he’ll give them a bit of stability. They are a club that were in the Premier League for many years and will be desperate to get back there at some stage."
[h=3]ALBION V BLACKBURN ROVERS*
[/h]SATURDAY 22ND AUGUST, KICK-OFF 3PM
[h=3]ALBION V HULL CITY*
[/h]SATURDAY 12TH SEPTEMBER, KICK-OFF 7.45PM
[h=3]ALBION V ROTHERHAM UNITED*
[/h]TUESDAY 15TH SEPTEMBER, KICK-OFF 3PM
Original article