Parker Untenable?

[The Rational Fan]

The Khan's mistake was to select a manager with "Almost No Statistical History as Manager" that has a "Terrible Statistical History as Assistant Manager".

I really don't see any point in sacking the manager, unless Fulham decide to select a manager with a statistically history of success with our type of players.

[toshes mate]

Minutes before Steven Sessegnon was substituted at half time, in what seems like another era, Scott Parker repeated the word 'calm' in his ear as he took a throw in.  If the young full back's half time fate wasn't already sealed by that moment in time then his coach's breath was wasted.  Likewise, after two terrific weeks of training, to quote Parker's pre-game language two weeks running, when put to the sword his methods are not providing outcomes in games when they matter.   No amount of shouting 'faster, faster, faster' is proving to be 'better, better, better'.   No amount of energetic release of hot air from the touchline is making a difference.   Perhaps our coaches need to try something different

Controlled speed is a rather different beast compared to manic movement.  Purposeful movement as compared to let's try this exercises should have happened in training and produced improvements already.  If he hasn't realised it already then Parker is in 'this is when you either earn your money or you end up with a P45' territory and Big Daddy in the Cottage yesterday will have an itchy trigger finger at Wembley today if 'his dream team' also disappoints. 

It isn't the team that needs to bounce back after yesterday – it is Scott Parker and his coaching team who need to dig deep and understand what they are getting wrong every day of their working week when they determine what they need work on now.   When something is not delivering what is required then you have to find something that does work and that requires self- examination.  Parker needs to be much closer to resolution of his teams' problems than he is now by the conclusion of the Birmingham game next weekend because otherwise I can see amber lights turning red.  The pity of this will be that naivety in action has picked off yet another victim.

The fact we are eighth in the table is not a source of comfort unless you can believe your head coach knows what he is doing and knows exactly how to set up a winning team from this moment onward.   What worries me is I am beginning to doubt Scott Parker has any idea how to get results from the squad he has because he keeps repeating mistakes.  He knows how to keep the football but he patently hasn't shown his players how to use it.

I voted 'No' because I have already said Parker should have the whole season to prove himself.  I want him to succeed but he has to help himself out of this problem because no one else is going to do it for him.

[FFC1987]

To Snarks and Grandad. Quite frankly, the attitude displayed here by you to some posters, perfectly sums up why some people don't chat on the board often. This isn't a knee jerk reaction to one game, this is reacting to a string of poor performances and poor results against some below par, mid table to bottom 5 opposition where we've been totally out played at home. I've come on here, been supportive after every win, praised decent performances and 'unlucky' draws but here we are, grasping at straws to make an argument, pretending Parker doesn't deserve criticism or that we're playing blo**dy marvellous football and have been super unfortunate....again.

How on earth can you even suggest it's knee jerk? Typical apologist posters, shown to be wrong in their blind backing of Parker, and point to being 8th, and losing grip on both playoffs and especially top 2 after some fixtures which, to be frank, you need to win just to make playoffs.

I really do question your attitude. We really should bury our heads in the sand, praise performances like that and believe Scotty P. is an absolute genius for setting us up not so rightly against these teams and only managing to concede 3 goals at home to Hull. But hey, look at that possession. We kept the ball moving backward and sideways and had ranged shots more than anyone else. If only that was the metric to where you finish, we'd easily be winning the league........

You can bury your head in the sand but quite frankly I won't and I'll keep posting whether its a good performance, or a cra**y one. Imagine disrespecting posters like this, saying its knee jerk when in 5 games we've managed 1 win, 2 draws and 2 losses. Beggers belief. Cheers.   

[Spirit of 2000]

To Snarks and Grandad. Quite frankly, the attitude displayed here by you to some posters, perfectly sums up why some people don't chat on the board often. This isn't a knee jerk reaction to one game, this is reacting to a string of poor performances and poor results against some below par, mid table to bottom 5 opposition where we've been totally out played at home. I've come on here, been supportive after every win, praised decent performances and 'unlucky' draws but here we are, grasping at straws to make an argument, pretending Parker doesn't deserve criticism or that we're playing blo**dy marvellous football and have been super unfortunate....again.

