Fulhaman may have a point here. Jokanovic is in uncharted territory now; he's never been at a club so long. Last season went well in pre-season and we started the new one with a bang. Okay, September was a blip while new signings settled in but a key factor in what followed was that the Gaffer was working with a relatively small squad. Just as key however, was the fact that we went the whole season with virtually no injuries. Kalas was out for a brief time but the only major problem was to Ayite who dropped out early on. This season the preparation matches were patchy to say the least. While the first three games to the new season were credible, the performances at home, including last night, smacked of the negative, crab-like displays of the 2015/16 season. Significantly, there have been injuries to Ayite (again) and the two key midfield dynamos, McDonald and Cairney. Rushing Tom back for the Norwich game was a poor management decision. Then there have been the public outbursts about signings. Okay, not a new pattern from Jokanovic but he knew the score when he signed his extended contract. And he got what he asked for in keeping a core of the team - Cairney, Kalas, Sessegnon and Piazon. So, back to Fulhaman's point. Beneath the steely glare is there a touch of insecurity lurking?
No We are still piecing together our team, seeking who works best with whom. Our Captain is recovering from injury, we played a whole match bar 35 seconds with 10 men and played 4 of the teams with equal expectations as our own. We played Sheff W with a striker just off the bus and similar against the Gasser's with a young side. We are likely to have one or two other additions to integrate too. If we haven't won a game or two in the next 4, we may have an issue but I don't see this is the Gaffer's fault. We should be as pleased to have him as we have ever been, IMO.
The 3 next games will i think decide, its no good him saying we had most of the play when we loose, a manager is only as good as the results he gets, he decides tactics team selection, so if the slide continues who do we blame.
I think we have some significant mitigating circumstances, not a slide. Time will tell, and I hope to be proven right.
There seem a few reasons why we have started poorly. Late arrivals to the squad have meant no time in creating a stable team, It's early days and the coach may not have had the time to bed in players. The games haven't been kind with the sending-off, injures, and offsides, but pressure has also been put on because of missed chances in the opening 45 minutes. I do get irritated with Jokanovic's inability to change tactics to suit the team we are playing. He seems to bring substitutes on yet most times they do not change the tactics only the personnel. I've noted that our second half performances go down as every opposition coach seems to now push up on our back four playing the ball out of defence, our passing becomes erratic and our defenders start to face their own goal with counter attacks. Even Wolfsburg cottoned on to this in the friendly.
Exactly. In both the home games we have dominated the first half, but been wasteful. Then in the second half the opposition up the pressure and (without a fit Cairney) we really struggle to maintain our composure. The opposition then start to put balls into our box down the middle and eventually we concede. Our pressured start has not helped, but you can however see that we are a good team and we've played some very good football (especially in the first half against Norwich). We need Cairney back and a slightly easier run to get ourselves started - preferably before we fall too far back.
I can't believe that this is even a subject for discussion. I'm not saying this as we've just beaten Ipswich either. SJ is a top manager imo.
To sum up how good a manger SJ is was a post on the Ipswich forum after the game which basically said, Fulham were brilliant and likely to be the best team we see at Portman Road this season, they were also the best team at Portman Road last season and the best team I have seen at Portman Road since Jokanovic's Watford came here.
