Fulham boss Marco Silva: There is a lot of transfer window work still to be done

Fulham head coach Marco Silva feels there is plenty of reinforcing of his squad still required in the remainder of the transfer window.

The Whites opened their Premier League campaign with a 1-0 defeat at Manchester United on Friday night.

Fulham lost the services of some key personnel in the summer with Bayern Munich splashing out for Joao Palhinha and Tosin Adarabioyo rejecting new terms to leave on a free transfer to sign for Chelsea.

Bobby De Cordova-Reid also turned down a contract extension to sign for Leicester City while USA international defender Tim Ream joined MLS club Charlotte.

“We lost four starters [in the transfer window],” Silva told BBC Match of the Day. “We are probably the only team in the Premier League that lost four starters. We have to rebuild again. There is a lot of work for us to do over the next two weeks to rebuild.

“But we are very pleased with how the players have worked. We are working hard to get what we need.”

Fulham only had one of their summer signings on show in Manchester with Emile Smith Rowe, below, replaced by Tom Cairney in the second half.

Joshua Zirkzee’s 87th-minute strike saw the west Londoners, who host Ipswich Town tomorrow, head back to the capital pointless.

Silva said: “When the game becomes open we should have kept the balance and kept compact. But in those moments we lost emotional control and that allowed them to score.

“The game was open and broken – we tried to rush our decisions. Many times we started to lose the ball too quickly. We let the game go too emotional and we didn’t want that.”

PICTURES: PA