Jol ser fremover etter tap

Martin Jol var som Hangeland og helt sikkert resten av laget skuffet over innsatsen mot West Ham lørdag.

“The only positive for me was to see Berbatov again, to see his class and quality, I’ve missed it,” said Jol afterwards.

“We agreed beforehand that he’d get 20 minutes if necessary or he’d stay on the bench. But I told him at half-time that we needed him. I thought he looked good.

“He brought others into play and that is his quality. Hopefully with Bryan Ruiz available in the next game and some work on the training ground we can go into the next match feeling positive. The only problem is the players now go off for international duty and don’t come back until next Thursday. We will try and get the balance right for the next match.”

West Ham var styrket etter at de i løpet av de siste dagene av overgangsvinduet hadde fått på plass Andy Carroll på et sesonglangt lån fra Liverpool.

“We knew that they would play the long ball and look for knock-downs so the first goal was disappointing as we’d spoken about that,” sa Jol.

“The second goal came from a corner kick and for the third we didn’t pick up the second man and they scored.

“If you’re five foot eight or five foot 10 then maybe you’ve got a problem but we should have coped with Carroll.”

Berbatovs introduksjon ga et Fulham som så noe mer oppløftende ut, men kampen var likefullt så godt som over så lenge West Ham ledet 3-0 til pause.

“It was better but we’d almost destroyed ourselves,” sa Jol. “We missed a few players in the creative role behind the striker. That is a worry as we have to find a balance for the future. I think we will be fine.

“We missed out on a couple of players on Friday but in the end you have to be happy you have Berbatov, Hugo Rodallega and Mladen Petric.

“I really thought Mousa Dembele would stay as it was a big clause. But Tottenham Hotspur paid up and they always do in the last week. I think we have the players to play a different sort of system. We will come up with something.”

Martin Jol ga også en sjansen til nysignering Kieran Richardson fra start uten at det så helt ut til at spilleren som kom fra Sunderland dagen før overgangsvinduet stengte fant sin plass i en sentral rolle på midten.

“It was not easy for him,” uttalte Jol. “He hadn’t trained for the last three or four days but he will be fine for the future. I don’t really see him as a winger, I see him more as a central midfield player or even a number 10. He can play left-back as well.”