Fulham podcaster and journalist George Cooper has been sharing his thoughts on Ruben Loftus-Cheek and his current form for the Cottagers.
This comes after Cooper recently made an appearance on the latest episode of The Athletic’s Fulham-themed podcast Fulhamish where he spoke about a range of topics concerning the west London club.
On the subject of Loftus-Cheek after his latest performance for Scott Parker’s side in their 1-0 win over Sheffield United at the weekend, Cooper had this to say about the midfielder. (14.56)
He said: “He seems to me, to be very much a confidence player and I desperately want him to get a goal. I’ve said this before, I feel like he’s become a bit of a scapegoat at times, just because everybody knows what he’s capable of and we haven’t seen anywhere near that level.
“His link-up play is brilliant, I thought he had a really good game [against Sheffield United]. I feel that he always seems so flat-footed when the ball comes to him in the box and maybe that’s just because he’s not on a scoring run and he’s not particularly on form in that regard, but he needs to be a little bit more on his toes, it’s really frustrating because a player like that he needs to be getting goals, he needs to be [confident] to be firing on all cylinders.
“But don’t think he deserves a lot of the criticism he gets to be quite honest because he links up the play well, and we look. as a unit, a little bit more sort of toothy when he is playing.”
Fulham signed Loftus-Cheek back in October on a season-long loan deal from fellow Premier League side Chelsea.
Since he arrived at Craven Cottage, the 25-year-old, who is currently valued at £21.6 million, has made 21 appearances for Fulham, scoring just one goal along the way (per Transfermarkt).
TIF Thoughts on George Cooper’s comments on Loftus-Cheek…
Given how Loftus-Cheek has failed to provide an assist for his teammates so far in this current league campaign and has only managed to earn himself a fairly uninspiring season rating of 6.64/10 for his performances, it’s clear to see why Cooper thinks that the midfielder hasn’t lived up to his full potential yet.
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In our view, if Loftus-Cheek were able to go on a consistent run of good performances and pick up some goals and assists along the way, this would be a sure-fire way of getting his confidence up throughout the remainder of the season.
Despite not managing to score or provide an assist, the fact that Loftus-Cheek managed to earn himself an impressive match rating of 7.79./10 for his performance against Sheffield United, shows that he has it in him to be an important figure in Fulham’s side.