We are in a bit of a mess aren’t we? A squad filled with incredibly talented individuals, on huge wages, but with the apparent inability to take chances or to defend. We’ve had the chances to propel ourselves into the top 2 this season, but we have missed the mark time and time again. Since lockdown, we have suffered defeats to two of our fellow promotion rivals and in both games we had the chances to win but after those were squandered, our age old defensive problems came back to haunt us and BANG….game over.
It would be very easy to point blame at Scott Parker, but in truth I think our problems run much deeper than that. Yes, Parker seems to have survived thanks to some of the talent in his squad rather than any tactical masterclass, but let’s not forget that he is a rookie and still has a chance, even if it’s a slim one, to clinch promotion through the play-offs. We have to be honest though, would he have gotten the job at any other club in the Championship given his inexperience? I’m just not so sure.
Some have said that even with his lack of experience he should have done better with this squad, but I have to disagree with that. Just because a rookie craftsman is given the best tools available, doesn’t mean that he is going to produce the same level of work as someone with more experience. They say that a bad workman blames his tools, well it works the other way around as well. You don’t create a good workman just by providing him with the best tools. It takes a lot more than that. That’s not to say that he won’t be a great manager in the future. I think he can be given how astute he is and how much study he puts into the game. He gives a great deal of thought to detail, but at the minute he is focusing on the wrong details. I fear that this job with the target of automatic promotion has came far too early for him.
You also can’t really account for the sheer amount of individual errors that occur within this squad. We are very good at handing opportunities to our opposition on a plate. The past two matches were incredibly frustrating to watch, especially considering the mistakes made are ones that have been made all season. What I would say is that Parker surely should have made tough decisions earlier about the culprits of those mistakes. Any player can make an error but if it is a common occurrence like it has unfortunately been with the likes of Joe Bryan and Harry Artur, then they need to be taken out of the firing line for a bit. It might be a big call to do that, but that’s what Parker needs to do. That’s his job as a manager.
I believe that the problem lies more with those further up the pecking order. I don’t doubt at all that Shahid Khan has done a lot of great things for this football club. He has put plenty of money into the squad and let’s not forget about the new stand that will make a huge difference to both the club and the surrounding area. But I don’t think any other club in England would have someone as inexperienced as Tony Khan as their Director of Football. This isn’t a new concern, fans have voiced the opinion that we need someone more experienced than Tony to do such a crucial role around the club for a long time. Tony is clearly a very intelligent guy, but he is only in his mid-thirties and is involved in three different jobs. I don’t believe that he can fully focus 100% on each and unfortunately it seems as though the only company that has flourished is All Elite Wrestling. He might disagree, but that would indicate to me that more time is put into that than is put into either the Jaguars or Fulham. If he could solely focus on one, then I reckon he’d have more success. For Fulham, we need a Director of Football who is ONLY a Director of Football.
For now we just have to find it within ourselves to keep supporting the boys, even if it has to be from afar during the pandemic. While the automatic promotion dream looks dead and buried, we can still get promoted. To be honest, I don’t think we are ready for the Premier League next year, but I do fear the financial problems that may come with staying in the Championship next season. Hopefully a victory against QPR tomorrow evening can inject some optimism back into the club.
#COYW
The job of a manager is to improve the players and find a system to get the best out of them. So many individuals this season have got worse…TC, Cav, Reid, Bryan, Knockaert, Reim…all underperforming. Ok, blame them too, but Parker needs to answer why.
My view is this squad has slowly molded to Parker’s personality and he is boring. Hes boring to listen to, his football is boring to watch. After Saturday I expected a bit of emotion maybe even anger. Top managers would be livid, upset, passionate. Parker after the game…boring. Phrases used…boring. We need a manager that can inspire and grow the players not someone that says “we dust ourselves off and work hard every day”….Predictable and boring…he’s a novice analytical manager. We need a Leader that can inspire. I just dont think hes that man.
‘Last minute ism’ in our dealing appears to scupper catching the right fish.
The need for a fresh defence was blatantly obvious at the end of last season. Did we get what we needed? No. Hector is a gem but whatever went on to create a great deal missed the key point of the biggest issue that should guide such an overwhelmingly essential deal i.e. getting it over the line in good time.
Scott is still coping with legacy of awful spending prior to the previous season with a dodgy keeper, JMS, and Anguisa, to name but 3 left on our books and needing to be factored in to dealings.
If we stay down, I believe we should keep faith in Scott, deal sensibly and go strongly into next season. Other teams have kept faith in managers and been able to turn things around. He has, I believe, a two year deal.
In a world where there is so much that is ‘disposable’ it is easy to think ‘get rid’. Let us not bow to the mores of our ‘instant’ society. COYW
Why didn’t we appoint Chris Houghton when we had the chance
I am afraid Parker is just not up to the job that Fulham required. If he remains then we will not go up. He will remain in charge for the first half of next season when we will be half way up the championship then he will be sacked what a waste of time. Of course those above and around him are to blame as well changes are needed all round. After all there is only so much dust to brush ourselves down. Still firing blanks and can not defend. I would also add that we just do not look fit enough after about 70 mins.
