This team

[Spirit of 2000]

Is amongst the top 2 or 3 in terms of ability and wage bill. As pure football as Parker has us set up we lack movement in the final third and an incisive edge. Any side clocking between 60-80% possession every game need to fashion more scoring chances than we do. Too early to call for Parker to be sacked yet but if we're outside the top 6 at Xmas that is a massive underachievement given what he has at his disposal.

[filham]

Earl days but we certainly havn't got off to the flying start expected, something is not right but let us not have that knee jerk reaction again that resulted in Raniera being brought in last season.

[Sting of the North]

We created enough chances today to score 3 or 4 at least. Don't understand why anyone would have expected a much better start with so many new players. If we play like this we have a good chance of promotion.

[Statto]

We created enough chances today to score 3 or 4 at least. Don't understand why anyone would have expected a much better start with so many new players. If we play like this we have a good chance of promotion.

This sums up my view. Cavaleiro, Knockaert, Sessegnon and Arter completely new to the team. Bettinelli, Mawson and Johansen back from injuries and a loan.

Except for Cairney-Mitrovic, and perhaps Ream-Bryan, there's not a single player in the team who had played with the players around them before this season.

And a promising but inexperienced manager.

We've still dominated every team we've played including the best or second best team in the division yesterday.

To see people making negative judgments on here already beggars belief - although I'm directing this more at comments on other threads rather than this OP.

[The Rational Fan]

We created enough chances today to score 3 or 4 at least. Don't understand why anyone would have expected a much better start with so many new players. If we play like this we have a good chance of promotion.

This sums up my view. Cavaleiro, Knockaert, Sessegnon and Arter completely new to the team. Bettinelli, Mawson and Johansen back from injuries and a loan.

Except for Cairney-Mitrovic, and perhaps Ream-Bryan, there's not a single player in the team who had played with the players around them before this season.

And a promising but inexperienced manager.

We've still dominated every team we've played including the best or second best team in the division yesterday.

To see people making negative judgments on here already beggars belief - although I'm directing this more at comments on other threads rather than this OP.

Spot On. Fulham Fans need to stop setting insane expectations, given our adequate but limited budget. The season is going reasonably well, for those of us that don't believe in Parker we must admit he's doing ok, and for those that do believe in Parker surely he can kick on from this position.

Last season, a successful season would have been getting to 36 points, which should have kept us up. This season, a successful season will be getting to 89 points (1.95 points per game), which should be enough to get us up. All we need is a three game winning streak (Wednesday, Wigan and Luton) to get us to 2 points per game after 10 games. Frankly, if we cannot get 7 to 9 points against Wednesday, Wigan and Luton, then we have to wonder if we are ready to play premier league anyway. 

Like last season we lacked a little chemistry and cohesion at the start of the season, and we also dropped points. But unlike last season, we are drawing the games we should have won (i.e. Cardiff 19/20 and WBA) instead of losing them (e.g. Cardiff 17/18 and Hudderfield 17/18), which means we aren't giving our competitors three points.

[hovewhite]

Give me Parker any time over someone like Houghton all day long because I think he would be the Khan's choice if they get rid of scotty!

[Spirit of 2000]

>>Spot On. Fulham Fans need to stop setting insane expectations, given our adequate but limited budget. The season is going reasonably well<<

Really??? We have the biggest wage bill and one of the best 2 squads in the division.... expectation for Parker to deliver promotion with no excuses is certainly not "unrealistic "

[colinwhite]

Come on ,give me strength! Football doesnt work like that and there  are never any guarantees. One goalkeeping error away from 3 points and total domination of supposedly one of the best teams in the division. Carry on as we are and we will get it right. We are 3 points off second place and other teams are not looking forward to playing us,you can be sure of that !!

[toshes mate]

It is trite to quote wage bills and paper squad strength in any sport.  A coach, trainer or teacher can start with the world's worse 'material' and turn it into something half decent if you have the ability to bring out whatever talent there is.  Likewise you can start will the world's best and turn it into a nightmare. 

