Marco Silva has demanded that Fulham return to their ‘best level’ after an unacceptable capitulation at Nottingham Forest in midweek.
The Fulham head coach has been disappointed with his side’s last two displays on the road, with the Whites having to come from 3-1 down with five minutes to play to pinch a point at Sheffield United on Saturday – but Silva has left his players in doubt of his displeasure following a wretched defeat to Nottingham Forest on Tuesday night, which saw the visitors concede three goals in a shocking first half.
Silva admitted that stern conversations with the playing squad have taken place following the defeat at the City Ground. He told his pre-match press conference this afternoon:
“We were all disappointed with the result and with the performance. We want to reach a certain type of standards. They have been really important for us to be at the same level that we have been playing the last two seasons and a half. They were not in the game against Forest. It was really a bad night for us, but we cannot change that night. We have to understand why the things happened and go in the direction of Newcastle.”
We have to remind our players about the type of performance we had in those two games, the type of environment our fans and we created in our stadium, and how difficult it was for the opposition side as well. It’s a moment to remind ourselves what we did before and what we are capable of doing when we are at our best level.
The best thing for us is to think about the next game and nothing more than that. Of course, we have ambition. We want to climb the table, 100% sure. he ambition is clear, seven games to fight for the three points. The message right now is to go, to give our maximum, to focus on the next game, and to change the performance that we had last match.”
Silva insists there is plenty more to come from man-of-the-moment Rodrigo Muniz, whose stunning scissor kick at Bramall Lane was his eighth goal in nine games.
“He has big room to improve still. This is a good thing. We all feel that the skills are there, the talent is there to keep improving him, keep him developing as a football player. I know that he’s going to be better and better and better, and this is my feeling because he has the capacity to do it. There’s much more to come from him. If he’s going to score every single match or not, I don’t know. But I know he’s going to be a really important player for this football club.”
Silva also cautioned against undervaluing the challenge posed by facing a Newcastle side who are coping with an injury crisis that could see them without thirteen players at Craven Cottage tomorrow afternoon.
“Overall we are talking about a really top squad with a lot of quality, even with injuries. You can look at their eleven that they put on the pitch for the last two games, full of quality. Because they prepared their team for the Champions League, and when you prepare for the Champions League, you know what that means. You have to have quality on the pitch and on the bench as well.”
