SOLID SILVA
New boss Marco hails team spirit and Fulham fans
FULHAM boss Marco Silva has savoured the togetherness of the club he took over this summer.
It helps that the unbeaten Championship leaders have a bumper and expensivelyassembled squad full of Premier League quality.
But although that kind of outlay almost guarantees results, Silva believes team spirit matters more.
And it is not just the players who are pulling together, but staff and fans too. “It’s always important to get results and to be on the top,” said Silva after Aleksandar Mitrovic and Fabio Carvalho downed Hull.
“But more important for me is to see and to feel all of us are on the same page as a football club and the good atmosphere in the stadium.
“In some moments when we were not so comfortable, I felt them supporting us and pushing us forward. That’s important as well. They can play a key role in this competition for us.
“And this is the main thing for me. All of us, the players who are playing, the players who are on the bench, the players who are not in the squad, we as a football club.
“I don’t have doubts about it. Everyone working for us, everyone who is working for us every day on the training ground, I feel all of us on the same page definitely.”
The players certainly showed their togetherness in their celebrations when Serbia striker Mitrovic scored his first goal at Craven Cottage for more than a year.
And skipper Tim Ream felt the love from fans when forced off after 20 minutes following an awkward fall.
Depleted Hull looked in for a caning when teenager Carvalho extended Fulham’s lead before half time. It was the third successive game in which both he and Mitrovic had scored.
Athough Hull steadied the ship after the break, they seldom threatened a comeback. Boss Grant Mccann is battling a transfer embargo and is without attackers Mallik Wilks, George Honeyman, George Moncur and Ryan Longman but hopes to add a forward before the deadline.
Sheffield United’s Tyler Smith, a player Mccann knows from his time at Doncaster, is a target.
“We want to get to a stage after the international break when we get those four back and bring a different No.9 in to what we’ve got,” he said.
“I like to have three forwards on the bench that we can change at any time, so hopefully we’ll get an opportunity to do that.”