Zat Knight is desperate to eradicate the lapses of concentration that have undermined his game – and believes he is beginning to make progress.
Fulham’s leaky defence was frequently exposed last season with Knight often taking the heaviest criticism for the number of soft goals conceded.
But the 26-year-old, who is leading the side in the absence of regular skipper Luis Boa Morte, has been in impressive form for the last three matches.
He is anxious to address the shortcomings that saw him drop to Fulham’s third choice centre back in pre-season and insists he is moving in the right direction.
“I know that it’s only a few months into the season but I certainly feel that I’m concentrating more in training,” he said.
“Hopefully it’s also showing on the pitch. One of my pre-season goals was to keep my concentration for the whole 90 minutes.
“I think a lot of people recognised that I’d play well for maybe 80 minutes, but if you slip up once, people will only remember the mistake.
“I’m trying to get that out of my game. It’s going to come with time but hopefully I’ve shown some improvement over the past few matches.”
Knight will lead the side in Monday night’s clash with Watford as Fulham seek to add to their tally of eight points from six games.
Injuries forced boss Chris Coleman field a makeshift midfield for the last two Barclays Premiership matches, playing defenders Moritz Volz and Carlos Bocanegra out of position.
The lack of bodies continues to bite in midfield but Knight insists team spirit has eased the impact of the losses.
“There’s more togetherness, not just in the defence but with the whole team,” he said.
“People are willing to fight for each other more. A lot of people thought that missing players like Jimmy Bullard, Papa Bouba Diop and Luis Boa Morte would make us really struggle.
“But we dug in against Tottenham and also against Chelsea. Maybe we didn’t deserve to lose the way we did against Chelsea but there was a good spirit about it.
“The fans and the players knew we did well. We’ve got a few games coming up now and we all feel that if we can keep that same level of performance, we can get more points on the board.
“No team is good enough to not need togetherness. It comes from within the camp and everyone’s really close at the moment.”