How on earth can you even suggest it's knee jerk? Typical apologist posters, shown to be wrong in their blind backing of Parker, and point to being 8th, and losing grip on both playoffs and especially top 2 after some fixtures which, to be frank, you need to win just to make playoffs.

I really do question your attitude. We really should bury our heads in the sand, praise performances like that and believe Scotty P. is an absolute genius for setting us up not so rightly against these teams and only managing to concede 3 goals at home to Hull. But hey, look at that possession. We kept the ball moving backward and sideways and had ranged shots more than anyone else. If only that was the metric to where you finish, we'd easily be winning the league........

You can bury your head in the sand but quite frankly I won't and I'll keep posting whether its a good performance, or a cra**y one. Imagine disrespecting posters like this, saying its knee jerk when in 5 games we've managed 1 win, 2 draws and 2 losses. Beggers belief. Cheers.

:plus one:

[Spirit of 2000]

And I will add, lose to Brum and he 100% should be sacked immediately afterwards before international break. Hopefully the Khans are lining up possible replacements now.

[SuffolkWhite]

Birmingham have picked up 9 points in the last 5 games and will not be an easy fixture. But, we have got to start winning games as 5 points in 5 games is below what most teams are getting above and below us.

[Neil D]

This season is still salvageable in terms of the play-offs at least so I'm prepared to give Parker more time - to the Christmas break, anyway.  However, his decision to omit Knockaert surprised me.  He injects a bit of pace and a sense of urgency going forward and SP needs to find a style of play that exploits what he has to offer. 

[Spirit of 2000]

This season is still salvageable in terms of the play-offs at least so I'm prepared to give Parker more time - to the Christmas break, anyway.  However, his decision to omit Knockaert surprised me.  He injects a bit of pace and a sense of urgency going forward and SP needs to find a style of play that exploits what he has to offer.

I agree the season isnt lost ... but only if we act quickly and sack Parker & bring in someone who will get best out of players, as he isnt and has stated he wont change this diabolical over passing slow sideways and backwards style that created 1 shot from 75% possession yesterday!

[Mince n Tatties]

Preston fans wanted Neil out as they struggled at this stage last season,the club stuck by him.
Guess who's top of league tonight.

[Skatzoffc]

Three poor decisions from our manager today. Bringing Le Marchand on the wrong call - should have been Sessegnon with Odoi moving across.  Taking Bobby Decordova Reid off was inexplicable. 

Spot on. Couldn't agree more.

Agreed.
I still don't understand his fixation with promoting Onumah to the starting 11 either.

Very worrying.

[Statto]

As I said up the thread, if we lose to Birmingham we'll be in roughly the same position as we were when Symons was sacked.

Symons was sacked after losing to Birmingham, leaving us 12th with 20 pts from 16 games.

If we lose to Birmingham this week, we'll likely be around 12th with 23 pts from 16 games, with a much better squad than Symons had (unless anyone would swap Mawson and Cavaleiro for Stearman and Pringle).

The thing is, despite replacing Symons with a much better manager (Jokanovic) we still finished 20th.

So you can see the Khans' dilemma 

 

[FFC1987]

As I said up the thread, if we lose to Birmingham we'll be in roughly the same position as we were when Symons was sacked.

Symons was sacked after losing to Birmingham, leaving us 12th with 20 pts from 16 games.

If we lose to Birmingham this week, we'll likely be around 12th with 23 pts from 16 games, with a much better squad than Symons had (unless anyone would swap Mawson and Cavaleiro for Stearman and Pringle).

The thing is, despite replacing Symons with a much better manager (Jokanovic) we still finished 20th.

So you can see the Khans' dilemma 

Very different scenarios though really. This squad isn't to be frowned upon and is leaps and bounds better than Symons one as you know.

[The Rational Fan]

As I said up the thread, if we lose to Birmingham we'll be in roughly the same position as we were when Symons was sacked.

Symons was sacked after losing to Birmingham, leaving us 12th with 20 pts from 16 games.

