Slavisa Jokanovic knows his Fulham side will have to box clever as they look to get something out of their return to Wembley when tackling Tottenham in the Premier League.
The Whites earned their place back among the elite with victory over Aston Villa in last season’s Championship final.
Following a 2-0 home defeat by Crystal Palace on the opening weekend of the new top-flight campaign, Jokanovic and his squad were left with no illusions of the challenges that lie ahead.
While the Serbian is not expecting anything but another stern test of just what Fulham are made of when taking on Spurs’ star-studded line-up, he believes the right approach can see the visitors produce a positive result.
“We know this team are probably going to take possession off us, and we must be ready to work all together off the ball, and show solidarity and great effort,” he said.
“In some part of the defensive work, you don’t have to be so talented, (but) you must be clever, organised, and show great decision-making off the ball.”
Jokanovic added: “We know they are going to press us. They are a really strong defensive team and when they lose the ball they are one of the best teams at pressing. They don’t give you many spaces.
“We know they have quality, they are a fast team, we know they can attack us very well.”
Fulham have brought in 12 players to bolster the squad over the summer transfer window, spending the best part of £100m following their promotion.
By contrast, Spurs were the only Premier League club not to invest.
“They didn’t need to spend lots of money to stay at the highest level. Our situation is a little bit different, our process is going to be a little bit different,” Jokanovic said.
“They’ve been working together for many years. They know how to compete all together, how to work all together, how to attack and defend all together.
“For us, we are in a process for improving all these different things.”
This post was last modified on 17/08/2018