The change in atmosphere at Craven Cottage

Over the past few months Craven Cottage hasn't been the happiest of places to be.

There's been boos at pretty much every game under Claudio Ranieri, especially at full time, while fans had turned on the Italian and mocked his substitutions and decisions during matches.

What a difference it was on Sunday in Scott Parker's first game in charge of Fulham.

It might be have been a defeat for the caretaker boss, but every player put in a shift and were applauded off by the Fulham faithful come the end of 90 minutes, while during the game the fans were behind them - an atmosphere I've not seen for a few months.

It's what Parker wants to achieve at least by the time May comes - reconnecting the fans with the team and he took his first steps in achieving that on Sunday during the defeat to Chelsea.

There will be hard times to come for sure, but there's already been a noticeable change in the fans' perception of the team after the performance they put in under Parker.

Scott Parker's first line-up and style of play

It was probably one of the more eagerly anticipated starting XIs of the season - who would Parker play in his first game as manager?

As it turned out, he kept the same team from Ranieri's last game in charge in the defeat to Southampton apart from one change, bringing back in Ryan Sessegnon for Andre-Frank Zambo Anguissa and going 4-2-3-1 with Tom Cairney in the middle.

Kevin McDonald kept his place in the side too, providing the leadership that the team have lacked somewhat this season and a vocal voice in the middle of the park.

In terms of the style of play, it was a mix between Slavisa Jokanovic's expansive attacking style and Ranieri's more conservative tacts, just like Parker said it would be on Friday.

There was an emphasis on keeping their shape defensively and not sacrificing defence for attack, especially with the full backs, but when Fulham got the ball there was a speed to overload the box and get into good positions that has been missing.

Cairney said after the game that it was going back to what Fulham are comfortable doing and doing best and it's true - they looked far more comfortable out there than they did under Ranieri.

The pace of Fulham's attack

That leads me nicely onto Fulham's attack and the speed at which they did it.

It was something we saw a lot of under Jokanovic in the last year - when Fulham were in possession through Cairney they would immediately look to get forward as quickly as possible, either through the wing backs or by using Aleksandar Mitrovic as a focal point.

It wasn't as attacking as that under Parker, but once either McDonald or Calum Chambers won the ball in the middle, Mitrovic, Sessegnon, Ryan Babel and Cairney were already on the move, looking to get into forward positions to do damage to Chelsea.

It was of stark contrast to Ranieri who would pump it long to Mitrovic and then use him as a platform to build on at the top, before trying to get it out to the wingers who would then whip a cross in.

This suited Fulham far more - they moved the ball well in advanced positions and troubled Chelsea's backline.

But it wasn't just one-dimensional either, they mixed it up when under pressure at the back and knew that Mitrovic was more than capable of winning the ball further forward, but importantly that wasn't the go-to outlet.

Parker has only had the team a couple of days so I was surprised at how quickly the side reverted to his tactics, but it wasn't revolutionary stuff from the caretaker - just more tailoring it to suit his players who he has known for years.

Tom Cairney's influence

Why Ranieri either left Cairney on the pitch or played him out on the wing will be one of those questions in life that can never really be answered.

But he was back in his favoured central position under Parker and he had his best game of the season against Chelsea where he controlled the match for Fulham and looked very good on the ball.

He got a standing ovation when he was subbed off for Luciano Vietto from the fans and you could tell that the captain was a happier man altogether on Sunday.

Cairney was comfortable on the ball, picking it up in advanced areas and then picking passes to get Fulham moving forward.

It was a creative and confident display from Cairney, something we should've seen more of this season had he not been played in the wrong position.

This wasn't a revolution, it was a small step in reclaiming an identity

Nothing Parker did yesterday was revolutionary.

He didn't come in and reinvent the wheel or create a new style of football that we'll now start referring to as Parker-Ball or something like that.

All he did was play players in the right positions, give them a confidence that they can play football and make them believe in themselves again.

McDonald added a voice while Cairney added the ability to pull the strings, Sessegnon was played on the wing and caused problems with his pace while Mitrovic was allowed to play on the last man and give him a headache all match.

Most people who watch Fulham every week could've told you where Ranieri was going wrong, but Parker has come in and addressed those problems immediately.

He wants his side to reclaim the identity they had last season and to get people talking about the Fulham brand rather than what most of the conversation is at the moment.

It was small steps into his first job in senior management - but for me, the job is Parker's to lose.


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