We have every right to finish bottom !!

[Victoria Spunge]

First things first: I wan't us to win every game of football we play at whatever level...

But realistically, this season if we finish 2nd from bottom it will be an achievement.. We have had about 5 weeks to prepare for a season in one of the toughest leagues in the world, to recruit, to gel a team together, to bond as a unit. In those 5 weeks we had a weeks holiday and an international break... Our top striker is coming back from a serious hamstring injury and quite frankly if he gets injured we will be lucky to get 30 points..

As i write our defense is probably no better than the defense from 2 years ago and look how that ended, although our 6-4-0 system toward the end of this season might see us in good stead!!

I won't comment on Tony Khan's ability as our Director of Football, but the way he won us the Play off final with his tactical awareness was something else !!

This will be our 3rd season in the Prem under Shad's guidance, so will his run of being relegated every season be broken ? 3rd time lucky ?

As long as we show some balls i won't be to disappointed as i/we know how far behind we are, also a little luck because without it (Aston Villa), we will pretty much be doomed.. Fingers crossed that a couple of other clubs implode, seen it before, teams that finish comfortable one season get off to a bad start then basically bottle it (Watford, Newcastle etc)..

Anyway, good luck to us (Fulham), and Scott , who somehow got us promoted despite some pretty mediocre stuff early last season...

[Baszab]

Fully agree with you

SP has done well despite the interference - great to have cash injected which we're all grateful for - but do it so there is a long term team/squad plan

No back up for Mitro / no Premier quality CB is just ludicrous

Full respect for the players who flogged their guts out last season and to SP despite his somewhat conservative Tactical approach - which I hope we see a lot more of to save the defence being embarrassed

[FFC1987]

I wouldn't consider finishing 19th an achievement......That's a failure of objective. Albeit I wouldn't be surprised or annoyed too much as its a difficult task but its in no way an achievement....

[Jim©]

"Every right to finish bottom" comes across as a little bizarre.
It's likely that we will as play off winners very rarely stay up, but Parker made it very clear after play off final that wholesale changes won't happen as we'd learnt what that can do last promotion.

As you say, this team, Parker's teams, will show some fight, a bit of tactical nous and we were lacking in those two key elements a couple of years ago.

[The Old Count]

That's the spirit. A positive.outlook.. Could you do the pre match team talk.

Someone probably said the same thing about Sheff Unt.. Anything can and does happen.

Welcome to  the forum btw.

[Lordedmundo]

"Every right to finish bottom" comes across as a little bizarre.
It's likely that we will as play off winners very rarely stay up, but Parker made it very clear after play off final that wholesale changes won't happen as we'd learnt what that can do last promotion.

As you say, this team, Parker's teams, will show some fight, a bit of tactical nous and we were lacking in those two key elements a couple of years ago.

I agree with that. I think we will have enough to stay up - provided we get in at least one CB and are fairly lucky with injuries.

Obviously the transfer window is not closed yet, but I think our squad is better than West Brom's, at least as good as Leeds and not far off Sheffield United, Burnley and Brighton (plus Aston Villa who have spent massively in two seasons on largely unproven players).  We just need to be much more resilient this time and peform better against these teams and other perennial strugglers such as Crystal Palace and West Ham.

[S.F.Sorrow]

Anything below 17th will be a massive failure IMO.

And how exactly did Tony Khan win us the Play off final "with his tactical awareness"? He wasn't even there,  :005:!!!

[Bill2]

As a lot of managers have proved, Roy Hodgeson to name but one, shows that  good organisation can see you survive. You may not win very much but unless you are spending multi millions just on players wages you never will. I am not saying the team can't be improved and we need some players just don't write us off. I think Scotty has the tactical nouse to keep us in the Prem.

[cmg]

Cheer up.

Today, September 10th is.....?

[SuffolkWhite]

We are underdogs in this league but as long as we fight for it there is every chance we will stay up, just!

