After last Sunday's triumph over Tottenham, you can sense a change in direction from Martin Jol that can mean a promising future. Have Fulham finally made that challenging corner? That spot that's proved so troublesome and sharp lately that we've been nothing in short supply of laughing stocks when from Craven Cottage. Failing rather than that corner that has proven so eerily difficult to navigate that providing a point back to South West London, seemingly irrespective of where we have gone, was seen as a job. That unremitting place that has formed a between mid-table mediocrity and upper-echelon elegance. For Fulham have been bad overseas for the most effective section of six years. Travails outside SW6 have inevitably introduced bitter disappointment to a faithful who have deserved far, far better. But on Sunday, whenever we beat Tottenham Hotspur 1-0, there clearly was an unusual perfection to our performance. A German productivity if you will - and not only in the arms of Sascha Riether. We'd a - an plan - to include Spurs, a top-four group of the highest recommendations and pedigree. We coped with their overwhelming speed with unnerving simplicity, notwithstanding our aging straight back line. Gareth Bale, Benoit Assou-Ekotto, Kyle Naughton - they caused us no issues at all. Bale was quietened by a mixture of working tactical administration and some good-old-fashioned grit and determination while Assou-Ekotto and Naughton could not use their extreme rate to any kind of useful effect. And while our method of containment was working a delicacy, there was a small, but still visible, sense of experience to just how we setup. We weren't afraid to push Tottenham, safe in the knowledge that their exhausted eleven might fail at any moment. Bryan Ruiz was important, Dimitar Berbatov usually sublime. I was asked, once, if Berbatov was a luxury we couldn't afford far from the Cottage and my retort was plain and simple - he's a luxury we can't afford to abandon. Yes, an integral part of our game is dedicated to holding him, dedicated to his style, but when you are on the back foot, maybe treating up pressure, what's much better than having a player that will turn a on its head in one wonderful, swift second? Nothing. When we lauded Bobby Zamora for the position he used to play inside our escapades outside of Fulham, were we lauding him as a result of his technical efficiency? His important goals? Rarely. He was the hold up man; the person who could offer our protection a chance to breathe and re-shape. But with Berbatov, there's that inevitable part of danger and Martin Jol has finally found a way to manipulate him for what he is worth. And it is a credit to us that we have taken this task in the best way, beyond our former, 'a sketch can do ' design of play. Because Fulham, whilst the away team, set up properly against Spurs last Sunday. The total amount was pinpoint, the execution faultless. And if Jol could continue to shape the group with such success, our absent time blues might be beyond us. But, just like every thing Fulham, we could only hope it will be that simple.
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