Marco Silva heaps praise on Jose Mourinho ahead of Everton's trip to Manchester United
Silva believes his team must be respectful but fearless as he seeks to improve a personal record of one win in six competitive clashes with the Manchester United manager
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Your support makes all the difference.Marco Silva will take his Everton side to Old Trafford on Sunday looking down in the table at Manchester United and his good friend Jose Mourinho.
Three straight Premier League wins have lifted the Toffees to eighth, two places above their weekend rivals.
But while Manchester United's poor start has led to a wave of criticism and left Mourinho's position in jeopardy, Silva has no doubts his Portuguese countryman can handle the pressure.
"I think as coach, I understand. All the coaches want to win every match, every coach is working to win every match," said Silva.
"When you are at a club like Man United, you know what your goals are. Your goals are to win every match, to be champions, to win all the competitions that you are playing in during the season.
"Mourinho knows how he can manage the situation. For sure it is not the first time in his career he feels this situation. He can manage the situation like he wants. He’s preparing for everything.
"I don’t have doubts about him or what he can do. He won’t doubt himself."
The two managers are in regular contact and Silva has nothing but admiration for everything Mourinho has achieved in the game. He was a player at Salguiros when Mourinho was taking Porto to Champions League glory in 2004.
"I remember the impact in Portuguese football in those two seasons was something fantastic and unbelievable. Not just in Portugal. If you remember the impact he had at Chelsea in his first two seasons, yes?
"After he had the same impact at Inter Milan and then Real Madrid. After that he came back to Chelsea and he repeated it at Chelsea. It was not just one time, it was not just at Porto.
"I saw the game against Coruna in the semi-finals of the Champions League at Porto’s stadium. He had a fantastic impact in that moment on Portuguese football and then afterwards in Europe."
Successive victories over Fulham, Leicester and Crystal Palace send Everton into the Old Trafford in a much better situation than last year when they travelled down the M62 on the back of three straight defeats and suffered a 4-0 defeat.
The weight of history continues to be against them though, against both United and the rest of the "big six".
Everton won at Old Trafford in the Premier League's inaugural week in 1992 and have managed it only once in 25 years since, courtesy of Bryan Oviedo's goal almost five years ago. They have won just five games in the last decade away to the big six, so how can he seek to make such victories more regular?
Silva believes his team must be respectful but fearless as he seeks to improve a personal record of one win in his six competitive clashes with Mourinho.
"To win at a place like Old Trafford regularly, you cannot find one team in the Premier League who can do that. To be able to win one game at Old Trafford or at one of the other strong sides in the country you have to be strong as a squad.
"You have to have the personality and the character to not fear and to be yourselves. First you have to respect our opponent because they are a strong side even if they are not in the best moment.
"They are a strong side with a lot of individual quality, you know these players, the money they spent in the last years, they are spending big, big money on big players but we have to be ourselves.
"You have to play and not be scared about everything. We have to have quality with the ball as well as it is part of our model and it doesn’t make sense if you go there and don’t play our way."
Everton, who this week announced a major public consultation on their plans for a new stadium at Bramley Moore Dock, have no new injury worries with James McCarthy continuing to progress well towards a comeback.
Silva also dismissed suggestions linking striker Cenk Tosun with a return to Turkey.
"Not true. Cenk is happy. Apart from the goal against Crystal Palace he has had a fantastic week. His baby has been born - son. He is happy and is working to help the team."
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