Fulham midfielder Sylvain Legwinski has revealed confidence in the Fulham camp has echoed
the team's freefall down the table and is now dangerously low.
The Cottagers have taken just a solitary point from the last 24 available
and are now perilously close to the relegation zone and a swift return
to Division One.
And French midfielder Legwinski revealed that, in the disastrous two
months since their last league victory - 2-0 against Blackburn on February
9 - the team's belief has plummeted.
Legwinski admitted: "Many things have gone wrong because we haven't
had enough confidence to score the goals to win a game or to be secure in
defence.
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Fulham French International Sylvain Legwinski
worries about Fulham's lack of confidence |
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"We're always conceding goals we could have prevented and that's a
big frustration for us."
From a side which in January were bursting with attacking invention and
backed up by one of the Premiership's tightest defences, Jean Tigana's
men have become a shambolic resemblance of that team, now fluffing great
chances and shipping goals by the bucketload.
Only their surprising advance to the FA Cup semi-finals has kept their
season alive - but Fulham are real long-shots to beat in-form west London
rivals Chelsea the last-four showdown at Villa Park next Sunday.
Daunting back-to-back league trips to Newcastle and Leeds also loom large,
with Monday night's clash at St James' Park assuming massive importance
given the team's plight Legwinski, who arrived at Craven Cottage as a
£3.3million chunk of Tigana's £30million-plus spending spree
last August, revealed how defeat after defeat have sapped the confidence
in the Fulham dressing room.
He said: "The gaffer and the whole team have been concerned for
two months, because we knew back then we had hard games to play against
Arsenal, Liverpool and Chelsea.
"And when you have bad results, you end up in a critical situation,
like we're in now.
"Confidence is very important. When you lose games in a row like
we've done, there's an important psychological approach to have to stop
you losing confidence.
"We're trying to focus, position-by-position, on forgetting the
mental problem that makes us lose our confidence.
"Against Southampton (drawing 1-1) and West Ham (losing 1-0), we
tried hard to forget it - but didn't succeed."
Legwinski has demanded his team-mates prove their ability against Bobby
Robson's men, saying: "Relegation would be a terrible thing, but we
feel it won't happen because the team is determined not to go down. Now
we have show that on the pitch."