Fulham coach Marco Silva gave credit to Lee Bowyer and his Birmingham City side ahead of our trip to St Andrew’s on Wednesday.
Blues have begun the season strongly, sitting just two points behind Fulham having won three and drawn two of their six league matches.
“They’ve started well,” Silva said. “They have a solid team, they are compact, and they are a tough team to play against.
“Home or away, I don’t see a big difference, but of course at home with their supporters behind them, for sure they’ll feel better.
“They’re always a tough team to play against and to beat. Until now they didn’t concede many goals as well.
“In all the moments of the game they like to be really compact and not give many chances to the opponent to score or to create chances.
“And they are always dangerous, with two strikers, with the boy behind the strikers playing with a free role, he’s really dangerous as well, and on set-pieces they are a strong team as well.
“It’s a typical Birmingham team, with a good manager as well, and it will be a tough match for us, like all the others before.”
City’s big summer signing saw local lad Troy Deeney join the club he supported as a boy.
Having worked together at Watford, Silva has no doubt the striker will be a success in the Midlands.
“You are talking about a player I know very well,” he said. “The impact he had in that ground [on his debut on Friday] is not something new for him, because for a good number of seasons he had the same impact in a different ground as well.
“He’s a player from the city, he knows the club really well. Of course the expectations are high on him, and it’s up to us to deal with the situation.
“He’s a very good striker, he’s a striker that I know well and I believe he will make an impact on that squad and that team for sure, because he has the ability and the qualities to do it.”