Silva confident Mitrovic and Wilson can shine in Premier League
Fulham boss Marco Silva is confident Aleksandar Mitrovic and Harry Wilson can prove they are Premier League quality if the Whites get promoted this season.
Silva’s side are currently 14 points clear at the top of the Championship with just 11 matches remaining and look certain to make an instant return to the top flight.
Mitrovic scored his 35th goal of a sensational season at Swansea on Tuesday and has already usurped Ivan Toney’s Championship record total of 31 during Brentford’s 2020/21 promotion-winning campaign.
The Serb is now only seven goals shy of Guy Whittingham’s all-time second tier record of 42 goals in a 46-game season for Portsmouth in 1992/93.
However, his record in the Premier League is nowhere near as successful, with the 27-year-old scoring just 24 goals in 104 Premier League appearances for Newcastle and Fulham.
Like his teammate, Wilson has an outstanding record in the Championship, with 38 goals and 33 assists in 121 appearances, including loan spells with Hull, Derby and Cardiff before joining Fulham in a permanent move last summer from Liverpool, where he made just one senior start.
But Wilson’s Premier League loan spell at Bournemouth yielded a modest seven goals in 31 games and no assists as the Cherries were relegated.
But the 24-year-old Welshman is having a season to remember under Silva, having scored nine goals and created 14 more as Fulham cut a swathe through the division – and his manager believes he has benefitted from being settled environment at one club.
“He has been here the last seven months and the ambition to be involved in this project was one of the main things that has impressed me and I am really happy with him,” Silva said.
“The good thing is that I know that he can do much more. He can improve. The room to improve is still there and is really big.”
Despite those less than flattering Premier League statistics, Silva insists Mitorvic and Wilson can thrive if the players around them allow them to play to their potential, regardless of the division.
“I am really confident in their ambition and their desire, this is the main situation for me,” Silva said.
“We have stats on them as well, but that is not the main thing for me when you have quality.
“They both do, there are no doubts about it, and it is up to me as a manager to keep demanding them to improve and get better every single day.
“If they can do this next season, it doesn’t where you play, the main thing is that they have quality.
“When you have players who play in the attack line you need the others players to give them the conditions to show that quality. Mitrovic is a good example of that.
“He is a striker who has the profile to score goals in this competition but it is dependant on what the team can do and the chances it can create.
“It is not the main thing to be concerned about to be honest, but I am really pleased for them, really proud of them.
“The reality shows we are doing brilliantly so far, but we haven’t won anything yet.”
