Marco Silva pinpoints moment Liverpool 'killed' Fulham

Marco Silva has pinpointed the moment that ‘killed’ Fulham in their 3-1 defeat to Liverpool on Sunday.

Timothy Castagne cancelled out Trent-Alexander Arnold’s stunning free-kick opener on the stroke of half-time at Craven Cottage as the hosts responded well to falling behind. But Jurgen Klopp’s men retook the lead after Alex Iwobi gifted possession to Harvey Elliott shortly after the restart.

Picking out Ryan Gravenberch, the Dutchman curled home his first Premier League goal from the edge of the box before Diogo Jota wrapped up an impressive victory.

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Admitting such strikes were self-inflicted, Silva accepted the manner of Liverpool’s second goal was particularly hard to take. “We knew how they were going to start,” the Fulham boss said. “But it was a balanced first half. No team on the front foot really.

“They scored an excellent free-kick and our reaction was really good. The result at half-time was fair because the reaction was good. The team deserved the equaliser and the goal in that moment.

“The first half, the game was in the same direction as the last three or four games we played against them. But second half was not the usual level we play against them.

“You are supposed to start the second half with the same intensity but the way we conceded the (second) goal was really hard for us to take. A good chance for us to counter-attack, but we gave the ball away and they score. A very good strike.

“The reaction from that point was not good enough. The second goal was (preventable), but even the third. It was the goal that killed the game.

“We made a double-change and brought on Tom Cairney to give us more creativity in that area. But seconds later, we concede the third goal.

“Again a moment we should be stronger in the challenge. We are soft in the challenge. We should be much stronger because it is the moment to stop that situation.

“The way we conceded the two goals, the second and third goals, were really hard for us. We have to learn from these situations in the future because after that it was more difficult for us to react.”

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