Fulham left-back Joe Bryan believes there are very few games his side should be happy drawing with now they are back in the Championship, speaking to the club's media team.

The Cottagers have endured a frustrating run of form of late, drawing their last four games and scoring just three goals during this run in games where they arguably should have taken all three points.

They may have faced AFC Bournemouth during this run, but on the balance of play, the West London outfit would have been gutted not to have won against their title rival even though they scored a late equaliser, a big relief after going 1-0 down straight after half-time at Craven Cottage.

In fairness to Marco Silva's men, illness did sweep through their camp recently but after conceding just once in their six games prior to this drawing run, the fact they have let in three goals in their last four matches will be a major source of disappointment.

Previously pulling away from the likes of West Bromwich Albion and Queens Park Rangers in the promotion mix to establish themselves as firm favourites to win automatic promotion, the Cottagers are just four points ahead of third place.

That margin could be reduced to three if Blackburn Rovers are victorious over Birmingham City this afternoon - and full-back Bryan didn't hide his disappointment about recent ties as he made a bold statement on his side's expectations.

He said: "I think with the quality of the squad we’ve got, any points that we don’t get are seen as dropped points.

"We should be trying to pick up maximum points in every game.

"There are very few games in this league that we would look at and be happy to draw."

The Verdict:

Maximising their points return will be vital for their automatic promotion hopes and this is why Bryan is right to have this mindset, but they also need to find the right balance between putting pressure on themselves and relaxing to help them perform.

There is already a huge amount of expectation on their shoulders from outsides who believe Fulham should be gunning for the title after spending heavily on the likes of Harry Wilson and Rodrigo Muniz during the summer.

This is why boss Silva has a huge and crucial task in managing the mindset of his players, because they face a very tough test on Monday with Sheffield United travelling down to the English capital and a loss or another draw would only drag them further into a genuine battle for the top-two spots.

It was previously them and Bournemouth that were setting the standards at the beginning of the campaign, but with Blackburn on the up and West Brom always likely to be a threat with the quality of their squad, the Cottagers need to start picking up wins sooner rather than later.

Getting Aleksandar Mitrovic back to his best could be key to this, although it's up to the others around him to contribute too.