A disappointed Marco Silva blamed Fulham’s sloppy start for their narrow defeat at Bournemouth this evening.
The Whites went behind in the first minute after Antoine Semenyo punished poor defending from Antonee Robinson and were unable to score an equaliser despite peppering Kepa Arrizabalaga’s goal with shots and dominating the second half.
Silva told his post-match press conference at the Vitality Stadium:
“We are very disappointed with the result [and] … not taking anything from the game. The first twenty minutes had a big impact on the result. We didn’t start how we should. You have to start strong from the first minute, we were sloppy with their goal and we were punished by our start.
We created two good chances [in the first half] – one with Rodrigo [Muniz] and one with Sessegnon. In the second half, we had a lot of shots and a lot of moments. There were some good saves from Kepa.”
The Fulham boss felt Marco Senesi should have seen red rather than yellow for a high challenge on Joachim Andersen just before half time. The Argentine defender was substituted during the interval.
“It was a mistake from the referee and a mistake from VAR. The shin of Joachim was hit. It happens too often to us this season. [The substitution] shows they [Bournemouth] realised it was a mistake from the referee. If I’m in their position, I’m doing the same. If you see the shin of Joachim, it’s clear in my opinion. This is coming too often for us. Last week was the same, not many people talk about it but it was a clear penalty for us that the referee didn’t give”.
Silva was also infuriated when fourth official Tim Robinson misread Fulham’s substitution sheet – forcing Ryan Sessegnon to be substituted in error before the hour mark.
“The fourth official got confused with the numbers. They decided not to let us change it. They confused Ryan with Robinson. We had enough time to correct, I tried to correct it. They saw it was a mistake, they let us correct, then decided to not let us correct it.”
Well, he’s just confirmed what I had said earlier: Robinson was the one to be pulled off. At the moment, Robinson is in much need of a rest because he has been sub-par for a very long time. At their best, I think Robinson is far better than Sessegnon, although Sessegnon has a superior touch, but Robinson is not at his best.
If he decides not to play Robinson against Chelsea, it will be interesting to see who skippers the side but, then again, he’ll probably just revert to Leno or, God forbid, Pereira.
We are crying out for a strong captain.
Bassey getting stronger and stronger and has the determination, organising ability and leadership qualities to be captain.
Think the result was a bit more than just a sloppy start. The whole thing was sloppy, unfocused and lacking cohesion. I lost count of the number of misdirected passes and we are just too ponderous and predictable out of midfield. Berge is good and solid but like Cairney constantly passes back and across, blunting any possibility of a swift attacking move through the centre. Teams don’t defend well because of their ability but because of our lack of positivity. A very poor display and worse result.
I’ve heard it all now, subbing the wrong player, it was because of lack of clarity, not because an official can’t read. Get your instructions crystal clear, it’s your job.
I think it’s time to drop Robinson and give him a rest his defending isn’t good enough at the moment,we need a goal scoring midfielder and another striker who can hit goals from outside of the box we keep passing the ball inside the box instead of shooting it’s like we are scared to take responsibility, we still keep passing the ball backwards and sideways instead of hitting the ball forward much more quickly. We just can’t string 2 wins together and it’s so frustrating, I think Marco should give King a chance he deserves it.
I was at the game
we are simply to scared to make those decisive passes and always take the easy route
second half sasa made 4 midfield splitting runs and each time we took a side ways pass
if we want to start hitting the heights for Europe , then the low block teams must be attacked alot quicker and not such a rigid structure
Andrew is right, and also we need a stronger squad. We cannot expect to change the result by bringing on granny Cairney, however he was still introduced before ESR who quite frankly has been a total waste of good money.