TIGANA CRAVEN GOALS
A key area for concern for Jean Tigana has been up front, with his team scoring a total of just 32 goals in 34 games to date - the fourth-lowest total in the league.
The former Monaco manager has tried several attacking combinations this term, but has yet to decide on his best XI. Tigana started the season with the pairing that fired his side to promotion last term; Louis Saha and Barry Hayles. The duo did reasonably well without living up to their form of last year, with the team averaging a goal every game and picking up 1.3 points in the matches they have played in.
However, the club-record signing of French international Steve Marlet from Lyon gave Tigana the option of shuffling his pack, something he has done with increasing frequency of late.
When Marlet joined for £12 million, the popular consensus was that a pairing with pacy young Frenchman Louis Saha would pay great dividends. Unfortunately the all-Gallic partnership has proved ineffective with the Cottagers winning none of the seven games they have started together, and the team scoring just 0.6 goals per game on average.
Tigana's best option seems to be Hayles and Marlet. The Cottagers have scored 1.3 goals on average, while they have earned a healthy 1.6 points in the matches that that duo has started - both the highest totals of any Fulham forward pairing this season.
In a bid to increase his firepower, Tigana has started with all three forwards on two occasions, but the team failed to score in either match.
It would seem that Fulham are a more effective attacking unit when Hayles is in the side, with his robust style able to complement either the skill of Marlet or the pace of Saha. The former Bristol Rovers striker is also the club's deadliest finisher, having scored with 18% of his shots to make him joint-top scorer with seven goals.
Saha and Marlet have not been nearly as clinical in front of goal, scoring with 11% and 12% of their goalscoring opportunities respectively. And although Tigana's passion for flair football would make him more inclined to pick his French strikers, if he wants to avoid the drop, Hayles is surely the man for the job.
