Fulham are back in the Premier League – and can be more confident of survival with Scott Parker focused on solidity

BY RICHARD CAWLEY
richard@slpmedia.co.uk

Fulham are back in the Premier League and maybe, just maybe, they are better equipped for it this time around.

That’s not me saying it is going to be easy. While winning promotion via the play-offs after tactically outwitting west London rivals Brentford was a thing of beauty, it also means they have the most truncated of breaks to get their squad ready for a huge test – the 2020-21 campaign starts on September 12.

But Scott Parker’s Fulham are likely to be a whole lot more pragmatic than Slavisa Jokanovic’s Fulham in the Premier League. Time will tell if it can be successful.

Jokanovic didn’t shift from his footballing principles in the top-flight but the truth is that you can’t play in the same cavalier and expansive fashion against sides with more weaponry and expect the outcome to be pretty.

You hope that lessons have been learned.

And there were many. Not least the recruitment that saw them go big on Jean Michel Seri and Andre Frank Zambo-Anguissa, who barely made an impression before they were heading out on loan after the drop into the Championship.

Fulham had a plus-33 goal difference when they last climbed out of the second tier – only champions Wolves scored more – but conceded 81 times in 38 Premier League fixtures to finish with a minus-47 goal difference.

Parker’s side have been far less cavalier than the one that exhilarated under Jokanovic in the Championship, with an onus on defensive stability high on the young head coach’s agenda.

You cannot afford to be defensively vulnerable against England’s elite. Sheffield United only scored 39 goals this season but they finished ninth. The key? They only conceded 39 goals.

Anything over the 60-goal mark puts you in the danger zone.

Parker made clear in his post-match press conference on Tuesday night that he did not want the same kind of rampant spending and overhaul as two summers ago.

One of the first deals that the Whites should be looking to do is with Southampton for Harrison Reed, excellent in that midfield anchoring role.

The permanent signings of Anthony Knockaert and Ivan Cavaleiro, initially loanees, earlier in the season felt like they were pre-agreed. If it had been based on form, I’m not convinced either would have merited keeping.

It tells you plenty that Neeskens Kebano’s renaissance in the closing weeks saw him bag five goals in five games – the same amount as the £30m-plus trio of Knockaert, Cavaleiro and Bobby Decordova-Reid managed combined in the last 24 matches.

Josh Onomah went from strength to strength in his first season at Fulham. If Parker’s eye for talent is always as shrewd as it was for spotting the potential of the powerful box-to-box midfielder, then he should be given greater input in the transfer market.

And what about the head coach? Wembley was a total triumph for the Greenwich-born former Charlton midfielder.

In the build-up the talk had largely been about Brentford. But their hyped BMW got lost on the way to this north London showpiece.

Parker had spoken about Fulham being one of the favourites for promotion a year ago, but that what is listed down on paper doesn’t necessarily translate on the pitch.

It was the same in midweek. Brentford had scored 16 more goals and conceded 10 fewer.

They had won both the other meetings of the two clubs and kept clean sheets on both occasions. But Parker and his players found a way. And that way included not bringing on 26-goal Aleksandar Mitrovic – clearly nowhere near fully fit due to a hamstring injury – until just before the end of normal time.

Managers are judged on big games and big calls. Parker got them spot on – opting for the extra pace and power of Aboubakar Kamara up top and Denis Odoi at right-back.

Fulham were the better side in normal time and handled the occasion better.

And it was left to Joe Bryan to write himself into Fulham folklore.

His 40-yard free-kick – wickedly deceiving David Raya – was a brilliant set-piece ploy worked on by the Fulham management team and executed insanely well by the left-back.

It’s rare for the Whites to leave you breathing easily. But when Bryan made it 2-0 on 117 minutes, a cute one-two with Mitrovic ending with him slipping the ball past Raya, you felt it was game over.

Thankfully Henrik Dalsgaard’s close-range header in the fourth minute of stoppage time came too late for the Championship to throw up a final piece of carnage in a division that deals in the improbable.

Fulham are back in the Premier League – with a chance to show they have learned from the mistakes made last time around.