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Wednesday Fulham Stuff - 04/11/20...

Started by WhiteJC, November 03, 2020, 10:20:03 PM

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WhiteJC

Scott Parker says Fulham must take 'risks' and find a different style to secure wins in Premier League

The Cottagers' last home win in the top flight came in April 2019

Fulham manager Scott Parker accepts his side will have to take risks this season after they secured their first Premier League victory of the campaign with a dominant 2-0 win over West Brom.

Parker's team moved clear of the relegation zone as goals from Bobby Decordova-Reid and Ola Aina inside the first half-hour gave the hosts a decisive lead at Craven Cottage and the Baggies found no way back.

The result pushed their winless opponents Albion into the bottom three, and Parker believes the Cottagers can continue to improve.

When asked about Aina's powerful strike from outside the area, Parker said: "Great strike. It's something we've spoken about since the start of the season really, the way we played last year and the way we're going to have to play this year is probably a little bit... different in the sense that we're going to have to take risks a little bit.

"We're going to have to put balls into the right area and I think we are number one for crosses in the division, but certainly shots in and around the box we're going to have to take a bit of risk and Ola did that - he took a shot and it's flown into the top corner, so that was pleasing."

Centre-back Joachim Andersen was made to wait for his Fulham debut after sustaining an injury just days after joining the club last month on loan from Lyon, but his first start coincided with a clean sheet, and he feels it is important now for the team to kick on.

Andersen told FFCtv: "It's really important [to take momentum into next game]. We need to believe that we have something to do. We played a great game and also in the other games I don't think we did too bad, we just missed that last little touch and we had that today so we must continue to do that."

West Brom manager Slaven Bilic was critical of his side after their defeat, singling out just two players – Conor Gallagher and Branislav Ivanovic – for praise.

Bilic said: "I saw tonight a young kid Conor Gallagher and I saw Branislav Ivanovic. A very young guy and an older guy – they had more commitment.

"That's not good when you can see two players that are doing more than the others and it looked to me like that and it can't be the case.

"This is the league and we are the team that can't rely on quality only, we have to dig in and work hard like we have done, especially in the last couple of games. If we can't do that, we have no chance."

The Baggies boss continued: "I don't question the commitment... I've said it looked really good [in previous games].

"I am talking about tonight and what it looked like, we did not have it. We were not good enough."

PA



https://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/premier-league/fulham-news-premier-league-wins-west-brom-scott-parker-joachim-andersen-b1560290.html

WhiteJC

Captain Tom

How good did it feel this morning waking up after our first Premier League win of the campaign? Sport is special like that. It can be a complete mood changer, both for the good and the bad. Unfortunately this season hasn't brought us much joy so far, so boy did we need that last night! The first win of a campaign can arguably be the most important. It gets us off the mark and, in this case, takes us above the relegation zone for the first time all season. Some of the joy is back at the Cottage.

Now we can't be getting ahead of ourselves. West Brom were the poorest side that we have played against this season. Bar a couple of opportunities that we pretty much handed them on a plate, they made nothing going forward and they didn't really test our defence at all. Always the optimist though, I tend to say one of the reasons that they were so poor is because we didn't let them get into their flow. Remember that this was a side that scored three goals against Chelsea earlier in the season so they do have some threat! As for Fulham though, I thought that to a man we were brilliant. While our defence wasn't tested too much, I thought that when called into action our new centre back pairing of Tosin Adarabioyo and Joachim Andersen were solid while Aina and Robinson both had a part to play in the goals. It was Robinson's deep cross to Mitrovic that allowed our front man to set up BDR for the opener and just minutes later it was Aina who nearly burst the net with his pile driver with his weaker foot.

There were lots of brilliant performances last night. The already mentioned Robinson had his best game in the Fulham shirt, while Mitrovic may not have found the back of the net himself, he did set up both goals. He was a handful for the Baggies defence and they just couldn't contain him. Andersen came in for his debut and while he wasn't hugely tested, he looked extremely calm in there. Just what we needed, but there will be bigger challenges ahead. For me though, the standout man was Tom Cairney. I don't think I'm overexaggerating by saying that Cairney's performance last night was the best I have seen from him in a few seasons. While he has been decent so far this campaign, last night he was like a man possessed! From the first minute every time he was on the ball he was looking forward either to pass or to drive himself. Recently we have had to watch as one of our most talented midfielder has frustrated us a bit with some unadventurous play. Playing in a deeper role hasn't suited him and he had been caught out defensively a bit. This hasn't necessarily been his fault as that isn't at all his favoured position and I'm so glad that Parker has seen the light and played him in that number 10 role last night. And oh how he repaid his managers faith! He was involved in everything good last night and the Baggies had to resort to cynical fouls to stop him. His decision making was spot on and it was so refreshing to see him drive forward instead of passing backwards. When he is on form he is so hard to get the ball off. This was like watching prime Cairney from our first promotion year and if we are to stay up, we need more performances like that from him. It's imperative that Parker keeps him in that number 10 role. He just isn't as effective in the deeper role, but when played behind the striker in the hole he can hugely impact our results.

It looked like the shackles were off for Cairney, and therefore the whole team, last night. It was wonderful to watch us not only win, but to look so comfortable. Yes, there were a couple of mistakes that might be punished against better teams, but all in all we controlled the game from start to finish. We move onto West Ham now with confidence. Play like we did last night and we give ourselves every chance of coming away with another three points.

#COYW


https://hammyend.com/index.php/2020/11/captain-tom/