Fulham newboy Riether glad to be workhorse among the pedigree stars

 
David Smith17 August 2012

Sascha Riether knows his place on the pitch. The latest recruit to Fulham’s defensive ranks accepts he is one of the game’s grafters, whose contribution will always be overshadowed by goal-scoring royalty like his friend and former Cologne team-mate, Lukas Podolski.

Riether insists Podolski can succeed at his own new club, Arsenal. The Germany international said: “Lukas is a good player. At Cologne he was the king. All the crowd looked only to him, so he knows how to handle pressure. Lukas is very experienced and, for him, I don’t think pressure will be a problem at Arsenal.”

As for his own role at Fulham, the 29-year-old, who will make his competitive debut at home against Norwich tomorrow, said: “In Germany we know you need workers on the pitch. You can’t have only kings. I know my job, I know how I must play and I am happy to do the work for other people. I always give my best for the team, I always give 100 per cent.”

The right-back took advice from fellow countryman and Fulham cult hero Moritz Volz before agreeing to make the move on a season’s loan from Cologne that all the relevant parties hope will lead to a permanent deal. “I am a quieter character than Moritz,” he laughed. “But I hope the fans will like me, too.”

He has already experienced the passion that can be generated at the Cottage, having played at the Thames-side ground for Wolfsburg in the quarter-final of the Europa League in April 2010.

Recalling Fulham’s 2-1 victory, Riether said: “For us it was not easy. It was a small pitch and a hot atmosphere. For any ‘guest’ teams it cannot be easy to play there. In Germany the stadiums are all new. Here in England there are a lot of stadiums that are big but very traditional. Old but special. I like that very much.”

Riether (above) likes what he sees at Fulham’s Motspur Park training ground, too. Hugo Rodallega, on a free from Wigan, and Mladen Petric, who played for Martin Jol at Hamburg during the 2008/09 Bundesliga campaign, have also reinforced the quiet revolution that is transforming Fulham’s playing style from essentially British under Roy Hodgson and Mark Hughes to distinctly European under Jol.

Riether said: “Martin Jol was very successful at Hamburg. They played good football and I knew I wanted to work with him. At Fulham, training is very organised, everybody knows what to do. The manager speaks a lot with the players but in a quiet way. There is no crying or shouting.

“There are new players here and the manager has told us he wants us to play a little bit different to the coaches before. For me, it is good to be part of this.”

The one constant at Fulham, under Hodgson, Hughes and Jol, is a solid defence built mainly around the triangle of goalkeeper Mark Schwarzer and centre-backs Aaron Hughes and Brede Hangeland.

Wolfsburg sported a similar successful defence when they won the Bundesliga in 2009 and Riether said: “My new team-mates have already helped me a lot. Up front we have such good players who can always win games for us, so for the defence the first thing, the most important thing, is a clean sheet.”

That will take hard graft to achieve and in Riether it seems Fulham have got a grafter.

Tickets for Fulham’s game against Norwich are available from fulhamfc.com/tickets or on the gate

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