Lawrie Sanchez believes his arrival at the club for the last few weeks of the campaign has given him a head start for next season.
The 47-year-old replaced Chris Coleman at Craven Cottage for the final five games of the season.
Sanchez guided Fulham to safety with one game to spare and he landed the job on a permanent basis last week after quitting his role with Northern Ireland.
The former Wycombe chief believes his time at the club has helped him see what he needs to do to the squad to ensure they are not in another relegation battle next term.
Sanchez has made bolstering his options one of his top priorities this summer as he feels the current squad is too small.
“Now I have got the next few months to get the right format in place for when we come back next season,” said Sanchez.
“I am lucky to a certain extent because I have had a taste of the club for a month.
“If I had come in during the summer, I might not have had that and it would have taken me until Christmas to know what was right and what was wrong.
“I know what is right and wrong with the club now, I know the things we need to improve on and I know the parts we need to cut out.
“Although I was test-driven for a month, at the same time I have been able to do that with the club.
“It will take changes. From day one I have been assessing and reviewing and looking at the squad.
“We had our last 15 professionals with us at Middlesbrough for the final game of the season.
“One of them is on loan anyway so basically on the last day of the season that’s all we had left to fight with.
“There is not enough depth at the club. We obviously need to improve the quality at the top end, but depth-wise we need more as well.”
