Silva slams Fulham performance at West Brom

Marco Silva said that his Fulham players had no presence in the first half of their 1-0 defeat against West Bromwich Albion at The Hawthorns on Tuesday evening.

A Callum Robinson strike just after the hour mark was enough to give the Baggies all three points. The table-topping Whites have not won in two Championship matches.

Silva said: “It wasn’t good enough. The first half, we weren’t here. It was just our shirts which were on the pitch first half because we were not here.

“I don’t want to be unfair to West Bromwich, because they did their best and they deserved to win the match. But first half we were not on the pitch.

“We didn’t express ourselves, we didn’t play in our way. They did everything we were expecting, nothing new. Marek kept us in the game with some saves in the first half. Second half was a little bit different, we were more ourselves, although not with the quality that we’ve shown this season.

“We reacted after the goal, we started to play, we pushed them back. Okay, they sat back a little bit as well, but we started.

“We didn’t have a big number of chances but we had two or three dangerous moments, a big chance for Mitro that should equalise the game. But it was not enough.”

Fulham had been due to face Forest this weekend but that match has been postponed due to Steve Cooper’s side still being in the FA Cup.

Silva said: “It’s come at a bad time, because I don’t like to go for a break with this feeling that we have after losing the game.

“Our players don’t like it as well, which is easy to understand as there’s big disappointment in our dressing room at the end of the match.

“They deserved the three points more than us, but what’s made the difference for us so far this season is the way we are reacting as a team.

“It’s good for us that we haven’t had a big number of bad moments, but every time when we have a bad performance or bad result, we are reacting in a fantastic way. This is what we have to do again.”