Fulham coach Marco Silva admitted that Fulham’s second half was not up to the same standard as the first, in Sunday’s 3-1 defeat to Liverpool.
After falling behind to Trent Alexander-Arnold’s perfect free-kick, the Whites reacted well and grabbed a deserved equaliser courtesy of Timothy Castagne’s first goal for the Club.
But after going down again early in the second half to Ryan Gravenberch’s strike, we were unable to show a similar reaction, with Diogo Jota also netting to secure the points for the visitors.
“First half was good,” Silva admitted. “A balanced first half, not one team on the front foot really.
“We knew how they were going to start, or try to start. I think we were solid, we were in a good shape.
“It was not a first half of many, many chances for both sides. Of course, they scored an excellent free-kick from Arnold, and our reaction was really good.
“I think we had some very good moments as well, some counter-attacks, some open play moments as well.
“Even under pressure we tried to build, and the result at half-time was fair because the reaction was good. I really think we deserved the equaliser and deserved the goal in that moment.
“When you expect the same intensity at the start of the second half, the way we conceded the goal was really hard for us to take. It was a good chance for us to make a good counter-attack down our left hand side, [but] we gave the ball away and they scored with a very good strike.
“And from that moment, I agree the reaction was not so good. It was not good enough, not like the first half reaction, and it was more difficult for us to create chances to equalise.”
A further frustration was that both Liverpool’s goals in the second half were preventable – something that Silva wants to see his side learn from.
“The way we conceded the two goals, the second and the third goals during the second half, was really hard for us,” he said. “We have to learn from that situation, for the future, to not happen again, because after that it was more difficult for us to react.
“The third goal was the goal that killed the game. A moment that we should be stronger in that challenge, we were a little too soft in the challenge, and they won that challenge where our defender should be much stronger because there was a moment for us to stop that situation.”