Ex-Black Cat Josh is pretty special, says Fulham boss
Scott Parker has hailed Josh Maja's goalscoring Fulham debut as "pretty special".
The former Sunderland striker has joined the Cottagers on loan from Bordeaux until the end of the season.
He opened his account with a brace in Fulham’s 2-0 win at Everton on Sunday.
And manager Parker said: "What a way to start, full Premier League debut for us and to score two goals and for us to win the game it was pretty special for him really.
"I' m really conscious, I don' t want to put a lot on someone so young' s shoulders but I' ve been very impressed in the short space of time I've been working with Josh and hopefully that can continue really.
"He's fitted in very, very well. I think he's come into a young group, a real energetic upbeat group of players and he's fitted in to that bracket very, very well.
"He's also fitted in in a short space of time as one who wants to learn, a player who wants to get better and I think that's vitally important when you come in to where we are and he's made those strides very, very easily.”
Maja’s new Fulham teammate Aleksandar Mitrovic, however, will be out of action for the next week or so after testing positive for coronavirus.
"He's good, at this present moment in time he's got mild symptoms of the virus ," Parker said when asked about Mitrovic,w ho will face 10 days in self isolation as per government guidelines.
"Of course it' s disappointing because I felt like he was coming out the other side of what's been a bit of a tough season.
"But it's disappointing to pickup the virus and now have to be away from the group and away from us at a big time."