It takes two to tango whatever the 'game' is.  Partnerships in life are as random as any other event you can care to name because no one can possibly know what happens next, but we can all hazard a guess.  In the short term some of our guesses will prove accurate and over a longer term some other guesses will appear to be closer to the mark.  Partners working together in an essential relationship will try to reduce the risk of damage to either since to do otherwise is the road to failure. 

Khan Jnr's set up ambition is to achieve promotion over a forty six game season.  His employees will know that expectation and will hope to be given maximum tolerance over shorter term measures.  In 2918/19 a lack of tolerance by our owners operated in much the way it has done every time they have used it bringing abject failure to turn the tide in their favour.  There is a moral about partnerships to be found in that record and you either learn it off by heart or you continue to miss the point and destroy whatever you already have.

FWIIW I see the partnerships showing positive signs of improvement from match one, but they are still fragile and searching for better solutions.  They shows no signs of falling apart or at odds with themselves.  There are weaknesses in the whole which, for all I know, were recognised from day one, and are still being negotiated towards a better outcome.  There have probably been several opinions about solving those weaknesses and no doubt modifications are tried and evaluated along the road to resolution, since tinkering here can sometimes disturb something no quite right elsewhere.  What we do know is that whilst you can fix things under your control, you cannot fix the outcomes of matches.  All you can do is reduce the risk of failure to a point where success is much more probable.   Calm and patience improves chances of reducing risk; agitation and unease increase risk exponentially. 

Will we achieve promotion this season?  Only a super being would know and he, she, it, ain't telling.   

     

[FFC1987]

I'm a tad surprised that people think our start was expected and is exempt from criticism. We've had a rather meh start, dropped a lot of points already and slowly pushing us into high pressure must win games going into the back end of the season. I think it will get better but I'm not convinced we walk into top 4 like others think. Our fixtures haven't been a hard start and we've just about kept up with the pack but thats not the start we should expect from a squad we have, and the money we're spending. We need to start converting cheap draws into wins or we won't be top 2 and thats the aim. We also need to be converting home advantage into wins too but again, I'm not convinced we'll greatly change and with all due respect to history, I can't see us going on a ridiculously long win streak/unbeaten run again so early points in the season is a big deal for top 2.

[Spirit of 2000]

Come on ,give me strength! Football doesnt work like that and there  are never any guarantees. One goalkeeping error away from 3 points and total domination of supposedly one of the best teams in the division. Carry on as we are and we will get it right. We are 3 points off second place and other teams are not looking forward to playing us,you can be sure of that !!

Yes football does work like that - if you're the manager with one of the best sides with biggest wage budget then you take accountability for results. It all works out over a season - and if your player makes an error and as a manager you've picked that player, ultimately that is down to the you. I'm not calling for Parkers head but expectation of success is on his head and don't think the Khan's won't act if they deem he's underachieving come the Xmas period. Things aren't disastrous - but they're not great either ... we're 5 off the automatics after 7 games. We're dominating games in terms of possession but not punishing sides outside the Millwall match - personally I think that is partly due to the overly slow build up that means the massive majority of our chances come against packed defences, so we need to score the perfect goal or a spectacular one. Nobody wants hoofball but it's not too much to think that a quicker transition into attack may help.

[colinwhite]

You are mixing up 2 different concepts.Of course SP is responsible for results. A wage bill or an abundance of good players doesnt however  guarantee results,and in particular not straight away. We are all frustrated by the draw,but its looking pretty good to me. SP is doing an excellent job and lets all hope he can get that little bit of luck that was lacking on saturday. If we had had that we would have scored 4 or 5 !!!!

[Spirit of 2000]

You are mixing up 2 different concepts.Of course SP is responsible for results. A wage bill or an abundance of good players doesnt however  guarantee results,and in particular not straight away. We are all frustrated by the draw,but its looking pretty good to me. SP is doing an excellent job and lets all hope he can get that little bit of luck that was lacking on saturday. If we had had that we would have scored 4 or 5 !!!!

