Fulham manager Jean Tigana may play a 23-year-old defender with only two
Premiership appearances against Liverpool's potent strike force tomorrow.
He is considering using Abdeslam Ouaddou at Craven Cottage to try to stop
Michael Owen, Emile Heskey and Nicolas Anelka.
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Fulham defender Abdeslam Ouaddou
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Ouaddou's only starts for Fulham this season have come in cup games with
the most recent in the fifth-round FA Cup win at Walsall two weeks ago.
He has made only five appearances for the club with Tigana preferring
to stick with Alain Goma and Andy Melville.
But stand-in captain Melville, 33, had a torrid time last Saturday in
the 4-1 defeat at Arsenal and Tigana may decide to ring the changes.
Ouaddou, a Moroccan international, claims he will be ready if the call
comes.
He said: "It is my job to work hard and to be prepared for when
the manager needs me to play.
"I would be ready to play tomorrow. You have to give respect to
players such as Owen and Heskey but I would be confident against them.
"It has been difficult this season because I have not had many chances
to play and we've sometimes had three players in the same position.
"When you play in the reserves it is not the same level and you
need three or four games in the first team to get up to speed.
"But I am still working hard and I have no regrets about joining
Fulham. I know my time will come."
Born in Morocco and raised in France, Ouaddou came through the youth
ranks at Nancy.
He spurned advances from Monaco, Bordeaux, Kaiserslautern and Borussia
Dortmund to join Fulham from Nancy in a £2million deal. Ouaddou
chose Fulham on the advice of his friends - Aston Villa's Mustapha Hadji
and Hassan Kachloul - in the national team.
"They told me it would be good to come to England," he said.
"I also knew Tigana had been a great player and had given youngsters
a chance when he was manager of Lyon and Monaco."