Fulham manager Marco Silva still felt disappointed with his side’s 3-2 defeat to Manchester City, despite a valiant performance at the Etihad.
Fulham had taken the lead through Andreas Pereira but the Champions turned it around, and a late goal from Rodrigo Muniz wasn’t enough.
“We have to be really unhappy with the result,” Marco said. “That’s the first thing and it’s a feeling that we all share in our dressing room.
“Of course, looking at the performance and the way the players stuck with the plan, they executed it really well and performance-wise it was a very good one.
“Looking at the chances that we did create throughout the game and comparing with City, we deserved more. But that’s football.
“It’s a process for the next time we have these types of chances to be able to score more and get a different result, but coming here to the Etihad, scoring twice and probably having four more clear chances to score is not easy to achieve and we did it.”
The gaffer explained how a tweak to the usual tactics helped his team give City a scare.
“We defended a little bit deeper than we normally like to. That was the plan. Even if you don’t have that plan, City have the capacity to push you back and we did.
“We changed the position of Alex (Iwobi) and Adama (Traoré) because we wanted to explore some things in the way they set up when they’re in attack.
“We were always able to make some dangerous counter-attacks and create something in those moments.”
While Fulham ultimately left Manchester empty handed, there were plenty of positives to take away.
“To see City finish with three central defenders with five at the back shows that we were creating problems for them, not just in transition.
“It gives us courage. We know what we are capable of doing, and it gives us the confidence to keep going in the direction that we want to go in, and to stick with our philosophy as a team.”