Marco Silva has reiterated that the squad strength at Fulham creates competition that can only boost the club’s promotion hopes.

The Fulham head coach believes that the quality at his disposal will be vital in the latter stages of a gruelling Championship season. During his pre-match press conference ahead of Reading’s visit to Craven Cottage, Silva downplayed any suggestion that Fulham’s fringe players may be frustrated by a lack of playing time.

“I don’t know why Joe [Bryan] has to be frustrated, or [Neeskens] Kebano has to be frustrated or Marek [Rodak], Alfie [Mawson] or any of the others. As a manager, I see things in a different way. You can’t have just one player for each position if you want to get better every day.

Silva stated that he feels the battle between Bryan, who started in Wednesday’s win over Birmingham, and American international Antonee Robinson for the starting left-back berth is pretty evenly matched.

“For Joe to grow he needs someone to push him, and for Jedi to grow you need someone who is able to compete as well. I don’t see big, big differences between Joe and Jedi. And remember the away win at Millwall was one of our best performances of the season.”