Fulham boss Slavisa Jokanovic was left ruing his side’s missed chances after their second-half collapse at Everton left them without a win in four Premier League matches.
The Whites, who have still not picked up a point at Goodison Park for nearly 60 years, ended the first half on top and should have taken the lead through both André Schürrle and Ryan Sessegnon, but the teams ultimately went into the break goalless.
And, even with Gylfi Sigurdsson missing a penalty shortly after the restart, goals from Sigurdsson and Cenk Tosun meant that their profligacy was punished.
Jokanovic said: “We started the game well. We controlled the situation. But we weren’t clinical enough in the first 45 minutes.
“They [Everton] didn’t play a fantastic or ‘perfect’ game from my point of view. We slipped in important moments on the field and they finished the actions so easily.”
With the score at 1-0, Fulham also spurned a glorious chance on a blistering counter-attack that left Schürrle and Luciano Vietto two-on-one, although the Argentinian’s touch let him down and keeper Jordan Pickford saw off the danger – much to Jokanovic’s disappointment.
“We had a really clear chance to equalise the game, but we didn’t do it,” Jokanovic said.
“They had a little more speed and power, scored three easy goals and played a comfortable [second] 45 minutes against us.
“We weren’t at a good enough level to compete where we are right now, and we paid an expensive price.
“We must understand where we are. If we don’t adapt ourselves to this situation, it will be really complicated for us.
“On the other side, we are in a growth process. We are a seven-game old Premier League team. We have showed some quality, we were brave and tried to follow our style to create chances.”
Jokanovic added: “There is big room ahead of us for improvement. We must be more consistent in this competition, push forward and try everything to find faster improvement.”
“But if we always concede a minimum of two goals, it will be so hard for us.”
This post was last modified on 29/09/2018