Marco Silva admitted Fulham’s performance was rather rough and ready at Bristol City this afternoon but the Portuguese head coach was delighted to make it into the fourth round of the FA Cup thanks to Harry Wilson’s winner in extra time.
Silva, whose side have had to wait nearly three weeks for a taste of competitive football after a succession of coronavirus-related postponements, praised his players for their fortitude during his post-match press conference at Ashton Gate.
“We achieved the main goal for us, to keep playing in this competition. We give this competition all the respect it deserves. We had some problems during the last few weeks in preparation for the game, unfortunately for us we’ve not played football for a long time.”
“We knew it would be a tough game for us and them. We had a longer break and it showed to me during the match, some players struggled a little bit to keep playing in the high intensity 120 minutes. It was a typical FA Cup match, both teams trying to stay in the competition.
There were chances for both teams to score. In one moment of the second half they had a little bit more control of the game and they had some chances. In extra time we were much better and we scored. We had chances, they had chances as well and of course we are happy with the result.”
The impact of this victory and Middlesbrough’s win over Mansfield in one of the other early kick-offs means that there will be further disruption to Fulham’s league campaign, but the Portuguese head coach insisted his side will prepare for every eventuality.
“It will be tough to schedule the games for us because we didn’t request to postpone any games, but the reality is that the last three were postponed. Even with some COVID cases we didn’t request that because we knew what was to come – every three days we will play a football match. Now with the next FA Cup match, we’ll have to find another date for the Middlesbrough match as well. But it is the reality – something we can’t control unfortunately – and we have to prepare our players in the best way we can.”
We were lucky to get the extra time as we were out classed for 90 minutes and only had one shot on target,I have said before that we may have a big squad but it’s not a great squad, I thought Silva would have played our first team so as to get them up to speed for our next league game.once again we had far to many shots off target and we need to get a couple of new players in this month and get rid of some of the dead wood because if we get injuries we don’t have players good enough to replace them. We were very poor for 90 minutes.
Was getting a little bit worried the longer the game went on, but in the end we got there. Followed the game on my tablet and even though the stats weren’t the best we’ve ever had, we won in the end, thanks to the strike by Harry Wilson. So it’s onwards and upwards from here, with better performances to come,I’m sure. Well done Superwhites !!!!
This game further highlighted the paucity of quality in our squad and the real problem at Fulham FC.
Our A team have already shown that, if we achieve promotion, they are not quite good enough to compete at the highest level with only two or three having played regularly last season.
So, do we, once again, dump the players that, hopefully, get us up? Do we spend a fortune on new players or do we revert to bringing in loanees who are never fully committed?
Quite frankly, Bristol City’s second string outplayed our second string because they showed greater commitment and hard work.
If you don’t have the quality then the least we can reasonably expect is hard work surely.
But, first half, yesterday, we lacked both quality and commitment.
Our squad seriously needs careful pruning in the close season as the players who were given a chance yesterday emphasised that they are not good enough to compete at Championship level -never mind potential Premiership level,
There is another batch that didn’t even make the bench for this game. The drain on wages is truly appalling.
What’s the point of having a big squad if most of them are so lacking in ability that they can’t step up and take the opportunity when given?
Francois’s first half performance was typical of what I am talking about. I stopped counting after he gave the ball away three times in twenty minutes.
After all the talk about Quina going back to Watford, it seems that Silva gave him one last chance to show that he deserves to stay. Didn’t work. See you later.
Gazzaniga played very competently throughout and was, arguably, our best player but, lo and behold, struggled with two first half crosses which shows that he has learnt nothing since he lost his place. It was the one glaring part of his game that needed improving but he has obviously not been working on it while out of the team.
Thankfully, we had a strong bench who saw us through-by the skin of our teeth but it gives us serious pause to reflect that, of the five “A teamers” that were introduced, only one featured regularly in our Premiership team of last season.
One day we’ll get some comments from real supporters, not ones like the above who are never happy be we top or bottom. We’re doing OK this season and only been knocked off the top by teams playing when we’re not. Most team’s in the Championship would willingly swap places with us. Why look for what might be a miserable time next season and enjoy the present?