Fulham boss Marco Silva praised his captain Tom Cairney after watching him score two goals in the thumping win over Leicester on Monday.
Cairney has made only 23 starts in the Premier League this season but took full advantage of his inclusion against the relegation-threatened Foxes, registering his first league goals of the campaign and putting in a fine all-round performance.
The 32-year-old swept in his side’s third goal of a 5-3 rout of Dean Smith’s team on the stroke of half-time, before adding his second after the break with a deft first touch and finish from Kenny Tete’s cross.
It kept Fulham in the hunt to register their highest-ever points tally in the Premier League, with two wins needed from their final three matches to break the club record of 53 set by Roy Hodgson’s team in 2009.
Silva said he was pleased to see Cairney working in midfield to help the team out of possession while also instilling the calm in the first half that ultimately helped them to sweep away Leicester before the break.
“Tom is always a player that can give us the calmness to start the game, even some moments under pressure he can give us what we need,” said Silva.
“Of course he knows I am pushing him to arrive in certain areas, to be between the lines.
“In some moments, first and second phase, we need players like him to start well, but when the game goes forward and we are in our defensive half, we need him to arrive in certain areas as well.
“Two great finishes, two great goals from him. Top quality player. We know his quality on the ball, everything that he can do.
“I’m pleased to see him working hard off the ball, understanding the moments, understanding the moments to press higher with Vini (Carlos Vinicius), the moments that he should drop to help the other midfielders as well. It was a very good performance from him and I’m really pleased for him.
“He deserves it and he’s having a good season, even if he’s not playing every time from the start. All of the last season for him has been good.”
The victory ended a run of three straight losses that had effectively ended Fulham’s hopes of qualifying for Europe next season.
Despite the disappointment, Silva remained optimistic that they can still record the club’s best tally for a top-flight season.
They will have Aleksandar Mitrovic back for the trip to struggling Southampton on Saturday and will relegate Saints with a victory, before hosting Crystal Palace at Craven Cottage and finishing with a visit to Old Trafford to play Manchester United.
“It’s really important we don’t hide that it’s our clear goal to achieve the target points that we want, to make the season even to be more brilliant, if I can say,” said Silva.
“We want really to finish the season with a big stamp, and the stamp will be to get that certain amount of points. We are going to fight for it definitely.
“We don’t know if it’s going to happen. But we are going to work hard and fight really hard and to enjoy to embrace the challenge to achieve it.”
Busby aiming to reset culture, objectives ahead of World Cup Qualifying campaign
A reset of the culture as well as objectives of the Jamaica Senior Women’s National Team or “Reggae Girlz” is of paramount importance to returning Head coach Hubert Busby Jr.
Busby Jr was rehired last week after previously serving in the role in 2021 and won’t have a lot of time to settle back into the role as his first assignment will be to navigate a pair of international friendlies with global football powerhouses Brazil on June 1 and 4.
The two teams last met at the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup where a 0-0 draw secured the Reggae Girlz spot as the first Caribbean nation to ever advance from the group stage at a World Cup.
The squad for these two friendlies can be looked at as a bit of a double-edged sword. On one hand, 18 of the members of the squad were in that history-making World Cup squad but, on the other hand, they haven’t played together since that tournament which was nine months ago.
“I think coming back in with two weeks to go, there is a lot of work to do in a short period of time and the idea that the core of this particular group hasn’t been together in nine months so there’s a lot of work that we’re doing now behind the scenes to get up to speed in terms of watching Brazil and getting the players organized,” he said in an interview with JFFLive on Wednesday.
Busby Jr then went into detail on two of his major objectives in his second stint as Head coach of the Reggae Girlz.
“More importantly, I think, some of the objectives for us is to reset the culture, reset the objectives in terms of what we’re looking to do and understand, I know it’s the most used cliché in sports, but whatever we do, we really have to stick to a process of how we look to get back to the next World Cup in 2027,” explained Busby Jr.
“This is just the first part in utilizing each and every window, making sure that, regardless of the results, we are hitting our targets of what we want to accomplish heading into the World Cup Qualifiers,” he added.
