Fulham secured a valuable point with a 1-1 draw at Brighton in the Premier League on Sunday afternoon, thanks to a brilliant strike from influential Portuguese midfielder João Palhinha.
The former Sporting man struck in the 65th minute to level for the Cottagers, but it was the overall quality of Palhinha’s performance which earned him the Man of the Match award as well as praise from Fulham boss Marco Silva.
“He leads through his attitude,” Silva told journalists in his post-match press conference. “Clearly, he’s not the most vocal guy. He’s improving his English as well. I want him to be more vocal and in that position it's important.
“To lead in that position is really important, for João, for Sasa Lukic, and for Harrison Reed. To lead by example, I want to see João doing it more.
“His attitude, his commitment, the way he leads the others around are things that are hard to find in football.
“In moments [when] we lose the ball, his reaction is impressive and we want to take the best from him and in other moments we want him to keep improving.
“We won the ball in a high area and our players took the right decisions. Then, the finish from João was great.”
Unsurprisingly, Fulham’s official X account focused much of their attention on Palhinha, sending out various posts on the Seleção man’s goal. Palhinha has made the most tackles of any player in the Premier League this season, and the London club saluted his dynamism with a compilation video from Sunday’s hard-fought draw.
João Palhinha: what a a player!
— Sean Gillen (@SeanGillen9) October 30, 2023
pic.twitter.com/LfF5hbgt6O
By @SeanGillen9
