Marco Silva says the Fulham fans should be excited by the prospect of watching record signing Kevin perform at Craven Cottage.
The Brazilian winger, signed from Shakhtar Donetsk in a £34.6m deal on transfer deadline day, could make his Fulham debut in tomorrow afternoon’s home game against Leeds United. The 22 year-old scored five goals – and added two assists – in five appearances for Shakhtar this season and Silva told his pre-match press conference this afternoon:
“The fans can be excited with him. Sometimes the fans need these types of moves, because I understand their frustration because they want to see much more than just one move or two, and I understand why. He’s a very good lad, very, very good lad. He’s been working very, very hard to be able to help the team and more than that he’s very happy to join the football club.”
The Fulham boss added:
“[He was] a player that we always had on our radar … that I’ve been following for the last few seasons. We were looking for a certain profile on the left-hand side, since we had Reiss Nelson and Willian [last season]. We tried to go for a player that’s slightly different to [Alex] Iwobi. We were looking for a slightly different profile, more one-on-one player, a player that can take players on and sometimes when it’s difficult to break teams down, he’s capable in one moment to do something different. In our attacking players, we need this type of profile. He’s a winger that has goals. His numbers are good. He’s strong, he’s a one-v-one player, he’s very strong in one-v-one moments and he’s a player that can assist.”
Silva hinted that the Fulham faithful would be seeing the former Shakhtar star soon.
“[He] just needs the adaptation [to playing in the Premier League]. I think it’s not going to take long. At the same time, we have to give him minutes to adapt and help the team because I really believe that he’s going to help Fulham Football Club to be better.”
