Verdict: Parker’s cautious tactics continue – but Carvalho offers Fulham hope for future
Fabio Carvalho became the third-youngest scorer for Fulham in the top flight, although it didn’t prevent a 19th defeat for the relegated Whites.
The teenager and his team succumbed 3-1 to Southampton, but the one ray of sunshine was the Portugal-born player.
Even so, Fulham looked like they were playing for a draw.
In fact, a deader rubber would be hard to imagine, but still Scott Parker’s mindset was to pick a team with no recognised striker.
Carvalho, on full league debut, was given the nod as the central man up top, but 18-years-old and 69kgs dripping wet didn’t suggest much of a thrust.
However, his great run and rising shot from Bobby Decordova-Reid’s smart pass was as good as anything else in a losing season that reduced the arrears to 2-1.
It offered fleeting hope, with Carvalho lively and the shape of good things to come.
He didn’t look out of place with the big boys, and there was the odd moment of tracking back, wriggling free, and a couple of driving runs, not to mention a goal, that suggests he can do more than a decent job in the Championship.
If Mario Lemina does indeed return to Southampton and Andre-Frank Anguissa moves on, Carvalho is a shoo-in for a regular slot next season, surely.
But the perennial problem of more than one goal was ever present.
Joachim Andersen’s near-post glancing header on 24 minutes found no one on the end.
Just three minutes later, Che Adams got his foot ahead of a slack Ola Aina who should have been goal side of his man.
It was an opportunistic goal, the sort Fulham don’t score, served up with a dollop of average defending.
Decordova-Reid is the Whites’ leading scorer. Indeed, he’s the Premier League’s lowest top-scorer, with five – and nothing since West Brom in January.
His hopeless swipe in front of goal that missed by a mile early on was offside, which was just as well.
But he did have a hand in two goals – including the Saints’ second, unfortunately.
He could see Kyle Walker-Peters outside him on the left and still got sucked in to the centre, but slightly behind the defensive line.
It left the Saints man all the time in the world to centre to an onside Nathan Tella to sweep home.
Parker has frequently praised Decordova-Reid’s defensive efforts this term. Yes, he really has, and not a hint of a tongue-in-cheek.
You can also read into Ademola Lookman, Josh Maja, Ruben Loftus-Cheek and Aleksandar Mitrovic on the bench as either done with Fulham, or it’s a chance for Josh Onomah and Carvalho to stake a claim.
A bit of each is more like.
Apart from the undroppable Andersen and Alphonse Areola, the under-par Aina was the only other loan player to start.
Parker clearly has clearly got one eye on the future.
In a nutshell, this was the sort of game that does nothing for anyone’s CV. Apart from Carvalho’s.
