Jol has explained his decision to give Scotty Parker the captaincy to a local paper, saying that he wanted to âease the pressure on Berbatovâ: Jol explained: âI wanted to put pressure on other people because Berbatov was captain and he is not very outspoken. Heâs quiet. Scott Parker is involved in the dressing room and he talks a lot, so I thought it was better to change captains. Scott will not necessarily stay as captain. We will have to make a decision on that if Brede is back.â Source: http://www.westlondonsport.com/fulham/fulham-boss-explains-captaincy-decision It was certianly pleasing to see Scotty Parker being given the captainâs armband and also see him lead by example on Saturday. However, Iâm going to be a tad critical about his overall performance in the role and question some of what Jol said. I appreciate that the team were trying to stick to Jolâs instructions and play a diamond shaped midfield (see the other post about that) but as Captain he should react to what is happening in real time. Just one illustration of this was how often Kasami took a position in central left midfield, marking nobody and leaving Rangel on his own wide left (their right). Consequently Richardson was completely exposed and had to contend with him and Dyer. As said that was one illustration, there were many others involving other players but the post is not to labour the failing of other players. The point is that Parker should have been shouting at Kasami to mark Rangel. He didnât seem to me to be âtalking a lotâ as Jol suggests. Scotty needs to stop being a nice guy with his team mates and take a leaf out of Danny Murphyâs book. He needs to react to the game as it unfolds, start directing the players and giving them a rollocking if necessary. PS Riduculous that the armband went to Berbatov when Parker went off. Delighted nonetheless that Scottty deigned not to hand it directly to Dimi.
