Slavisa Jokanovic admitted to being a little bit worried about the outcome of this afternoon’s clash at Norwich after spending just one day with his full squad following the international break – and praised Fulham’s perseverance for securing all three points in East Anglia.
The Whites were seldom at their best during a hard-fought win at Carrow Road but clinched the three points thanks to two goals in four second-half minutes from midfielders Stefan Johasnen and Tom Cairney. Jokanovic admitted after the final whistle that Fulham had to be patient to weather a bright start from Norwich and iron out a bit of rustiness in their own game. The Serbian eventually professed himself satisfied, saying:
To be honest, in the first 45 minutes we took control of the ball from Norwich, we had possession, but we didn’t find enough space to attack behind the defenders and finish the action. A few times they hit us on the counter attack. We changed our mind and started to take risks a little bit at a higher level and try and attack with more confidence and with more desire. In the end we started to attack the spaces and scored the goals.
It’s not easy after the international break, especially for us, a team who sends so many people around the world to play for their national team. I wasn’t so comfortable today because I worked only one day with my team. We showed we aren’t fresh enough, a little bit tired at some moments in the game, but in the end fortunately we scored the goals and we won the points. This is what, in this moment, is important for us.
Jokanovic refused to be drawn on the importance of this victory, preferring to reflect on his own optimistic nature and re-focus ahead of another tough tussle with Leeds United at Craven Cottage on Tuesday night.
I am an optimist in my life. I want to be successful, and to do that I need to be successful tomorrow on the training ground, and next Tuesday night against Leeds. At the moment all we can try to do is play good football, try and find our style that will win us games, and try and make our fans satisfied.
Many clubs want a happy end to the season, and we are going to fight to go up. We are not at the end yet, we are going to fight to go up, but for which position I don’t know what’s going to happen. The only thing I’m interested in at this moment is preparing for the game which is immediately in front of us. This is under my control, other things are not.
