Slavisa Jokanovic will put his Fulham side through their paces during the international break on a 'mini pre-season' to make up for lost time in the summer.

Most of his defence, with the exceptions of Timothy Fosu-Mensah and Cyrus Christie, will remain at Motspur Park after the Brighton & Hove Albion game during the international break and Jokanovic will use that time to work with his back line to ensure they know what he wants from them.

12 new players arrived over the summer, with five of those signing on the final day of the window, meaning Jokanovic has had to juggle competing in the Premier League with trying to find out his best XI and making sure the new faces in the squad were embedded into the side.

The new signings in the summer also meant that Jokanovic had to rebuild his back four - with Joe Bryan, Maxime Le Marchand, Calum Chambers, Alfie Mawson, Fosu-Mensah, Sergio Rico and Fabri all arriving over the summer.

With two weeks between the game with Brighton and the trip to Manchester City at the end of September, Jokanovic will use the international break to put his players through a mini pre-season to ensure that they're up to his required levels when Fulham return to Premier League action.

He said: “I made some comments about how old my team is and first of all our focus is on the game on Saturday and this international break, I will probably try to use it as a mini pre-season because I didn’t have opportunity to work with many players before the Premier League started.

(Image: Henry Browne/Getty Images)

“When we check the players who will be part of the international game or not, 95% of my defensive line will stay with me.

“This is a moment where I can make extra work with them and send them some message of what we need to do to improve and make some practice in the training ground to keep going on this improvement process.

“You ask me about Mawson, all the players, not just him, need work and adaptation to our style.

(Image: Henry Browne/Getty Images)

“I know him, he know me, I need to know him better and definitely he needs to know me better too.

“This period, we are talking so much about international break and how we are working hard, in realistic life I will stay with half my team but for another side I will stay with 95% of my defensive line and this is great moment for us to try and improve this part of the team and make some kind of mini pre-season.”

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