Marco Silva was pleased to see his Fulham side bounce back from a disappointing derby defeat at West Ham on Tuesday night with a professional display at Leicester City this afternoon.
The Whites eased past the Foxes thanks to second half goals from Emile Smith Rowe and Adama Traore. Silva told the BBC after the final whistle:
“It was a professional win and good victory. It was really difficult in the first half, they started quicker than us and some of the set pieces were a wake up for us. After we had good control of the game, there weren’t many chances, but we started the second half well with the goal and from there we built the win, scored the second and had chances to score the third. It was a well-deserved three points and a good reaction from the defeat by West Ham.
We should have much more points to be frank. I am always ambitious but performance wise, the way we’ve been playing and been dominant in most of the games we should have taken more points but in the Premier League the difference and details are so small and sometimes they haven’t been in our favour.
“There have been some big improvements from last season, both in terms of results and points, and we’ve performed better this season than some spells last season. The players have been great, always with the mindset to learn and open minds to receive information and feedback. It has been a very good journey for us and we want to make the fans proud. We will fight for more because we are a really ambitious group.”
Good win against a side ,who is awful and a 38 yr striker and relegation bound!!!
Yes, Baljit, that succinctly sums up how bad Leicester City are and the Championship awaits.
I will just add that they appear to be even more disorganised than under Steve Cooper and, if Decordova Reid can’t even get on as a sub with this lot, he can’t have made much impression after kissing goodbye to Fulham in search of a “new challenge”. For challenge -read “bigger payday”.
It’s interesting just how many think the grass is greener only to find out that it isn’t.
Tosin is in and out of the Chelsea team, Palhinha is struggling at Bayern and was not being selected even before his injury. And spare a thought for Fabio Carvalho who is warming his backside on the Brentford bench.
As for us, this was a far from fluent performance but, against a clueless Leicester City team, after a terrible start, we dominated and did enough to come away with all three points. Seeing as how this was their 7th straight loss, anything else would have been catastrophic for us.
Some things worth pointing out: pre-game, yet again, it was Joachim Andersen geeing up players, not Jedi. At one stage during a break in play in the first half, our midfield players were grouped around debating/arguing certain points and Jedi was nowhere to be seen. For all that Robinson brings to the team, he is not a natural leader and I wish Marco Silva could recognise the importance of a captain’s role.
Secondly, Castagne, once again, in the first half, seemed terrified of moving forward with the ball, choosing Andersen as his get out and, more than once, Silva was seen urging him to go forwards. With Harry Wilson lacking the ability to take on his fullback on the outside, we had zero penetration down the right. To be fair, this improved in the second half.
Positives: Smith Rowe upping his game, Sander Berge returning to the team
Last, but not least, what was with the two subs in the 90th minute???
If this captaincy thing carries on it will become a non entity not that Robinson is a worthy of the role but there is already someone in waiting in the ranks which is Anderson he Captains his country and as we know before he has been our Captain forget Cairney who is going on 34 this has to be made certain for next season Silva has given Jedi the armband hoping he won’t leave also Silva has to make it clear to the fans who he will give the armband to and why
WE saw the same scenario when Kevin Mac playing along side TC, he was the leader on the field not TC. I believe TC is happy to abdicate his responsibility. Remember the Mitro, AK47 penalty incident, TC just sat on the fence.
For all his faults, Parker recognised that Andersen was a leader and gave a loaned player the armband .
I suppose Silva has given Robbo the armband as a sweetener to keep him at the Club, but I think next season, Andersen will become Club Captain.
I agree with the comments regarding Andersen being club captain – I rather thought that was a big reason behind buying him in the first place. TC has been a good leader in his own way, but time to move on (and up).
I think we are all in agreement that Andersen is the more natural leader. As a bit of a wild card I would chuck in Iwobi’s name. Not sure about his verbal contribution but his effort and involvement are excellent. Think he has a more outgoing personality than Cairney and Robinson.
I thought it was all a bit turgid, why do we have such problems breaking down the lesser teams? To improve we have to learn to breakdown teams who pack their defence. Let’s face it teams will have noted our inability in that area.
Great against teams prepared to attack and leave space but a bit short on the creativity. Hope ESR will eventually provide that flair through the middle. Maybe also the addition of Josh King at an earlier stage.
I too was totally confused at bringing two subs on in the 90th minute. We were not being threatened and there’s definitely more risk than reward in that move. Marco’s substitution strategy leaves a bit to be desired. I would like to see Josh King regularly given more game time, say at least 20 minutes.
Final point Sandre Berge does look good.
With Berg and Lukic in midfield we look a different team albeit against doomed opposition. I concur about Castagne we need to sign another right back probably on loan and a back up goalkeeper We still are not clinical enough and it would be nice to see some shots from outside the penalty area. King looks a really good prospect and should be given more time on the pitch