Fulham boss Marco Silva has been speaking to the media before Sunday’s Premier League game at Tottenham (kick-off 13:30 GMT).
Here are the key lines from his news conference:
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Silva confirmed that Harrison Reed, Joachim Andersen and Jorge Cuenca will all be unavailable, with Andersen being “out for some games”, while Ryan Sessegnon is a “doubt”.
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On how they respond to the heavy defeat by Wolves last weekend: “We have bounce-back mentality. Of course the next one is always important. It’s important to analyse and be clear with the message to players to make them understand deeply what happened in the game.”
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He added: “In the game, we were there – that result and score does not reflect what has happened on the pitch, that is the first thing. We were the best team on pitch for first 30 minuets – clearly. We did score, hit the crossbar, the game was going in direction it has been at home for us. We conceded a goal where we were flat and not aggressive enough and that changes the story of the game completely.”
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Opponents Tottenham’s “identity is clear and the way Ange [Postecoglou] wants the team to play” and “they have the capacity to create different problems for the opposition” so Fulham will have to be “brave” in the way they play against them.
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On if they can take inspiration from what Tottenham are doing in regularly competing for Europe: “We know what we are going to do and the ambition – no-one is going to take from ourselves. The way I see football, I am not going to be unrealistic… Sometimes you can compare things, but you have to be realistic. The key for you to improve and move forward your ambitions, the first thing is to be realistic and understand the reality of our football club.”
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On Antonee Robinson’s comments that the team feel they can go toe to toe with everyone: “Really important but really nice for me to feel the players have this thought about the game and face the game and prepare themselves. It is a a message that has been throughout the football club the past three seasons.”
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On if they are ahead of where he expected despite the loss to Wolves: “We lost a chance to get clear and get three points in that game. Being us and reaching certain standards we want to reach it was a winnable game. You have to be a certain level in Premier League. Before that game everyone was saying we were brilliant. We had a bad game for us but you have to react and bounce back. We cannot let one game take away the good things we have been doing.”
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