Mario Lemina stated Fulham got relegated to the Championship because they ‘weren’t good enough’ to stay in the Premier League.
In the just-concluded season, Scott Parker’s men finished in 18th position having amassed 28 points from 38 outings.
The Gabon international who joined the Cottagers on loan from Southampton, scored a magnificent winner at Anfield earlier in the season, to move the club equal on points with Brighton & Hove Albion in 17th position.
However, they failed to build on that result and eventually moved a step down to the Championship.
While stating his teammates gave their best to avoid the drop, the 27-year-old claimed that the Londoners were not good enough to maintain their top-flight status.
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“I don’t think that this Liverpool game changed something in our attitude or anything,” Lemina told the club website.
“We just tried to play our game like we always play.
“After Liverpool it just didn’t work like we wanted. Sometimes that’s life and we have to accept it.
“The only thing I can say is that the whole team didn’t give up, we never gave up, and that’s what we have to remember.
“Honestly, I still feel pain, because we had a great team to stay in the Premier League, but it didn’t go as we wanted.
“We’ve been so unlucky, but at the same time, I’m not going to lie, we weren’t good enough to stay in the Premier League this year. But I think in the next seasons, Fulham is going to get better and better.”
Last week, he posted an Instagram story detailing the respect he holds for the Whites supporters.
Explaining the meaning behind the post, he continued: “The feeling that I had, when I said that, I was feeling that all the fans were still behind us.
“The messages they sent to me said they were proud of what I had done because I never gave up, and I think all the team did the same.
“That’s why I wanted to say thank you to them. They weren’t in the stadiums, but still they could see that we tried to fight and give everything until the end.
“You still feel the love from them because we are on social media. They were still believing until the last moment that we could stay in the Premier League.”
