Antonee Robinson and Neeskens Kebano will be in the Fulham squad for tomorrow’s meeting with Blackburn Rovers after recovering from injury, head coach Marco Silva has confirmed.
The American full back and Fulham’s Congolese winger both missed the narrow win at Cardiff City last weekend but the pair have trained this week and Silva told his pre-match press conference this afternoon they will be ‘in the squad’ for the clash between the promotion rivals. Club captain Tom Cairney has ‘started training with the team’ after missing Fulham’s last two fixtures through illness but Silva will make a late decision on the midfielder’s participation against his former club.
Silva expects a far cagier affair this weekend than Fulham’s 7-0 stroll at Ewood Park in November.
“I believe it’s a very good test for us. We don’t look at the last result. It was a fantastic evening for us, it was really tough for them. It’s a different game with different history, I don’t have doubts about it. That is the reality, because after that great win for us and big defeat for them, what they did was fantastic.
The way they reacted and the way they collected points, the way they achieved very good results, shows their quality. For me, it shows their character as a team as well. It’s not easy to come back from a 7-0 defeat at home. I think it was the worst defeat in their history as a club, and we are talking about a big club, and they’ve shown character and quality, and the belief that they have.”
The Fulham boss believes Tony Mowbray’s men will have taken confidence from the way they beat Queens Park Rangers last weekend.
“The way they won the game, they won the game clearly against QPR. They deserved the three points, they won really clearly, in my opinion, that game, and showed again the quality and belief they have. It’s a team that plays with a lot of energy and a lot of belief in themselves. They will come here to match us, and because of that I’m saying it will be a tough one. It will be a big test for us. They are different to us, but they are good as well. They have a different approach, many times they are changing, I don’t know if they will change something, but what I do know is that they will create problems for us.
It’s a team that’s really strong on the counter attack, and when the opposition makes mistakes they can punish them because they have quality. The three players in the attack line have this quality, even without Brereton they have the quality in the attack line. Every time the opposition make a mistake or sleep a little bit, they can punish you.
It’s a game for us to be fully focused and, of course, play in our way and at our best level. I’m 100 per cent sure, if we do that, we will create chances, we will dominate the game, but at the same time we have to always have a good balance and be fully focused.”
