A frustrated Marco Silva admitted individual mistakes and a lack of “emotional control” cost Fulham as they fell to a stoppage-time defeat against Manchester United.
Bruno Fernandes struck in injury time for the only goal of the game, consigning Fulham to a defeat they barely deserved after an impressive performances.
It was a loss which followed the same script as all three matches Fulham had played against United last season, when Silva’s side had been the better team but lost on each occasion.
“A real difficult one for us to take, definitely”, Silva said. “Defeats are always difficult. Same old story. I said yesterday we wanted to write a different story [in games against United]. We cannot be punished by this way.
“For me, many people are going to talk about being lucky or unlucky, but the way we concede the goal is clearly a matter of emotional control at the end of the game. We made three of four mistakes. It’s difficult to understand why.”
Silva also questioned the decision-making of his side, despite the fact they created many more clearcut chances than their famous guests.
He said: “Some individual decisions we made we have to make in a better way. Our second half showed that we are in better control. Three or four players making mistakes, and we are punished by that.”
United goalkeeper Andre Onana made acrobatic saves to deny shots by Willian, Harry Wilson and Joao Palhinha, and the Fulham manager said: “The chances we did create were enough for us to score. We should have scored. It is what it is.”
Striker Rodrigo Muniz was handed his first Premier League start of the season, having impressed off the bench against Brighton last weekend and scored at Ipswich Town on Wednesday when starting in the Carabao Cup round of 16.
But Muniz received two bouts of treatment in the second half, before being substituted while he was visibly in tears.
Asked about the severity of the injury, Silva said: “We don’t know yet. It’s too soon to give you a statement about it. I hope nothing serious. He had a very good game, in my opinion. Unfortunately, in one moment he felt the knee and let’s hope it’s nothing serious.”
