Slavisa Jokanovic says he will use the international break to work with Fulham’s defence in a bid to stop his side conceding silly goals.
Most of his defenders will be available at Motspur Park – with only Timothy Fosu-Mensah and Cyrus Christie away with their national teams – and Jokanovic will treat the gap between club fixtures as ‘a mini pre-season’ in order to drill his rearguard into shape. The Serbian coach has had to work with several new defenders and goalkeepers following Fulham’s summer spending spree and wants to use the extra time to build a more cohesive unit.
He told Football London’s Ryan O’Donovan:
“I made some comments about how old my team is and first of all our focus is on the game on Saturday and this international break, I will probably try to use it as a mini pre-season because I didn’t have opportunity to work with many players before the Premier League started. When we check the players who will be part of the international game or not, 95% of my defensive line will stay with me.
This is a moment where I can make extra work with them and send them some message of what we need to do to improve and make some practice in the training ground to keep going on this improvement process. You ask me about Mawson, all the players, not just him, need work and adaptation to our style. I know him, he know me, I need to know him better and definitely he needs to know me better too.
This period, we are talking so much about international break and how we are working hard, in realistic life I will stay with half my team but for another side I will stay with 95% of my defensive line and this is great moment for us to try and improve this part of the team and make some kind of mini pre-season.”
