Marco Silva wants his Fulham side to keep up their strong recent away record when they face Newcastle United at St. James’ Park on Saturday afternoon.

The Whites have lost just once in their last five away fixtures – and Silva told the press that he is hoping his players can bounce back from the disappointment of a narrow defeat at home to Manchester United last weekend.

“We are a really difficult team to beat. I know that from the last few games we lost two, but from a performance point of view they were games for us to take points from. Why have we been so difficult to beat? Because we have quality and as a team we showed our organisation and embraced the challenge. We like to go for it, to put pressure on ourselves.

I think we deserved much more from that game [against Manchester United] but in a match, you have to be strong at both ends, you have to be clinical, ruthless and focused enough. We had big spells where we were on top, but we didn’t punish them. I think so far we have been able to react, we have been able to find answers for the problems we’ve had during matches. And it’s always important to take positives, even when you don’t win a game. You have to look at the whole picture and see the positives there. I think the best way to improve is to analyse.”

Silva approaches Saturday’s trip to Tyneside with a focus on keeping Eddie Howe’s Magpies quiet – but insisted he wouldn’t be putting men behind the ball to frustrate the hosts.

“Let’s hope we don’t concede, that’s the first thing really. Let’s work for that because if we get it, we’re always going to be close to winning the game. We have an identity, one philosophy that we’re not going to change. They’re a really difficult team. They’re a physical side, they press really high every single game, the game is always really tight. We have to be able to play with enough courage to be able to create problems for them as well. It’s going to be an open game with both teams trying to win, definitely.”