Team Focus: Astute Symons Looking for More from Leaky Fulham

How to explain Fulham. In the space of four days they went from being torn apart by Wolves to convincingly beating the leaders, Derby. Kit Symons, their likeable manager, seemed at a loss to explain their inconsistency in the aftermath of the 2-0 victory over the Rams at Craven Cottage on Saturday.

Symons has an impressive squad – players of international quality combined with some youngsters with bags of potential – but managing a steady run of positive results, let alone performances, seems unattainable. Beating Derby moved them eight points clear of the bottom three and they are unlikely to go down but they should be battling for a playoff position rather than stuck in the lower regions of the table.

That was only their first win in 10 and now they face a difficult trip to Watford on Tuesday before hosting Bournemouth on Friday night. A similar level of performance should spring another surprise on teams in the running for promotion but the jury will remain out on whether they are capable of doing that. Watford hit five without reply at Craven Cottage earlier in the season and few would expect Fulham to get anything at Vicarage Road. Then again, Derby also hit them for five before Saturday’s reverse.

“We’ve been playing well during that run of not winning,” Symons said after Saturday’s win. “We have been playing good football and creating chances but it has been frustrating because we can’t get it all together.”

One problem is that his best player is unable to play 90 minutes every week. Scott Parker was in stunning form against Derby, having not featured against Wolves, but by the hour mark the 34-year-old’s legs were weakening. Ten minutes from time he was taken off to a standing ovation with nothing else left to give. “He sets the tempo for the team,” Symons said. “He is a great example to the younger players.”

Another is the amount of defensive errors – lapses of concentration and brain melts – that have damaged them throughout the season. Symons said they have “conceded too many cheap goals” due to “isolated incidents that have cost us dearly”. They have the fifth highest total of shots conceded per game (15.5) but have conceded the second most goals (58). Only Blackpool (68) are more porous.

At the other end of the pitch, things have not quite worked out as planned with Ross McCormack, the £11m signing given the challenge of scoring enough goals to bring Fulham back to the Premier League. However, he has still reached double figures while providing another eight assists – including the cross for Cauley Woodrow on Saturday which made it 2-0 on the stroke of half-time. However, the team’s problem has not been scoring goals. They have 46, more than any other team outside of the top nine.

Only Brentford and Watford have drawn fewer games (6), and only Blackpool and Wigan, already looking doomed to relegation, have suffered more defeats (17). Yet they have one of the better possession averages (51.3%) and create plenty of chances (12.9 shots per game).

Symons is tactically astute and, refreshingly, happy to discuss such topics with the media. Far too many managers are a closed shop when it comes to revealing their plans. He went into detail at how best to target Derby after the game by describing how they had to press the visitors high up the pitch. “We looked at all the scouting reports and knew we had to do that,” he added. “Teams who sit off Derby get put to the sword. We had a game plan, stuck to it and it worked very well.”

But he needs his players to stop making silly errors. Mid-table beckons and it will have been disappointing for all concerned considering their hopes of a swift return to the top table but if Symons can keep the squad together, it would be no surprise to see them in the upper reaches of the table. “I know we are good enough,” Symons says. “And that’s why I get so frustrated when things go wrong.”

 

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