Marco Silva tells Sky Sports about helping Aleksandar Mitrovic flourish and the changes newly-promoted Fulham are making to adapt to the Premier League; watch Arsenal vs Fulham live on Sky Sports Premier League from 4.30pm on Saturday; kick-off 5.30pm
Saturday 27 August 2022 17:39, UK
Marco Silva struck a note of caution ahead of the new Premier League season. Liverpool's visit to Craven Cottage was fast approaching but Fulham's recruitment was progressing slowly.
"The players that we have right now, I congratulate them for the work they have been doing," said Silva in his pre-match press conference. "But we, as a squad, are not ready."
The comments sounded ominous but they were justified. Silva had only 16 senior players available to him. Even now, with Bernd Leno, Shane Duffy and Issa Diop having followed Andreas Pereira, Joao Palhinha, Kevin Mbabu and Manor Solomon through the door, Silva says "three or four" more new recruits are required.
Tuesday's Carabao Cup defeat to Crawley Town suggests he is right to be concerned about their strength in depth. But it is a testament to the foundations put in place last season that they have come through their first three Premier League games unbeaten.
"It was not a surprise for me," Silva tells Sky Sports of Fulham's impressive start. "We had so many positions to fill, but the players who were here last season were ready and they showed it. I believe there is much more to come from the team."
Silva guided Fulham back into the Premier League in exhilarating style last season, with 106 goals scored on their way to promotion, and while reinforcements are needed to handle the step up, there are no plans to discard those who got them there.
"Chemistry is really important between the players, the staff, the fans, myself with the academy people as well," says Silva. "We played the first two Premier League matches with nine players from last year and the last game with eight players from last year.
"For me, it's so simple. The new players who arrive have to show their quality, and prove that, right now, they are better solutions than the players already playing. No one arrives in this club 100 per cent sure that they will play straight away. That is everything I want."
One player who will not be dislodged is Aleksandar Mitrovic.
The Serb fell out of favour under previous head coach Scott Parker but Silva's arrival last summer changed everything.
After a record-breaking 43-goal season in the second tier, Mitrovic has started the Premier League campaign with another three in three games, tormenting Liverpool at Craven Cottage and heading Fulham's dramatic winner against local rivals Brentford.
The 27-year-old has never scored more than 11 times in a Premier League campaign but the hope for Fulham is that this year - under a manager who made it his mission to win his trust right from the start of his tenure - that might change.
"I remember we had a conversation even before he started to work with me," says Silva. "When I signed for the club, I rang him on the phone when he was on holiday.
"Everything was so clear between me and him. Straight away, he knew what would be the demands, the plan, the philosophy. He felt from that moment that I wanted to get the best from him.
"I called him to make him feel good on the pitch, with a clear idea. He knows that he always has someone behind him, supporting him, but at the same time demanding a lot from him."
Mitrovic has evidently relished Silva's approach to man management and it helps, too, that he has matured mentally.
Against Brentford, and following a missed penalty in Fulham's previous game against Wolves, his decisive goal arrived after a string of dispiriting misses which might previously have caused him to lose focus.
Does he draw added motivation from proving his doubters wrong?
"I don't think he needs this motivation, to be honest," says Silva.
"He is in a good place and I hope he continues proving his qualities - as a player and professional but as a man as well - for me, for his team-mates, for his family and for the people who love him.
"That is the main thing for me and the main thing for him, for sure. The people around who speak about football will keep on making their own analysis. But it doesn't matter what they say."
Silva's side provided plenty of ammunition for Mitrovic last season and they have bolstered their creative options further this summer with the addition of Pereira, a £10m signing from Manchester United.
The 26-year-old spent the previous two campaigns on loan with Lazio, where he struggled for playing time, and Flamengo in Brazil, away from the European spotlight, but he has hit the ground running at Fulham, starting each of their Premier League games and proving a threat from open play and set pieces.
It is no less than his new head coach expected having monitored his progress - and planned for his possible arrival - for over a year.
"I actually had a conversation with Andreas last season when I joined Fulham," says Silva. "Of course, I knew it would be really difficult for him to come to the Championship because he is a top-quality player and he has to play in the best competitions.
"But I had a conversation with him about his situation and, from that moment, I had the feeling that, if things went the way we wanted at Fulham last season, we might be able to make something happen, depending on what was going on with Manchester United."
Pereira described Silva as a "key factor" in his decision to join Fulham and, as with Mitrovic, the early evidence suggests the belief his new head coach has shown in him is helping him thrive.
