Scott Parker’s press conference was dominated by two key incidents from the narrow defeat to West Ham. The Hammers’ opener, and the penalty miss.
“It’s so raw and my emotions are disappointment and anger,” he admitted. “Ade [Lookman] is a young player and you make mistakes; you need to learn by those. That’s where Ade is tonight. Anyone can miss a penalty but if you decide to take a penalty like that it needs to hit the back of the net. He needs to understand that, he’s been fantastic since he’s been here.”
Parker doesn’t doubt the young winger will come back stronger following the spot-kick, trusting in the strong character he sees before him.
“The character in him will need to dust himself down and learn from tonight and not hide. Ade’s made a mistake tonight: not because he’s missed the penalty but when you take a penalty like that in that moment of the game you put yourself on show.
“He’ll bounce back well; I know he will. He’s an unbelievable character. A great pro who wants to learn. The team will get around him, we move on. It’s a young team with young players who are learning. We need to learn fast and keep improving.”
The 40-year-old called for clarity on the offside rulings of the game. Sebastien Haller had appeared to ghost into an offside position in the build-up to the opener. A ruling Parker addressed.
“There’s two talking points tonight,” he continued. “The first is the penalty miss. The other is the first goal. Haller is in an offside position. My centre half has had to react and head the ball. We have every gadget in the game. VAR, offside, I’m not sure many people know the exact offside rule. I played the game for a long time; I am now a coach who coaches a backline to catch people offside.
“I understand if Haller is 20-yards away from my defender and not influenced him. But my defender cannot take the risk of leaving the ball and hoping the flag comes. Haller is offside. The goal comes from that. We probably need a bit of clarity. Two weeks ago, we had to change the rule on handball because we were having to tearing up textbooks on how to defend. That’s how offside is going. I don’t understand how Haller isn’t interfering with play.”
The international break now intervenes into Fulham’s season with Everton providing the next test. The Head Coach saluted how far his side have come in such a short space of time.
“At the start of the season we had some tough results. After deadline day there has been some continuity with lots of improvement. The fine margins of football were there tonight. I’m impressed with where we’re going and there’s still lots to improve on. We’ll go to the training ground, work on errors and keep on pushing and working harder.”