Marco Silva saluted a superb effort from his Fulham side after the Whites blew away promotion rivals West Bromwich Albion in the early kick off at Craven Cottage.
Aleskandar Mitrovic scored a hat trick to take his tally to eighteen goals in fifteen matches and the Fulham boss was delighted with the manner of his side’s commanding victory. Silva told his post-match press conference:
“I am really pleased, not just because we won the game, the way we won. I told my players after the match that they were brilliant. Everything I asked them, our plan, they did it in the way we prepared, and they enjoyed it. We knew before the match, we analysed out opponent, we knew they had a strong part and a weakness, and in their strong part we did really, really well. We deal with them, they are physical.”
The way we scored the first two goals. The way we worked to start to challenge all the moments, the way we pressed them. The first goal started from a moment we pressed them, a fantastic reaction from Denis, we pressed in the second goal from Bobby. It was a very good afternoon for us, congratulations for our players, they were brilliant, and our fans as well. Now it is a moment for us to rest and prepare the next one.
Silva was especially pleased with a third consecutive clean sheet.
“Again, we scored three goals, but for me doing it with a clean sheet, I am delighted. They know how important it is for me as a manager, how it is important for us as a team as well. We are an offensive team; our idea is clear what we are building here in this football club. But for us to play, to be comfortable in the game and in all situations, we have to be balanced.”
Great 3 points! You could sense that the players were up for this right from kick off. We have sacrificed some of our fluency but more than made up for it with our grit and determination.
Credit to Marco Silva. He had the team primed perfectly and had a tough decision to make in team selection: Cairney or Reed? For me, when you need to dig deep, there’s no better player than Harrison Reed to have in your side so I feel that Silva made the right choice.
Our centre backs were superb and the loss of Tosin is a major blow. Who comes in? Mawson not on the bench but Hector was so another big decision for Silva-especially as I feel the Blackburn game will, genuinely, be our toughest test of the season.
What can you say about Mitro? 3 more to add to his tally in an incredible start to the season. God help us if he gets injured though. Muniz, in yet another mini appearance, doesn’t fill me with confidence. I am unsure what benefit can be accrued from a 5-10 minute run out every week.
I was really hoping that Reading would perform against Bournemouth but, incredibly, Bournemouth continued their run with another win. As much as I hate to say it, credit to Parker and his team. This is building nicely to the day they come to the Cottage.