Fulham manager Marco Silva disclosed that his team focused on Marc Cucurella and Pedro Neto during their 2-1 Premier League win over Chelsea at Stamford Bridge on Boxing Day. Cole Palmer scored first for Chelsea in the 16th minute, but Fulham equalized with a goal from substitute Harry Wilson and later took the lead through Rodrigo Muniz’s late goal. Silva explained to Amazon Prime, “I anticipated that with Adama [Traore] because Cucurella would be positioned more centrally, acting as a second midfielder or playing in the pocket. We aimed to use a player like Adama to take advantage of the space when they were more vulnerable on the left side, and to exploit Cucurella’s positioning. That was our strategy.” Certainly, it functioned very effectively. He mentioned: “We aimed to take advantage of Robinson’s matchup against [Pedro] Neto; we anticipated that Madueke or Neto would do this, and we made a concerted effort to pit Neto against Robinson each time, and we succeeded.”
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