Jokanovic will stick to his principles as Fulham fight for Premier League survival

Fulham secured their return to the Premier League playing some of the most attractive soccer in England. Will it keep them up?

It feels a long time since a promoted side generated as much excitement as Slavisa Jokanovic’s Fulham, who reached the Premier League via the playoffs last season while playing some of the most exciting, attacking soccer in England. The question is whether that style — the Cottagers averaged 57.8 percent of the ball in the Championship — can work in the top flight. Jokanovic, at least, is confident.

“We believe we can play this way,” he said after Fulham secured promotion last May. “We must show ambition but we must know that next season we will probably not win as many games as at this level. In general, we must try to dominate the teams we believe we can dominate against.”

He’s right. They won’t win as many games as they did last season — 25 in the league and two more in the playoffs — but they have the quality to survive.

And in Ryan Sessegnon they boast arguably the most talented teenager in the country. The 18-year-old has enjoyed an outstanding first two seasons as a senior player, scoring seven goals and adding four assists in all competitions in 2016-17, before increasing those numbers to 16 and eight last term, despite spending a considerable amount of time playing at left-back.

Sessegnon has attracted plenty of interest from bigger teams, with Tottenham, Liverpool and even Barcelona all rumored to be interested, but he seems intent on spending 2018-19, at least, at his boyhood club. His attempt to make the jump to the Premier League level will be one of the year’s most intriguing storylines, and one that will presumably, if reports are to be believed, be followed closely by some of Europe’s elite teams.

Sessegnon isn’t, however, Fulham’s only attraction. Their captain, Tom Cairney, who usually plays in midfield in Jokanovic’s preferred 4-3-3 formation, recorded 10 combined goals and assists in the league last season, and 23 in about 1000 more minutes the year before. The drop off in playing time was a result of an ongoing knee problem, but Cairney started the last 15 games of the season, and scored the goal that sent Fulham up in the playoff final. He’s the sort of technical, pass-first player that often struggles to make the jump from Championship to Premier League, but there’s real talent there, and like the team in general, it will be fascinating to see how he adapts.

Andre Schurrle, still only 27 and on loan from Borussia Dortmund, will add more quality to the attack. He didn’t have a particularly happy time at Dortmund, but he’s proven himself in the Premier League with Chelsea and could chip in with some valuable goals alongside center forward Aleksandar Mitrovic, who moved to Fulham permanently this summer after spending the second half of last season on loan at Craven Cottage.

Then, of course, there’s Jean Michael Seri, bought for £27 million from Nice, a year after almost moving to Barcelona, in what has surely been the strangest transfer of the window so far. Typically, it’s not a good sign when a player linked with a club like Barcelona ends up at a club like Fulham, but Seri has impressed in Ligue 1 for years, and has experience in the Champions and Europa Leagues. His quality in possession and willingness to receive the ball under pressure could make a huge difference as Fulham look to get to grips with Premier League opposition.

The Cottagers have also stayed true to their old “Fulhamerica” nickname. Several notable U.S. stars played at Craven Cottage, including Brian McBride, Clint Dempsey, Eddie Lewis, Carlos Bocanegra and Kasey Keller. That legacy will live on in the form of center-back Tim Ream, who signed a new two-year deal in July after being named the club’s player of the season for 2017-18. Ream’s experience in the Premier League, however, is limited. He last played in the top flight with Bolton during the 2011-12 season.

“The goal all along was to be in the Premier League, and now to have the opportunity to play there with this group of guys is something that I think we’re all looking forward to, not just myself, and hopefully we can make it special this year,” he told the club’s official website.

Ream is the lynchpin of the Fulham defense. He played alongside both Denis Odoi and Chelsea loanee Tomas Kalas last season, and now has a new potential partner in 24-year-old Alfie Mawson. If Mawson starts, that will likely see Odoi slide out to left-back (unless Sessegnon plays there, although his future seems to be further forward), with right-back still somewhat of a question mark after last season’s starter, Ryan Fredericks, moved to West Ham.

Regardless of who starts, the back line will be tested far more than it was last season, when Fulham conceded 46 goals in the league, and Jokanovic, who will get his first chance in the Premier League after being fired by Watford after guiding them to promotion in 2014-15, will have some difficult decisions to make as he seeks to find the right balance between idealism and pragmatism.

Bournemouth and Swansea have both shown in recent years that sitting deep and defending isn’t the only route to Premier League survival, and Fulham have, at least on paper, a better squad than both. It’s time for them to show us how good they really are.