Fulham Head Coach Scott Parker addressed a range of topics in Thursday’s pre-Leicester City press conference.
Fans potentially returning to matches…
“It’s a breath of fresh air. It’s what we all want. It’s what the fans want, certainly us as a team we want nothing more than for the fans to come back into stadiums, so that news in terms of where we are in London is perfect. Fans are why we play the game, so it’s good news and hopefully we’re on an upward curve now.”
Leicester City…
“They’re a very good side. Brendan [Rodgers] has done a fantastic job there. They’ve got a lot of quality in their ranks and it will be a tough game for us. Another tough game. We understand that, but as always, these are the challenges that we embrace this year. It’s a challenge that we look forward to. This is why we worked as hard and as relentlessly as we did last year to get out of the Championship, to play in these sorts of games every week.”
How close Fulham are to clicking…
“I feel as a team we’re going in the right direction. It’s the fine margins, it’s the nous sometimes in this league. You can’t afford to lose a minute of concentration in this division. You can’t afford to be the wrong side of someone or to make individual errors, because you get punished. At times this year we’ve fallen short on that in terms of understanding. But in saying that, I think anyone who watches us play who has half a clue on football, will see where some of our deficiencies are, but will see clearly where we are as a team, what we’re doing, and how good we are at times. That takes courage with the way we play, and we’ve caused many teams a lot of problems. I feel we’re definitely on the right track.”
Penalties…
“We’re practising, but we always practise penalties. We’ll put a process in place and work out who we think is best equipped to take the penalty. It’s down to who feels the most confident, who feels that they can step up, and we’ll work from there. That will decided in the weeks and days leading into games. A decision on the penalty taker will never be taken on the spur of the moment.”
Kenny Tete…
“Kenny came in, played the first couple of games and got an injury. It was disappointing and when you miss a quality player you want him back as quick as possible. But you have to be careful, be sensible with that decision and not rush. As soon as he’s ready and in a fit enough state to come and add his quality and help us, that decision will be made. He’s just slowly coming back into training with us now, albeit modified training. He’s been working hard with the rehab department, he’s on the right track now and I can’t see it being too long.”
You can watch the broadcast section of Scott's Presser below.
