Fulham head coach Marco Silva slammed Fulham’s lack of fight as the Whites suffered a shock League Cup exit at the hands of Crawley Town last night.
Kevin Betsy’s side fully deserved their 2-0 victory over Premier League opposition – and nobody would have guessed there were 84 places between the protagonists at the Broadfield Stadium.
Silva, who made ten changes from Saturday’s dramatic derby victory over Brentford, told his post-match press conference:
“It was a bad performance, definitely, and of course the result as well. It puts us out of a competition that we wanted to win. Congratulations to them, from the first minute they wanted it more than us, and after that we lost a little bit of control in the game, started to make some mistakes, and they scored, which made it more difficult for us.
I tried at half-time to change some things, and we started the second half in the worst way possible. We tried to do something different, and we made the same mistakes. But that’s football. These types of games, we have to show the same enthusiasm, the same intensity that we saw from our opponent.
We know that when they play against a Premier League club it’s an opportunity for them to show that they can match us. It’s a normal situation. I’m not talking about the attitude of my players. It’s just reading the game, to know what’s happened, taking the best decisions, is something that we didn’t do, which created these problems for us. Unfortunately we are out of the competition, now we have to analyse it with the players, and look to the next one.”
What a disgrace!
Mbabu, Diop, Duffy and Cairney should all be ashamed.
Only Rodak and Stansfield came out of that disaster with any semblance of credit.
Bryan played his final half game for Fulham. So long Joe.
Why on earth we gave Francois a new contract is incredible. He is NEVER going to make it at Fulham.
As for Chalobah, he was awful last season and, obviously, nothing has changed. PLEASE do NOT play him in the Premiership EVER!
Just highlighted the huge lack of depth in our squad.
We can’t just forget it and move on, do our best to cover over this mess by saying we played kids and second string players. This lot have to return to Motspur with their tails between their legs. The divide between our “elite” players and those who will NEVER be good enough or are past their sell by date will only widen further. Not what we need going into such an important game on Saturday.
Marco Silva said he wanted to win this competition. How exactly? Hope Crawley got the date wrong?
Diop was a disgrace worst debut i can remember. No wonder West ham wanted to get rid of him. A lot of the senior players did not turn up. Chalobah as i said last season is a total waste of space and not sure what Silva sees in Francois. The only plus side was the performance of Rodak without who the defeat would have been greater and Stansfield who completly lacked any suopport
What are we paying Knockaert, Cav and Onomah for if they aren’t even used in a League Cup game? I know they have their faults and are probably on their way out but playing them might have avoided the EMBARRASSMENT I had to endure last night
A Complete disgrace we should have had enough Quality in our so called second string to beat Crawley but this shows we have not as mentioned Rodak and Stansfield were the only pluses Whyis Chalobah wearing a Fulham shirt that’s got to be the worst performance from a Fulham player I have seen for a while what does Silva see that we can’t I am not even going to mention the back four were they there very worrying if Diop Duffy andMbabu play like they did the worry lines are showing again
I know it’s immensely frustrating but let’s not go doom and gloom too readily. Remember, when Mbabu and Cairney came on against Brentford they gave the team fresh legs and changed the course of the game. I agree we deserve commitment and fight from the players but sometimes shit happens! Agree we need to strengthen though as no replacement for Paulinha or Mitro.
In Dan’s earlier report on last night’s game I was critical of our side and failed to give credit to Kevin Betsy for doing such a good job on us. KB is starting to fulfil his potential always thought he would be a good manager just needed the time and the right place, good luck for the future at Crawley.
Charles your assessment is once again spot on.
One game with a lot of youth and players needing game time, a total mish mash of a side always a dodgy thing to do but how high on the season list of priorities do you think this competition was, get real and move on especially as our history I this Cup has always been appalling
This has proved the only match that I was not able to get tickets for that I am not left disappointed by not being there. First of all: well done to Kevin Betsy and his squad. I am of the opinion that Marco, who has had to put up with the on/off transfer style of Tony Khan, is trying to show that our squad is not ‘deep enough’. We had to put up with Felix Magarth’s attempt at playing talented reserves against seasoned Championship defences in the past (and I won’t mention the “You want to put some cheese on that!). You look at the squads of other teams and we are just ‘along for the ride’. Look at what David Moyes is doing at West Ham – that should be our aim – steady improvement. I know that we are not Man City or Chelsea, but ‘a girl can dream’.
A proper full-time (non Khan) Director of Football, who WORKS WITH Marco is badly needed. If we start picking up injuries (or suspensions) to our midfielders the feelings of deja vu are going to be overwhelming but could be avoided.
I totally agree with Charles and this just goes to showhow poor our squad is I dread to think what will happen in the premiership if Diop makes that many fouls and yellow cards,no wonder Moyes got shot of him Chalobah is crap and we need to get rid of him and hurry up and get some proper players in, pay the asking price TK we have to many players that are not good enough for the premiership.
Fans understandably upset but one team played very well, as much as one played badly. Kevin Betsy is rightly building his rep as a very progressive and intelligent manager – watch him go from strength to strength in his career, I’m sure Fulham fans will all wish him well! I’d love cup run but without the squad depth we need we don’t need the extra games right now – blessing in disguise until a bit more genuine quality comes in.
Typical Fulham. The more seasoned pro have had very little game time and as for the youngsters just too many at one time. You cannot change 10 players without a knock on. Cairney and Mbabu did change the game on Saturday. I was not there last night but the result was embrassising to say the least. If the ones to be sold are not sold yet then why didn’t they play??? Wholesale changes to a team generally don’t work… l get it that we are saving the squad for the next few games but if you want to progress in a game and keep confidence going then this was not the way to do it. Totally agree with Charles’s comments.
The match was a joke from start to finish. You can put the ref in that category also, he allowed Crawley players to fake injury and cramp, even the goalkeeper going down with cramp. No excuses, but Fulham looked like 11 strangers playing together for the first time, compounded by TC’s crap corner kick which underlined a woeful performance or lack of one all round.
After the euphoria of Saturday we now have the embarrassment of Crawley. I will start of by saying why did we not include Cavelero, Knockhaert and Onaham we are still pay them top wages and it would have been an opportunity to put them in the shop window. They might have shone tomimpress. Diop was awful if that’s the best he con play then we could have saved ourselves £15 million by retaining either Hector or Mawson. His lack of effort was also a negative factor. I have been saying all last season Chalobah is a waste of time. i have not seen him have even a half decent game in a Fulham shirt. Francois has not proved he was worth his jew contract. There were two exceptions Rodak, I am still not sure who should be our number one goalkeeper. Also,praise for Stansfield who looks the real deal