Marco Silva’s obsession with control might cost him

As Fulham fall to a second straight loss, is it the gaffer's desire to control everything that's hurting us?

Copyright Leighton Rudd 2025.

I was out at dinner on Friday night when Fulham stepped onto the pitch on the south coast. I put my phone on vibrate so I didn’t alarm the dinner party crowd when my phone pinged with goal notifications.

I checked my phone at half-time, and was satisfied with 0-0. We were still in the game and all was to play for. As we sat down to eat, my phone went off four times in the space of 20 minutes. I didn’t even have to look at it to know we’d lost. If there are that many goals late on, the chances are we’ve conceded more than the opposition.

When a game becomes unruly, Fulham often find themselves on the wrong end of it. Especially when considering the high-flying opposition.

Marco Silva is a manager who craves control - it’s been mentioned before. It must be said, this desire has kept Fulham in the Premier League. It has brought records tumbling and it has given us some of the most complete Fulham performances.

But Marco now faces his most difficult challenge: managing a game when it moves outside of his control. Pep Guardiola faced this challenge recently too.

When Fulham are in possession and pushing for a goal, they look unbeatable. Ahead of Saturday’s fixtures, Fulham had the fifth-most successful short passes in the division. They had the most successful long passes in the division. They had the third-most crosses from open play.

However, their expected number of goals is in the bottom half, and the number of shots is the also in the bottom half. This is a result of a team inhibited by a manager’s desire to control games. This is not a team comfortable taking risks within the game. This is the impact of a controlling manager.

Marco Silva faces a tough run of games this month, with Arsenal and Newcastle up next. When the going gets tough, historically, Marco Silva gets going. I am nervous that in this chapter of the Silva story; the uncertainty of his future. Naturally, Marco will feel that if he has control of games from the sideline, and if he can show his influence is decisive in victory, he can use that as leverage and influence the board to re-sign him.

If Marco Silva is not able to influence players to take match-winning risks within games, his leverage comes unstuck. Rather like playing chess, he needs to be considered but also strategically bold. You need to have the knights ready to hop; the bishop needs to be unblocked by a line of pawns; and the castle needs to move freely. If Marco doesn’t trust his players to combine his instructions and their own tactical nous, he faces being blamed for not exploiting this squad’s quality, and a no-deal exit.

Marco Silva laboured the point about late signings in the window. His frustration is caused by the fact he cannot control his players’ roles in the team before the season starts. Marco must adapt to that reality and use the quality the hierarchy brought in by exploring new avenues in coaching. “You can’t control the wind, but you can adjust your sails”. The adage, control the controllable, applies to Marco.

We see a similar trend with VAR. Silva has bemoaned VAR decisions so much this season. We all see his point. But again, the source of his frustration is because he cannot control and therefore legislate for VAR. Marco wants physicality in both boxes; he wants Muniz to fight in the duels and he wants aggression in midfield. Marco’s instruction to be aggressive leads to control of games, which ensures Fulham are competitive. But Marco cannot control VAR looking at these aggressive tactics under a microscope.

Marco’s anxiety arrives because his instructions involve exercising controlled aggression to help take hold of games. Instructions to be softer because of VAR would go against Marco’s footballing logic. What he can do though, is educate his players on VAR, engineering ways to adapt with the technology in the game. This requires trust in the players to control the game via their skill, not through the increased aggression. Alex Iwobi in the eight?

Marco likes seeing his instructions in action; he likes to be responsible for success. But Jonathan Nolan once wrote “you either die a hero or you live long enough to see yourself become the villain”. When Harvey Dent states the line in Batman: The Dark Knight, few could have foreseen the enemy his character would have turned into.

Marco has given himself a high level of accountability. If he does not place trust in his players to produce moments like the that produced by Antoine Semenyo on Friday, I fear Marco’s heroics could turn sour in an era-defining chapter.

Fulham have given up countless leads. When they are in front, they have earned the right to be winning. They have either controlled the game and shifted into the ascendency, or they have defended solidly before snatching a goal or two.

Once ahead, Marco must trust the players to organise a focused on-pitch mentality and give up control. Marco’s desire for control should not disempower the players on the pitch. These players have earned Marco’s trust. They know their roles. Marco must let them cash in on that trust.

So far, Silva has taken us from low to high, but whether he can take us even higher is not up to him alone. Sharing control could be the only way that Marco secures his future.