Scott Parker was disappointed that Fulham ‘fell a bit short’ in tonight’s defeat by Leicester – but he is far from throwing in the towel when it comes to his side’s survival prospect.
Fulham were beaten by first half goals from Kelechi Iheanacho and James Justin and a majestic midfield performance from playmaker James Maddison at Craven Cottage. Parker told his post-match press conference that his side lacked penetration and overall quality and were picked off by their visitors.
I thought we huffed-and-puffed tonight. Their quality in the attacking third for their goals was evident. The detail in their counter attack with the decisions they made was excellent. We weren’t able to take our moments, not necessarily with shots, but little overloads. We fell a little bit short. We understand we need to start winning football matches – we’re at a stage where there is a clear focus. We move onto Saturday.
The Fulham boss still believes his side have the quality to survive and attests to the character of his team.
For large parts we had a control about us. We played some good stuff without causing them too many problems. People may say I’m mad, but I see a team that can win football matches. There are 17 games left this season, we’ve seen what a couple of results in a short space of time can do. Am I looking at a team that’s wilting to a slow death? Not at all. My team is fully committed to the job in hand.
We need to win games now. We want to give ourselves a fighting chance to stay in this division. This team have progressed extremely well. We’ve gone from a team that was written off to a team that has worked on certain problems. When you’re newly-promoted progression is what you need to work on. This is a great group of lads that are working their hardest. The way we win games is by putting in strong, confident performances. We can’t let defeats derail us.
I hate to say this as I like the chap, but Parker needs to go if we are going to fight to survive. There is no fight in the club with him at the helm. We need to go 6-6-5 to have a shot, and I don’t see that happening in our current form.
I think Parker is a dreamer our midfielders aren’t good enough just look at Leicesters midfield players and their penetrational passes I don’t think RLC offers much and I would sooner have Bobby Reid instead of him or Anguissa who seems like he has gone off his game again. If we had played all night long we wouldn’t have scored, we just can’t put the ball in the net. All the team’s around us are winning games but not us, so yes I do think Scotty is a dreamer.
I rest my case Liverpool 0 Brighton 1 Championship here we come again.
We reverted to a slow, passing game-sideways and back-hitting crosses from deep, wide positions -simply to incorporate Mitrovic as a lone striker. It didn’t work before he lost form and it won’t work now. The build up is so slow that any decent side can easily fall back and block us.
Any guile in our play, usually down the left fro Robinson and Lookman, was missing last night because Lookman had a very poor game. It happens. He has shown before that he is capable of recovering from a set back and come good.
The same can’t be said for Loftus Cheek. He repeatedly promises much but produces nothing. It’s time for Parker to admit that this experiment has not worked.
By selecting Loftus Cheek, Parker weakens our midfield and places a heavy load on the remaining two. To exacerbate the situation, Parker keeps tweaking what is, essentially, a very strong midfield. Harrison Reed, for me, should be ever present yet, against West Brom, he was excluded. Lemina comes in and then is left out. Anguissa seems to be a constant but even he is showing signs of having been overworked too much.
Dump Loftus Cheek finally. Retain the same midfield three.
Dump the extra man supporting Aina -whether it’s Tete or Decordova Reid. We don’t need to double up on this defensive position. We are fighting for our lives and we need wins.
In fact, I would prefer Tete over Aina as he offers more going forward.
Utilise the new signing, Maja. Otherwise, what was the point of his recruitment?
But play him alongside Mitro in a two pronged attack. At least let’s give that a go.
We have nothing to lose.
We still have that game in hand over Brighton. We just need a couple of wins and we are back in business but we won’t get them by using Mitro as a lone striker or by accomodating a massively, underproducing Loftus Cheek.
Time for big decisions, Scott Parker!
I’m reminded of a comment that Chris Hughton once made about the difference between a good season and a bad season. He was referring to Brighton chasing promotion from the Championship and said that it didn’t matter how many games you lost in the course of a season, success was dependent on how many games you actually won. Remaining unbeaten by gaining successive draws means nothing.
However, if you only win every other game, you are more successful.
It makes absolute sense.
Take Leeds United for example. They have only lost one less game than Fulham. Yet they are 11th in the table.
On the other hand, they have also picked up 9 wins compared to our 2.
For far too long, Scott Parker has put too much emphasis on unbeaten runs but those runs consisted of draws. I think I am right in saying that our best unbeaten spell (exc cup games) was 5. 5 draws. 5 points -with a couple of defeats thrown into the mix. In that same period, Leeds lost a staggering 5 times but also won 3 games. No draws. 9 points!
Leeds throw caution to the wind and they attack teams with their sole intention focused on winning. Sometimes it backfires horribly but the end result proves the effectiveness of their strategy.
We, on the other hand, under the management of an ultra cautious coach, have, for far too long, put the emphasis on just not getting beaten and we can all see the ineffectiveness of that strategy.
If we are to go down, I would rather have it happen knowing that we went out with a bang -not a whimper.
Give us something to be proud of. If we win half of our remaining fixtures and get beaten in the other half, we stay up.
Way too many passes backwards, it would be nice to have a speedy right winger to put the crosses into the box to compliment Robinson on the left side the team lacks energy. Unfortunately Scott does not seem to motivate them anymore let’s try Eddie Howe.
Along with many others I am fed up getting up in the middle of the night over here in Australia to watch this team.
Supporter since the 1960’s
The reality is we were probably always going to lose to Leicester. It’s the manner of the defeat that worries me. This morning we are between 1/3 and 1/2 to get relegated.
It’s not quite done but nearly. I feel we’re shuffling the same set of cards now with minor changes. I agree with Charles that if we make changes we might as well go big…maybe play Maja and Mitro and go 4-4-2. It’s getting to last throw of the dice time now. Cant see Parker going that adventurous. It just isnt his personality….nor….in fairness…is it likely to work but heh what else is left apart from carry on as we are and hope.
This team have made tremendous strides with Scott at the helm,he will be a top manager ,in no way am I writing this team off but if you honestly look at most of our games one of the main things missing is a little bit of luck in front of goal,it’s not happening for us but it is for other teams and when your struggling you do really need that,I have watched many other teams on TV and I have seen many teams a damn site worse than us,but,they’ve been fortunate with deflections,ricochets etc ,WBroms first came from a deflection,Brighton’s winner last night are just two prime examples ,can’t fault the lads for effort and workrate but it seems little things are just not going our way and that’s hurting us,still love MY CLUB THOUGH,
I think it’s time to bench RLC he just doesn’t add very much offensively or by defensively, not sure he has an eye for goal or the vision to unlock a defence. Time to at other options BDC if fit or Josh.
It will be a rough ride till the end of the season but we are fighting and Scotty is still doing a good job.
I don’t think we should be saying we always knew we were going to lose to Leicester. That’s half the problem, we’re at home and we expect to lose! Not for me, away perhaps. I would have been happy with a battling draw but no less
We can’t keep playing with only one striker we have to play with two up front and I keep saying we have to cut out all the sideways and backwards passing we are far too slow attacking and we need to press and put pressure on the opposition when they have the ball. Definitely drop RLC he is a luxury we don’t need he offers very little, Anguissa also needs to buck up his ideas as he isn’t much better than RLC at the moment , we need to play Tete on the right wing and change our formation to score goals.