Silva said he wanted Fulham to maintain possession, adding that the substitutions were not influenced by poor performances
By Kehinde Okeowo,
Fulham coach, Marco Silva has said his decision to substitute Super Eagles midfielder, Alex Iwobi and two other players during his side’s Premier League 3-1 defeat to Nottingham Forest on Tuesday was not born out of poor performances.
Fulham after about 20 minutes of the encounter found themselves two goals down from strikes from Callum Hudson-Odoi and Chris Wood which gave Forest 2-0 lead.
Disappointed with the early two goals, the Fulham manager reacted by making three tactical substitutions.
He replaced Alex Iwobi, Sasa Lukic and Harry Wilson, with Adama Traore, Tom Cairney and Willian respectively.
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Despite his substitutions, Morgan Gibbs-White increased the lead to 3-0 for the hosts before half time.
However, Tosin Adarabioyo headed home from a corner to reduce the deficit at the start of the second half.
Speaking at his post-match interview, Silva said he made the substitutions in the 33rd minute because he wanted his team to maintain possession, adding that it was not influenced by individual performances.
The Portuguese said: “I wanted to see a reaction. I want to be clear it was not the fault of the players who came off,” he said.
“In that moment, if I could have changed more, I would have. I don’t want to highlight those three players, it was not their fault.
“At that moment, I wanted to keep more of the ball and with Tom Cairney and Willian they were able to do that.
“I wanted to create some one v ones on the right-hand side and Adama is able to do that.”