Hangeland - Spirit won't falter

Hangeland: Praises spirit

SKY SPORTS ON SKY
There's more live football on Sky Sports than ever before, including the Barclays Premier League, UEFA Champions League, Clydesdale Bank Premier League, England away Euro 2012 qualifiers and La Liga. With four live Sky Sports channels, as well as Sky Sports News, you'll never miss a moment on Sky. Click here for more.

Related links

Teams

• Fulham

Players

• Brede Hangeland

Also see

• Fulham fixtures
• Fulham stats
• Fantasy Football

Fulham defender Brede Hangeland claims the team spirit will not falter despite a change of manager at Craven Cottage.

The West Londoners have started the Premier League season with two draws from two games, holding Manchester United to a 2-2 stalemate on Sunday.

New manager Mark Hughes has made few changes to the side he inherited from former boss Roy Hodgson, who has taken the reins at Liverpool, with Fulham having enjoyed a successful campaign last time out.

Norwegian centre-half Hangeland made amends for his own goal against the Red Devils at the weekend, equalising with a late header to earn his side a point.

And the powerful defender claims Hughes does not have to worry about the team spirit within the camp following his arrival at the club.

"There is no reason why we should lose our team spirit because we changed manager," he said.

"Towards the end against United our team spirit was every bit as good as it has been for the last couple of years. We came back again at Craven Cottage as we have done many times.

"It was a great feeling to be part of that and I'm confident Mark Hughes can lead us in the right direction.

"The determination in the dressing room is the same every season.

"It's more for those people around the club to make up stories about what is going to happen when we change manager.

"As players you always try and do your best and you have in mind what you have done last year and the year before that."

Pressing

Hangeland believes that while Welsh coach Hughes may not have made major changes, he says Fulham are beginning to press teams more under the former Blackburn and Manchester City boss.

"Now we get at teams a bit more. We did that yesterday a bit more against United than we have done in the past against good teams, even at home," he added.

"We used to concede ground earlier and let the opposition play whereas now we press high and take the game to them.

"It worked at times and other times not so well but I'm sure we'll get better as we get time to work on things.

"I think we knew already before we changed manager that on our day we can play well against most teams and we showed that again yesterday.

"We should have respect for those good teams but not have any fear."