Fulham boss Marco Silva spoke to the media ahead of Saturday’s Premier League match against Burnley at Turf Moor (5:30 p.m. GMT).
Here are the main points of his press conference:
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Silva has confirmed Ryan Sessegnon will miss the Clarets visit but is “improving” after missing last weekend’s defeat to Crystal Palace with a hamstring injury: “The kind of situation we will see day in and day out. It seemed minor but because of his injury history we have to be more careful with him.”
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Antonee Robinson has been training with the team and “last week was a good week for him.” Silva added: “Let’s see how he reacts after a full week.”
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Silva said Jonah Kusi-Asare, on loan at Bayern Munich, “needs to train in a way to prove he’s ready” to be able to feature, adding that the youngster has “been sick, a little bit sick this week”.
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On losing players to Afcon: “We knew it was going to happen. We won’t panic about its impact. We’re talking about three starters. We know Alex (Iwobi) is a key player in whatever position he plays, the importance of Calvin (Bassey) and what (Samuel) Chukwueze has done in the last few games.”
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Silva added: “It seems even more serious that we don’t have Rodrigo Muniz. It is what it is, not the time for us to cry – it was the time to prepare for it last summer.”
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On Raul Jimenez, who has started the last eight matches in the absence of his compatriot Muniz: “We have to manage his minutes so that he is as fresh as possible.”
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On Burnley’s challenge from Scott Parker: “It’s very difficult to have a good run, sometimes it’s not that difficult then to have a bad run. There are margins. They’ve been competitive. It’s up to us to go out there and perform, to fight – it’s going to be a fight.”
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Asked about the Cottagers’ recent narrow defeats, Silva said: “One thing that is clear is concentration. We want the players to understand the plan clearly. The Premier League demands a lot. The mental and tactical point of view, dealing with fatigue, making substitutions, managing the load. Sometimes our games come from those moments. The margins – when the games are so close, some margins can go in your favor, others can cost you all three points.”
Listen to live commentary of Burnley v Fulham on Saturday from 5:30 p.m. GMT on BBC Radio 5 Live.
