Fulham head coach Marco Silva is braced for another tough battle at Huddersfield this week – but insists his side have bounced back quickly from the disappointment of only drawing with Middlesbrough on the opening weekend of the season.
The Portuguese head coach admitted both he and his players were frustrated by only picking up a point on Sunday at Craven Cottage – but told FFCTV this afternoon that they have put this setback to one side and are concentrating on trying to take all three points home from the John Smith’s Stadium on Saturday.
It’s something that we have to be able to do. Of course, it was a disappointing result because we didn’t win the game. We deserved more from the game. I think we were the dominant team for almost all the game – we had enough chances to kill the game before they equalised with their only shot on target. That’s football. We’ve analysed the game and they reacted in the normal way. We have focused on the next game this week.
Silva expects another stern test of Fulham’s Championship credentials against the Terriers this weekend and believes he has a good idea of how Carlos Corberan will want to play.
“I think Carlos has his own style. Maybe his past has influenced him – maybe Bielsa has had an influence as well – but we can see that this is a team that like to press high all of the opponents, that likes to play with quality. I think it will be a tough game against a good side in my opinion. A team that likes to play, has a clear idea to play and is also a tough team for the opponent as well. It is up to us to play with his quality and answer in the way we want.
“Our focus we will on ourselves. They had some issues last week, we had some ourselves – not covid – but we had a number of players not in the squad last. They are important players for us. Set pieces will have a big impact in all the matches. They scored from a good free-kick from a wide position. It is up to us to be focused in that moment and it is for us to respond.
“They are trying to get their team stronger. They have quality in some moments of their game. It’s clear what they are try to do with the ball. It is up to us to be strong in all the moments of game, with the ball, bring our quality and try to do what we expect to win the game.
The Fulham boss confirmed that Tom Cairney, Terence Kongolo and Maxime Le Marchand will definitely miss the trip to west Yorkshire, whilst midfielder Harrison Reed remains doubtful after only returning to full training after an ankle problem this week.
“Unfortunately for us, we don’t have good news until now about some of the them. Harrison Reed is still in doubt. All the others Tom Cairney, Kongolo, Max as well, they are still out.”
