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CRACKS ARE SHOWING FOR FRAGILE SAINTS
Mitrovic Armstrong Schurrle
RYAN SESSEGNON says Claudio Ranieri is already transforming Fulham from a bunch of strangers into a band of brothers. after Aleksandar Mitrovic and Andre Schurrle replied for Fulham, only for Mitrovic to come up with the decider.
But Sessegnon put the victory down to all the work Ranieri has done bringing back together a squad fractured by so many summer arrivals.
He said: “He’s changed a lot of things. We eat together, we CEDRIC SOARES believes Southampton are so mentally fragile he saw their latest collapse coming even when they were 1-0 up.
Saints led through Stuart Armstrong but threw it away and ended up extending their woeful winless streak to nine games.
That piled even more pressure on boss Mark Hughes leave together now. Before we used to come up to the canteen and eat and then just go.
“Now you can’t leave until everyone’s finished. It’s about keeping the team bonded, everyone together.
“The warm-ups in training are all together too, literally, we all have to follow each (right), who is clinging on to his job, and Soares warned things cannot go on like this.
“We were winning 1-0 and I had a feeling they would equalise because we were very exposed, and then maybe after that our head was gone immediately,” said the Portuguese defender (left).
“When we concede we immediately get so down other in a pattern. Little things like that help on the pitch. He wants us to defend as a team.
“Twelve new players came in and it was hard for us to gel.
“The team that got us promoted was a good team, for new players to gel with the players here before is really difficult.”
Fulham spent more than £100million on new signings but Slavisa Jokanovic never managed to integrate them all properly into his team and ended up paying with his job.
Ranieri, who led Leicester to the title in 2016, still has a long way to go to get the Cottagers out of trouble but this was a good way to start ahead of Sunday’s trip to one of his former clubs, Chelsea.
Sessegnon said: “We needed to improve. Now we need to keep going and not get ahead of ourselves.
“It’s going to be a tough mentally, we get frustrated, maybe afraid to lose. Everyone made some stupid decisions.
“It’s not right and we need to change it. A little bit of luck. We need to manage better the game. We need to be more smart how we manage the game. We need to believe in ourselves.” game against Chelsea. Everyone was excited when Claudio came in. Everyone knows what he did with Leicester and Chelsea, so for someone of his calibre to come in and help the team is very exciting.”
Ranieri was clearly impressed with what he saw from 18-year-old Sessegnon, who set up two of the three goals.
The Italian said: “I think he’s one of the best young players I’ve met. Very good. He must be exuberant. He must be strong. He could improve a lot. But slowly, slowly.
“He’s a young boy. A new manager’s arrived. Everybody wants to show their best. He’s young, a child. It’s not easy for him, but I’m very happy and pleased with his performance.” STOKE QPR QPR: REF: MOTM ATT: ANGEL RANGEL (QPR) 2 2