Berbatov a lone positive, says Jol

Fulham manager Martin Jol has praised new signing Dimitar Berbatov’s performance in his side’s Premier League defeat to West Ham.

The Bulgarian made his debut in Saturday’s match at Upton Park the day after his deadline day transfer from Manchester United.

Fulham lost 3-0 – their second consecutive Premier League defeat – and Jol said the only positive was the class and quality shown by Berbatov on the pitch.

“We missed a few players in our creative department, behind the striker – Bryan Ruiz couldn’t play, we did a test yesterday. And (Moussa) Dembele obviously was gone,” Jol said.

“That is a worry because we have to find a balance for the future. The only positive thing today was to see (Dimitar) Berbatov again – to see his class, his quality, I’ve missed it.”

The match marked the first in a West Ham shirt for England forward Andy Caroll and Jol admitted his players had failed to deal with the aerial threat from the former Liverpool man.

“Every game we have seen him, even at the European Championships, you see that he is great in the air, probably the best in the Premier League. But I still think that there are answers for that, but we couldn’t cope with it,” Jol said of Carroll.

The Dutchman added that he had been sad to see Dembele depart for Tottenham on the final day of the transfer window, but was positive his new-look squad would soon start to gel.

“I tried everything but we missed out on a couple of players yesterday. In the end you have to be happy that Berbatov is there, and (Hugo) Rodallega and Mladen (Petric),” he said.

“Dembele – I really thought he would have stayed because 15 million pounds is a big loss. But Tottenham paid up, they always do that and I know that from my time there. They’ve made life extremely miserable for me. But I think we have the players – maybe in a different system or concept – and we will come up with something.”