Slavisa Jokanovic may freshen up his Fulham first team for Friday night’s crucial clash at Reading – despite their comfortable victory over Ipswich on Boxing Day.
The Serbian head coach will assess his players’ form and fitness at Motspur Park before consulting his coaching staff about the best line-up to face the Royals at the Madjeski Stadium – but gave a clear hint in his post-match press conference at Portman Road that there may be recalls for players who had not seen much action in recent weeks due to the hectic festive fixture schedule.
Jokanovic, who dropped Ryan Fredericks to the bench against Ipswich and rested teenage full-back Ryan Sessegnon altogether, said:
Fulham is not only eleven players. I need all the squad. I need people with character, with ambition and with desire to be successful. I expect those who didn’t participate today to be an option for the next game.
In front of us, we have a few days to prepare for the Reading game and we are going to choose what is best for us.
Fulham will definitely be without Tomas Kalas, who picked up a hamstring injury against Derby County, so Jokanovic will once again choose two centre backs from Michael Madl, Tim Ream and Ragnar Sigurdsson, who scored the vital second in Suffolk yesterday afternoon.
