The return of Raúl Jiménez with Fulham is not going as expected for the Mexican striker who lost ground in the fight to regain the starting position he had before suffering the muscle injury that left him out of action for more than a month.
During his team’s victory this weekend against West Ham (2-0) of also Mexican Edson Álvarez, Raúl Jiménez was left without playing minutes for the second time in the last five games beyond being completely recovered from the injury in the hamstring.
The 32-year-old Mexican forward, who has scored a total of five goals this Premier League season, has only been a substitute since his return to the field on March 16 in Fulham’s victory over Tottenham at home (3- 0) for date 29 of the English championship.
On that occasion Raúl Jiménez played the last 26 minutes of the game, which he entered in place of the Brazilian Rodrigo Muniz. On the following date he was again a substitute in the draw against Sheffield United (3-3), playing the last five minutes of the match when he came on for Tosin Adarabioyo.
In Fulham’s next game he directly stayed on the substitute bench during the loss against Nottingham Forest (3-1) and the following week he started the game again outside the starting eleven, entering in the 85th minute, again for the Brazilian attacker Rodrigo Muniz.
In this way, Fulham’s technical director, the Portuguese Marcos Silva, is showing that the Mexican attacker is increasingly further away from being able to return to the starting position that he enjoyed before getting injured at the beginning of this year. Jiménez has played in 22 of the 33 dates played so far.
Who is winning the fight against Raúl Jiménez?
This is the Brazilian Rodrigo Muniz, who has been able to take advantage of the opportunity that the Mexican’s absence gave him to the point of having recently been recognized as the Most Valuable Player of last March in the entire Premier League.
The South American scored four goals and provided an assist in the four games he played with Fulham last month in the English tournament, which earned him the award, being only the third player on his team to achieve this after Louis Saha in August 2001 and Mark Schwarzer in February 2010.
During Raúl Jiménez’s absence, Rodrigo Muniz has scored eight goals to become his team’s top scorer. That is why the Brazilian forward has the Mexican on the ropes, who is beginning to worry about the lack of minutes ahead of the Copa América with Mexico.
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