Drastic changes required.
The problem is clearly Tony Khan I’m afraid. Rampant nepotism. As for Parker he was picked as he is a ‘yes man’. Ticks all the right boxes and would never raise his voice to TK. We will never achive the aim of Premiership stability while Tony Khan stays in his role.
If we keep Parker we’ll be in the same position this time next season, if not worse. I don’t think we need a rebuild, just new ideas from a new manager. When he’s in front of the cameras he comes out with the same football cliches over and over, it makes me think he’s probably the same in the dressing room. I agree with the comment about promotion, we could do without that particular brand of misery, we’re just not ready. Make a bold change Mr Khan and do it soon, otherwise the new manager will be straight into the next season without any time to change things
Yep, agree with most of the above, defence needs sorting Ream is constantly getting caught in possession, Brayn is obviously technically a good player but he’s coasting, under jakonavic we were poor defensively but at least we scored loads were not even doing that now I’m sorry for Parker he won’t get us promoted.
I really don’t think you can blame Parker for individual errors that have continued to haunt us. The full backs has been an issue for the last 2 seasons. If you watch back at the amount of goals we conceed at the far post or weak defending out wide. It’s a reoccurring problem. Parker doesn’t sign the players, he is left to try and get the best out of them, knockhert and Cavilero are not clinical enough, which has basically meant without Mitro scoring we have no other options. On our day we are head and shoulders above anyone in the championship, but the defensive errors have again killed us for yet another season. With that said, we can regroup and get through the play offs. This will be Parker’s and the teams biggest test…
I really think we messed up big time when we lost both our fullbacks after our promotion win at Wembley. Frederick’s wanted to go and I don’t think we tried hard enough to keep Target..all 3 goals against Leeds came down our left side where Bryan is so often caught too far up the pitch. We spent mega bucks only to make the team worse.
Great blog, very true. It’s so frustrating isn’t it? I think the best thing to do is keep Parker on until the end of the season, judge it after its all said and done if we get pro.oted via the playoffs maybe this attitude will shift a bit. I personally don’t think he’s the man for the job next season onward, but let’s see if he can turn this abysmal form around.
I don’t want to Parker bash, he just leaves me no choice. Against Brentford, first quarter we showed some promise, during the water break their manager was changing things and Brentford, after that, were the better team. Chances for Parker to retaliate – no, same old stuff. Same against Leeds, Bielsa saw what was happening as Fulham dominated (but got nowhere against a good defence) and changed things. They won easily. Parker does not do that. Those two managers won them their games, it was easy for them. Parker makes it easy for them because we are so predictable. The man has to go.
Parker and Tony Khan are not good enough ! Surely Khan Senior has to get rid of them if he really wants success! But does he ?!?
If you remember when Ray Wilkins was in charge and made the comment that he would be satisfied if we just reached the playoffs and would regard that as success, Al Fayed was not happy and put Kevin Keegan in charge with the sole brief of getting us promoted.
We are in the same position now; a manager who has us playing a slow, passing game that every team in the division has figured out long ago. Six home defeats -18 points squandered. If we had, at the very least, drawn those games, we would be in with a real chance of automatic promotion. So many away games where Parker was happy for us to come away with a draw instead of setting us up to play with intent and grab all 3 points. We need a change in the way we play. We need to drop the cautious approach and play with a real intent to win all 3 points in every remaining game. Take a look at videos of Knockaert or Cavaleiro playing for Brighton and Wolves respectively; playing with real flair and confidence and destroying defences. They look like shadows of those match winners under Scott Parker. Why?
Parker will commend himself for getting us to the playoffs in his first full season as a manager-and it will look decent on paper-but we all know that, with a modicum of attacking intent and less caution, we would have been guaranteed automatic promotion
The QPR game, minus Mitrovic, will say a lot about Parker. Either he throws caution to the wind and selects a team intent on winning 3 points or he picks a team, as he has done all season, content to come away with a point. I know what I think he will do
Our problems all come back to the knee jerk really poor decision to get rid of jakonanvic wasn’t it neil warnock on our promotion year back to the prem who described us as the man city of the championship, the best football fulham fans had seen in generations, surely he had more credit in the tank on what he had built. Do you think it helped with the influx of stars that turnt up when we spent £100 million , were are they now, sure we still had a leaky defence no one has corrected that since. All is not lost we must at least make the play offs and start to bury teams when we are on top, as for parker let’s not throw him under the bus if we don’t make it this year, do we wont to go back to having 3 managers in a year again look were that got us before. Stay tight stick together.
We need the burnley manager if he quits,he will sort out this defence and buy better defenders