Marco Silva believes Bournemouth will offer a stern test of his Fulham side tomorrow as the Premier League remains following the international break.
The Cherries have picked up sixteen of their 24 Premier League points at Dean Court and Silva told his pre-match press conference yesterday that Gary O’Neill’s men have become tougher to beat over recent weeks.
“It will be a tough, tough, tough game to play, I’m one hundred per cent sure. We are talking about a tough place to go always, for any team in this competition, it’s always tough. We know that they are really fighting to get out of the position they’re in, and they have achieved some good results.
“Last few games they have been a really difficult team to beat, against any team in this league in the last few games. We know that they lost their last game [away to Aston Villa], like we did as well, and we want to show a reaction, like they will.
Silva noted that Bournemouth now have game-changing options throughout their squad as a result of their winter recruitment work.
“They did well in the January market as well, some players came and improved them, gave them more solutions in the attack. They are strong, not just the players who are going to start, even when they have to change something from the bench they have the solutions now to have an impact in the game.
We played against them last season in the Championship as well, they were always competitive matches. This season at the Cottage was the same, a really competitive match, and it will be the same on Saturday. We have to be at our best level. After the Arsenal and Brentford matches, the level of our performance improved clearly for the Man United match. The motivation and desire was there, and I saw big improvements from the previous games – and it’s important for us to keep those standards, to play at our best level, because it will be tough.”
