Slavisa Jokanovic says Fulham’s first Premier League win will serve as ‘a big boost’ for his side as they strive to compete in the top flight once again.
The Whites had started the season with two defeats but got off the mark with an enterprising victory over Burnley at Craven Cottage this afternoon. Fulham were fired in front early on a sublime strike from Jean-Michael Seri before a brace from Aleksandar Mitrovic and a late fourth from Andre Schurrle made sure of the victory. Jokanovic was delighted with his team’s level of performance after the final whistle.
The Serbian head coach told his post-match press conference:
We played well today. We must work hard daily at the training ground and look for our best performance. We played bravely, we showed ambition to score the goals, we showed ambition to push forward and look for a second and third and fourth.
This fourth goal, from my point of view, arrived a little bit late for us. Between the third and fourth we had many chances to finish the game off, but fortunately we scored the goal and killed the game.
Jokanovic believes the first three points will be immensely valuable for the confidence of his revamped squad.
This performance and this victory is a big boost for us in this moment. We can be satisfied with our performance today. I don’t want to think about negative things now, but we know there is a lot of room ahead of us for improvement. We must keep going, work hard at the training ground, and be available to find our best way to win games.
He felt justified in making wholesale changes to his starting line-up following the defeat by Tottenham at Wembley last weekend.
I made five changes this afternoon. These 11 players I chose today performed really well. We must immediately show a desire to work hard and push all together to try and be at our highest level for the next game. I try to find the best solution to win the game. Sometimes the plan works, sometimes it doesn’t work.
We are not kids, this is the highest level of professional football. We must show humility, push hard and fight. This kind of performances encourages me, my team, the people in the stands.
