Marco Silva has vented his frustration after Fulham were defeated 1-0 by Bournemouth in a result that effectively sees the end of the Cottagers’ season. He said his team were better when the match was 11 v 11, after both Ryan Christie and Joachim Andersen were sent off.
Marco Silva has showed his frustration at Fulham’s 1-0 defeat to Bournemouth, saying that the Cottagers were the better side when it was 11 v 11.
In a tightly contested match between two sides with European ambitions, the key talking points of the first half were undoubtedly the two red cards.
Bournemouth’s Ryan Christie was shown red for a studs-up tackle on Timothy Castagne, before Joachim Andersen was also sent off for a similar tackle on Adrien Truffert.
Fulham had significantly more of the ball and carried a lot of momentum in the first half when there were 22 men on the pitch but as has been the problem for much of the season, they lacked the clinical edge required.
Bournemouth’s Rayan scored the only goal of the game eight minutes into the second half and from then on, Fulham were up against it.
Although Josh King hit the crossbar and Djordje Petrovic made a fantastic save to deny Kevin, who has returned to the side after his broken toe, they were unable to level the scores.
Silva spoke of the ‘impact’ the two red cards said: “It was an impact, 100 per cent sure,” Silva said.
“I have to say that we played a very good first-half, our first-half, 11 against 11, we were clearly the team on the front foot.
“We had some very good moments of football, Bournemouth are a difficult side to play against, very intense, with man-on-man marking almost every single time.
“The ball arrived so many times in dangerous areas around their box. It's a moment to be clinical, to show individual quality, to decide better in some moments.
“We had a massive chance with Rodrigo [Muniz] alone in the six-yard box after a good moment from ourselves.
“We have to be clinical, we have to put the ball in the net in that type of moment from a striker with his quality.
“Unfortunately we didn't, but until Christie's red card, the game was completely on our side.
“The result didn't show that because in one or two moments, we were not clinical enough.”
While Silva at no point refuted the red card, he did accept that his team became tired in the second half when there was more space as the game became 10 v 10.
“We know in football, sometimes if you get a red card you have to be more careful. You have to be much more mature,” he added.
“It had a massive impact, definitely. We knew there was going to be a bit more space second-half and we became a bit more fatigued because the team wasn't so compact - it became more like a game of basketball. That was the reality of the second-half.
“We have to go back to the beginning of the game where we were clearly the best team on the pitch.”