Fulham made somewhat of a coup appointment this summer with the arrival of Marco Silva as the club's new head coach.

The Portuguese man has managed in the Premier League with Everton, Watford and Hull City but after being unemployed for over a year after his sacking from the Toffees, he returned to management in west London.

With Scott Parker departing, Silva walked into a job knowing that he had one of the better squads on paper in the whole league to coach, even if a few players did depart before the transfer window closed.

Let's look at his time at Craven Cottage so far and also look at what he has to contend with in the coming months.

How's it gone so far?

There was a bit of a blip in September, but Fulham appear to be back on track.

 

 

 

 

The Cottagers had a strong start to the campaign after going unbeaten in August and the talented teenager Fabio Carvalho emerged as a real starlet, but his injury coincided with an inconsistent run of form between the two international breaks.

In that period, Fulham won two, drew one and lost three games which included a 4-1 drubbing at the hands of Coventry City, which could have meant that trouble was on the horizon.

The last three matches though have been a real improvement - wins over QPR, Cardiff and Nottingham Forest with an aggregate scoreline of 10-1 are a sign that the Fulham who should be dominating the division are back.

What issues does he face?

Injuries of course could creep in at any time - we've seen Carvalho on the sidelines for a good month or so now and if someone like an Aleksandar Mitrovic gets struck down - a man who has scored 15 times in 14 games - then they could struggle.

We also saw some frailties at the back last month and against Coventry - going forward they look dangerous all the time but they made some silly mistakes in their losses and they need to be rectified.

The good thing about the Cottagers though is that they will always have enough firepower to try and outscore teams so they should have no issues with keeping up the pace with high-flying Bournemouth.

What's next?

After a tough test this weekend against West Brom, Fulham have some favourable fixtures coming up against the likes of Blackburn, Peterborough, Barnsley, Derby County and Preston North End before facing the Cherries at Craven Cottage.

You'd expect that on paper they will win the majority of those games if they continue their fine form but as we know with the Championship - nothing is that straight-forward.

The goalscoring of Mitrovic also presents an issue in regards to the January transfer window - that will occur in two months time and the vultures could be circling for the Serb, who is tied down to a long-term deal but if big offers come in, will the Khan family be tempted to sell?