04 February 2021

The boy’s a finisher – Scott Parker backs Josh Maja to boost Fulham goal threat

04 February 2021

Scott Parker expects Josh Maja to offer a “finishing touch” to Fulham’s attacking threat, with the new signing set for a possible debut against West Ham this weekend.

The 22-year-old striker, who spent time in the Cottagers’ youth set-up before making his senior breakthrough with Sunderland, joined Fulham on loan from Bordeaux for the remainder of the season on deadline day.

Maja scored 16 times in 41 games for the Black Cats before his move to France, and Parker will be hoping he can provide an instant boost with relegation-threatened Fulham having not won in the Premier League since November.

“He’s settling in fine. His first day’s training (was) today, so he flew over or came into us yesterday,” Parker said when asked about the latest addition to the squad.

“(In) his first training session he settled in really well. (It was) a lighter session, but we’re looking forward to having him. I’m very pleased we’ve got him with us and have got him on board and I’m looking forward to seeing his qualities and working with him.

“A young player which we hope we can try and develop as well as him trying to help us at the top end of the pitch.”

Fulham play host to high-flying West Ham on Saturday and Parker hopes Maja will be available.

The manager added: “I need to speak with him after today’s session and see where he is, get another session into him tomorrow as well but I think he’ll be involved in some capacity.”

Fulham have scored just 17 times in the top flight this season and, until the arrival of Maja, Aleksandar Mitrovic was the only recognised centre-forward in the squad.

Parker believes the youngster can now provide a different dimension up front.

“(He can offer a) finishing touch really. We do (already) have that, but we don’t have many and I think that’s clear for everyone to see in our squad,” Parker said.

“We only have really one in the sense of a striker and that’s Aleks (Mitrovic), so in terms of competition and I just think that extra help that (Maja coming in) is going to be helpful.

“The boy’s a finisher, we were seeing that this morning, he’s a very clean good finisher off both feet. So yeah, I think it’s clear that we can get scoring some goals to win matches here and hopefully Josh can help us with that.”

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