Marco Silva was disappointed with Fulham’s poor decision making at both ends of the pitch after the Whites slipped to defeat at Tottenham last night – but insisted he would not change his approach.
Silva’s side were twice punished for playing out from the back as poor passes from the recalled Calvin Bassey led directly to the decisive goals scored by Son Hueng-Min and James Maddison but the Fulham boss will be sticking to his possession-based brand of football.
Speaking during his post-match press conference after the 2-0 defeat, the Portuguese head coach said:
“It’s our way to play. The process is what we believe we should be doing. It is the way we will continue to play and to try and improve. We have to be pragmatic and effective, like clearing the second ball. Not only was the decision for the second goal by Calvin wrong, but the player who should be there to help avoid the mistake was not in the position he should be. It’s much more of a process, and that’s more than just one player.”
He felt the visitors should have made more of their opportunities on the counter-attack and was frustrated by Fulham’s lack of precision in the final third.
“I really believe that we should’ve created more, because we had some very good moments inside their box. Not as many in the first half but we put together some good counter-attacks. We had some good transitions with Bobby or with Vinà out wide and we knew that there would be the space for us to exploit.
Spurs had more control in the first half but we expected that with the position they’re in at the moment. Even so, they didn’t create too much until they scored the first goal. They got themselves in some dangerous areas but we stayed compact and we didn’t give them much space.”
The contest turned on a poor pass from Bassey, which was read by Richarlison and allowed Son to put the league leaders in front from the edge of the area.
“After that came the mistake. We have to be brave but we need to be like that in the right way. Of course, with two left-footers in that area it is more difficult, and it was harder for Calvin to build from that side but we have to find solutions with players out injured. What frustrated me the most was how we conceded the second goal, because we spoke at half-time about what we needed to do differently. We started the second half well and controlled play but the way we conceded was a big punishment on ourselves.
Unfortunately, we were punished again for the same sort of mistake, but even so I thought our reaction was good and the players never gave up. We created much more in the second half. Raúl had a one-on-one and Wilson had a couple of good chances. We have to finish more moments like these. We need to keep working with the players, believing in the process and improving that final pass or finish.”
I have no doubt that the way Silva wants to play is right for us at home and certainly against weaker opposition….but away from home….against the league leaders? Trying to play through them from the back? If that had worked it would have been the result of the season. The truth is we don’t have the players for it. I love Marco, but, is one way of playing all we have? They’re professional players and we should only expect them to cope with one tactic no matter what? I’m not sure.
Hi Dan,
I am a life long Fulham fan and reader of HammyEnd who enjoys to write football analysis articles about Fulham games for fun. I have written one about the Tottenham game and was wondering if you could tell me how to to contact you to discuss putting it on HammyEnd?
Thanks,
Tom
I agree with Dave and I don’t think our defenders are good enough to play out from the back especially Bassey as his passing is awful, i think Raul should have burried that chance he had and likewise Wilson who took too long. We need at least 3 top class players in January or we could be in trouble, namely a striker a midfielder and a centre back.