Jol admires Swansea style

Fulham manager Martin Jol has lavished praise on Brendan Rodgers and Swansea ahead of the Weslh side’s visit to Craven Cottage.

Swansea have gained plaudits for their attractive style of football since returning to the English Premier League this season, and are level on point with 10th placed Fulham with nine games remaining.

And Jol said he admired the way Swansea had gone about their game since returning to the top flight.

“They almost play like Ajax or Barcelona,” Jol told Fulham’s official website. “They always try to play it out from the back and I can honestly say that I admire them for that.”

“Brendan Rodgers is someone who has got that philosophy and I rate him very highly because it’s not easy to play the way they do.”

“He’ll be one of the contenders for Manager of the Season because if you get promotion, like Norwich did too, and then establish yourself as a good team in the Barclays Premier League I think you must have done a hell of a job.”

Although he is respectful of Swansea’s philosophy, Jol is confident that Fulham can build on an impressive run of form this weekend.

“We want to be safe first,” Jol said. “We had a very good spell over the past couple of months which put us on 36 points but we are not there yet.”

“We would like to have more points but now you can honestly say that it’s the bottom five probably (fighting against relegation) so we don’t have that feeling that we have to play against the drop.”

“So I think things look well and good and bright to push on in the League and try to get as many points as possible and enjoy a very good finish at the end of the season.”

“The next game is against Swansea who will want to do the same. If you have a look at the League, the top six is difficult but the top seven is still possible so hopefully we will have a good run in the next couple of games and try to do something.”

Jol also confirmed that Zdenek Grygera, Steve Sidwell and Orlando Sa would all be missing from the team at the weekend, the latter picking up an injury playing in the reserves in midweek.

“We’ve got an injury with Orlando Sa,” he said. “He played with the Development Squad on Wednesday and got injured again with his hamstring so he will be out for at least three or four weeks.”

“Zdenek Grygera is still out and Steve Sidwell of course who could be out for another three or four weeks as well.”