Marco Silva admitted Bournemouth fully merited their comfortable 3-0 over his pedestrian Fulham outfit at Dean Court this afternoon.
The Whites were well beaten with the Fulham head coach blaming ‘simple mistakes’ for the avoidable goals that his side conceded.
Speaking to the BBC after the final whistle, Silva said:
“Bournemouth deserved to win. When you concede goals the way we did, we don’t deserve to get any points from the game. We concede the first, really sloppy. Nine players plus Bernd [Leno] behind the ball and we let the player run 20 or 30 metres to make an assist. That is completely our fault.
I think the first half was really balanced, both teams trying to win the game. We had our chances, they had their chances then after 44 minutes we were really sloppy, not aggressive enough and they score. That makes it difficult for us, we wanted to react but we didn’t really create enough. So they deserve the three points.”
Silva conceded his side were short on creativity in the absence of the injured Willian and Raul Jimenez, who served the final game of his three-match suspension.
“Willian was out. We played without two players who have been key for us. But others have to step in and show their quality. It was not the case this afternoon at all. “Not just Raul, we are missing Willian as well. It cannot be an excuse for me because the other players have to step in and show their quality. Our attacking and midfield line, we didn’t show the quality at this level. On the ball we have to play and attack, that was not the level we normally play.”
He also defended goalkeeper Leno after the German appeared to push a ball boy after becoming frustrated by waiting for the ball when Fulham were 2-0 down.
“I spoke with Bernd before I came off, I saw the moment. I don’t know if it was instruction or not, but the ball boys were always delaying. The game should be the same if one team is winning or not. The ball boys were always delaying, Bernd wanted to play quickly and he took the ball from the ball boy. He didn’t push him, it wasn’t strong enough and he apologised. He is a top professional.”
I only saw highlights, but it looked like Palhinha was at fault for all three goals and seemed to be playing to avoid any possible injury ahead of a big money January move away. Anyone who was at the game who can say whether that was the case?
We are getting worse each game and Silva has to take some of the blame for that,his tactics are not working and he doesn’t seem to have a plan B we have become very slow and our build up play has no end product we need more shots on goal it’s like we are scared to take responsibility. I disagree on your view of Tosin yes he defended Ok but his passing was awful again he gave the ball to them so many times with his casual sloppy kicks. Periera should be taken off dead ball duties as nothing seems to come from them, let Cairney have a go , as I said before we are going to have to sign at least 4 players in the January window and they need to be better than the ones we already have. Leno had his worst game for us I just hope it was a blip.
Fairly inept performance. To be fair to Silva our squad is limited and he has little options available. We need a few players of the required quality to steady the ship this upcoming window. As usual though the Khan’s will leave it until deadline day. Not looking forward to playing Arsenal.
The ‘simple mistake’ we made was playing with no drive or aggression. Just as insipid as the Burnley game. We’re going nowhere with this attitude. We desperately need some pace in our forward line. I hope we buy 2 or 3 in Jan. I can’t see the Khans doing anything but it’s desperately needed.
MS is not making pro-active changes, they are re-active and generally too late to affect the game. Also, where’s the leadership on the pitch,in games like this Cairney goes missing. After Burnley, this game was painful to watch.
Dave is absolutely right. Mistakes yes, but the fundamental problem-lies in a lack of commitment and effort. Woeful.