From yo-yo club to mid-table security – The impressive job Maro Silva’s has done at Fulham

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10th in table 

©TM/IMAGO

While the weekend’s Premier League action certainly offered up plenty of drama and even a few notable upsets, the matchday isn’t quite finished. This evening, the English top-flight has even more in store for fans, as Fulham welcome Brentford to Craven Cottage in what should be a fascinating clash between two mid-table clubs that dare to dream of European football. Off the back of a win over Ipswich last weekend, Thomas Frank’s Brentford side will be hoping to challenge for at least a point in this fixture, but to do that they’ll need to get the better of a Fulham side that have quietly impressed under Marco Silva this season. And are slowly but surely climbing up the league table with solid performances. 

Despite defeats to big-hitters like Manchester United, Manchester City and Aston Villa, Fulham have done well to get the better of other mid-table clubs so far this season, beating both Newcastle and Nottingham Forest in recent weeks, alongside beating Leicester City 2-1 in late August and draws to Ipswich, West Ham and Everton. That means that should they beat Brentford tonight, Fulham will be sitting on 15 points after their first 10 league games – which would be one point better than where they stood last season and no less than six better than this point two seasons ago. That may not sound all that impressive, but for a club that only returned to the Premier League three seasons ago and spent just two of the previous eight in the English top-flight, the comfort of mid-table will undoubtedly sound like music in the ears of Fulham fans. And further proof of the excellent job that Silva has done at the London club since taking over when they were in the depths of the English Championship.

Silva has been Fulham head coach since the summer of 2021 and in that time he has unquestionably taken the club back to their previous heights in the Premier League. After stepping into the role when the club was in the Championship, Silva needed just one season to get the London club back into the top-flight, after guiding Fulham to first place and automotive promotion with an impressive return of 90 points in 46 games. After winning promotion to the Premier League, Fulham then steered well clear of relegation with an exceptional tenth-place finish, before dropping slightly to thirteenth last season. What’s most notable about Silva’s time with Fulham in the Premier League is that when we compare it to his previous stints in the English top flight, we can see that he’s unquestionably learned from tricky spells at Hull City and Watford, as well as an 18-month stint at Everton that saw the Portuguese manager guide the Merseyside club to eighth, only to then get sacked half-way through the following season. With a points-per-game average of 1.37 in 22/23, then 1.24 in 23/24 and 1.33 in this current campaign to date, Silva’s average in the Premier League for Fulham stands at an impressive 1.30 points per game – which is considerably higher than his time at Hull City (1.17) and Watford (1.09), while also beating out his overall record at Everton (1.28). 

Not only has Silva improved as a Premier League manager in his own right, when compared to his previous records at other clubs, but he’s also impressed for the London club when we take a look at how his record stacks up against the best managers in the Premier League. As we can see in the table above, since returning to the English top-flight, Fulham have picked up an impressive 111 points under Silva. Not only is that level with the aforementioned Brentford, whose own manager was heavily linked with the previously vacant Manchester United job, but it’s also the eighth best in the Premier League in that period of time. Of course, there’s quite a jump from Silva’s record to the likes of Pep Guardiola or Mikel Arteta, who have won almost twice as many league points in that period of time, but the simple fact that Silva is eighth on the list is testament to the impressive job he’s doing at Fulham. And why, in a mid-table full of clubs that are chopping and changing their managers on a regular basis, the London club seem perfectly content with Silva and seem to be on a steady rise up the league table this season.