A group of top players for the division on big wages is the owners giving the manager the tools to deliver promotion - don't for a minute think that's not what the Khan's have targeted with the backing they've given - expectation IS there for Parker to deliver that ... and his slow slow & slower tempo of play I believe is flawed and partly why we're not converting dominance to goals - with the exception of the Millwall game.

[FFC1987]

You are mixing up 2 different concepts.Of course SP is responsible for results. A wage bill or an abundance of good players doesnt however  guarantee results,and in particular not straight away. We are all frustrated by the draw,but its looking pretty good to me. SP is doing an excellent job and lets all hope he can get that little bit of luck that was lacking on saturday. If we had had that we would have scored 4 or 5 !!!!

With all due respect, if I'm the powers that be and read we're 10th and haven't been beating Forest, Barnsley or consistently picking up points at home, I'm going to be having stern words with Parker about expectations.

[Spirit of 2000]

Don't get me wrong I WANT Parker to succeed - I like passing football, just with a little more flair and tempo as we showed under Slav. I hated the direct rubbish under Ranieri, cannot abide what Warnock & Pulis serve up.

The up-coming next 7 games (in order of current position of opposition as opposed to date order) sees us take on the sides now in 3rd, 9th, 13th, 16th, 17th, 21st & 24th. We've dropped too many points already, so need to be looking at a minimum of 14 points from those matches. Pressure and expectation is part & parcel of football - I'm sure Parker knows what's expected & the Khan's have made that clear.

[Sting of the North]

You are mixing up 2 different concepts.Of course SP is responsible for results. A wage bill or an abundance of good players doesnt however  guarantee results,and in particular not straight away. We are all frustrated by the draw,but its looking pretty good to me. SP is doing an excellent job and lets all hope he can get that little bit of luck that was lacking on saturday. If we had had that we would have scored 4 or 5 !!!!

With all due respect, if I'm the powers that be and read we're 10th and haven't been beating Forest, Barnsley or consistently picking up points at home, I'm going to be having stern words with Parker about expectations.

Do you really believe that expectations are not already set very clearly? And do you also believe that the Khan's are idiots looking at the table and results and ignoring all other context? If so, I hope you are wrong, although past behaviour suggests you may be right. 

[FFC1987]

You are mixing up 2 different concepts.Of course SP is responsible for results. A wage bill or an abundance of good players doesnt however  guarantee results,and in particular not straight away. We are all frustrated by the draw,but its looking pretty good to me. SP is doing an excellent job and lets all hope he can get that little bit of luck that was lacking on saturday. If we had had that we would have scored 4 or 5 !!!!

With all due respect, if I'm the powers that be and read we're 10th and haven't been beating Forest, Barnsley or consistently picking up points at home, I'm going to be having stern words with Parker about expectations.

Do you really believe that expectations are not already set very clearly? And do you also believe that the Khan's are idiots looking at the table and results and ignoring all other context? If so, I hope you are wrong, although past behaviour suggests you may be right.

But the contexts there. As I've already said, we've had quite a nice start of fixtures on paper and have thrown away points to the extent that we're now 10th in a pack and look vulnerable in all but one match really. I think we know expectations have been set, obviously, but it would seem from other posters that they think this is a good start which simply isn't true. I don't think the Khans are idiots, not at all, but I see them pumping money, into a talented squad and we don't seem to be getting the results required.

[Sting of the North]

You are mixing up 2 different concepts.Of course SP is responsible for results. A wage bill or an abundance of good players doesnt however  guarantee results,and in particular not straight away. We are all frustrated by the draw,but its looking pretty good to me. SP is doing an excellent job and lets all hope he can get that little bit of luck that was lacking on saturday. If we had had that we would have scored 4 or 5 !!!!

With all due respect, if I'm the powers that be and read we're 10th and haven't been beating Forest, Barnsley or consistently picking up points at home, I'm going to be having stern words with Parker about expectations.

