Marco Silva faults Super Eagles star in Fulham’s FA Cup loss to Southampton

Fulham head coach Marco Silva has defended his decision to rotate players in his side’s FA Cup loss to Southampton yesterday, Afrik Foot reports.

The Cottagers welcomed the Saints to Craven Cottage, and Marco Silva opted to rotate heavily amidst their heavy Premier League schedule.

Samuel Chukwueze, Oscar Bobb, Rodrigo Muniz and Tom Cairney were brought into the first eleven, while Alex Iwobi and Calvin Bassey were dropped to the bench

Fulham: Marco Silva cites Chukwueze in Southampton loss

Ross Stewart’s 90th-minute penalty kick confirmed that Fulham will only be fighting for European spots in the league, but Marco Silva wasn’t pleased with his side’s performance at all after the game.

“I understand that, it’s more than that. It was a bad afternoon for us and for our fans. We need to look deeper because I’m not pleased at all what has happened this afternoon. 

“This one is more than a defeat – if it’s because of the changes then fine, I get it – but [Ryan] Sessegnon and [Timothy] Castagne have played this season against top Premier League sides, Oscar Bobb and Samuel Chukwueze are at the level. 

“We have to look deeper. I understand that I get the blame for making the changes.

“Very bad day for us – myself, the football players, mainly for our fans, definitely. The expectations were in the level that, in my opinion, they should be, they must be. And we were not good enough. Simple as that.

“We can talk about many different things – we had 24 shots, and we didn’t create enough after 24 shots, we were around their box many, many times, inside their box.

“But the reality with football is you have to create clearcut chances when you have this amount of offensive game that we had. And the reality is that we were not good enough in the other part of the game, too.

“They had five shots all game, and in most of those moments they created chances. And for us, it’s just a sign that we were not really close to the standards that we have to be, in terms of defensive transition, reactions when you lose the ball, and some other things that are important for us.

“Probably not the moment to be so emotional and, to be clear, very bad day for us, as a group, always myself in front of this group of players, and for the football club.

“It’s probably a moment for us to look even deeper, because it cannot be just another defeat. I know that in football, the defeats, they are tough, doesn’t matter where and who you play. We lost a big chance.

“When you have the responsibility to be favourites, to be in the Quarter-Finals next round, to be playing with a draw that gave us a chance to play at home against a very good side of the Championship, and we didn’t play the way we should to win the game,” the Portuguese coach said in quotes revealed by Fulham’s official website.

Fulham have just nine Premier League games to fight for a place in Europe next season.