Fulham manager Scott Parker says he has no issue with the tight turnaround between the matches his side are playing as they face the prospect of three games in a week heading into Saturday’s visit of Chelsea to Craven Cottage.
It would have been three games in six days had the Blues not agreed to move their visit down the road to their neighbours in west London from Friday night to Saturday evening, giving both Frank Lampard and Parker a bit more preparation time.
Fulham will play a rearranged match against Spurs on Wednesday night, previously scheduled for December 30 but was postponed after an outbreak of Covid at Fulham.
Spurs were due to be playing Aston Villa on Wednesday but they are suffering an outbreak of their own so the decision was taken to play the Fulham game instead and announced on Monday.
That left Parker less than happy after his players came through a gruelling 120 minutes against QPR in an FA Cup third round tie at the weekend as Fulham laboured to a 2-0 victory in extra time.
Chelsea won’t have played for a week by the time the match comes round in west London on Saturday and Parker has only one concern heading into their double-header against two London rivals.
“The tight turnaround isn't the issue,” the manager said at a press conference ahead of the Spurs game.
“We were fortunate over Christmas. Some teams had two games in three days. I'm not upset at that.
“We can play Wednesday-Friday, Wednesday-Saturday, the issue is as a manager of a football club is the training. It would be very different to where we are now.”
Parker’s players will have, at most, two days of training ahead of their game against Lampard’s side after the game against Spurs.
Once European football returns for Chelsea with their Champions League last 16 tie against Atletico Madrid on February 23, the fixture schedule will become congested once again.
In that regard, Parker has said he is lucky that he doesn’t have to deal with that issue like Lampard did earlier in the season and will continue to do so as far as Chelsea go in the competition.
“I just think it's wrong. I keep going back, thinking 'has this happened before?'
I just wouldn't have expected it, it's wrong. It's a predicament we're all in, I'd be the last to complain, we don't play in Europe.
“The problem is the time we've been told. It's beyond belief really.”
