This was the classical Roy Hodgson away performance that Fulham fans came to love during his three years at Craven Cottage. Soak up early pressure, remain compact and hit a punch drunk opposition on the break. It requires commitment, work ethic and a ruthless instinct in the final third – but it rather encapsulated the difference between an established top flight side, in Crystal Palace, and Scott Parker’s Fulham, who will quickly be cut adrift at the foot of the table if they are not careful.
Palace were workmanlike rather than flashy, but that was enough for the Eagles to record a comfortable victory. Wilfred Zaha was to the fore again, with flashy skills, pace and an appetite to take on defenders, having already fired a warning shot before the visitors went ahead in the ninth minute. Alphonese Areola saved well after Zaha had escaped the attentions of Ola Aina, a regular occurrence throughout the afternoon, but Fulham failed to clear their lines. Zaha played a delicious no-look pace through the centre of the defence and Jairo Riedewald, untracked by anyone in white, crept in behind the back line to slot his first Palace goal past the stranded goalkeeper.
The scoreline felt harsh on Fulham, who had began brightly and at a high tempo, and that conclusion only seemed more justified as the home side made all the running as the first half went on. Ademola Lookman looked dangerous cutting in from the left, with one gorgeous touch almost freeing Aleksandar Mitrovic, whose shot was blocked on the edge of the box, and Antonee Robinson provided plenty of width from full back. Fulham’s best chances fell to Lookman, who twice hit the post with instinctive low drives. The first was helped onto the woodwork by an alert Vitor Guaita, but the goalkeeper had no chance of reaching the second, and the hosts’ afternoon was summed up by the fact that the rebound fell perfectly for Mitrovic, whose effort was deflected over by Scott Dann, an important defensive touch that the referee missed.
Palace might have been disciplined in defence and far from adventurous themselves, but they looked threatening every time they got into Fulham’s final third. Their likeliest source of a second was Zaha, who frequently left a chastened Aina trailing in his wake, and might have doubled the Eagles’ lead with a header, but guided Andros Townsend’s inviting cross wide. Michy Batshuayi did find the back of net, but was correctly ruled offside, whilst Luka Millivojevic’s stoppage time free-kick flew fractionally over, although that would have been an injustice after a generous award from referee Graham Scott.
The second half followed a similar pattern. Fulham were more urgent in their play, dominated possession but created precious little. Mitrovic’s best chance was a header he mistimed from a Tom Cairney free-kick, whilst when the Whites went a bit more direct, Cairney found Guaita’s gloves with a speculative effort that lacked conviction from just outside the area. But just as Fulham looked to build up a head of steam, they were caught cold at the other end. Batshuayi was afforded far too much room to roam down the right and his low cross gave Zaha a simple tap-in. The talismanic forward found the far post more tricky to navigate than Fulham’s defence, colliding with it as he finished – and the game felt up.
Fulham toiled manfully, but never seriously looked like retrieving the situation. Lookman persevered with those jinking runs from the left, shooting over as space opened up briefly, but it was Palace who came closest to extending their lead with Tyrick Mitchell drawing a save from Areola. Parker shuffled his pack, but any late revival was doomed by substitute Aboubakar Kamara’s wild lunge at Ebere Eze, which was correctly punished by a straight red card. Cairney did provide a consolation in the fifth minute of injury time, with a stunning curler into the top corner from distance, but the fact that it proved only a mere footnote shows just how much work Scott Parker has ahead of him.
FULHAM (4-2-3-1): Areola; Aina, Robinson, Adarabioyo, Ream; Lemina (Reed 79), Anguissa (Kamara 66); Lookman, Loftus-Cheek (Decordova-Reid 74), Cairney; Mitrovic. Subs (not used): Rodak, Le Marchand, Odoi, Bryan.
SENT OFF: Kamara.
GOAL: Cairney (90+5).
CRYSTAL PALACE (4-4-2): Guaita; Clyne (van Aanholt 72), Mitchell, Dann, Kouyate; Milivojevic, Riedewald (Sakho 85), Townsend, Schlupp (Eze 76); Zaha, Batshuayi. Subs (not used): Henderson, Kelly, van Aanholt, Sakho, Meyer, Eze, Benteke.
BOOKED: Guaita.
GOALS: Riedewald (9), Zaha (64).
REFEREE: Graham Scott (Oxfordshire).
VIDEO ASSISTANT REFEREE: Jarred Gillett (Australia).
Lookman unlucky not to score played some nice football . But Mitrovic looks wanting this season? And knowing how good Palace are on break still leave our shelves wide open, they score first attack how many times has that happened. Early days but looked doomed already . Feel we have some good players but could be down before they gel together
If I didn’t believe it before I do now we are going straight back down,our defenders are still crap and our forwards with the exception of Lookman and Cairny wouldn’t score in abrothel , Why was Camara brought on he is an accident waiting to happen?
