Fulham manager Martin Jol insists he remains the man to rescue the Whites from a precarious Premier League position after a 4-0 defeat against Liverpool increased the pressure on the Dutchman.
A Fernando Amorebieta own goal was followed by strikes from Martin Skrtel and Luis Suarez as the Cottagers found themselves 3-0 down at the break.
Suarez added his second to make it eight in the league this season and had it not been for goalkeeper Maarten Stekelenburg the scoreline would have been a whole lot worse.
Fulham are 16th with only 10 points from 11 matches but Jol will defiantly soldier on despite increasing speculation about his position.
“I think every manager in every team in the bottom six or seven has to keep fighting,” said the Fulham boss, who admitted he had not spoken to owner Shahid Khan about his future. “At the end of the day, I think we will be fine. We have to suffer during these games.
“I think you have to be an expert if you are in the bottom four or five to keep teams up and I don’t think there are a lot of experts.
“If you go to Liverpool or Manchester United or all the top teams you have to try not to concede goals. On the ball we looked okay for the first 20 minutes and then we conceded a goal from a set-piece, then a second from a set-piece and you make it too difficult to get a result.
“It’s not acceptable. The only thing I say is you make it too difficult if you concede cheap goals like that against the top teams.
“I feel conceding goals from set-pieces, which is the easiest way to defend, is unacceptable.
“On the other hand, you see it happening all the time at clubs.
“If you concede goals here you have to open up a bit, but in the second half we tried to keep the damage down and that was the strategy,” added Jol.
“It was not enough for me and not enough for the team. I’ve got ambition and a mentality to win.” It is a cliche to say you have to show character. You would like to stay in the dressing room but you can’t so you have to go out there and try to do something.
“I feel that is what we did but it is not enough to get a result after being 3-0 down. We’ve had a difficult schedule and the task here became too big after conceding two early goals,” said Jol. “We do everything in training and then we make the same mistakes.
“It was very frustrating, not only for the fans but for me and the team. But I can’t come up with the same excuses, that we played better in the second half, because in the end we did not get a result.”
