Fulham FC owe Ross McCormack and Moussa Dembele a lot - Here is why | OneFootball

The Cottagers had an incredibly tough season in the Championship and could have easily dropped to League One.

Fulham's Championship run during the late 2010s and early 2020s saw the club bounce between the Premier League and the second tier, but they have now stabilised and are an incredibly solid top flight side.

However, the strong position that they now find themselves in could have been completely different had the 2015/16 season ended very differently.

Having been relegated from the Premier League in 2014 for the first time since making their way into the division 13 years prior, there was the expectation that the Cottagers would return at the first time of asking.

However, a tough first year in the Championship followed and Fulham finished 17th.

With a year's worth of experience in their back pocket, improvements were sought in the 2015/16 season, but what followed was an incredibly difficult campaign that could have altered the club's EFL destiny had it not been for two players.

Ross McCormack and Moussa Dembele ensured that Fulham did not have a nightmare season in 2015/16

The summer of 2015 had not been as strong as the Cottagers wanted and needed.

They headed into the new season without strengthening the squad properly and they were forced to pay, as they failed to win any of their first four games.

Under the guidance of Kit Symons, the West London side slowly started to improve, and they lost just twice more before the end of October. They ended the month in the top half, but they were still a distance away from their target of the play-offs.

Results quickly got worse, and Fulham won just one more time in the Championship in 2015. They dropped towards the relegation zone quickly, and fears that supporters had put behind them quickly came back around.

Nevertheless, during this time, goals continued to flow for both Moussa Dembele and Ross McCormack, with the Scottish striker in particular proving to be a vital player.

He ensured that points were being won through draws at the very least, allowing the Cottagers to keep their heads above the parapet. The then 29-year-old ended the year with 13 league goals, while his teenage strike partner had nine.

Fulham only just maintained their Championship status

Slavisa Jokanovic took over as the club's new head coach at the end of December 2015, and while he was not able to make an instant impact, the Serbian did make Fulham harder to beat than they had been.

However, the threat of relegation was still strong, and the Cottagers had to ensure that they could put together a run to take them clear of those in the drop zone before the end of the season.

They got that opportunity at the start of April. After drawing 1-1 with Birmingham City, Jokanovic's side won three games in a row for the first time all season, and they built a gap over those in the bottom three.

McCormack and Dembele continued to score during the second-half of the season and this proved to be the difference between dropping into League One and securing their Championship status for another year, with the two forwards providing 21 and 15 goals respectively.

With the formidable pair up front, there is no doubt that Fulham would have suffered an embarrassing relegation to the third tier and the position that they now find themselves in perhaps would never have been attainable.