I think he is a player who has something to prove but has the quality to do it. It has been a good start for him but I think there is much more to come.
"He is a player I wanted to get because he's a player I knew really well," adds Silva. "I know his qualities on the ball, off the ball, set pieces, everything.
"He's a really good player and he was really hungry to have this type of challenge as well, at a club that trusts him and with people around him who trust him and want to get the best from him.
"I think he is a player who has something to prove but has the quality to do it. For me, it is so important when a player has the quality for me to get the best from them.
"It has been a good start for him but I think there is much more to come. He has the quality to do even more."
With Mitrovic and Pereira leading the charge, Fulham have shown plenty of attacking intent following their promotion, tearing into Liverpool on the opening day and showing the same willingness to bomb forward in the first half against Brentford.
"I love to see that and it is what I work for," says Silva with a smile.
The 45-year-old is adamant the step up to the Premier League will not prompt a departure from his side's attacking philosophy.
"If people want to go a little bit back, they will understand I have used the same philosophy in all the clubs I have managed. It would not make sense to join a club and change everything I did in the past.
"We got promotion and won the title last year, so now, we are not going to start changing everything just because we are playing in the best and most difficult competition in the world."
Silva does, however, acknowledge the need for certain adaptations. Fulham, so dominant in the second tier, have averaged just 39 per cent possession in their first three Premier League games.
"Of course, you have to adapt some things," says Silva. "Last season, we got used to having 70 per cent possession in every single match and around 20 shots in every match as well.
"That will not happen in most of our games this season. We know that. We know we have to adapt certain things and be clever, sometimes to change a little bit the plan and the strategy.
"Some teams will obligate us to do things I don't like, but that's part of football. In some moments, if the opponent are on top of us, we have to be able to suffer together and to show togetherness and organisation with the ball and without the ball."
The adaptations can be seen in the way in which Fulham have sought to hurt opponents this season - Opta's advanced metrics show only Tottenham and Manchester United have made more direct attacks - and also the way in which Silva has sought to rebalance his side.
Indeed, while he hopes to increase Fulham's average share of possession over the course of the campaign - "we will achieve that, definitely" - he has already addressed the change of emphasis, in part, by replacing Jean Michael Seri, a diminutive ball-playing midfielder, with Joao Palhinha, a physically imposing ball-winner who excels at breaking up play and winning aerial duels.
"Having a player like Joao as the six is a completely different profile to the player we had last season in that position, because we know what kind of competition we are now playing in," says Silva.
"I loved Jean Michael Seri (who moved to Hull this summer). He understood clearly what I wanted from a player in that position. But in some moments, we knew what this season would be like, so we changed the profile of the player.
"In terms of our philosophy, though, and the way we work on and off the ball, there are not many changes to our preparation on a daily basis. It's more the mindset and mentality that has to change.
"Most of the players who have joined us this summer have more or less the same thing. They were used to having more possession than the opposition in their previous clubs.
"So, it is something we all have to adapt to, but the philosophy doesn't change. We always want to have more possession, but we know the opposition have the quality to have more than us. It's simple."
Silva's previous spells in England, in charge of Hull City, Watford and Everton, have all been short-lived but he has put Fulham on an upward trajectory and hopes it will continue - even if taking a job in the second tier was not something he ever envisaged doing.
"If you had asked me when I left Everton that managing in the Championship was something I would do, I would have said in that moment no. But a club like Fulham, and the project they showed me, made me want to come back to England.
"The first season was a successful one and the platform is now there. We want to keep building from that success but in a completely different challenge. We want to embrace it and at the same time make the club better in every single moment."
That applies to every level of the club, according to Silva.
"It is not just what people see on the pitch but off the pitch. There is so much work we are doing with the board and with all departments of the club to make it better and to make better conditions to challenge in the Premier League as we should.
"I'm really enjoying the challenge with my staff and my players. I come in every single day with a big ambition and motivation to make the club and my players better."
As for this season, and despite sitting seventh in the table after three games, Silva is thinking only about what comes next, starting with Saturday's trip across London to face leaders Arsenal.
"Everyone knows the target is to stay in the division, but whether we are successful or not will be a consequence of how we do our job in every single match," he says.
"Our ambition is clear. My ambition is clear as well. I think the club will support us to do our maximum and get what we think will be a successful season. We will fight for it all together."
Even if it means waiting a little longer for his squad to take shape.
Watch Arsenal vs Fulham live on Sky Sports Premier League from 4.30pm on Saturday; kick-off 5.30pm
