Marco Silva showed frustration as Fulham lost 1-0 in the FA Cup fifth round against Southampton.
The Cottagers crashed out of this year’s edition a round earlier than they did in the 2024/25 season, and the head coach could not contain his disappointment at the failure to keep alive the trophy bid.
“Very bad day for us – myself, the football players, mainly for our fans, definitely. The expectations were in the level that they should be, they must be. And we were not good enough. Simple as that.
“We can talk about many different things – we had 24 shots, and we didn’t create enough after 24 shots, we were around their box many, many times, inside their box. But the reality with football is you have to create clearcut chances when you have this amount of offensive game that we had.
“The reality is that we were not good enough in the other part of the game, too.
“They had five shots all game, and in most of those moments they created chances. And for us, it’s just a sign that we were not really close to the standards that we have to be, in terms of defensive transition, reactions when you lose the ball, and some other things that are important for us.
“Probably not the moment to be so emotional and, to be clear, very bad day for us, as a group, always myself in front of this group of players, and for the football club. It’s probably a moment for us to look even deeper, because it cannot be just another defeat. I know that in football, the defeats, they are tough, doesn’t matter where and who you play. We lost a big chance.
“When you have the responsibility to be favourites, to be in the Quarter-Finals next round, to be playing with a draw that gave us a chance to play at home against a very good side of the Championship, and we didn’t play the way we should to win the game.”