The most surprising element of Slaviša Jokanović’s seemingly inevitable sacking is just how surprising a development it has ended up being.
Despite Fulham sitting bottom of the table, having conceded 31 goals in 12 games, the club’s owner Shahid Khan gave Jokanović his full backing only three Premier League matches ago – hours before their chastening 3-0 defeat at home to Bournemouth. In contrast to that humbling experience, the defeat to Liverpool on Saturday seemed a positive for the club and for the under-fire manager. Although the team lost 2-0 and struggled to put up much of a fight in the second half, they gave Liverpool plenty of problems in the first half, missing some great chances, staying resolute at the back (for maybe the first time this season) and ultimately being unlucky to have the offside flag raised for Aleksander Mitrovic’s goal. It was a defeat, but an improvement, and perhaps the decision would have been more understandable or at least more immediately deserved a few weeks ago.
However, Slaviša Jokanović can have no complaints. However fantastic his Fulham side were in the Championship, with their excellent style of play and attacking menace, he dramatically failed to adapt the team to the rigours of the Premier League despite spending over 100 million pounds on new players in the summer transfer window. Suddenly and quite explosively, panic seemed to infect both Jokanović and his players, with the players suffering numerous and collective mental breakdowns, while the manager was changing the side in unexpected ways every week. Highlights of Jokanović’s changes being a disastrous switch to a back-three which allowed Arsenal to swarm over them in a 5-1 defeat, the constant switching in the right-back position from a clumsy Timothy Fosu-Mensah to an unbelievably lazy Cyrus Christie, or even at Liverpool where Calum Chambers, deployed in an unusual defensive midfield position, should have been sent off second half. Against Bournemouth, in a 3-0 defeat which perhaps should have been Jokanović’s final game, the defence seemed entirely uninterested in fulfilling their roles professionally – for David Brooks’ goal which made it 2-0 to Bournemouth Fulham’s left and right backs were stranded together on the left wing, defensive midfielder Kevin McDonald was the furthest player back for his team and centre-back Denis Odoi had barely passed the halfway line when the ball hit the back of the net.
Jokanović described his players as ‘scared’ after their horrendous performance at Huddersfield but it scarcely matters now. Jokanović is out and now the club will begin a journey to find out if he was the problem after all – the club will have to hope that he is the only man they will have to fire before the end of the season.
Subsequently, what a fascinating job this leaves for Claudio Ranieri and what an interesting choice he is for the role. Recently, yet briefly, back in the English media’s glare thanks to his contribution to the tributes left to recently deceased Leicester owner Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha, he is now back full-time in the Premier League. A lesser miracle needs to be performed with Fulham and although there is much doom and gloom around the club and in the same vein the media’s perception of the club, it is genuinely hard to predict whether Ranieri will find this a difficult experience.
Despite their horrendous form Fulham are remarkably only three points away from safety (a fact that does not reflect well on the rest of the division) – it is so important that the hierarchy have made this change before they truly became cut adrift from their rivals. There is no doubt in anybody’s mind that this is clearly a talented squad of players; the problem for the entirety of the season has been not only Jokanović’s inability to organise them defensively in a basic sense but also his well-publicised changing of the guard, an uprooting of the tactical system and starting personnel which led to consistently disjointed performances, where the team played on multiple occasions as if they had only just met each other that very afternoon.
Although Ranieri developed a reputation for being ‘The Tinkerman’ when in charge of Chelsea, his two years at Leicester showcased his ability to sharply recognise the best defenders in his squad and to consistently rely on them as a solid unit. The back-four partnership of Fuchs, Morgan, Huth and Simpson were the foundation for Leicester winning the league, helped of course by the constant protection of midfield marvel N’Golo Kante and what is important now is that Ranieri is unlikely to make the same mistake as Jokanović. It would be surprising if the new boss did not identify the best defensive players at Fulham quickly and go about making them a consistent and well-organised group at the back. Despite their well-documented inability to keep a single clean sheet this season, the league may be surprised by how good these players can be, with a simple dose of organisation and confidence.
Ranieri immediately feels like a good choice, a decision made with research having been done and without the usual smattering of panic that so many clubs in this position find themselves having. It would have been easy for the club to turn to a perhaps more reliable choice – Sam Allardyce for example – to ensure that the defensive problems were fixed and that survival was, judging by that manager’s recent history, guaranteed. Such appointments though are a quick-fix that fans often become tired of, with the club losing an identity in order to keep the millions that the Premier League offers. In contrast, Ranieri perhaps offers a more long-term vision. Although he hasn’t stayed at a club for more than two years for quite a long time now, he has every chance of stamping an identity onto the club. Leicester’s brilliant counter-attacking philosophy may not have necessarily started with Ranieri but it is now associated with him and that title-winning season, and such incisive counter-attacking play from that same team has been seen as recently as this very season, two managers later.
Ranieri may not play the same expansive and attacking football that Jokanović was known for, but perhaps, in a more cynical line of thinking, Ranieri is not foolish enough to do so. Ranieri is smart, has an infectious personality and, crucially, comes to the club at the time where although crisis has struck, it is a crisis that can be rectified with making up a three-point gap. For all of the criticism that Fulham have garnered recently, for all of the goals they have conceded and for however ‘scared’ they have looked, do not be surprised to see their fortunes turn around very quickly.
