By Korede James
Fulham manager Marco Silva has offered an explanation on why Super Eagles stars Alex Iwobi and Calvin Bassey were not in the starting line-up for Tuesday’s English Premier League win at Wolves.
Regulars Iwobi, Bassey, Antonee Robinson, and Raúl Jiménez were all named on Fulham’s bench for the clash, with the Nigerians coming on in the second half.
Fulham went on to win 2-1 with goals from Ryan Sessegnon and Rodrigo Muniz.
Explaining why he decided to name Iwobi and Bassey among the substitutes, Silva said during his post-match press conference: “We knew that we were going to need some fresh legs inside.
“The last game for us on Saturday was a difficult one, performance-wise was not the best, and I knew that coming here the game was going to demand from us some fresh legs inside.
“Some players that we decided wouldn’t start the game, like Alex Iwobi, Robinson, Calvin, for example, they are the players with more minutes in our team.
“It’s not easy when you change five players, when you are playing at the level we are playing in the Premier League.
“Not starting with Alex, Willian is not ready to start a game yet from a physical point of view, and we don’t have other wingers, that is the reality, we don’t have solutions. And that was the first reason we changed the formation.
“We know that Sessegnon is able to play wing-back very well, he has the composure to attack the box in the right moment, like he did for the first goal. And with Jorge Cuenca there, we knew that he was always going to be very well covered.”
Tuesday’s match was Iwobi’s 27th in the Premier League this season, and he has scored four goals, Bassey, has made one fewer appearance with one goal to his name.
