Fulham 0-1 Sheffield Wednesday: Slavisa Jokanovic and Carlos Carvalhal reaction
Saturday 2 January 2016 18:42, UK
New Fulham manager Slavisa Jokanovic said he is not the magician David Copperfield and that improvements at Craven Cottage will take some time.
New Fulham manager Slavisa Jokanovic said he is not the magician David Copperfield and that improvements at Craven Cottage will take some time.
Jokanovic lost his first game in charge against play-off chasing Sheffield Wednesday thanks to a stunning 29th-minute strike from Scottish midfielder Ross Wallace.
It was Fulham's 10th defeat of the season and it leaves them in 19th position, just six points above the drop zone.
"It's normal I am disappointed with the result," Jokanovic said. "But I cannot be disappointed with the performance.
"We play 60 minutes of very good football, they score a fantastic goal and with this goal they get the three points.
"It's a frustrating situation but I come here for working not to fix problems fast. I am not David Copperfield, it will take time.
"It will take commitment from my staff, my players and all the people who are involved in this project. It is life, you have to work hard and we try and find the right way for us.
"We have 71 per cent possession of the ball but we do not make enough dangerous situations, we have to be a danger for the opposition. We are a very good team with the ball but we need to improve without the ball.
"Okay, they score one fantastic goal, but with changes we can stop this, we can avoid this situation.
"We are trying to find this balance between attack and defence. I expect a better balance and for us to be more competitive, that is very important for us."
The decisive goal arrived on 29 minutes as Wallace cut in from the right on to his stronger left foot and unleashed an absolute belter from 30 yards that buried itself into the top corner.
Victory kept Wednesday in seventh and four points behind Ipswich, who occupy the final play-off place.
Carlos Carvalhal, the Sheffield Wednesday manager, said: "I think we deserved the victory. The time we scored the goal was important because we were not playing well and Fulham had more of the ball.
"But football is like this and after the goal a lot of things changed in the game. Especially in the second half we had a lot of control of the game.
"In the second half we created three or four scoring chances to make another goal. It was not easy because of the way that Fulham play but the reality is that Joe Wildsmith did not have too many saves to make and we could have scored more."
On the goal, he added: "I joked with Ross that he never scores goals like this earlier in the week. I said he did it for Celtic 25 years ago but why not for us?
"Of course, I was joking, it was not 25 years. I didn't make him score but it was a nice coincidence."
