Speaking in his post-Hull press conference following Saturday’s 2-0 victory, Marco Silva praised his squad for a solid afternoon’s work.
“Firstly, of course I am happy with the three points,” he said. “I am happy with how we set-up our players before the match, let’s get the third win in a row, it’s our first home win as well and we tried our best to do it with a clean sheet. If you achieve that, I am happy.”
Despite the comprehensive win, Silva commented that he still hadn’t seen the best from his team but was pleased with how his side managed the game.
“It wasn’t the best performance from us I tell you,” he admitted. “I have to be honest with you. But in this competition, the level that we are at, if you don’t have an almost perfect performance like we had in many moments against Huddersfield, we have to play to win football matches as well. The main thing is to win football matches.
“This afternoon was not perfect for us, but again we won the game because we were the best team on the pitch, we were dominant, we scored twice, and we had three or four clear chances to score more goals.”
Tim Ream and Kenny Tete were forced off with first half injuries, whilst Fabio Carvalho was also substituted with a knock. Speaking on the injured trio, he stated it’s too soon to evaluate them.
“It’s too soon to be sure about it. I’m waiting for the feedback from the medical staff.
“Tim doesn’t look really serious; it was a knock in that moment. Kenny could be unfortunately more serious, a muscular injury, we don’t know. Fabio twisted his ankle. Let’s see how it will be tomorrow and the next few days.”
Speaking ahead of Tuesday’s Carabao Cup game, the Head Coach said this would be a game where he would rotate his squad.
“We have to manage the physical condition, as you know we are at the start of the season. We just played Tuesday-Saturday-Tuesday. Three games in eight days with almost the same 11. They have a day off tomorrow. We will see how they are on Monday, then I will take the decision.
“It is a moment for me to see some of the players who are working so hard, are deserving of the chance, and deserving of the chance to show their quality.”