Marco Silva embarrasses himself as blames match officials for Newcastle 1 Fulham 0

I like Marco Silva but I think he let himself down after the final whistle.

Fulham had came to St James’ Park and played pretty well, though Newcastle United far more deserving of the victory (which they eventually got!).

The visitors didn’t have a single shot on target, whilst Newcastle had five on target and hit the post.

Indeed, the overall stats do back up my belief and that of pretty much everybody else inside St James’ Park, that NUFC totally deserved the win.

Nearly twice as much possession (63% v 37%), four times as many shots (20 v 5), twice as many corners (10 v 5), as well as 5-0 on efforts on target in Newcastle’s favour.

Despite all of that, Marco Silva chose to blame the match / VAR officials for the defeat.

Midway through the second-half, Fulham twice claiming a penalty in the same brief passage of play. The referee initially giving neither, however, after VAR intervened, Robert Jones did the usual for PL referees of going through the motions looking at the pitchside monitor before giving a penalty for Trippier’s challenge. I thought maybe a 50/50 on whether a spot-kick or not.

Given that glorious opportunity, (Agent) Aleksandar Mitrovic managed to produce a comical penalty, the right foot kicking the ball but then that ball striking the left foot, before ending up in the net. A free-kick for Newcastle and obviously no penalty as he had kicked the ball twice.

Marco Silva obviously gutted at the end that Fulham hadn’t converted that glorious chance that would have put them 1-0 up with 20 minutes remaining, but embarrassingly, the visiting managing choosing after the game to blame the match officials for the defeat. Silva claiming that Fulham should have a penalty AND a red card given to Dan Burn, for the incident that preceded the Trippier challenge by a matter of seconds.

I think that Marco Silva was clearly VERY frustrated that Agent Mitro had made such a mess of the penalty BUT didn’t want to publicly blame him. So, instead using the distraction technique of blaming the match officials for not giving an additional red card for that passage of play.

I think if there had been a red card for Burn, which I don’t believe should have been the case, then very likely the game would have ended goalless, as Fulham struggled to provide any proper threat to Nick Pope’s goal and I doubt Newcastle playing with 10 not 11 for 20 minutes would have changed that.

Marco Silva should have just praised his players and rued the big chance that Fulham had wasted to have a single shot on target, rather than imagining they were somehow massive victims of the match officials on the day. When surely the opposite was true, Fulham getting that massive penalty decision when often the Trippier challenge wouldn’t have ended up with a spot-kick.

Fulham manager Marco Silva talking to BBC Sport after Newcastle 1 Fulham 0:

“Tough match for us at the end.

“We came here in difficult circumstances.

“Finishing a game at 10pm and then starting at 2pm on a Sunday is not fair.

“We knew Newcastle’s physicality and quality.

“They have been doing well against all the teams they have played so far.

“Really proud of my players, they demonstrated what it means to be Fulham Football Club.

“They showed passion, desire and quality.

“We were compact, there was more control from them, but I think we controlled the game in some moments as well.

“From the first moment, they showed the quality that they have.

“One bad decision from the referee and the VAR.

“The first one (challenge by Dan Burn) is a penalty, the second one too (challenge by Kieran Trippier) but that was given, and has to be a red card. Andreas (Pereira) won the ball, the player clearly pulled him and it has to be a red card.

“Really difficult for me to understand.

“You can miss the penalty but it has to be red card, penalty…and in that moment the game would be very different.

“The Mitrovic penalty was one of the biggest chances that we had to lead the score.

“It was a big chance.

“It can happen (Mitro kicking the penalty with his right foot but hitting his left foot on the way into the net) as well.

“We have to keep going and that’s it.

“The decision from the referee and the VAR is hard to understand.

“This group is too strong to be let down.

“The referee can make mistakes.

“I make mistakes and so do my players for us it is hard to understand how VAR does not see that but we have to go again.”

Stats from BBC Sport:

Newcastle 1 Fulham 0 – Sunday 15 January 2pm

Goals:

Newcastle United:

Isak 89

Fulham:

(Half-time stats in brackets)

Possession was Fulham 37% (43%) Newcastle 63% (57%)

Total shots were Fulham 5 (2) Newcastle 20 (11)

Shots on target were Fulham 0 (0) Newcastle 5 (4)

Corners were Fulham 5 (2) Newcastle 10 (7)

Referee: Robert Jones

Attendance: 52,247

Newcastle United:

Pope, Trippier, Schar, Botman, Burn, Bruno (Saint-Maximin 45), Longstaff, Willock (Isak 71), Almiron (Murphy 85), Joelinton, Wilson (Wood 90+6)

Unused Subs:

Dubravka, Lascelles, Ritchie, Manquillo, Lewis

(Bruno Guimaraes leaves St James’ Park on crutches with protective boot – Posts personal message to Newcastle fans – Read HERE)

(Newcastle 1 Fulham 0 – The instant NUFC fan / writer reaction – Read HERE)

(Newcastle 1 Fulham 0 : First time seen this happen at St James’ Park – Absolutely remarkable win – Read HERE)