Fulham boss Marco Silva praised the professionalism of substitute Rodrigo Muniz after he set aside transfer speculation to earn a dramatic 1-1 Premier League draw at Brighton.
Brazilian forward Muniz, who has been linked with Italian side Atalanta amid reports he wants to play Champions League football, came off the bench to equalise six minutes into added time at the Amex Stadium.
The Cottagers looked set to suffer defeat on the opening weekend of the season after falling behind to Matt O’Riley’s 55th-minute penalty following Sander Berge’s foul on Georginio Rutter.
“I think he deserves respect for that,” replied Silva when asked about 24-year-old Muniz being available to make an impact during uncertainty about his future.
“Rodrigo is still young and the way you can grow in your career is until the end, in my opinion.
“The last two seasons he proved himself as a Premier League striker and I’m sure that this season he’s going to be even better.
“He showed everybody, for the noise around him, how he’s a professional football player and how he respects myself and the team-mates as well.
“Sometimes it’s not easy the rumours around themselves, the people around themselves, you are talking about their jobs as well.
“But I think he’s going to handle in the future even better these type of moments.”
Muniz celebrated by holding up a Fulham scarf in front of the delirious travelling fans after taking a touch and firing into the bottom right corner following Harry Wilson’s corner.
Silva singled out the special relationship between the player, who joined from Flamengo in 2021 and hit 11 goals last term, and the club’s supporters.
“Rodrigo created something with the Fulham fans that is not so easy to do,” said Silva.
“First of all they recognise his quality and secondly he is a player that always gives everything for the shirt. It’s nice to see that he scored and that connection is always there.”
Brighton dropped 22 points from winning positions last season.
Albion head coach Fabian Hurzeler rued his side’s lack of ruthlessness but refused to be too downbeat following a familiar story.
“I think that was the only shot they had during the game, so that’s something we have to do better,” he said of the late leveller.
“Of course we all wanted to win today and everyone is disappointed in the locker room. But we also have to accept in the last action there is luck sometimes in football and sometimes we are the unlucky team and today we were the unlucky team.
“In the second half we created a lot of chances. Of course we could be more ruthless and score a second goal, but overall I’m very pleased with how together we were.
“It’s always the question of perspective – is the glass half full or half empty? For me, it’s always full and we really should focus on the things we do well.”
