Martin Jol revealed that Mousa Dembele will be included in Saturday’s match day squad for Fulham’s opening game of the 2011/12 season against Aston Villa at the Cottage (KO 3pm), whilst Simon Davies and Bjorn Helge Riise miss out through injury. Both players will return to training next week.
Looking ahead to Saturday’s game during Friday afternoon’s pre-match press conference, Martin Jol was clearly looking forward to returning to the Premier League stage in front of a sell out crowd at the Cottage on Saturday
“We have a sell out crowd tomorrow so it will be a great atmosphere,” said Jol. “The most important thing is putting three points on the board.
“This season I want to get more points, more goals and concede less. Two years ago this Club played in a major European final. Of course, you need a bit of luck but I feel that we’ve got a squad that can do well in the cup competitions as well.”
Fulham have certainly done their homework on Saturday’s claret and blue opponents and Jol is certainly not underestimating the task at hand, with Villa possessing a number of highly dangerous attacking players in their ranks.
“We know everything about them [Villa],” said Jol. “We know their style, their strengths and their weaknesses. I know Darren [Bent] from Spurs and he’s a terrific striker.
“Shay Given is a world class goalkeeper and N’Zogbia was probably one of the players all the clubs would have liked to have bought this summer. They’ve brought in a few players and they don’t have a lot of injuries in their squad so I don’t think they have any problems.”
Jol has an almost fully fit squad to choose from for the opening game of the season and is hoping Bobby Zamora will remain injury free this season to lead the line as Fulham compete in both domestic and European competitions.
“If you look in Europe to find someone like him it’s not easy, Jol explained. “He’s gifted and he’s a very good player. He can receive the ball, turn and he’s got technique.
“I would like to keep him fit. Last year he had a few injury problems but this year he was playing the day after he came back in for training. I played him in a game after just three games and he was fit. Hopefully he will stay fit.
“The most important thing for any team, even the top teams, is the one or two players who can make the difference and he has been that player for Fulham.”