The positives: Cavaleiro didn’t play. There is a God! Harrison Reed is back. What a difference he made when he came on. That’s it, I’m afraid.
Loftus-Cheek teased us all week with footage from the training ground where he looked majestic, taking players on and smashing goals into the back of the net. In reality, he is content to stroll through a game doing as little as possible with zero attempts at taking anybody on and definitely not even thinking of shooting. If that’s the best he can offer then he may as well go back to Stamford Bridge now. He keeps reminding us that that is where his future lies.
Yet again, Mitrovic had a poor game and, once again, his body language was entirely negative. Due to an inconceivable lack of transfer activity regarding strikers, we have no back up or support so we have no choice but to continue to depend on him which does not bode well.
Lookman was the one player that looked likely to do something but Roy Hodgson just had him shut down second half.
We have no quality back up in our squad and there was never a chance of Kamara or Decordova-Reid making the slightest positive impact when they were sent on. In fact, they did quite the opposite.
Simple question to T.Khan who insists on statistical player analysis being the policy of our club: Brentford brought in Watkins from a lesser club, nurtured him and sold him for in excess of thirty million. They did the same with Benrahma, although, in his case, they got a loan fee of four million while still retaining the player as an asset worth in excess of twenty million. They manage to do this season after season. Currently, they have Toney at a cost of less than five million and he has scored 7 goals already. Year after year, they generate millions in astute transfer dealings.
My question is: why can’t we?
You have, in 3 main transfer windows, spent a huge amount of money on so called “established” players. The majority of those players have not been good enough. The fees paid out will never be recovered. Players like Seri, Mawson, Knockaert -fifty million just on those three -will play no further part in our Premiership struggle.
How can our transfer dealings be so wrong? Is it that our scouts aren’t good enough to unearth the type of gems playing in lower divisions?
I’d just like to know because, right now, we have a hotchpotch of players -most of them on loan -so not 100% committed to our cause -who are already starting to drop their heads and, if things continue as they are, will be quite content to return to their parent clubs and I am fed up because I have supported this club, through thick and thin, for 60 plus years and I think you have got it massively wrong regarding transfers. Never mind statistical analysis, take a good, long, hard look at your financial analysis because it makes no sense.
Ian Wright said, after the game today, that we are a very bad team and certainties for relegation. It breaks my heart to hear it but it’s very, very difficult to dispute it.
We deserve better.
We play every game the same it does not matter who plays it’s the same. I think we need a change of manager. I have been supporting Fulham for over 40 years. How we could do with Jimmy Conway Les Barrette And Gordon Davies.
I don’t even know where to start, it’s maybe time to change the manager. At least someone else will try different things and use players in a different way. Quite honestly though I think last season we knew we weren’t quite good enough to go up and delighted as i was at the time it’s looking more like that was true every week.
Very harsh if Parker carries the can for failings that go beyond him, in my opinion.
The lack of haste in signing a centre back effectively saw us write off the first four games, which is laughable. It’s clear that we are one of the weaker sides in the league – but I think Sir Alex Ferguson would struggle to keep this team in the division.
Parker’s a young manager and he’s still learning. He might have got the team selection wrong today, but I’d much rather give him the chance to put things right. We don’t want a repeat of our last two seasons in the Premier League (three managers each time) and he deserves a bit of loyalty for me.
I think that is virtually as strong a team as we have yesterday. All that is left is tactics and confidence. I think we can all agree that we need to be more positive. If playing the ball around endlessly, then crossing it and hoping Mitro will lumber onto it is our plan then we will go down. Lookman is a real asset. Other than that we look slow and obvious. This is the best we have so please give it a go boys!
Only 3 of our Championship players started yesterday. Ream didnt have a lot to do but as we know is a game or two away from a mistake. Cairney is so slow and negative in his passing it frustrates me to watch him now. 2 seasons ago he was class going forward. He has now become a liability going forward. Yes he keeps the ball but it is too slow and sideways to be meaningful. Mitro looks out of his depth at this level. Simply not athletic enough to hurt defences. So yep our 3 that have survived promotion are probably currently our weakest.
I know we spent £100m last time we got promoted and it failed. It didn’t fail because spending £100m was the wrong thing to do. It failed because it was wasted on the likes of Seri, Mawson etc. I think we have recruited better this time although the players are in too late. We also have 1 slow CF and Parker is not a master tactician for sure so on balance it is not looking good boys. The gap to the Prem is massive and the truth is we dudnt even have a great Championship squad despite promotion. We probably needed a dozen or more new players
Only thing I would say is as much as Parker does me in with his slow style of football. Let’s not panic and fire him. An idiot can see we need to play with more dynamic attacking intent. Parker isnt a tactical master but he isnt an idiot. I hope he isnt anyway
Parker must go , but so must Tony Khan !!!