Marco Silva isn’t worried about Raúl Jiménez’s reaction to being dropped from Fulham’s starting eleven – insisting that the Mexican international is still ‘desperate to help the team’.
Silva selected Carlos Vinicius instead of the former Wolves forward for the win over Sheffield United a fortnight ago after the 32 year-old had gone eight games without a goal since his summer move from Molineux. Jiménez was an unused substitute as the Whites returned to winning ways before the international break – but Silva is confident that the striker has not been adversely affected by being left out.
Speaking ahead of tonight’s trip to Tottenham Hotspur, Silva said:
“I don’t think Raúl needs a manager to put him on the bench to take the pressure off him. Of course when there are so many games where you haven’t scored a goal I understand why people ask the question, but it is never good for a player when they sit on the bench. Players need to feel that pressure is a privilege, because if you start the game it should be a privilege because you have worked so hard to be there.
He wasn’t the only change, Bobby De Cordova-Reid and Alex Iwobi also started the game. We made changes because we knew that was not going to be too much space in behind. The way we knew Sheffield [United] would approach the game, we decided to use a different profile of a number nine.”
All the players need the people, the staff and the management to speak to them. Some need more than others and sometimes this type of conversations make them better. I am the type of manager that has this type of relationship with my players. I am speaking to Raúl and Vinicius as well but I don’t think Raúl is desperate to have conversations with me. He is working hard and desperate to help the team and that is the most important thing for me.”
