Slavisa Jokanovic has refused to condemn Tim Ream for criticising his Fulham team-mates for a lack of desire.
Despite an investment of over £100million in new players, Jokanovic’s team has had a difficult start to the season to the extent that his position is already being questioned.
Saturday’s fixture against Bournemouth has quickly become one they are under significant pressure to win, but owner Shahid Khan insists he retains faith in his manager, despite seeing them slide into the bottom three.
Ream had said: “There are not enough guys who want it. Who want to fight for each other, for themselves, for the club.”
The American defender has since insisted that what he said was taken out of context, but although some managers would have been unhappy at the potential impact on squad morale, Jokanovic sees it differently.
He said: “I didn’t interpret them as negative words. He wanted to say ‘lads, it’s not enough, you must do more and be better’.
“I don’t have any problem because I interpreted it and understood his words as a positive message.
“I am talking with Tim Ream; he made some honest analysis about our situation, and he’s a great example of a professional player. He’s always professional, always working well, honest, and my interpretation is he’s not happy with himself, and not happy with everything that’s happening around him.
“The message he wanted to send was ‘come on, lads, we must do better, we must push harder, on the players’ side, on the staff’s side, for all the sides, for finding improvement’.”
Regardless of the absence of the injured Joe Bryan, the four goals conceded last week at Cardiff means Jokanovic is expected to again make changes to his defence for the visit of Bournemouth, meaning Ream could yet be dropped from his starting XI.
Fulham had an inconsistent start in last season’s promotion campaign, and it is that that contributed to Khan retaining faith in his manager, who acknowledges the same traits in the team this time round.
“We’re going to fight to offer something different, like what we offered last season many times – this is our target, and this is our desire, and we are working in this direction,” he explained.
He then joked of Ream: “I don’t know if he made an interview of only 10 seconds, there can be some words before and after these, because what I see is few words, and something that is a great (journalists’) trick.”
