Fulham boss Parker gives verdict on debuts displays by Areola, Robinson, Tete and Lemina

BY DANIEL MARSH

Scott Parker hailed Fulham’s four debutants following tonight’s comprehensive victory at Ipswich Town in the EFL Cup.

Parker made nine changes from the opening weekend defeat to Arsenal – handing debuts to Alphonse Areola, Antonee Robinson, Kenny Tete and Mario Lemina. All four played their part, with Tete providing the assist for Aleksandar Mitrovic’s winning goal.

“I thought they did very well,” said the Whites boss when discussing the new recruits following the game.

“The keeper didn’t have a lot to do but he had a good voice and gave us a good presence. Both full-backs were outstanding. They supplied a good attacking threat with a lot of speed, supplied a lot of crosses into the box and obviously our goal came from that.

“Tete’s not been in the building for too long – he’s probably had about four training sessions. He showed a real quality about him [for the goal] so I’m really pleased. Then [Mario] Lemina and [Frank] Anguissa showed their quality, so yeah I’m very pleased with everyone.

“I’m pleased with everything. It ticked a lot of boxes tonight’s game in the sense of players who haven’t played a lot of football getting some minutes and getting some football in their legs. Getting a win and a clean sheet too and the momentum that gives makes it a good night for us.”

Parker had said before the game that it would be an opportunity to give other players who hadn’t played much football a chance to get up to speed.

Mitrovic played the full 90 minutes, whilst Zambo Anguissa impressed in an hour-long cameo to give Parker more options ahead of a weekend trip to Leeds United.

“I always pick a team at the weekend that first and foremost I feel are physically in a place to play in the hardest division in the world. You need to be physically at your best.

“As always, we’ll see how we come out of this game tonight. We’re in tomorrow – we’ll recover, see where we are on Friday and make some decisions from there. Tonight we had a lot of players out there on that pitch who showed their quality and what they’re going to bring to our team.”