Marco Silva spoke about returning to familiar territory as Fulham face Everton on the weekend.
The head coach of the Cottagers spent a year and a half at Goodison Park before being sacked at the end of 2019. He now returns to Merseyside to face the Toffees at their new home, the Hill Dickinson Stadium, and will park the niceties when the action kicks off to keep up momentum from last week.
After a 3-0 win over Wolves, the pressure has eased a little, but Silva will not let standards slide.
“It’s going to be a good feeling, for sure. It’s always good when you go back to a place where you are going to see familiar faces and some people that you know well, and people that treat you very well.
“Some people in that structure, some players, they are still there from our time as well. And what I expect is always the same that I got the other times before, to have some good conversation before and after the match with people that I know very well, and people that welcome us always very well.
“[But] when we start the kick-off, each one is going to try to win the game, as always.
“Of course, Goodison was a special one. Okay, [moving] was the step that the club should give, and they gave. They are pleased with the place where they are playing right now, and it’s going to be the first time, first experience for us in that stadium.
“But you can feel it, you can see it, that it’s been very, very good for them in that aspect, and we are going to embrace the challenge of playing there against a good side. A side with a very experienced manager, some mature players as well.
“They added some great individuals for their squad, and it’s going to be a tough game, like always when you play away from home in the Premier League, when you play away from home against an Everton side, is always very difficult.
“But we have to look back, and the way this group of players changed completely the story of this football club recently against Everton away from home, just shows what we have been doing.
“Let’s hope. [Winning] is our goal, definitely is our goal. Of course, Everton wants a different one, but we want to repeat the last few results there, and the good performance and the way we won the games that were very impressive in some moments. That is the main thing for us.
“They have been achieving good results at home so far. Of course, I know that they lost their last one at home [0-3 against Tottenham Hotspur], but they have been achieving good results so far.
“The impact of the new stadium and the home games is there clearly, if you want to analyse, but it’s up to us. Our recent away form has not been good enough in terms of results, and we want to change it. The next one is Everton, and it’s another opportunity for us to do it.”
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