Souness welcomes back Lucas Neill

Graeme Souness will welcome Lucas Neill back from suspension with open arms in the belief that Blackburn have badly missed the Australian defender.

Neill was banned for the last two matches including Rovers’ 5-1 humiliation by Newcastle a fortnight ago but will return for the trip to Fulham tonight.

Souness reckons had Neill been at right-back instead of Martin Taylor, usually a central defender, then Blackburn would have coped much better.

He said: “Lucas is a candidate for our player of the season along with Brad Friedel. He’s Mr Consistent.

“There’s an argument that if he had played against Newcastle they would not have scored four of their goals, because Lucas is as good as anybody in the Premier League one-on-one.

“No disrespect to Martin Taylor, who is not a right-back, but if Lucas had been playing against Laurent Robert then I feel he would have stopped a lot of the threat down that side.”

Norwegian striker Egil Ostenstad may return to the squad after a knee problem meaning that David Thompson, who is out until next season, is Blackburn’s only injury absentee.

Rovers will be up against a side for whom confidence may be a problem after the announcement that manager Jean Tigana will be leaving at the end of the season.

Souness believes the Frenchman has been unlucky – and puts Fulham’s participation in the Intertoto Cup and UEFA Cup as the reason for their recent struggles in the league.

He added: “I think Jean Tigana has done a good job. Everyone was talking about what a wonderful job he had done and what wonderful football they were playing and then you hear he’s leaving.

“I think being in the Intertoto Cup and their UEFA Cup run has been their biggest problem because they have some good players there.”