If we lose to Birmingham this week, we'll likely be around 12th with 23 pts from 16 games, with a much better squad than Symons had (unless anyone would swap Mawson and Cavaleiro for Stearman and Pringle).

The thing is, despite replacing Symons with a much better manager (Jokanovic) we still finished 20th.

So you can see the Khans' dilemma 

One major dilemma  is whether to hire internally (i.e. promote an assistant manager) or externally (i..e hire a manager from elsewhere).

If "FFC hire the manager" internally; the tendency is for "assistant managers" not to assist the manager, but let him fail and lobby for the job themselves.

If "FFC hire the manager" externally; the new manager has the problem that he doesn't know the team and how to get the best out of them.

Parker has the job, because the people he was assisting and advising made the wrong decisions. If Parker was a brilliant assistant manager we would have got 38 points in the premier league and Slavisa/Raneri would be the head coach not him.

The other thing Parker is up against is everyone assisting him has been working hard with a dream of one day getting a chance at being the manager and he gets the chance they never got with almost no coaching experience compared to nearly all of his assistants.

[Classic94]

He should go if we lose to Birmingham. This is a squad with an embarrassment of Championship riches, being managed extremely poorly. What's the point in having 80% of the ball if we do nothing with it?

[toshes mate]

If our owners had a consistently good recruitment and retention record across all personnel matters then I fancy the Khan era would have panned out rather differently for FFC since 2013.  There have been many apparently strange choices made but that is the nature of contemporary football in England.  Getting a 'team' together and making it work often involves a lot of hard work ensuring everybody is on the same wavelength, and for 75% of clubs it ensures stable seasonal survival and not much else. It is naive, IMO, to think you can purchase success off the shelf.  Football just doesn't work that way.  You have to have the right ingredients, in the right mixture, with a skilled arm doing the stirring.  Then you have a chance of turning out a feast.  Knowing the ingredients to use is a great place to start if you want a good meal with no risk of indigestion, food poisoning or a foul taste.

[Southdowns White]

It's quite simple, if Parker doesn't change this easy to read, slow, formulaic football then Parker will very quickly find himself being changed, regardless of whether supporters want him as manager or not. The real question is Does Parker have the understanding of where and how to get the best from an on paper good team. Personally I think this obsession with possession football has has actually removed the focus on us as a team playing creative successful football. The football this season I would liken to painting by numbers, we have now been found out (most of our supporters know our very simple system) by everyone so make it easy to defend against and once we lose the ball teams are able to take advantage as we as a team don't really seem to be able to defend or contain the opposition in any part of the field. We are basically stuck with a system that does not work when we have the ball and lost when we lose the ball.

[Statto]

I hate to break it to some people but the club has spent several years cultivating this possession-based style. It's not going to change. Yes the back four can be better organised, we can stop playing inverted wingers, we can speed up our passing and movement, we can change the timing of crosses, the manager can make better substitutions etc etc but our tactics aren't going to change to anything fundamentally different (thankfully IMO)

[Spirit of 2000]

I hate to break it to some people but the club has spent several years cultivating this possession-based style. It's not going to change. Yes the back four can be better organised, we can stop playing inverted wingers, we can speed up our passing and movement, we can change the timing of crosses, the manager can make better substitutions etc etc but our tactics aren't going to change to anything fundamentally different (thankfully IMO)

No issues with passing football, just that the tempo & transition needs to be about 20 times quicker

[Luka]

I hate to break it to some people but the club has spent several years cultivating this possession-based style. It's not going to change. Yes the back four can be better organised, we can stop playing inverted wingers, we can speed up our passing and movement, we can change the timing of crosses, the manager can make better substitutions etc etc but our tactics aren't going to change to anything fundamentally different (thankfully IMO)

No issues with passing football, just that the tempo & transition needs to be about 20 times quicker

That is it summed up in one short sentence.

[TC's Sporran]

Preston fans wanted Neil out as they struggled at this stage last season,the club stuck by him.
Guess who's top of league tonight.

and a month ago hull fans wanted their manager out too.