Marco Silva expects Marco Silva to make life ‘very difficult’ for Fulham on Monday night and believes the Blades could make the Championship play-offs if they can continue their improvement under new boss Paul Heckingbottom.
Having won at Reading in what proved to be former Fulham head coach Slavisa Jokanovic’s final game in charge, United have picked up maximum points from Heckington’s first two fixtures at the helm. Silva is fully aware of the quality within the Blades squad and knows that they will provide a stern test of Fulham’s promotion credentials at Craven Cottage.
“It’s a very difficult game, no doubts. Not just because they have shown good form in the last few games and they’ve achieved good results, which will definitely have boosted their confidence. One of your colleagues asked me some weeks ago about the contenders to be promoted, contenders to be in the play-offs.
Of course there are other teams at the top of the league, six, seven teams at the top of the league, and I said that in my opinion there will be one or two more around, and one of those teams that has picked up is Sheffield United. I know the quality they have, the individual quality they have, players that know this competition very well, and the Premier League as well. I’ve played against some of them in the Premier League and I know their quality, I don’t have doubts about it.
If they are achieving good results, their confidence is in a different level now, and if they are more confident then they are more difficult to beat. It will be a tough game for us, but I am 100 per cent sure that it will be really tough for them as well. We have to make things really difficult for them, they will come here to match us, but playing at Craven Cottage with our fans behind us, we want to keep this unbeaten run, but we want to take three points.”
