Alvaro Arbeloa has said the mood around Fulham is “positive” ahead of Saturday’s trip to Liverpool, despite reports of first-team stars Alex Iwobi and Emile Smith Rowe removing all club content from their social media.
Fulham are still looking for their first point of the season with Arbeloa losing his first three Premier League games in charge ahead of Saturday’s return to Anfield, where he made 98 appearances as a player.
There were reports of unrest following last weekend’s defeat at home to Crystal Palace when winger Kevin, an unused substitute at Craven Cottage, posted a message onto his Instagram story with the caption “no speak, no hear, no see”.
Iwobi and Smith Rowe have meanwhile cleared all photos, including football-related pictures, from their Instagram accounts, which some fans have seen as a sign of a rift within the Fulham camp following the arrival of Arbeloa in the summer.
Arbeloa, who replaced the long-serving Marco Silva, was in charge of Real Madrid last season and brought three players with him from the Spanish club’s academy, including youngsters Gonzalo Garcia, Cesar Palacios and Manuel Angel.
The former Spain defender said Fulham were working hard to turn results around. “You can learn more about a group after a defeat than after a win, and I saw them work during the week with a very positive attitude, all of them,” he said.
“For sure when you are a player and you are not playing, you can’t be happy. It is what I expect from the players that are not playing. I want that they should need to show me that they are not happy during the training session. For me, this is the most important thing.
“Obviously, when you are not winning games and you are not helping your team, I think you have more desire to play games and to help their team-mates. But all of them, they have been working so hard and I have a very, very good group with a very good attitude.”
Liverpool have won back-to-back games under Andoni Iraola and have scored twice in each match under the former Bournemouth boss this season, while Fulham conceded three at home to Crystal Palace last week.
“We know we need to improve and we have to adjust some parts of our game, but we are focused on the game tomorrow,” Arbeloa said. “We can score goals against any team in the Premier League, that is the thing we are doing so well, creating so many chances and are aggressive without the ball.”
