Roy Hodgson’s Fulham team may be one of the most underrated in Premier League history.
Fulham aren’t the most successful side in the history of English football, but, under Hodgson, they finished seventh in the league and came within minutes of winning a European trophy.
That Fulham team contained so many underrated players from Brede Hangeland to Bobby Zamora.
Speaking on the Fulham Fix Podcast, Roy Hodgson has been reminiscing about his great Fulham team, and he’s named Chris Baird as perhaps the most underrated player at Craven Cottage at this time.
Indeed, Hodgson says that Baird was so underappreciated for his role at Fulham, claiming that he came good when he was needed even if he was a bench player most of the time.
Roy Hodgson says Chris Baird was very underrated
Hodgson spoke about the Northern Irishman and the role he played in his Fulham team.
“Chris Baird is another great example. He was probably the most underrated of them all. He accepted being a substitute for me for a long time only to come really good at the end when we neeed him. They were good characters, there’s no doubt that to succeed in football you need good technical ability and tactical ability, but you also need character,” Hodgson said
Chris Baird was so important to Fulham
Chris Baird was never the most flashy or brilliant player, but he was so important to this Fulham team.
Let’s not forget, this was the era of smaller benches and less substitutes, and Baird’s versatility was so important.
The £3m man was able to play at right-back, centre-back and even in midfield, and as Fulham’s fixtures piled up in that Europa League season he became more and more important.
Unfortunately, Hodgson’s Fulham couldn’t overcome Atletico Madrid in that famous Europa League final, but this team still goes down in history as one of the great European underdog stories.
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