Fulham boss Marco Silva believes his side ‘deserved’ more from their 1-0 defeat to Manchester United on Friday.

The Cottagers fell to a late goal from debutant Joshua Zirkzee at Old Trafford in their opening game of the 2024/25 Premier League season.

However, Fulham walked away from the match with their heads held high, registering 10 shots on the night and knowing that they came close to carving open the United defence on a couple of occasions, only for the final pass to let them down.

On another night, the result could have been very different.

“It is really tough for us to lose this game the way we lost,” Silva said after the match (via BBC Sport).

“The game had different moments, we started really well, I think the first two dangerous moments were from ourselves. The first one we should have scored, a really dangerous attack from us.

“After 20 minutes good reaction from Man Utd. We adjusted at half-time and the second half was much better in my opinion. We had our chances. When you play against Manchester United…there were moments and we had to punish them.

“We had so many moments and we were punished at the end of the game. It was a crazy game and we did not play our own game. It was an emotional game, we tried to rush many, many times.”

Silva: Fulham ‘deserved’ result vs Man Utd

Silva even went as far as to say that Fulham ‘deserved’ to leave Old Trafford with at least a point, hinting that Man Utd were not worthy of their victory.

“We did not get the points I thought we deserved.” Silva continued.

“Of course when you have two against one you should at least finalise the action and put your teammates in the right action. But it was not just that one, we had other really good moments and should have scored.

“We have to keep the emotional control in these types of games. We know they are strong and want to play this type of game. It’s always their strength when the game is broken and the space is there. We should have kept the balance and emotional control.

“But it was a good answer from the team overall, we just didn’t get the points I think we should have.

“It was a tough summer, when you lose five players – four of them starting players. But I knew the players were good enough to play in this way.”