Do you really believe that expectations are not already set very clearly? And do you also believe that the Khan's are idiots looking at the table and results and ignoring all other context? If so, I hope you are wrong, although past behaviour suggests you may be right.

But the contexts there. As I've already said, we've had quite a nice start of fixtures on paper and have thrown away points to the extent that we're now 10th in a pack and look vulnerable in all but one match really. I think we know expectations have been set, obviously, but it would seem from other posters that they think this is a good start which simply isn't true. I don't think the Khans are idiots, not at all, but I see them pumping money, into a talented squad and we don't seem to be getting the results required.

Well, to clarify, hopefully they see short term results as only one aspect, and the progression of our style of play and understanding between players as another (or else they have learned nothing, which seem contrary to their transfer dealings this summer). It is 7 out of 46 games. Most of those 7 games we have been the far better team. Our results, by the way are not great but not too bad. We are there, or there about, which is something that I believe at this early stage with so many new players is something that is not too disheartening to the powers that be.

[toshes mate]

Come on ,give me strength! Football doesnt work like that and there  are never any guarantees. One goalkeeping error away from 3 points and total domination of supposedly one of the best teams in the division. Carry on as we are and we will get it right. We are 3 points off second place and other teams are not looking forward to playing us,you can be sure of that !!

Yes football does work like that - if you're the manager with one of the best sides with biggest wage budget then you take accountability for results.

Football is like that, I agree, but it doesn't always work like that in practice, and more obviously never works for a lot of teams outside of the upper echelons of the game.  The very nature that is the protection racket of the PL is the proof of that. The high investors answer to the risk of loss is to deny the lower flyers equality of opportunity to succeed.  Those investors are very aware that risk must be curtailed or they will lose lots of money and even, over a more extended period of time, become the new 'Bury'.

Football results are random just as is the trajectory of a ball from a boot that may go straight into the net, go over it, or hit someone on the way diverting it almost anywhere.  The role of the owners is to limit their risk of losing money and in football, that is always down to results.  It is the time span of the journeys to success that tend to play havoc with all teams outside the top six to ten.  The Championship has seen some apparently pretty ordinary collections of individuals succeed, whilst other more illustrious challengers have failed. 

For owners of football clubs results may appear to be the necessary measure but there is always the huge risk that their charge was on target to achieve the desired outcome it is just that they couldn't see that because their brains are not tuned into what really does make football work.     

[FFC1987]

You are mixing up 2 different concepts.Of course SP is responsible for results. A wage bill or an abundance of good players doesnt however  guarantee results,and in particular not straight away. We are all frustrated by the draw,but its looking pretty good to me. SP is doing an excellent job and lets all hope he can get that little bit of luck that was lacking on saturday. If we had had that we would have scored 4 or 5 !!!!

With all due respect, if I'm the powers that be and read we're 10th and haven't been beating Forest, Barnsley or consistently picking up points at home, I'm going to be having stern words with Parker about expectations.

Do you really believe that expectations are not already set very clearly? And do you also believe that the Khan's are idiots looking at the table and results and ignoring all other context? If so, I hope you are wrong, although past behaviour suggests you may be right.

But the contexts there. As I've already said, we've had quite a nice start of fixtures on paper and have thrown away points to the extent that we're now 10th in a pack and look vulnerable in all but one match really. I think we know expectations have been set, obviously, but it would seem from other posters that they think this is a good start which simply isn't true. I don't think the Khans are idiots, not at all, but I see them pumping money, into a talented squad and we don't seem to be getting the results required.

Well, to clarify, hopefully they see short term results as only one aspect, and the progression of our style of play and understanding between players as another (or else they have learned nothing, which seem contrary to their transfer dealings this summer). It is 7 out of 46 games. Most of those 7 games we have been the far better team. Our results, by the way are not great but not too bad. We are there, or there about, which is something that I believe at this early stage with so many new players is something that is not too disheartening to the powers that be.

Largely agree with that but i'm just of the perspective that we've had a poor to less than average start as opposed to good to above par.  I look at our fixtures of the first 7 and think theres much harder to come.