Marco Silva insists that Fulham will be fully focused on taking on Rotherham United on Friday night as their FA Cup campaign gets underway.
The Portuguese head coach pointed to the Cottagers’ progress to the last eight of the world’s oldest cup competition last season as an indication of how highly he values the Cup, but admits that he may look to offer some playing time to some of the fringe players in his squad against the Championship strugglers at Craven Cottage tomorrow night. He rejected any suggested that Fulham would already have their League Cup semi-final against Liverpool, with the first leg taking place at Anfield next Wednesday, on their mind.
Silva told his pre-match press conference:
“We have a way to look for all the competitions, really thinking of the right moment for each one. We had a really busy, busy December. We played a lot of games, we had the quarter final of the Carabao Cup, it was really busy. It’s difficult for us to say that one is going to be the priority in one competition. Of course, semi-finals you don’t have the chance to play always.
Tomorrow is going to be an FA Cup match – it’s normal that we look at this competition really seriously as well. We have shown last season that situation, how serious the competition is for us. We are proud to play this competition, and for sure the eleven that is going to start tomorrow is an eleven with the desire to go through in the competition.
The Fulham boss also hinted that it may be difficult for the club to strengthen his squad significantly during the transfer window.
“It’s probably going to be a quiet month. We are talking and seeing what we can do, from a financial point of view. Let’s see. I don’t want to talk about positions. Firstly we have to see what we can do financially. After we can decide what is important.”
