Marco Silva has demanded that Fulham side ‘make life really difficult for Liverpool’ on Sunday as the Whites look to finally record a win over the Reds after a series of enthralling encounters over the course of this season.
Liverpool have come out on top by a single goal in the two previous games at Anfield, whilst the 1-1 draw at Craven Cottage secured by Issa Diop’s late-strike was not enough to the prevent Silva’s side from going out at the semi-final stage of the League Cup. The Fulham head coach hopes to record an elusive win by learning from the games that have gone before.
“They’ve been very, very good games. Probably some of them too open for a manager to enjoy, but yes, at Anfield and at the Cottage as well, they have been really – in some moments – emotional games, in other moments entertaining. Tight games always, in some of them dramatic ends of the match. Anfield played a big part in it as well, the games became more emotional. But even last season, it was really tough for them to come to play at Craven Cottage [in the] Carabao Cup this season, too.
And, of course, we want to make life really difficult for them, we really want to give them a match, and let’s hope we can get a different result than the last games that we played against them.”
Silva was quick to rubbish the idea that this might be a good time to play Liverpool after they were beaten at home by Crystal Palace last weekend and went out of the Europa League to Atalanta last night.
“What I know, and what I’m sure of, is that they are going to react. We all know Liverpool, we all know that they come from a really tough result in the Premier League, of course to be out of the Europa League was really tough for them as well. In ten days, they lost the chance to be in the semi-finals and probably to fight to be in the final, and they lost three points that are really important for them, at Anfield which is not something that happens often.
We are going to face a reaction, [I’m sure]. We don’t prepare ourselves depending on what is going to be the reaction, we prepare what we want to do in the game and what we expect from them, to explore some things where they are not so strong, and to be aware of the threat that they have always.100 per cent sure. It’s a game that is going to demand more from ourselves than if they had won the last two games. This is my clear feeling, is the way we have been preparing ourselves.
If you ask me if I expect a more difficult game than if the game was three weeks ago – yes. If they are going to be with the same confidence, we don’t know. It’s not important to talk about it, but I think that we are going to face a team that is going to have a reaction, for sure.”
