Marco Silva must relax his desire for control when the time is right
Dan Cooke discusses his desire for Fulham to be able to break out of the current rigidity in pursuit of some more creative flair.
Marco is meticulous. It’s an essential trait for a manager at the top level - you need to be a perfectionist. You need to be constantly tweaking, adapting, evolving. Marco has done that gradually since he took charge and I’m in awe at how far he’s brought us.
Compare that Championship-winning side with the one we see today, and while initially the tactics might not seem that different, I think there’s a definite contrast. It’s a largely necessary evolution. A team wins the Championship every year, but not many of them go on to have the sustained stability that we’ve seen from our Fulham.
The early Premier League campaigns were driven by an ability to be better than teams of a similar stature. However, we lamented our inability to get results against the big boys; we’re football fans; we’re insatiable. Marco knew this and he rectified it. He tinkered away until he’d formed a team that could beat Chelsea, Liverpool, and Arsenal. Beating them in ways that weren’t flukes, but with performances that vindicated the countless hours he’ll have spent in pursuit of those points.
However, as mentioned, we’re never fully satisfied - and we’ve picked a new stick to beat Marco with. This new Fulham team that have stood up to the big bullies and refused to hand over their lunch money, seem to have forgotten how to dish out some wedgies of their own. We used to be great at swatting away teams below us and Saturday was a stark reminder that something needs adjusting in order to get some mojo back.
Control
The word that I keep going back to is “control”. I think it’s the foundations on which anything that Silva does tactically is built. He often speaks about it in press conferences, however, I think his vision of control has changed as we have evolved as a team.
That first season in the Championship was about domination. We “controlled” a game if we got on the front foot, boxed our opponents in and just relentlessly tormented them with our plethora of attacking talent. Forwards were given the freedom to express themselves and we were absolute brutes.
We were all well aware of how different the Premier league is and it’s so commendable how Marco has cemented us as a stable side. However, I do think in seeking a side that can punch upwards, we’ve started to lose some of the joy in our football. Why? I think it goes back to this idea of the changing definition of control.
Previously the focus was on what we do with the ball, through this evolution I think we’ve seen a shift to how we can control games without it. By holding opponents at arm’s length, funnelling them into areas of the pitch where we feel comfortable, then getting ready to pounce, we’ve found a formula that produces results in games where we’d previously get nothing. We strive to not let our opponents dictate the flow of the game, so while they may have possession, we are attempting to control what they do with it.
This requires a much more rigid structure fulfilled by players who are able to follow instructions and be disciplined. This is where I think trust has become a big factor. Players like Iwobi, Berge, Lukic, and up until this year, Andreas Pereira, have been relied on heavily by Marco. They know the patterns of play; they don’t divert from the game plan; they are controlled.
Unfortunately, I feel this has spilled over into games where we could be evoking more of that old mentality. The patterns of play that were once repetitive are now monotonous. Players who have had a rigidity drilled into them for when the big hitters come to town, seem unable to break out of this structured mentality when we need a spark.
I really want to see some of that freedom come back into our football. I wrote a piece about how bringing Iwobi into central midfield could be an exciting switch and Saturday was further proof that it’s something we should consider. You know exactly what you’ll get from Berge and Lukic but that’s not necessarily always a good thing. We need some randomness, something unexpected, unscripted, in order to find that zing again.
This is what got us all so excited about Kevin, and I anticipate that Samuel Chukwueze will evoke similar feelings. They are wingers who will make decisions based much more on feeling and intuition, as opposed to instructions. Unfortunately, this is why I won’t be surprised if it’s a while before they’re getting consistent starts because while we’re spilling over with excitement, desperate to see what Kevin does when he next gets the ball, I think that unknown is something that Marco Silva will be apprehensive about. He’s gotten used to players doing the expected, carrying out his painstakingly prepared game plans.
I know he’s not a defensive manager - in fact I’ve criticised him in the past for being too cavalier. Currently though, I think we’ve gone too far the other way. If we can find that balance, if we can establish the right definition of control in the right games, then I’ll have to find something else to moan about.
I know this post is not only about Iwobi, but something needs to be said. I listen to all the podcasts and read all the articles (keep up the good work), but in all this criticism, of Iwobi for being slow on Saturday I have not heard one person say "to be fair to Iwobi, he did just two other games in the past week for his nation" it is true he is not the fastest player but that performance was not representative of him as a whole. Contrasted to the performance of kevin, he looked all that much slower. On the point of him playing in the middle, I think it is a great idea, it is also where he played for Nigeria against South Africa.
Good piece! But it’s worth remembering, I think, that Marco’s Fulham are not strangers to free-flowing, joyful football, and not in some distant past, but just last season. That four-game burst, when we banged in 16 goals and handed out successive 5-0 hidings to both Forest and West Ham, showed we are capable of being expansive and ruthless. That wasn’t a relic of the Championship; it was in the Premier League football, and for FFC, almost surreal!
That run also underlines how central Iwobi was to injecting some fluency and unpredictability into our play. His ability to receive the ball under pressure, drive through midfield, and link attacks gave us an extra dimension that felt less choreographed and more spontaneous. This should show the raw material for joyful football is still there.
But your piece also reminded me of Roy Hodgson’s era. Back then, with Hangeland and Hughes marshalling the back line, we were expertly drilled, miserly, and stubborn, but rarely capable of putting sides to the sword. The ‘control’ came through organisation and restraint, a good platform for stability, but not much imagination and initiative evident. Marco’s team seems different; characteristic of a more progressive, adaptable control, but which can still drift towards predictability.
This is where Iwobi becomes interesting. Using him as a No. 8, rather than tethered out wide, echoes Paisley’s seemingly odd – at the time - repurposing of Ray Kennedy. That switch helped Liverpool turn solidity into dominance by adding intelligence, guile, and a touch of the unexpected in midfield. Iwobi may not be Kennedy reborn, but he has the instincts to both protect structure and break it open when required.
If Fulham want to rediscover that joyful side without throwing away the stability Marco has built, it may not be about overhauling the philosophy, but about fine-tuning roles. Let the trusted midfield anchors of Berge and Lukic shoulder the ‘control’, and give Iwobi licence to roam, create, and surprise. The right balance could still be struck, and as we saw last season, the rewards could be surreal!