,,

PRE-LIVERPOOL PRESS CONFERENCE

May 2, 2023 12:22 pm

Marco Silva is relishing the opportunity of going up against an in-form Liverpool on Wednesday night.

The Reds are ending the season very strongly, winning their last four, with Silva particularly impressed with their strength in depth at the top end of the pitch.

“They are in a good moment in the last few games, they have been achieving good results and scoring goals, with all the players in the attack line in better form right now,” he explained.

“They can change many players in the attack line, and even so they keep the quality. Yesterday [against Tottenham Hotspur] is a good example again, when they had the chance to rest Diogo Jota and start with [Luis] Diaz coming back from the long-term injury.

Marco Silva walks across the pitch

“And all the situations, with Darwin [Nunez] as well on the bench and starting with [Cody] Gakpo and [Mohamed] Salah. They have a lot of solutions in the attack line, and they have four wins in a row. That is always important.

“Even before the four wins in a row, they had that game with Arsenal when they were losing 2-0 and they came back with an important point for them.

“That means they are in a good moment right now, they want to keep the momentum, of course they want to build from that situation.

“It’s up to us to be ready to play at Anfield, it’s always really tough. It will be for sure a great environment in that stadium, and it will be another great challenge for us.”

Marco Silva chats with Pep Guardiola pre-match

Despite the size of the test that awaits on Merseyside, Silva thinks his team showed against Manchester City just how competitive we can be.

“As I said before the Man City game, for us all the matches are a challenge, and we like to embrace the challenge,” he said. “I think yesterday is the best example, and I think really reflects Fulham as a team this season.

“It is not easy to start the game against a top side, one of the best in the world, and concede a penalty inside the first or second minute of the match, with the absences of Mitro and Willian, two key players in our attack line, losing our captain in that game with a bad injury, and after the beginning of the second half, Andreas Pereira as well.

ANDREAS INJURY UPDATE

“Even so, we were able to react as a team, to equalise the game, to make it really difficult for City, and show the resilience, show the character and the personality of this group of players, and our organisation.

“Yesterday we changed some things in certain starting points, for us to press in a different way and to set up in a different way when we didn’t have the ball against City. I think we created different problems to them, and we want to show that [again].

“It will be difficult, but we like this type of challenge, it will be a good challenge, new players will have to come in in certain positions, probably we’re going to freshen other positions as well, because everyone needs to be ready for the challenge.”