[General]

We are simply currently short in defence and attack in players that can make and are needed to make the difference.

Whilst people may love or loathe the players because they didn't turn up to the extent we stayed in the premiership - schurrle, Babel, sessegnon all scored or delivered in some attacking manner for us and made contributions that counted to us getting valuable points. Without their ingenuity and genuine ability to be a goal threat and put other teams into a defensive mode we would have gone down by a more significant margin.

Our defence is largely the same. Fabri is back, we've got a new GK with pedigree but who's on loan, anguissa and seri are back but we're missing the player who was considered our player of the season for whatever reason whom fans seemingly don't want back because he was too lightweight.

Cav, knockaert and Reid haven't cut it at premiership level and Ream.. got destroyed. Think we conceded one of the largest amount of goals conceded I'm a premiership season.

Aina looks promising but plays RM, tete... I'm unconvinced by. As I am with this shocking statistical model Tony seems to be using.

I have to admit I was more excited by the idea of Aina and tete and areola before I realised how little they'd play over the last couple of seasons each.

My one and only big hope is in parker ball and parker A) knowing the league  and B) the Conservative nature of our play under him. It's boring and if we pass around at the back as much as we did in the champion we will be found out hugely as we lack pace to make up for any mistakes.

The only other hope is lamina shows up and anguissa puts his best foot forward and alongside reed the three of them dominate midfield with their dynamism and love for one another and the tackle.

The potential preseason win could prove that is in the pipeline against Southampton which would be promising...

Aside from that we're going into the season with AK and neeskens as our most promising and in forms attacking players.

[Deeping_white]

Let me go and find that white flag you've misplaced somewhere, clearly there's no point turning up if we're already down??

Last season Sheff Utd literally proved you don't need a team of world beaters to come top half in the PL. A largely similar team to the one we absolutely dominated in our previous promotion season came 9th, and other than their GK, Norwood and Sander Berge, I'm struggling to think of any of their players who would actually get into our 18 man matchday squad based on ability. They did well because of their system playing to strengths and being motivated as a group. If Parker can get us working similarly then there's no reason we can't finish mid table. Yes we need to sort out CB and another decent forward option pronto (assuming Aina and Tete join imminently as expected), but our squad quality is not far away from the rest of the bottom half of the table, and if we go on a a run which buoys the confidence of the team then you can start looking up rather than down.

[FFCFOREVER]

Let me go and find that white flag you've misplaced somewhere, clearly there's no point turning up if we're already down??

Last season Sheff Utd literally proved you don't need a team of world beaters to come top half in the PL. A largely similar team to the one we absolutely dominated in our previous promotion season came 9th, and other than their GK, Norwood and Sander Berge, I'm struggling to think of any of their players who would actually get into our 18 man matchday squad based on ability. They did well because of their system playing to strengths and being motivated as a group. If Parker can get us working similarly then there's no reason we can't finish mid table. Yes we need to sort out CB and another decent forward option pronto (assuming Aina and Tete join imminently as expected), but our squad quality is not far away from the rest of the bottom half of the table, and if we go on a a run which buoys the confidence of the team then you can start looking up rather than down.

+1 +1

[grandad]

That´s the spirit, give up before a ball has been kicked. A great moral booster for the Club. In my 66 seasons of supporting I have never had this defeatist attitude. Shame on you moaners. Not one of you have a clue what goes on behind the scenes.

[RaySmith]

There's no reason why we can't do a Sheff u , or even Villa, and survive, or even  establish a Prem place like Burnley, and even Bournemouth managed for a bit at least.

Or as we did, when we were first in the Prem, and stayed 13 years. In fact we  looked an established mid table Prem club, which is why Khan bought us.

As fans aren't we supposed to get behind the team we support, to will them on,  even if the odds are against us? Aren't we the 12th man - though obviously we can't make our voices heard at games at the moment, but at least we could   have a positive  feeling on here, after our great play-off victory, and with the club making efforts to bring in new players, at the moment, before a ball has even been kicked,  just days before a hugely important and tough game for us.

