Marco Silva believes Fulham have enjoyed another ‘great season’ in the Premier League – but admitted it was ‘difficult’ to reach a realistic assessment of the campaign so soon after his side had been hammered by Manchester City.
The Whites have won just one of their last eight league games but the Portuguese head coach deserves great credit for ensuring that Fulham were safe by March despite losing the services of prolific striker Aleksandar Mitrovic early in the campaign.
Silva told his post-match press conference:
“It has been a great season for us, but it is very difficult for me to talk about that when we have had a heavy defeat at home and the mood is not great. But if you have to look across the season it has been very good for us and successful again. When you look back to last summer and all the Premier League sides, how many had to sell their main striker?
That is what happened to ourselves, we were not able to go in the market and replace him really strongly, for many reasons. We used players from within our squad and managed to get Rodrigo Muniz to score goals at this level and made three or four good signings who made an impact.
I have to say when we play at our best level we are fantastic to see and enjoy and sometimes I enjoy watching my team play football and we have had some fantastic performances at home.”
Has this been a great season? In my opinion, yes and no.
Yes – we stayed up comfortably and played some great stuff at times. All this despite losing Mitro before the season even started and not replacing him. Thank goodness for Muniz and his nine goals!
No – we’ve been incredibly inconsistent, often you just don’t know which ‘Fulham’ is going to turn up. Also, one win in our last eight games is poor and very much feeds into the media’s assertion that we’re already ‘on the beach’.
What do you think?
Very good season ,considering teams like City have spent o er a BILLION POUNDS on players ,this league is NOT a level playing field so the best we can expect is to survive and try and be the best of the not so wealthy teams,still proud of everyone at MY CLUB,well done lads,sign off with a win next week.
Such a glib comment for Marco Silva to make. It’s far from having been a great season for us.
A more accurate statement would be that it has been a very inconsistent season for us but, at times, our performances have been great.
I honestly believe that is, actually, what he WAS trying to say as he then went on to talk about transfers and not standing still and that, sometimes, he enjoys watching us play.
He has been a terrific manager for us and there is no doubt that the Mitrovic episode pretty much destroyed us, on and off the pitch, before the season had even started, and Marco really proved his worth by, somehow, rebuilding morale and, eventually, getting us back on an even keel.
However, unlike the Pope, he is NOT infallible and, despite some truly epic moments in games this season, the team has, ultimately, proved itself not to be able to compete on a regular basis and a lot of that is down to the players Marco seems to have a peculiar preference for despite their only consistent quality being to let him down; over and over again.
I am sick of calling out the usual suspects, week after week, but only someone with half a brain would have seen the team sheet for the City game and not gasped, as I did, and STILL believed we had even half a chance of putting in a decent performance.
The game was lost before we even kicked off.
I am sure or, at least, I hope and pray, that Marco Silva KNOWS that we have a whole raft of players that simply aren’t good enough. Those players, too, must know that the manager doesn’t rate them as they have spent the greater part of the season on the bench.
But it’s some of the ones that have actually played that need changing.
We heard from Marco that Jay Stansfield is not going anywhere next season which will almost be like having a new player come in and, at the very least, his movement and commitment alone, would have put some of those players, today, to shame. Let’s hope he REALLY gets a chance next season and doesn’t join the also rans on the bench.
We need some real quality to come in to supplement the squad for, as Terry quite rightly says, it is not a level playing field and we can never expect to compete with the big money clubs. However, as a lifelong Fulham fan, although I can accept that is a cross I have to bear for having chosen Fulham as my team, a very long time ago, is it too much to ask that our scouts, whoever they may be, instead of flying all over the world looking for players that will cost us millions, focus, instead, on the lower divisions of Europe and give us players that will give 100% week in and week out and cost a fraction of the cost?
Silva is right, when we play at our best we are a joy to watch and a match for most teams. However we are not at our best for enough games. The reason is that the Premier League is the toughest in the world and our players are too old to rise to the level consistently. Obviously Joao is leaving which should generate some funds but we also have othes we should clear out. Willian and Ream are too old, BDR, lightweight and out of his depth, Harry Wilson is unconvincing and Jiminez is past his sell by date. Excellent signings last year in Bassey and Castagne. Lets get in the market early to sign some younger players especially forward thinking players. After the turmoil of last season, this was thie best we could have wished for. Great to see Joao with his boy afer the game at the Hammy End
Will be interesting to see who he picks as right CB next week now that Diop – with the help of Anthony Taylor – has ruled himself out. Would like to see de Fougerolles given another run out. (Hope I spelled that right.)
Nick you didn’t , but then apart from his mum who does?
We definitely need to have a good clear out this summer we have to many old players and players that are just not premiership standard, we need to bring in players with a sell on value that can help get us to the next level .