SLAV: WE NEED TO SHARPEN UP
FULHAM boss Slavisa Jokanovic wants his side to be more clinical in front of goal to get their season up and running.
The Whites were one of the game’s great entertainers last season. They finished joint top scorers, along with Newcastle and Norwich, in the Championship with 85 goals, and played football that was easy on the eye.
Yet this season they had notched just four goals in six games in league and cup heading into yesterday’s Championship showdown at high-flying Ipswich Town.
While the Londoners, who were knocked out by Reading in last season’s play-off semi-finals, have tightened up at the back, they haven’t found the right formula going forward.
It was three games without a goal following the 1-0 reverse at home against League One side Bristol Rovers in the Carabao Cup second round last Tuesday, albeit with a completely changed line-up.
After last Saturday’s 1-0 loss at home against Sheffield Wednesday, former Watford boss Jokanovic lamented a lack of speed in their play and a failure to take their chances. It was a theme he returned to after the cup defeat.
Confident
“We must be confident, we must move the ball with pace, we must show more quality,” he said. “We arrive in the last third enough, but we didn’t connect between the lines and we didn’t use the space behind the defenders.
“We didn’t show enough quality to finish. We are not clinical and we must find a solution.”
Against Bristol Rovers, Jokanovic gave a chance to French striker Aboubakar Kamara, 22, signed from Amiens for a reported £5m, and wingers Neeskens Kebano and Liverpool loanee Sheyi Ojo, 20, to press their case.
They all showed in flashes what they could do without being able to sustain it or find an end product.
If there was a positive for Jokanovic, it was that some of his young players got valuable game time.
Academy products Matt O’Riley, 16, Tayo Edun, 19, and Steven Sessegnon, 17, all started, the latter joined on pitch by twin brother Ryan late on.