Fulham Injury Update: Tim Hoogland close but Fernando Amorebieta has a setback

Kit Symons gave an injury update before today's match against Watford. It's not the news I had hoped to hear:

Tim we’re quite positive about. He’s had an injection and we’ll know a lot more within about seven to 10 days with him. Fernando, we've had a setback with him. He’s going off and we’re getting someone else to look at him now – that could be a longer one.

If that wasn't bad enough he was more specific with Amorebieta when asked if surgery could be an option:

Could be. That would be the longer option.

That leaves Fulham dangerously thin at fullback. On the left side Kostas Stafalydis has to be the first choice even though he's yet to deliver on the optimism he generated in preseason. Sean Kavanagh would be the second choice. While both players have a bright future, they are both very young and probably not ready to be counted on 100%.

On the right side, Tim Hoogland played quite well when healthy, unfortunately health was always going to be a concern with him. The only reason he's at a club like Fulham and not somewhere bigger is injury concerns. While he's a good first choice when healthy, the team has to have a quality backup to support him when he can't play. Right now that's Eslad Zverotic and I'm pretty sure no one likes that option. Jack Grimmer was recalled to give a little bit more cover, but again he's young. Not only does his youth work against him, but I'm fairly convinced his long term position is at center back and not right back.

This might be a good time to bring up Kay Voser. Another Magath signing who seems to have disappeared under Kit. He was brought in to provide cover at both fullback positions, but it seems Kit must not favor him.

To be fair to Kit, I'm not sure I'd favor any defender Magath brought on. Fulham have given up the most goals in the league so far, but that's almost entirely due to the time Magath was in charge. Magath had the team on a pace to concede 118 goals in 46 games. Since Symons has been in charge things have improved. The goals per game have fallen from 2.57 to 1.33. At the current rate over the first 19 games, Fulham would be league average.

You can win if you're league average, especially when you score. Since Symons took charge Fulham also scored 2 goals a game. That would be best in the league. If Fulham had scored at that rate since the beginning, they'd have 38 goals scored, one better than the closest team.

So while things might look dire, and the team could definitely use some help at fullback, Kit has worked wonders with what he has.