Marco Silva singled out Bobby De Cordova-Reid as ‘a top professional’ after the winger’s venomous strike was enough to see off Championship strugglers Rotherham United in the FA Cup at Craven Cottage this evening.
The Fulham head coach highlighted the importance of the Jamaican international within his squad and told the press that the former Bristol City forward deserved his recent success, with this effort coming hot of the heels of his winner against Premier League title contenders Arsenal on Sunday.
Silva said:
“He deserves it because he’s a top professional, he’s a vocal guy and one of the great examples we have at the club in terms of focus, able to play in any position and he’s always there. He deserves all the credit and he deserves these good moments and good weeks.
It’s important for us and him because he needs these type of moments to lift his confidence and he needs the confidence to keep going in the direction we want him to be. Bobby has the capacity to score and tonight it was a great strike from him.”
The Fulham boss admitted the Whites did not hit the heights that they could have done – but believed his side fully merited their progression into the fourth round.
“Job done, which was the most important thing for us really. Professional performance, we clearly deserved to go through in the competition. It was our obligation to control the game the way we did, to not give almost anything for them. I don’t remember one save from Marek, no shots on target from them. When you make eight changes from one XI to the other, of course it always has an impact from a performance point of view.
We deserve to be in the next round. Clean sheet is always important. I think we did control well their direct game, you know there will be long throw-ins in our box as well, all that stuff. I think, from a defensive point of view, we did control well. In terms of performance, it wasn’t the best, but was enough to go through and to control really well the game.”
