Luis Boa Morte was baffled by the way Fulham lost control of a game they were dominating on Saturday – as Liverpool overcome a two-goal deficit to inflict another dispiriting defeat on Chris Coleman’s side at Craven Cottage.
The Portuguese winger felt this match was the most clear cut example he’d seen of a game of two halves, with Fulham’s performance dipping dramatically in the second period. He told the club’s official website:
“We started well, scored two goals, but couldn’t manage to keep it going. It was unfortunate, but we need to keep working hard. Perhaps we didn’t get the luck, but if we aren’t getting the luck then we need to work harder. We’ve been struggling, but we’ll keep together and keep working hard.
Boa Morte emphatically denied that there was any complacency at work – highlighting Rafa Benitez’s introduction of Xavi Alonso at half time as the game’s turning point.
“You can never sit back and think a game is won. In 45 minutes a lot can happen, especially in English football. We never thought that we had it won; we knew we had to be really careful because we were playing against a very good side, a really strong side. Their manager put on Alonso in the second half and he just changed the game completely. He made a big difference for them; anybody watching the game could see that. He was a big influence.”
“The first goal was a lucky deflection for them. But afterwards we didn’t react in the proper way. We should have kept together and kept solid lines, but we didn’t and we ended up conceding three more goals. There are things that went wrong that we need to talk about. We’ve got a week now to work on the mistakes and get ready for Aston Villa next week.
Boa Morte also discounted the idea that an international break would have caused any problems with Fulham’s preparations – and called on the squad to stick together after the loss of more precious points on home turf. He remains confident that Coleman’s men will hit form again in the near future.
We shouldn’t be losing our home games – these are crucial points that we’re dropping. In the last few weeks we’ve missed some key players, but now we’re starting to see them coming back and that will make a difference. It’s not a good position that we’re in, we know that, but we’ll keep working hard and keep positive. We know that we can win games and we must focus on that.”
