Fulham Away To Stoke City

The Cottagers travel to Stoke City (and the lavish confines of the bet365 Stadium) on Saturday to take on a Potters squad that registered an away victory at Swansea before the break - we know what Fulham did. As always a point will be nice...but my hope for something more seems justified with this squad (see Charlton thread), however Fulhamish that hope may be. Parker's pre-match comments to the press were interesting. COYW

"I often speak about this team and there is one thing we need to address, and we need to change here, (and that) is the mentality,” Parker told West London Sport. “A real desire and a real urgency about us and a togetherness. That takes time. This is a team which, three months ago, was used to losing football matches, got relegated and all the negativity what comes around that. There are still some scars along the way and, ultimately, every day we work on a mentality and I see that. I want to see a team that represents myself on the sideline. I want to see a desire, a real work ethic and a togetherness and a never-say-die attitude.[FONT=Open Sans, sans-serif] [/FONT]The challenge for me, and the challenge for the players, is to keep believing in that. Instead of getting it in bits and drabs, or one 90 minutes here and another there.”
https://www.stokesentinel.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/stoke-city-fulham-scott-parker-3426746

 

The Man City of the Championship (?) guess we should have no trouble dispatching Stoke today! COYW!

https://www.skysports.com/football/...scott-parker-the-man-city-of-the-championship

 

Back from the break and Scott Parker apparently wants to score! The lineup is very top heavy. I won't be surprised if he goes with the 7-2-1 formation sometimes used in the 19-aughts.

Bettinelli
Ream, Mawson, Bryan
Knockaert, Reed, Arter, Cavaleiro
Cairney
Reid, Mitrovic

Subs: Rodak, Christie, Odoi, Le Marchand, Onomah, Kebano, Kamara

 

HT, let’s see if Parker can make adjustments cause those stats make no sense! 77% possession 1 shot none on goal for Fulham vs 23%, 7 shots, 4 on goal for Stoke, and losing 1-0.

 

And now we know why the 7-2-1 formation fell out of favor 100 years ago.

 

In times of misery you need to laugh, thanks Micah!

 

Might as well give Joka another bite of the apple. At least we know he can win in this league. Scotty’s just not getting it done.

 

I’ve been saying for a bit now the tactics are broken. We have one style of play and the league has it figured out.

 

I watched the game and have no desire to see the highlights, but in case anyone feels like they are too happy and need a downer, here you go:


Fundamentally I feel like Fulham was completely out-managed against Stoke. Fulham has been vulnerable to quick counter attacks and the formation used by Parker simply made that worse then Stoke took advantage. Meanwhile when Fulham had the ball they seemed only capable of going sideways. There was a lot of offensive talent available, they just didn't know how to play together especially in the first half. Things got better in the second half, but it was still a shameful use of who Fulham had on the pitch.