Fulham FC v Liverpool FCIt’s always Fulham.
In recent times, the away tie with Fulham has meant so much more than a routine match with a Premier League also-ran.*
Remember 2009? Yossi Benayoun found an injury time winner and the away fans bounced to ‘We’re going to win the league!’ for twenty minutes after the final whistle, ignoring pleas to go home on the public address system.
Remember 2011? Maxi Rodriguez’s hat-trick in an exuberant 5-2 win ignited hopes that Kenny Dalglish’s side might accelerate all the way into the European places, a true utopia after the long, dark, ’owl of the soul that had gone before.
Remember 2014? Gerrard’s penalty on that February night, his leap in celebration, his shirt held aloft like a flag of war: we were in a title race once more.
And as we know, as is etched deep and raw on our collective memory, it all came to nothing. Or to the nowhere of second place, as the great man would have it. (Or the nowhere of sixth in 2011.)
I’m writing this after the Everton away and before Burnley. When social media twitches spasmodically with ill-expressed discontent. I have no idea how the results and the hive mind will twist and yaw between my now and this match.
Fulham, of course, are in the relegation zone and highly likely to go straight back down to the Championship. Last month, their owner, the elaborately moustachioed Shahid Khan, sacked Ranieri only three months after appointing him. Alyson Rudd, in The Times, gave the reason for Ranieri’s failure as his inability to unite the squabbling factions within the team he inherited, with Aboubakar Kamara and Aleksandar Mitrovic clashing during a therapeutic yoga and meditation class. Football provides such comedic cameos.
Scott “Scotty” Parker, the caretaker, seems better able to apply a magic sponge to seething egos. But his appointment was not greeted with uniform relief by the Fulham support. Who can blame them? Parker was the assistant to both Jokanovic and Ranieri, and apparently a major figure in the day-to-day coaching of the team. The highlight of his playing career was the 2006 Intertoto Cup and his one game as England captain, appointed - to universal bafflement - by the insecure interim manager, Stuart Pearce, in preference to Gerrard.
Just one battling defeat to Chelsea later and Scott “Scotty” Parker became the favourite to get the job full-time. One strand of the support argues that Fulham are destined to lose the four games following the change of manager (Chelsea, Leicester, Liverpool, Manchester City) and ask only that they can take pride in their performance.
This standard was apparently met by their losing by only one goal to Chelsea on March 3rd. They had chances in the match and were applauded from the pitch. Their xG was 1.2 to Chelsea’s 1.4. I didn’t see the game but stats tell me they had only 36% possession, with five of their 12 shots on target and that they favoured shooting from distance. Against Leicester, they were woeful. Obviously, with such a new, untried manager there’s little to go on. As Spurs’ Under-18 manager – the only time Parker has been in charge of a team before now – he won 12 of his 25 games, preferring a 4-3-3- or 4-2-3-1, with width provided by fullbacks. He favours attacking rather than pragmatic football and claims he won’t change now, preferring to ‘reclaim the Fulham identity’, which suggests he’s given up this season as a lost cause but fancies himself as the permanent manager engineering a bounce-back from the championship. Fulham Captain Tom Cairney is his chief cheerleader and their fans are also looking forward to seeing Ryan Sessegnon restored to a regular place, though he was brought off against Leicester. He should be deeply regretting that he passed up a chance to work with Klopp.
We should be beating them and improving the goal difference. This should, again, be a match of hope, if not wild, raw optimism. So to remember another maxim that dates from recent years (and the unlikely lips of Martin Broughton): keep the faith.
IFor it seems to me that if we don’t win honours this year, they are on their way. With this manager. With this “boot room”. With everything coming together. You can sense it, can’t you?
It’s always Liverpool. And we go again.
* Apologies to any passing Fulham supporter for the description. Fulham are a venerable team, founded in 1879, but their honours are rare enough that they list their runners-up medals and semi-final appearances on their website.
Did you know?Fulham are looking for their first point against Liverpool since a 1-0 win at Anfield in May 2012.
None of Fulham’s 13 Premier League home meetings with Liverpool have finished as a draw, with the Cottagers winning five and losing eight.
Liverpool’s Mohamed Salah has had a hand in 12 goals in his last eight PL appearances against promoted sides, scoring six goals and producing six assists.
The Reds are unbeaten in their last 11 PL matches against promoted sides (W10 D1), winning the last eight in a row. They have scored 31 goals and conceded just four in that run since a 2-0 loss at Hull City in February 2017.
Referee: Craig Pawson
Assistants: Lee Betts, Richard West
Fourth official: Paul Tierney