[fulhamphil]

Fully agree with you

SP has done well despite the interference - great to have cash injected which we're all grateful for - but do it so there is a long term team/squad plan

No back up for Mitro / no Premier quality CB is just ludicrous

Full respect for the players who flogged their guts out last season and to SP despite his somewhat conservative Tactical approach - which I hope we see a lot more of to save the defence being embarrassed

Troy Deeney to add some hustle up front for Mitro? He may be 32 but aint gonna break the bank and surely a step up from BDR and Knockie? And where in heavens name is this new much needed new CB? Am beginning to wonder if Scottie has some psychoanalytical mission whereby he's told entire first team squad they can all be a part of his project Fulham if they deliver. Think you need to be more hard headed than that for this league.

[itombomb]

Yeah we still need a starting LCB but you're mad/ignorant if you don't recognise that our defence is massively improved from the last time out - Areola, Hector and Tete are all big upgrades on what we had, while Bryan is better (and we have actual cover for him) and in Reed & Lemina (potentially with Luis too) we've got a lot more defensive ability in midfield. We're going to be a lot harder to beat than last time.

The counter may be that we're not as good going forward, but we weren't very good at that last time either. Schurrle scored some crackers yeah, but was pretty hopeless in general play, had no stamina and went missing the second half of the season. By the time Babel came in we were already relegated. Realistically Sess and Vietto didn't add much.

[General]

There's no reason why we can't do a Sheff u , or even Villa, and survive, or even  establish a Prem place like Burnley, and even Bournemouth managed for a bit at least.

Or as we did, when we were first in the Prem, and stayed 13 years. In fact we  looked an established mid table Prem club, which is why Khan bought us.

As fans aren't we supposed to get behind the team we support, to will them on,  even if the odds are against us? Aren't we the 12th man - though obviously we can't make our voices heard at games at the moment, but at least we could   have a positive  feeling on here, after our great play-off victory, and with the club making efforts to bring in new players, at the moment, before a ball has even been kicked,  just days before a hugely important and tough game for us.

Technically first and foremost as fans you support the club as you'll be with the club for much longer than any one team or player. So the aim is to have the best team as a way to represent the club and do the best for the club and the area and values it represents. Without a club there is no team.

Whilst I appreciate as fans we support our team through thick and thin the idea is that you want the team to do well so the club does well and for most your support the club first and foremost because of an affinity to the club which you learn about through proximity to the stadium or the players that come and play for the club.

Our aim should always be to want the club to do well, and so want the team to. That's why it's important to have honest and critical conversations about what works and what's better as a sign of improvement and also because in an environment like football where the goalposts change regularly in terms of personnel it's important to keep things fresh so you maintain that standard or better it.

The better you are at doing that, the bigger and better the squad, team and club do.

[Bassey the warrior]

I think we can't know how the team will perform based on last year. If we play the way we did last year I think we go down as we simply don't score enough goals. We cannot expect Mitrovic to get so many and need others to chip in.

We need to be more willing to play counter attack and get balls in the box quicker in order to score more often. We also can't expect to be given as much time on the ball, so we will much better off the ball movement if we're going to play a possession game.

I expect to see us adapting our game this season.

[Statto]

Yeah we still need a starting LCB but you're mad/ignorant if you don't recognise that our defence is massively improved from the last time out - Areola, Hector and Tete are all big upgrades on what we had, while Bryan is better (and we have actual cover for him) and in Reed & Lemina (potentially with Luis too) we've got a lot more defensive ability in midfield. We're going to be a lot harder to beat than last time.

The counter may be that we're not as good going forward, but we weren't very good at that last time either. Schurrle scored some crackers yeah, but was pretty hopeless in general play, had no stamina and went missing the second half of the season. By the time Babel came in we were already relegated. Realistically Sess and Vietto didn't add much.

Good post, broadly agree with that