Aggressive defending has been key for Fulham, says Parker

Fulham have reaped the rewards of having a more aggressive defence, says Scott Parker.

The Whites kept their fifth clean sheet out of 12 in all competitions at Brighton in a 0-0 draw on Wednesday night.

And considering they are in the bottom three after shipping early season goals for fun, that’s a decent return.

At every dead ball against Albion, Fulham kept a high line with two banks of zonal marking.

Head coach Parker insists it’s the way forward if the club is to hang on to its Premier League place.

He said: “We’ve got better defensively and been able to put more pressure on the ball higher up the field, and if you want to be higher up the field you need your back line to be more aggressive.

“You need to narrow the space between the lines and step up the pitch.

“Over the last nine or 10 games it’s certainly something we worked on a lot.

“As a unit, we’ve defended as a real group a lot, lot better. The keeper has been excellent and that back five has been resilient.

“There’s constant work on body shapes, body positions – and that’s the sort of stuff that’s made a difference.”