Fulham suffered a slow start to the Premier League season having only picked up 4 points from a possible 18 before their game against fellow league strugglers Stoke City. Martin Jol was said to be under pressure from fans of the Lilywhites after some poor results against the likes of Cardiff, West Brom and Newcastle. However Fulham seem to have found a new lease of life and have demonstrated this with back to back wins over Stoke City and Crystal Palace and there is one reason why I believe that Fulhams season is back on track and that is the return of goalkeeper Maarten Stekelenburg. The Dutch international goalkeeper returned for the game at Selhurst Park against Crystal Palace and Fulham subsequently went on to win 4-1. While he may have conceded against Palace there are no doubts in my mind that he brings something a lot more valuable to the team than just his goal stopping ability and that is confidence. This is the same goalkeeper who helped the Netherlands reach the World Cup final in 2010 conceding only 6 goals in 7 games and going up against the likes of Brazil, Uruguay and Spain, with the latter taking 116 minutes to put one past Stekelenburg. Stekelenburg shares a similar club route to that of legendary Dutch goalkeeper Edwin van der Sar. They both started life at Ajax making a similar amount of appearances for the Amsterdam club. They then both moved to Serie A to experience a bit of Italian football with van der Sar heading to Juventus and Stekelenburg going to Roma. The two Dutch shot stoppers then took the same career move albeit 12 years apart by joining Fulham, van der Sar in 2001 and Stekelenburg in 2013. Just imagine what the Fulham defence must think when they know he is back and know what he is capable of. Surely there must be an air of trust and confidence knowing he is behind them? It is quality goalkeepers like him that can be the difference between zero and three points and with the attacking talent at their disposal Fulham should be able to build on their two wins starting with a trip to St. Marys to face an in form Southampton side. Should Stekelenburg be able to remain injury free I predict that this Fulham side will finish comfortably in the middle of the table.
