Marco Silva slated Fulham’s below-par performance as his side ended the Premier League Summer Series with a 2-0 tonight to Chelsea in Maryland.

The Whites were left with a mountain to climb after conceding first goals to Thiago Silva and Christopher Nkunku. There were also injury scares for captain Tom Cairney, who lasted only eighteen minutes after pulling a thigh muscle, and right back Kenny Tete but the Fulham head coach was far from happy with the Whites’ overall display.

“It was not a good first half at all. I think our first half was not at our normal standards. Throughout this tournament we’ve shown completely different things to what we showed first half. Not just because we conceded two sloppy goals, but the way we started our offensive organisation, our attacks were not so clear, we did not control the ball like we normally do, and we completely lost control of the game during the first half.

We would have liked to have seen some different things this afternoon. The first half was our worst half this tournament. Second half was different, much more ourselves on the pitch, we created some chances as well. It was not a good game from ourselves, but this second half was better.”

Silva was pleased with the first outings in a Fulham shirt for new signings Calvin Bassey and Raul Jimenez, who both came on at half-time and enlivened what had been a disappointing display.

“It was the first 45 minutes for Bassey and I told him I didn’t expect brilliant, brilliant things. I wanted him to start simple to get some confidence, and he did. When he gets to know his teammates better, know the connections better, he can show different things, much more on the ball. Off the ball, he’s a strong lad, it’s just a matter of time for him to understand our principles and our ideas on and off the ball.

About Raúl, he’s more experienced, you can see in just 45 minutes how he is going to help the team.

It was a very good second half from him, he made an impact that I wanted to see in the second half, linking our game, holding the ball, some good movements inside the box as well. I’m sure that if you’re going to provide for him like we normally provide for our strikers, then he is going to make a difference because I believe that he’s a great addition for us.”

Silva was also adamant that his squad is in serious need of strengthening with less than a fortnight until the opening game of the season at Everton.

“We are short in numbers and if you want to be competitive [you need more players to sign], We wanted to give minutes for players and some played more than we wanted to.”