Fulham news: Silva's substitutions fall flat against Aston Villa
We have seen plenty of times this season that Marco Silva knows exactly who to bring on - and when - to change games. The joint-record high of 15 goals from substitutes attests to this.
But sometimes that magic touch goes missing - and it did on Saturday.
Marco took off Ryan Sessegnon before the hour mark against Aston Villa. He was our biggest - and, frankly, only - attacking threat in a game that saw us go behind early, and we never recovered.
Silva made the maximum five changes by the 76th minute in a game where we huffed and puffed but provided little else. And that decision backfired as Harrison Reed, himself a substitute, pulled up unchallenged and was forced off injured.
That left us with just 10 men for the rest of a game that looked unlikely to yield any points even if we had 11.
Bournemouth's win at the Emirates has placed them firmly in the driver's seat for eighth place and a likely spot in the Europa Conference League. Meanwhile, Brentford and Brighton's results mean we have a job to do to even finish in the top half.
It's a bitter pill to swallow, but we still have our win and points records to aim for.
And then Marco's job switches from micro changes to macro ones, as he looks to fine-tune our first-team squad in the transfer market.
Fulham fans will be hoping he rediscovers that magic touch.
Find more from Drew Heatley at Fulhamish, external
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