Marco Silva’s halftime message

Everton had a humdrum first half where visitors Fulham took the game to them more often than not, and manager Marco Silva was unimpressed by what he’d seen. His halftime team talk certainly did the trick though, as a recharged Blues side came out firing and scored thrice in the second period to take all three points in a forceful performance.

Speaking after the game, here’s what Silva had to say about his message in the dressing room -

“I told them what we had to do in a different way. They had to be more aggressive.

“I told them, in that moment, we have to do it in a different way. We have to be more aggressive and we have to be more clear about what we are doing.

“We have have to take different decisions and be a little bit more calm when we have the ball, and when we are attacking.

“What we did in the first 10 minutes of the first-half, compared to the other 35, was completely different.

”We missed, in some moments, the aggressiveness we need to put in our defence.”

Gylfi Sigurdsson missed a penalty but then scored two harder goals to put the result beyond doubt. We saw a much better playmaker today than we have previously this season.

“Fantastic character and personality is important. Our team showed that character as well. He missed the penalty but after one or two minutes he began working in his way.

”The football this afternoon was fair with him after he missed the penalty. He works hard everyday.”

Silva has faced quite a bit of flak for his defensive performances, but was thrilled by the clean sheet his Blues kept today, the first of the season and his first in 18 games.

“Of course the three points was the most important thing but the clean sheet was also something we were working on to build confidence as a team.

“I’m really happy. I told the boys what my feelings were in the dressing room. It was an important result for us but it was only three points, and now we must start preparing for the next game in the normal way.”

The manager understands the importance of confidence, especially to a young side as his.

“I hope so [the win will maintain confidence] to sustain what we are doing and the way we want to play. The results will be the best way to grow this confidence with our fans and our players because it is something really important.

“Today we started with some players who are only 20-years-old and they need to feel our support outside as well to grow as players.

”I know what the team is doing and the fans know it as well. When you don’t win one game, I’m not happy, the players won’t be happy and our fans won’t be happy. They always want the three points and we want that as well, of course.”