Ryan Fredericks' Premier League debut was hardly the easiest. The West Ham United right-back suffered a 4-0 defeat at Liverpool on 2018/19's opening day.
His next outing was similarly challenging as West Ham visited Arsenal and lost 3-1.
But the 26-year-old looks back on facing Mohamed Salah, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Co positively, and is determined to learn from the matches.
'I enjoyed Anfield experience'
"I learned more from the first three or four games I played in the Premier League than I probably have in the last four years of my career," says Fredericks.
"It doesn't get much tougher for your first game than going to Anfield. But I enjoyed the experience."
Fredericks started at Tottenham Hotspur's Academy and had spells with four Championship and League One sides before signing for Fulham.
"It's very rare, especially at some of the top clubs in England, that you go from playing Under-18 football and be trusted to go straight into the first team at that Premier League club," he says.
"[Playing first-team matches elsewhere] gives you good experience, and there are a lot of good players at the lower levels. There's certain stuff you can only learn from playing first-team football."
'You get punished in Premier League'
He helped the Cottagers secure promotion to the Premier League, before joining West Ham in the summer and has found the margin for errors much finer in the top flight.
"The Championship was more end-to-end and there maybe wasn't as much tactics going into it," he says. "But in the Premier League you can’t really make many mistakes.
"You're playing against world-class players and you get punished."
