Marco Silva has no doubt that his Fulham team will be taking on the best side in the country on Saturday afternoon.
Manchester City sit nine points clear at the top of the Premier League, and when asked by a journalist if they were probably the strongest club around at the moment, Silva replied: “Probably? No. The best, by a distance. Not probably, for me they are the best.
“Apart from that fantastic season Liverpool had two seasons ago, since Pep [Guardiola] joined the club they have been really dominant, not just in terms of results and winning trophies, but with the quality in their football.
“For people who love football in this country, they have been pleased to see it, because of the way they are winning football matches.
“Of course it will be a tough, tough game for us. An FA Cup match is always a little bit different, is always something special behind these type of games.
“To be honest, maybe it’s the toughest game you can have, to play against Man City, but at the same time, it’s the easiest game for us to prepare.
“It’s so clear what they want to do and the way they do it, which is almost perfect. They do it with high, high quality, and for us we have to be at our top level, and hope they’re not at their top level.
“But we want to play, as always, with big ambition and try to enjoy the moment, knowing that they will create a lot of problems for us, but when we have the ball we have to try to be ourselves as well and try to match them.”
Our Head Coach continued: “We know they are the favourites to go through, but in this competition you always have to play with ambition, and we go there to do that, even if we know we are playing against the best team in England.
“They will create problems for us, like they do for every team in this country, in every stadium they go to they control the match from the first minute to the last.
“They are maybe one of the best teams in the world, if not the best team in the world. We know that, but at the same time it’s a game for us to enjoy, and an environment for us to enjoy as well. Our fans will enjoy it as well because they will travel in good numbers.”
With Fulham also at the top of our division, could this tie be a distraction with two Championship fixtures next week?
“A distraction? No, it’s the next game for us,” Silva explained. “An FA Cup match could never be a distraction.
“The next game is always the most important for us. In the Carabao Cup we managed some players, had some rotation, and in the Bristol City match we did the same as well, but we always look at the [next] match as the most important game for us.
“Even if everyone knows what is our main competition and target during this season, we cannot play an FA Cup match thinking that it’s not important.
“If we get a fantastic result it would be perfect for us, if something doesn’t go our way, it won’t stop us from our main focus as well.”
