Fulham boss Marco Silva offered his reflections on Fulham’s 2-0 defeat by Aston Villa on Wednesday night.
Marco Silva said: “I think we started the game well, controlling well the moments on the ball. We should have created more chances in those moments, but overall the first half was good. In two moments we lost the focus and the timing to press, when they had the penalty. Straight away after the penalty they created a chance and they scored. Second half was different. When you have a team that can change seven, eight players and put fresh players [in] at the same level, same quality, of course it will have an impact on the game. That was clear. We wanted to manage the physical condition of our players, unfortunately we are really short in numbers and don’t have senior players on the bench. Just Willian came on second half, all the other players were our Under-21s, and the level and the quality is completely different. For them, getting the experience at this level, everything is new. Even so, I think they showed personality, they showed character as well. Overall, the room to improve is big, but the players showed good things.”
When asked what he made of the atmosphere at Orlando City’s Exploria Stadium,
Marco Silva replied: “It was really good. It’s one of the very good things on this tour, this Summer Series. We are playing these matches in a good environment, a good atmosphere in the stadiums. It’s much easier for the players to be motivated when they play in this type of environment. One of the good things that this Summer Series gives us as a coach, is that we don’t really need to push them, as the environment will give them the boost in terms of the motivation that they need.”
