There were parts of Monday evening’s match that pleased Scott Parker, but he confessed that the defending was not up to scratch.
Fulham had more possession and efforts on goal than Aston Villa, but three lapses at the back meant the visitors left Craven Cottage with a 3-0 victory.
“In terms of defending, yeah we weren’t good enough tonight,” Parker admitted. “We’ve not been good enough for the first three games this season, and we need to address that. It’s an area that I think everyone at the football club can see.
“There were a lot of positives from tonight, I thought we played very, very well and dominated for large parts, but the first time they went into our box they scored a goal, second time they scored another goal.
“You can’t give up goals the way we did in this division and expect to win football matches. We put in numerous crosses tonight and got up to their goal pretty well, but their two centre-halves defended it.”
The Club’s plans to reinforce the squad in the centre-back area have been well documented, and Parker reaffirmed his desire to get some new faces in.
“We need to work out if we want to compete this year, otherwise it’s going to be a tough year,” he said. “This team needs to evolve, this team needs to get better and get stronger. And to do that, we need players in.
“That would give us a chance to be successful. If not, we’ll work like we have worked and we’ll try and improve things and try and keep pushing along.
“But it was the same the last time we were in this division, and I certainly learnt from that.”