Mark Hughes has hailed Brede Hangeland, believing he 'is as good as they come' among ball-playing centre-halves.
Fulham boss impressed with big Norwegian
Mark Hughes has hailed Brede Hangeland, believing he 'is as good as they come' among ball-playing centre-halves.
The Norwegian again showed his worth to Fulham when playing a part in their equaliser in the creditable 1-1 draw at Manchester City on Sunday.
The 29-year-old passed to release Andrew Johnson down the right flank, who in turn crossed to allow Damien Duff to slot home to equalise Mario Balotelli's earlier strike.
Hughes, who took over from Roy Hodgson last summer, said: "Brede is one of those players that you don't realise how good he is until you actually work with him.
Discovered
"There are a number of those players at Fulham. In that sense, I was delighted with what I discovered there.
"As a ball-playing centre-half, Brede is as good as they come.
"He can see the type of passes he played in the build-up to our goal. He doesn't just want to clear his lines."
So willing is Hangeland to play, he can land himself in bother with his manager.
Criticism
"On occasion he will get a little bit of criticism from me because we can sometimes overplay," said Hughes.
"But it is great to see the kind of pass he played to Andy Johnson."
The draw at Eastlands saw Fulham extend their unbeaten league run to four games and increase the gap on the drop zone to four points ahead of the next clash with Blackburn on Saturday.
Hughes added: "We are looking up rather than at what is behind us.
"We feel there are a number of teams in front of us that we are capable of catching."
