Slavisa Jokanovic has urged his Fulham side to take a step back in order to move forward following a tough five weeks at Craven Cottage.
The Whites had a superb start to the Championship season, winning four and drawing two of their first six games to plant themselves firmly amongst the early pace-setters.
But September heralded a downturn, with Fulham remaining winless in their next six games – low points including a 4-0 home drubbing by Bristol City and a derby defeat to QPR.
Manager Jokanovic said: “The first month we played to a very good level. When we started back after the international break we brought in many new players, but we lost our discipline and organisation.
“We must try now to take one step back and recover our organisation, find our discipline, try to grow up a bit more, but with a little bit more smaller steps.
“We need to understand our realistic situation by giving new players time to adapt, and time for them to understand our concept.”
Meanwhile, Jokanovic insists he is more than ready to pitch any of his up-and-coming youngsters into the heat of a Championship battle rather than send them out on loan.
Fulham fielded a number of young guns in the Capital One Cup before being knocked out by Bristol City, but the likes of Ryan Sessegnon and Dennis Adeniran have been given further game time.
Jokanovic added: “We used the competition to check young and new players among other things, especially against Bristol. That competition is over for us, but we finished the Forest game with two kids 16 and 17, so I can check young players in some Championship games.”
