Fulham head coach Marco Silva isn’t worried about Joao Palhinha’s future – and has challenged his side to prove they can cope without the suspended midfielder against Wolverhampton Wanderers tomorrow night.
The Portuguese international, whose proposed summer move to Bayern Munich failed to beat the German transfer deadline on the last day of the window, admitted he would still like to prove himself at the highest level during an interview on international duty last week. But Silva is confident that the former Sporting Lisbon midfielder’s focus is firmly on Fulham, especially after he put pen to paper on a new contract a couple of months ago.
Silva told the press ahead of Monday night’s meeting with Wolves:
“Joao said what’s inside of him. What I’ve been seeing from Joao from the day after that tough period during the last week of the market was that he was ready to train, ready to work hard and ready to help the team. And that’s it. Of course he wants to perform better, I want him to perform better but one thing that nobody can complain about is his attitude and commitment.
For me it’s no distraction because I know what I will do and I know what is my job. I know what to expect from all of the players in the football club and that is the same. For some reason Joao has always been playing ever since he arrived in this football club. It means that he’s an important player for us. It’s not new. Last season he had some games out and, of course, the results were not the best for us.
Now it’s another good opportunity for us to show we can do it – not because Joao is not going to play but we want to react from the last few games which were not good results for us. It’s about much more than the fact Joao will not play.”
