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| Fulham's Issa Diop during the Premier League match at Craven Cottage, London. Picture date: Monday October 2, 2023. |
Fulham are set to hand £18.5million summer signing Calvin Bassey just his second Premier League start tonight, with Marco Silva facing a defensive shortage for the trip to Tottenham.
Issa Diop is out with a foot injury and Tosin Adarabioyo is still missing with a long-term groin problem, leaving Fulham without a recognised right-sided centre-back.
It means Bassey and Tim Ream - two left-footed players - are expected to line up at the heart of the Fulham defence.
Bassey’s only previous Premier League start came in a 2-2 draw at Arsenal in August.
Fulham are still without regular right-back Kenny Tete due to a groin injury, so Timothy Castagne will continue to deputise in a makeshift back four.
Silva says Antonee Robinson is fit to start at left-back, despite being left out of the United States squad due to a groin issue.
“Robinson in the last few seasons has been playing week in week out”, Silva explained. “No breaks with international duty, and in the summer with tournaments as well. He's not stopped. With us, apart from small spells, he's always played.”
Silva added: “It's not something serious. We have to take care of him and it was a good moment to do that with friendly games [against Germany and Ghana]. He worked with us here. He had his time to rest [and] recover.”
Fulham knocked Tottenham out of the Carabao Cup on penalties in August and are the only team to beat Ange Postecoglou’s side this season.
But Silva expects a much stronger Spurs display on Monday evening.
“Tottenham have had an amazing start to the season — it’s clear why”, he said. “Not just results, but the way they’re achieving them. They had [one] bad result and that was against us. Different scenario, different game. It will be a great challenge.”
