Silva on Premier League stability, Crystal Palace and Willian
Fulham boss Marco Silva has been facing the media before Saturday's Premier League game against Crystal Palace.
Here's what he had to say:
Willian will "probably be involved" against Crystal Palace after training with the team for the last few days.
On how much Willian has been missed, Silva said: "He's a really important player for us. I think any team in this league, even at his age, if you have him you are stronger. With Willian we are stronger, there is no doubt about it. It doesn't look like he is 35, it is not important for me. What is important is the way he is playing and training as well. He is almost always ready to improve something. He's a really important piece in our football club right now."
On whether he wants Willian to stay at Fulham with his contract being up in the summer: "I will do my best to keep him in our football club. We are going to have a conversation at the end of the season. I've been speaking with him and last season we did the same. We sat together at the end of last season and we had a conversation. I think it's important for him and he wants to do the same again this season. He wants to analyse the season, we are going to do it together and of course after it is up to him to take the decision."
On the aim for the rest of the season: "The next game is against Palace, a team in a good moment and we are playing at the Cottage and we want to be at our best level because we know even if they are in a good moment, us at our best level is going to be really difficult for them and the message is clear to reach the certain type of standards that we have at home."
On Crystal Palace: "You can see the results, you can see the performances as well. It's always a big help when you have some key players recovering from injuries. You can see Palace, no doubts, they are much stronger if they have [Eberechi] Eze and [Michael] Olise in a very good level, and [Jordan] Ayew in a very good level as well. They have these players around and they have a striker in very good form, too – that is [Jean-Philippe] Mateta in very good form. When you have two young lads, but already with some experience, like Eze and Olise at their top level, they are players that can make a difference against any team in this competition because, in my opinion, they are really two top players."
