Silva: Fulham should have been better prepared for Afcon departures

Marco Silva says Fulham should have been better prepared for losing players to the African Cup of Nations. 

Calvin Bassey, Samuel Chukwueze and Alex Iwobi will all be representing Nigeria at the tournament and were therefore unavailable for the Carabao Cup quarter-final defeat at Newcastle. 

Fulham’s lack of squad depth was exposed somewhat at St James’ Park, where they had only three attacking options on the bench.

Head coach Silva made his frustration clear during the summer at the club’s lack of signings – and again suggested it had caused problems following the cup exit.

“We should have prepared in a different way last June and July. We didn’t,” he said.

“A very difficult one to take” – Silva after Fulham’s quarter-final defeat pic.twitter.com/Iq1meGVQZf

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It was a painful defeat for Fulham, who once again lost in the later stages of a cup competition.

A goal in the second minute of stoppage time by Lewis Miley took Newcastle through in dramatic fashion.

“It was a very difficult one to take,” Silva admitted.

“We defended deeper than we’d like to see and our counter-attacks didn’t work. We had one or two moments in the second half.”

Sasa Lukic was forced off at half-time with a groin injury, but Silva confirmed the substitution was precautionary.

“He was feeling the groin in the last minute of the first half. He felt something there. He was getting worse,” Silva explained.

“He was not completely out during the half-time but he had some tests there and was feeling something weak.

“It was a precaution for us to not take the risk with him and that’s why we changed at half-time.”