Four questions ahead of Fulham’s trip to Everton

With our losing streak over, what can we expect as the Whites visit the Hill Dickinson?

For years, travelling to Merseyside was a fruitless pursuit for the Whites. We’d more often than not get gubbed at Anfield - standard - but we could not get a result at Goodison Park either, no matter how hard we tried.

That changed in the old ground’s final few years. We won four and drew one of our final five games there in league and cup. If we want to continue to turn our season around, we’ll have to get off to a strong start at the Toffees’ new home, the Hill Dickinson Stadium, on the weekend.

Here are four questions ahead of our trip north.

1. Can Iwobi haunt his old club?

Despite Marco’s apparent consternation that anyone would suggest Alex Iwobi might be an effective eight (I’m looking at you, Dan Cooke), he decided to play the Nigerian there against Wolves, and I think we can all agree it worked.

Silva - and Cookie - aren’t the real trailblazers here, of course. Iwobi played that role with aplomb while at Everton.

It’s still up for debate whether Alex will remain in the middle against the Toffees; there are strong arguments to vary the midfield make-up depending on the opponent. But if he does, he’d be well-placed to pull the strings on the docks and cause his old employers no end of headaches.

2. Who will partner the Nigerian in the middle?

If Iwobi gets the nod, then who will sit just behind him will be super interesting. It was Sander Berge against Wolves, with Sasa Lukic not even getting the chance to remove his tracksuit.

Against an Everton side that will be confident and will demand a lot of the ball, it might be a good idea to slot the Serbian in alongside Iwobi, to give an extra robustness to the centre of the park and enable Alex to be freer and really get forward more.

If it happens and it works, then Marco could have a neat, rotating combination of tools that he can tweak depending on the opposition, which would make us far more dynamic in the coming weeks and months.

3. Will Tete show the Toffees what they’re missing?

For weeks in the summer it looked like we were going to lose Kenny Tete for nothing. And as we’ve seen at times this season when the Dutchman’s been injured, that would have left us far weaker.

Kenny made a man-of-the-match-worthy return against Wolves, adding much-missed attacking impetus to our right-hand side, while continuing to instil his brand of defensive calm as if he’d never left.

I’d put money on him putting in a similarly solid shift on Saturday as he looks to show the side that looked set to capture him what it could’ve won.

4. Could this be Chukwueze’s coming out party?

Kevin’s taken the headlines since he became our record signing in the summer - and rightly so - but it’s safe to say none of us have been sleeping on Samu Chukwueze. It’s been a bit stop-start for the Nigerian winger so far; a combination of tardy transfer movement, and an injury sustained on international duty means we’ve not seen a whole lot of him - yet.

Chukwueze’s performance away at Bournemouth hinted at an exciting future, which he duly followed up by an energetic 15-minute cameo on the weekend, punctuated by hitting the woodwork with a chance that, if he wasn’t returning from a spell out, you’d imagine he’d have buried.

If he’s given longer this weekend, you’d imagine that this could be his “Kevin versus Leeds” moment - or perhaps even more tantalising.

Football is a fickle game - and I’m not above admitting that I’m excited and confident going into this one. Get a result, and you not only set the tone for future visits, but you continue to right the good ship HMS mid-table. COYW.