Speaking to the media for the first time since his post-Manchester United press conference, Fulham boss Marco Silva fielded questions about that eventful afternoon at Old Trafford. The Fulham Head Coach, along with Aleksandar Mitrovic, issued statements on Wednesday of this week to detail their regret about what happened. One journalist asked if the rationale behind that was to try and reduce any potential further ban for Mitrovic, but Silva insisted that was not the motivating factor.
Marco Silva said: “Why we did that statement was not because of that really. We didn’t do it straight away after the match because we wanted firstly to speak and to have a meeting with the referee. Of course, Mitro had international duties, Chris Kavanagh had international duties as well. We had a chance to speak with them, and after that we made the statement. The statement was almost ready before that, but we wanted to do it after the conversation with Chris Kavanagh. Mitro has a very good relationship with referees. A good example is when we had a meeting with Chris Kavanagh, myself, Mitro and Jon Moss [from the PGMOL]. We asked to have a meeting with them. And you can see, clearly, the respect and the connection between him and Chris Kavanagh in that situation. And the statement is clear. We made a mistake in that moment. Mitro made a mistake as well and, of course, we regret the situation. And we have to do it, we have to apologise – not just the situation with Chris Kavanagh, [but to] all the fans, our fans, the people that love football, because after such a good performance from ourselves in that 72 minutes, where we were at a really good level, that moment and that incident made a huge impact in the game.”
Fulham will look to put that eventful tie behind us when we travel to AFC Bournemouth on Saturday. The Cherries currently occupy a spot in the relegation zone, but have claimed a couple of wins recently, including against Liverpool in their previous home outing.
Marco Silva confirmed: “It will be a tough, tough, tough game to play, I’m one hundred per cent sure. We are talking about a tough place to go always, for any team in this competition, it’s always tough. We know that they are really fighting to get out of the position they’re in, and they have achieved some good results. Last few games they have been a really difficult team to beat, against any team in this league in the last few games. We know that they lost their last game [away to Aston Villa], like we did as well, and we want to show a reaction, like they will. They did well in the January market as well, some players came and improved them, gave them more solutions in the attack line. They are strong, not just the players who are going to start, even when they have to change something from the bench they have the solutions now to have an impact in the game. We played against them last season in the Championship as well, they were always competitive matches. This season at the Cottage was the same, a really competitive match, and it will be the same on Saturday. We have to be at our best level. After the Arsenal and Brentford matches, the level of our performance improved clearly for the Man United match. The motivation and desire was there, and I saw big improvements from the previous games. And it’s important for us to keep those standards, to play at our best level, because it will be tough [against Bournemouth].”
