Fulham head coach Marco Silva has urged his side to be brave when they take on Tottenham Hotspur on Sunday afternoon.

The Portuguese boss knows the Whites face a serious challenge as they look to bounce book from a chastening home defeat by Wolverhampton Wanderers this weekend against Ange Postecoglou’s side at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. Spurs, held to a late draw by Roma in Europe on Thursday night, were simply magnificent as they outclassed Manchester City 4-0 at the Etihad Stadium on Saturday night.

Whilst cognisant of the danger Tottenham pose, Silva wants his side to play with his purpose. He told his pre-match press conference at Motspur Park this afternoon:

“I think their identity is clear. It’s clear what Ange wants from their players. We understand enough from playing against them last season the way they play. They added one or two players last summer for the way they want to play, adding even more pace in the attack line, and more intensity in the first press as well. They have a striker [Dominic Solanke] that has the capacity to be really strong in the first press.

It’s clear, the identity, the way they want to play, looking always for the opposition goal, and trying always to create chances, create a scenario that when they build up, they put a lot of players in front of the ball, a lot of bodies between the lines as well. They have the capacity to create different scenarios and different problems for the opposition side. We know what they are going to do, of course we are aware of it, it’s up to us to keep our organisation really strong, and quality in our defensive organisation.

It’s a game where we have to brave. Brave, like we normally are against any team, and we have to go there to be brave enough to challenge them and to match them, to fight for the three points. If you fear something, if you aren’t brave enough, if we don’t express ourselves on the pitch, it’s going to be much more difficult. We are going to be Fulham Football Club inside the Tottenham stadium, and it’s definitely going to be a good game, because we are capable of doing good things and facing a team of the quality of Tottenham.”