Martin Jol insists his defenders are good enough to keep Fulham in the Premier League despite their dismal form.
The Whites capitulated in 36 first-half minutes in their 4-0 defeat at Liverpool – their third straight league defeat and the second time in successive matches they have conceded three goals in the first half.
Under-pressure manager Jol admitted the manner in which his side fell behind was “unacceptable” after they once again conceded easily from set-pieces.
Fernando Amorebieta headed a Reds free-kick into his own net before Martin Skrtel headed home the second unmarked from a corner.
But Jol said: “I think we are good enough defensively to survive in this league.
“We defended well against teams like Crystal Palace, Stoke and Everton – but today it was unacceptable.
“Against the top teams you have to try not to concede easy goals but we made it too difficult for ourselves.
“Conceding from set-pieces again was disappointing because if you’d have seen the way we have been working on them in training – I thought we’d be fine today.”
Jol added: “If you look at Fernando he is probably too good in the air to concede two goals like that. He must do better and he knows that.”
The result leaves Fulham just two points outside the bottom three.
Yet Jol remains bullish about their survival prospects despite growing pressure from fans for a change of manager.
“I think at the end we will be fine but I think we have to suffer in these games [against top sides],” he said.
“There are a lot more teams we can have results against. Outside the top seven or eight the teams are no better than us and that’s who we have to get results against.
“We have to keep our heads cool and hopefully over the next seven or eight months we will get results against top sides as well because that’s what we used to do.”
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This post was last modified on 09/11/2013