A recent report suggested that Ranieri was looking to reunite with Watford’s Italian striker, Stefano Okaka.
Claudio Ranieri’s appointment as Fulham boss will inevitably draw comparisons with his title-winning Leicester City side form 2016 – but a recent report suggests he’ll be taking a different approach than he did at the King Power.
A recent report from Tuttomercatoweb claims that the new boss is looking to bring in Watford’s Stefano Okaka, a player he previously worked with at AS Roma.
While moving for a player who struggles to get a game for the Hornets seems a strange move, it does show that Ranieri will be taking a very different approach to the one he used with Leicester.
There is no Jamie Vardy at Fulham, and his pace, energy, and finishing was the key part of Ranieri’s side – he’d offer a threat to the opposition defence at all times, often attacking all by himself.
Players like that are incredibly hard to come by, however, and instead, Ranieri appears to be doubling down on the style of Aleksander Mitrovic.
Both Okaka and Mitrovic are physical strikers, capable of holding the ball up and fighting for it – but neither offers the threat in behind of a Vardy.
The difference would be that Fulham are likely to hold onto the ball more than Ranieri’s Leicester did, who won the league with remarkably little possession and relied on an ability to keep teams out, leaving Vardy to do it himself in attack with Riyad Mahrez.
Taking the pressure off of Fulham’s leaky defence would be a very clever move from Ranieri, too, which a slower attack would certainly afford them.
It is only one link, of course, but a lot can be taken from the style of striker a manager moves for – and this one suggests Ranieri has a plan to fix Fulham fast.
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