Aleksandar Mitrovic may miss the rest of February’s football after being ruled out of Fulham’s win at Brighton and Hove Albion this afternoon, according to Marco Silva.
The Portuguese head coach revealed that the Serbian striker had missed training at Motspur Park this week after injuring his hamstring in the warm-up before last Saturday’s win over Nottingham Forest but insisted on playing – and Fulham won’t be taking any risks with their key forward.
“We assessed him during the week, with some doubt about whether to take a risk or not. The medical staff told me was not available for the match. It looks a minor injury. I don’t know if he will ready [for Wolves] or just for Leeds. Let’s see. The next few days will be important for us to see if he will be available.”
Silva shouldered the blame for Fulham’s poor first half at the AMEX Stadium, having opted to play Bobby Decordova-Reid up front ahead of Carlos Vinicius, who came on in the second half and set up another substitute in the shape of Manor Solomon for a dramatic late winner.
“That was my fault. We are really connected to play with a number nine. It was a little bit difficult for us to link the play, break that first pressure especially when you play against a team who mark you man on man every time. It wasn’t our best performance. We didn’t perform at our best level. Brighton played better than us. But we showed resilience and belief. I have praise our boys for that.”
I agree we should have started with Vinicius he needs more game time if he is to step into Mitros absence we need a big strong player, I hope Solomon starts against Wolves on Friday and we really need to sign him in the summer he is too good to lose, I don’t know how we came away with three points yesterday but we somehow did which was brilliant, COYW let’s keep it going.
Yep agreed. Trying BDR up front simply didn’t work. He has no pace so Dunk just went up tight against him knowing he couldn’t beat him and simply every ball played up to him BDR couldn’t hold. Dunk just came over the top or round him. We couldn’t get out. I think it’s a mark of how poor Vinicius has been that Silva even tried it given Mitro’s absence. The substitution was right. Let’s be honest though, if you watch the game back I doubt Vinicius also kept the ball played into him more than twice. But, he did for the key moment in the game and that’s what counts. So I guess what was proved is maybe he is the best option….but we desperately need another next season unless he turns it around. You’d say he’s had enough chances, but, if anyone can step a pro up a level it’s Marco. What a manager he is. Loved the way he brushed all talk aside about points, Europe etc and just said we need to play much better against Wolves and we will! COYW