Marco Silva admitted Fulham fell below the standards he expects of his side during their 2-0 home defeat by Crystal Palace at Craven Cottage this afternoon.
The Fulham head coach professed himself deeply disappointed with his team’s display after the Whites failed to register a single shot on target and were beaten by a Joachim Andersen own goal and a stunning strike from Daniel Munoz midway through the second half.
Silva told his post-match press conference:
“It definitely was a performance below the standards [I expect] – if I can say in this way? We knew before the match that it was going to be a tough game. They make it really difficult on the road for any team that they play against. We knew that it’s going to be difficult to break them down. We have to be moving the ball quicker, I think first half we moved the ball too slow in our first build up.
We expected them to be a bit more aggressive in the first pressure. They changed it, they sat more in the middle block, and they showed respect for ourselves. [In the] first minutes, I think we did break well in some moments, some good moves, [but] our last decision, last cross, last pass, was not at the level. And, because of that, first half we didn’t create many, many, many chances. But these type of games can happen.
Difficult, balanced game, until that moment we had one or two dangerous moments, like they had one with Mateta in the first three or four minutes of the game, and nothing more from both teams in terms of chances. But these type of games, the other part of the game that is there, that ugly part, in terms of duels, in terms of individual challenges, we have to be there.
The reality is that they scored two goals, they had another disallowed goal, but they scored two goals in two moments where reaching certain standards did not happen. The defensive corner they scored for 1-0 when the game was really balanced. They scored, and we have to do better in that moment clearly. Even the second goal was a free-kick for us, offensive free-kick for us, and in that moment you have to make a tactical foul to stop that situation – and we didn’t.
If you look in the opposite way, every time that we had chances to the counter-attack, they stopped us – tactical fouls, yellow cards, yellow cards, and they were much more mature than ourselves in that moment. It’s difficult to say, but that is the reality – they were more aggressive than us in that moment. The Premier League is like that: when you are not at your best level in terms of creativity, in terms of the dynamic of the team, the other standards have to be there.
Because if you don’t make mistakes like we made this afternoon, the game is going to be always toe-to-toe and everything can happen, but the reality is that they punished us in specific moments because we didn’t reach the standards that we should.”
What a disappointment! And that’s putting it mildly.
Palace had us sussed from the kickoff and were easily the better team, throughout.
They shut down Traore and our midfield with Eze providing the quality and Hughes, the muscle. Yes, it was ugly at times but we utterly failed to make an impression anywhere on the pitch.
Yet again, Smith Rowe opted for a casual stroll instead of working his butt off and Robinson and Iwobi were clueless, something that has been a feature of home games for some weeks.
The mystery is why Silva did not change things up sooner and, when he did, not for the first time this season, I struggled to understand his decisions. What did he hope to improve by swapping Castagne for Diop?
We had zero penetration down the left but he allowed Iwobi to continue to struggle for far too long. But, in all honesty, whoever he might have introduced, I don’t think it would have changed anything.
As for Robinson, lovely guy, but he’s no captain. Take away his marauding runs, a la today’s performance, and there’s not much left, in all honesty. His crosses are so poor and his defending questionable.
But we have no leader in this team and it’s something that badly needs addressing, IMO.
As for the subs, the way that Mateta walked through Pereira and Cairney was pathetic. No way that Will Hughes, love him or hate him, would have allowed that to happen.
Such a shame after a magnificent effort against Forest. But one swallow does not a Summer make. You need consistency, grit and leadership if you want to churn out results even when you are not at your best-and we lack all three.
We’ll bounce back, I’m sure, but, until Silva fixes the issues that we clearly have, we will always be floating around mid-table.
Totally agree Charles, what was Silva watching? obviously not the same game we did from the stands. He is a reactive manager not proactive and when the chips are down, but when he does react, he’s too late to effect change.
Bringing on Cairney did not fit the bill in yesterday’s game, when we are being bullied off the ball by Hughes and others. Harrison Reed would have been a better option, at least he’s not afraid to mix it up, unlike slow coach Cairney.
I can’t remember a home game when we’ve not registered a shot on target, some achievement .
This is why we won’t get into Europe we are so inconsistent that performance was unacceptable and not one player had a good game and i think a few players need dropping, Andersen for one Leno had a bad game but so too did all of the rest, why didn’t Silva change a few at half time because we never had a single shot on target the game was already lost when he made his subs and the ones he brought on were no better, why wasn’t King on the bench he would have been better than Smith Roe and Willian for Iwobi we have had so many bad games at home this season.
Wingers for Wolves – Sessingon and Willian!
Yes we were awful, but a lot credit must go to Palace and their tactics. They had us sussed from the off. Although we made a decent start in the opening 20 minutes we failed to land a blow on them. After the disgraceful tackle on ESR that went unpunished the game changed completely. This is when ESR should have been replaced as he was a passenger from then on. Why is Harrison Reed the forgotten man?
Wish Marco would change his style at home where every attack must be down the wings and nobody is trying to attack the heart of the defence.
Really hoping this is a blip and we can bounce back. Although it was our worst performance of the season I remain optimistic. We are still in the top half of the best league in the world.