Slavisa Jokanovic accepted the blame for the end of Fulham’s unbeaten start to the season after a horribly disjointed display allowed Birmingham to ease to a 1-0 victory at Craven Cottage yesterday afternoon.
The Fulham head coach handed Stefan Johansen a debut in midfield but hauled the former Celtic man off after just 32 minutes and watched as his side were further depleted when Michael Madl was sent off just before half time for a second yellow card. Jokanovic’s decision to start with Matt Smith ahead of deadline day arrival Chris Martin up front, which was another surprise, and he was clear about the fault lay afterwards.
If it’s one game with so many mistakes then it’s my responsibility – we have to continue to work hard. We know this kind of game can happen. Generally we’ll try and improve ourselves.
Birmingham played better than we did today and they deserved the points. We made so many mistakes during the game and had possession of the ball but not enough with our offensive players.
The Serbian insisted that he still wanted his side to play short, passing football – especially from defence into midfield – despite Birmingham’s winning stemming from Fulham taking risks in their own defensive third, leading to a penalty which Clayton Donaldson converted.
I want to play from the back, it’s generally what my teams try to follow. But we made many mistakes and didn’t have enough quality in the game. I want to encourage my players and we have to find a solution – we didn’t find it today.
At the end of the game we had chances but after the game the result is realistic. We made so many mistakes and didn’t play well.
