Roy Hodgson has stressed that he will not set his Fulham side targets this season.
The Cottagers’ outstanding home form should ensure they avoid another battle against the drop but the experienced manager is keeping a level-headed approach.
After beating Portsmouth last weekend, Hodgson accepts that a number of sides could find themselves being dragged into the relegation mire.
“We didn’t set ourselves targets, people always want you to set targets,” he explained.
“I think it’s very dangerous, if you set them too low you regret it as you could have pushed people harder. If you set it too high, you run the risk of demotivating players when they realise a target is unachievable,
“We want to survive in the league and I’m hoping we’re going to do it more comfortably.
“If it means doing it more comfortably than last year it might also mean doing quite well and finishing reasonably high in the table.
“With a small squad, we’ve overachieved so far. We have 14 points more than this time last year which is very comforting. We’re still nowhere near the target we’re going to need to stay in the league.”
Hodgson also had words of support for under-pressure Pompey boss Tony Adams, whose side were well beaten in West London last weekend.
“I think you’ll find Hull’s plummeting is greater than Pompey’s as their position is nowhere near as precarious as Derby and ours last season when the two teams were virtually cut off already in January.
“Teams have to accept the position they are in is reasonably precarious. Two wins or two defeats can make an enormous difference to what is going on in their life and the season.
“So my message to Portsmouth would be to keep faith in the work they’re doing with the very many good players they’ve got at the club and they won’t always have the misfortune they had on Saturday.”
