Marco Silva insists his Fulham side are in a position to fight for European qualification – and he intends to ensure the Whites battle until the very end of the season.
Silva’s side face a tricky trip to AFC Bournemouth – a fellow contender for the continental qualification spots on Monday night – but will be buoyed by their brilliant victory over league leaders Liverpool last Sunday. The Fulham boss was realistic about the Cottagers sitting eighth in the top flight, dismissing a reporter’s question about whether he was dreaming of qualifying through the league spots during this afternoon’s press conference:
“It’s not a question of dreaming. We are not here to dream, we are here to look for the reality. If you have a chance to fight for something, you are going to fight. Dreaming can be for our fans because of the love they have for the football club. We are in a position that allows us to fight, we have a reason to fight, and we are going to do it. We are in a position to fight, whether you achieve it or not is another thing, but we are able to fight for something that is important to the club to achieve. We are not going to hide; we are going to fight.”
The Portuguese head coach is full of admiration for the job Andoni Iraola has done at Dean Court since taking charge of the Cherries and knows that Fulham will be in for a tough test against top quality opposition. He played down the importance of Bournemouth being on a six-match winless run.
“Bournemouth are always in and around us in the table, sometimes us above, sometimes them above,” he said. “The competition in those places is so tight. Not a big number of points between ninth, eighth, seventh, sixth, fifth. It’s so tight and with one or two results you are in a great position, and with one or two other results you can drop position. That’s the reality of the Premier League right now.
The games against them are always really tight, competitive and most of the time, open games with goals. We know what kind of approach they’re going to have. We know they’re coming from a really difficult run of results and they want to react from it. They will be at the top of their motivation to break that bad run of results, playing at home with support from their fans.
But they will be playing against a Fulham side who wants the same. We want to keep the momentum. They are a good side, very well-managed, but they are going to face a Fulham side capable of punishing them too.”
