Now lets push on ..

[MrFFC]

Nice set of fixtures coming up. Need the win at Luton to keep pressure on Leeds

[toshes mate]

Much has already been made of Saturday's game.  The pro- and anti- Parker camps remain equally embellished with post game arguments to further their causes.   On the one hand a win is a win especially when it is against a top team running as hot as Leeds.   On the other hand the performance was not uncharacteristic of FFC under Parker (so far) and may be reminiscent to some of the tough life in the PL last season where similar game outcomes produced glimpses of hope rather than enduring optimism.  Was it, to use Parker's word, a blip? 

There was little evidence that lessons have really been learned, since the observations of one afternoon in December has never been a reliable measure of what will unfold in the following five months.   Perhaps we will see something entirely different against Luton, and judge that to be yet another turning point in a season of ups and downs.

Parker's current seasonal Points Per Game stands at 1.65 or thereabouts and only twice has it hit the magical 2 or above, and that was a long time ago on game weeks 3 and 4. His seasonal average suggests we will finish on 76 points possibly scrapping for a playoff place, and that current average has featured largely in his figures up to now.  He seems to hover around it.  It seems on reflection to be the best we can expect of this team. 

I see no consistency on or off the field, and that is largely reflected in game outcomes.   I am also getting bored with Parker's post game rhetoric.  He needs to up his game by a considerable amount across all his duties as head coach regardless of what happens in the transfer window.   

But that, as always, is simply my opinion.

[RaySmith]

Undoubtedly an important win, and impressive performance, but we now need to build on it.

I well remember the  Brighton home game last season.
After a typically poor first half, we blew them away in the second, with Cairney and Seri firing on all cylinders, both spraying defence splitting passes around, Christie causing havoc their defence  up the wing, Mitro on fire, and a brilliant all round team performance.
We looked a different team - a far better team than Brighton, whom we'd already thrown away a victory over - getting a draw,  at the away fixture earlier in the season.

So fan hopes, well mine certainly, were up for the next game at Palace, and  for our  Prem survival. But we all know what happened next. Ranieri changed the  tactics and set up, and we  again looked forlorn and unconfident, and were pretty easily beaten.

But I'm sure Scott is fully aware of the dangers of any complacency at Luton, and the team will need to be on its full mettle, and he and his staff to apply their full degree of tactical acumen, to get a good result in this game, and all the following games.
But, as Woolly says, one game at a  time.

[colinwhite]

Of course not all our problems have suddenly been solved in one fell swoop. But nonetheless we  showed a tactical awareness in this game which suggests improvement to me. For the record Im not in the Parker "in" brigade. I do however thinks hes doing a lot better job than many people are making out, and some criticism levelled him has been ridiculous.
The players seem to be right behind him at least.

[RaySmith]

I  always get behind the incumbent Fulham manager, though, if results and performances are poor for any length of time, I'll likely begin to think that maybe  people are right, who are arguing for a  managerial change - always a difficult decision.

But I don't think Parker has done badly  really, could even say he's done well, and some of the criticism seems over the top and unjust, imo.
However,  this is probably a watershed moment for both club and manager. Will be able to push on after our  excellent victory over Leeds? and again get the results that had previously got us to 3rd place, and an unbeaten run of four games, and our players to show the potential which we all believe they have, and to play as a confident, fully functioning team unit.

I hope and believe  we can and will do this under Scott Parker, and  will continue to improve.

[RaySmith]

Of course not all our problems have suddenly been solved in one fell swoop. But nonetheless we  showed a tactical awareness in this game which suggests improvement to me. For the record Im not in the Parker "in" brigade. I do however thinks hes doing a lot better job than many people are making out, and some criticism levelled him has been ridiculous.
The players seem to be right behind him at least.

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[Matt10]

It scares some to get carried away because they don't want to be wrong. They'd rather be right, than happy. Things have to be done exactly as they want it. They need Parker to say things exactly as they want it to be said.

Matt, with all due respect not everyone that disagrees with you has some vendetta against Parker (or TK or whomever) that's preventing them from seeing the truth. You're one of the best posters on the board IMO and most of the time if you disagree with another poster I'm sure you're right and they're wrong... but sometimes you might just be wrong yourself. I'm not necessarily claiming you're wrong on this occasion but to dismiss other opinions (not only in this post but others recently) is bad form IMO.

Sorry Matt, but I think you got it all wrong. There is a difference between be happy and get carried away and this could make us not to see the forest for the trees.

It was a great and hard-fought win yesterday and all credit should go to Parker and the players. Should we be happy as fans? Absolutely. Should we celebrate? Most definitely. But if we think that the team is suddenly better now than it was on Saturday morning or that Parker is a tactical genius while before the game he "didn't know what he was doing", that's definitely getting carried away.

It has nothing to do with being right or wrong. I am sure every Fulham fan that has criticized the manager or the players even once would love to get it always wrong if that meant that Fulham wins or does well. It has to do with not judging everything because of the result, even though that's what matters at the end.

One last thing re Parker outsmarting Bielsa. Yes, Parker changed the way we usually play but still Leeds were the better team and had more chances. All managers after a big win come out with the "we studied Leeds for many games" talk, but isn't that what they are supposed to do with every opponent? I would be very disappointed if our manager only studied a few rather than all 23 of our opponents in the league. Also, I don't remember Parker (or any other manager) having ever said "we studied our opponent for many games" after a loss.

I am not trying to degrade our victory, be the devil's advocate or a WUM. I am only trying to keep a clean head, as come our next loss our players will become "not motivated enough and not giving their all" and Parker out threads will fill this place (I know - that's the life of a football fan).

Fair enough, and I apologize that it came off that way. I have a rule to not post at night because I can become a bit passionate sometimes - instead of a measured head. I believe I just get frustrated with supporters not getting behind the team and manager, especially when they make statements in such a factual tone. There are times in which we could tick all the boxes, but then someone is nitpicking how those boxes are ticked. I understand it's the nature to be skeptical of anything positive with Fulham, but I should know better than to expect that until we are truly promoted.

Bielsa said we are the best team in the championship. I know that is going to be interpreted in many positive or negative ways. I'll stick to what I do and address the tactical and logical side, because the video doesn't lie!

[toshes mate]

This is the full Bielsa quote Matt10 refers to.

[Question] Marcelo, you got the challenge you expected from [Aleksandar] Mitrovic today. How did you feel Ben White and Liam Cooper did to deal with him?

[Response] Their performance in attack described our performance in defence. Honestly, I don't want to not give value to what the opponent did, but I didn't see the opponents' attackers unbalance the game. We are talking about Cavaleiro and Mitrovic, they are maybe the most important [players] in the league. How Fulham play is [as] the best team in the league. If you analyse the statistics, they will describe the level of one team. It's clear Fulham is the best team in the Championship, but today the things the opponent created, they couldn't score with that. They had the possibility to counter attack. That is something they do well and they didn't create chances with that. The save of [Kiko] Casilla was more linked with one mistake of us than something they build. Honestly, I have to say our defence was good. In attack, even if it was a tough match, we have eight, nine, 10 chances to unbalance the match.