Brazil will be using these friendlies as preparation for the Olympic Games where they won consecutive silver medals at Athens 2004 and Beijing 2008.
These two friendlies will also be the last home international appearances for perhaps the greatest female footballer ever, Marta, who has announced that she will retire after the Paris Games.
“This is going to be a little bit of a send-off match for them. It will also be Marta’s last game in Brazil in front of her home crowd before she retires and there’s a little bit of a revenge factor from what happened at the World Cup so we’ve got to manage all of that,” Busby Jr said.
“We’re going to have these three training sessions and prepare the team for these matches,” he ended.
Ederson to miss Man City's final two games of season
Manchester City goalkeeper Ederson will miss the final two games of the season due to a fractured eye socket.
The Citizens face West Ham on Sunday as they aim to win a fourth consecutive Premier League title, before taking on rivals Manchester United in the FA Cup final on May 25.
The goalkeeper was involved in a heavy collision with Cristian Romero in their 2-0 win over Tottenham on Tuesday, with the goalkeeper initially allowed to continue after receiving treatment before being replaced by Stefan Ortega.
City revealed Ederson has since undergone scans which revealed a small fracture to the right eye socket, forcing him out of their last two games of the season.
Nagelsmann announces Germany's provisional Euro 2024 squad
Julian Nagelsmann has named a 27-man provisional squad for hosts Germany ahead of Euro 2024.
The biggest surprise in the squad was the inclusion of a fourth goalkeeper, as Stuttgart goalkeeper Alexander Nubel received his first senior call-up.
Mats Hummels is one of the big names left out despite helping Borussia Dortmund on their way to the Champions League final, while Bayern Munich’s Leon Goretzka is also absent once more.
Julian Brandt, Niklas Sule and Karim Adeyemi miss out on a place in the tournament, while Serge Gnabry and Timo Werner are both out through injury.
After winning just one of his first four games in charge, Nagelsmann changed things in March and was rewarded with back-to-back victories.
Nico Schlotterbeck won 71 per cent of his tackles in the Bundesliga - the highest figure in Europe's big-five leagues this season (at least 70 tackles), and is back in the national squad for the first time since September.
Aleksandar Pavlovic missed the March friendlies due to injury but is a welcome recall - Bayern have an 83.3 per cent win ratio with Pavlovic in their team in the Bundesliga this season, but that drops to 53.3 per cent when he is not in the side.
Schlotterbeck, Niclas Fullkrug, Toni Kroos and Antonio Rudiger will all link up with the squad late due to their involvement in the Champions League final.
The final 26-man squad must be submitted on June 7, meaning at least one player will be dropped before the start of the tournament.
As the tournament hosts, Germany begin their Euro 2024 campaign in the opening game against Scotland on June 14.
Germany squad
Goalkeepers: Oliver Baumann (Hoffenheim), Manuel Neuer (Bayern Munich), Alexander Nubel (Stuttgart), Marc-Andre ter Stegen (Barcelona)
Defenders: Waldemar Anton (Stuttgart), Benjamin Henrichs (RB Leipzig), Joshua Kimmich (Bayern Munich), Robin Koch (Eintracht Frankfurt), Maximilian Mittelstadt (Stuttgart), David Raum (RB Leipzig), Antonio Rudiger (Real Madrid), Nico Schlotterbeck (Borussia Dortmund), Jonathan Tah (Bayer Leverkusen)
Midfielders: Robert Andrich (Bayer Leverkusen), Chris Fuhruch (Stuttgart), Pascal Gross (Brighton), Ilkay Gundogan (Barcelona), Toni Kroos (Real Madrid), Jamal Musiala (Bayern Munich), Aleksandar Pavlovic (Bayern Munich), Leroy Sane (Bayern Munich), Florian Wirtz (Bayer Leverkusen)
Forwards: Maximilian Beier (Hoffenheim), Niclas Fullkrug (Borussia Dortmund), Kai Havertz (Arsenal), Thomas Muller (Bayern Munich), Denis Undav (Stuttgart)
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