Fulham manager Marco Silva was left embittered by Everton’s late equaliser as he did not believe his former club deserved a point
Embittered Fulham manager Marco Silva believed it was unfair that his team were denied victory on his final Premier League visit to Goodison Park following Beto’s stoppage time equaliser for Everton. Silva triumphed three times at Goodison in 2023 but was denied a quartet of successes at his old stamping ground.
The 47-year-old, , who was Blues boss for 18 months between June 2018-December 2019 before being sacked with his team in the relegation zone following a 5-2 thrashing against Liverpool at Anfield, acknowledged that the home crowd at ‘The Grand Old Lady’ can be more intimidating that at other venues.
But he insisted that resisting such late pushes was not unique to the venue. Silva said: “If the FA Cup draw is not going to get us in the same direction, this is my last game at Goodison as an away manager.
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“It is a special place, even if you come as an away manager, it is an historic place to be and when you are Everton manager you can feel it more, week in, week out.
“About what has happened in the last minutes of the game, that is football, that is Premier League, not just at Goodison, that happens at many, many places as well, sorry to tell you. Because if you start to put central defenders up there, 10 players in there and you start to play long balls every time, it can happen at Goodison. I know the fans, they push a little bit more for it here but sorry to tell you, it happens at many, many places, not just at Goodison.”
Another Everton old boy Alex Iwobi put the Cottagers ahead just after the hour mark but Silva believes his previous employees did not deserve a share of the spoils. He said: “It was really tough for us with the result. Sometimes football is difficult to explain.
“All the things, they don’t go in the direction of the team that played much better from the first minute, the only team that tried to control the game. It’s tough for us right now, the players they are down in the dressing room and of course, myself as a manager, I have to look for the bigger picture.
“I asked them for a reaction from the last home game against Aston Villa – probably the only game this season that we were not at that level, even though the game was a little bit weird, the way we conceded some goals – and the reaction was there. From the first minute, we came here and took control of the game.
“We knew Everton was, in terms of results at least, in a moment, probably with more confidence from the first minute. But if they were, we took all the confidence from them, the way we played, the way we took the ball from them and didn’t give them the chance to press as normal, the way Everton press at home.
“We were patient enough to build our attacks from the right moment, to try and create the chances and that was the story of the game. In the first half we did great and had three or four clear chances to score but unfortunately we were not ruthless enough to start scoring in the first half but in the second half it was almost the same story again.”
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Silva added: “We took control of the game, playing in our offensive half most of the time. It was a great goal from ourselves and after that, a great moment again and a great chance that we should have killed the game to make it 2-0 but we didn’t and in these type of games, in the last minutes, can go in a way that was unfair to be honest.
“There was a central defender up front and long balls and we tried to be more compact and stronger in the aerial duels with (substitute) Jorge Cuenca but unfortunately, they scored in one moment.
“ To be honest, in that moment, we should have defended better in our box because we had enough bodies inside to control everything with Michael Keane and Beto in that situation with our central defenders there but unfortunately we didn’t and the football was really unfair with our team this evening because it was clear we were the much better team and we deserved three points.”
