Silva won’t rotate Fulham squad despite big lead

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Fulham boss Marco Silva insists he won’t make changes to his side just to appease his squad players despite having an 11-point lead at the top of the Championship table.

The Whites, who have two games in hand to second-placed Huddersfield, can extend that lead further with victory over Swansea at the Liberty Stadium on Tuesday night and have a clean bill of health following Saturday’s 2-0 win over Blackburn.


Anthony Knockaert, who has made just four substitute appearances this season, is the only player unavailable for selection due to a back problem, but Silva said he will only make changes to his side if he feels they are needed.

“The squad list will always be with full focus on the next games,” Silva said.

“Normally I don’t like to make changes just to swap players around it but because I have an idea behind doing it.

“For the last game I made three changes because it was in my plan to do it as you have to look at the opposition you play against.

“Of course if some of them they are not 100 per cent fit or in condition to perform the way we want to perform, of course I will do it, but not just because I would like to make changes.

“If not, I will not do it.”

Swansea, sit in 16th place on the table but have won their last two matches against West Brom and Coventry.

Despite their lowly position the Swans lead the league in possession stats albeit without it translating into goals with Russell Martin’s side finding the net just 37 times this season – with only Hull and the bottom three of Barnsley, Derby and Peterborough scoring fewer.

However, Silva is expecting a difficult match from a side whose gameplan is to try and starve the opposition of the ball with goalkeeper Ben Fisher often starting moves by bringing to ball out of his area and high up the field.

“They have the courage to do it and do it with quality,” he said.

“When we played them earlier in the season was a good example of that as they are the only team this season to have more possession than us at the Cottage.

“We now that often the possession they have is in a low [position and around their own box and they use it a lot from their goalkeeper as well.

“It is up to us with our plan and strategy to control these moments and feel comfortable.”