Marco Silva has done something special at Fulham as the club aims for the first trophy in their history!
Of course, I thought, before the start of Everton's League Cup clash with Fulham, that we were talking about a completely "open" pair. And indeed, the Londoners did me justice, with Marco Silva's side qualifying and reaching the last four of the League Cup for the first time ever. A great success for the former Olympiacos coach's side and a wonderful story for Fulham, against the backdrop of their first final since 1975, at home in England. It deserves it, it has to keep it up and rightly so, those around the club credit its impressive football and effectiveness to its coach.
By CHRISTOS SOTIRAKOPOULOS
Let's start with the basics. The League Cup, like of course the oldest football institution, the FA Cup, are two competitions that make the… permissible dream.
Especially when it comes to Fulham, who are chasing their first title in their history and their first final since 1975, in England. Then, they had met West Ham at Wembley in May of that calendar year, with Bobby Moore making his last appearance at that stadium, and not in the shirt of the team he had played for all his years in his career, but with Fulham, with whom he finished his career on the pitch!
Both goals were scored by Alan Taylor. But who would have thought that that 94th FA Cup final would be the Londoners' most recent, with the next one being the 2010 Europa League final?
This year's edition of Fulham, however, looks to be the best we have watched in the last 13 years. A team that wants to play football, wants to attack, likes a fast style of play and is not afraid of any opponent.
And if this seems simple to you, let me remind you of Vincent Kompany's statement a few months ago, saying that Burnley had returned to the Premier League to play aggressively. And of course, to this day, he has failed to back it up, with everyone watching a team that essentially wants, but doesn't know what they play.
But Fulham, even without Alexander Mitrovic, have found a way. They produce what they know, score a lot and in the last month, have two games with five goals each, the qualification we are talking about and of course the three goals at Anfield, which despite that, did not prove to be enough to get a result.
Somehow, the best Fulham since 2010 is among us. They have to dream, they owe it to themselves and they have to keep it up. I'm sure they will. Because all this until today, the management and the fans rightly attribute it to Marco Silva!