Fulham currently sit 14th on the table and welcome Stoke to Craven Cottage on Saturday, hoping to move another three points nearer to the 40 Jol believes will keep his side up.

"That's always the biggest concern because even halfway, that's what I said before with the teams last year, they looked fine and then they were in trouble so it's important as for many other teams that we get to 40 points and hopefully we will do that in the next couple of months," Jol said.

"I think it's always tough, if you have to be in the top five it's an expectation if you have to stay up it's an expectation and for us it's different, it's important to change the team and play good football and get the points at the same time so it was probably not more difficult than I thought.

"To play attractive football is not the main purpose, the purpose is to get results and [then] play attractive football."

Fulham are only two spots behind Stoke on the table and can go ahead of their opponents with a win on Saturday, but Jol know that will not be easy.

"It depends on how you look at it; they've had four wins away from home so they are quite consistent," he said. "They don't score a lot of goals but they score them at the right moments.

"They play in a compact English way so I think they have done a terrific job over there and they were in Europe as well which is not easy I can tell you."

"They're a strong team but we have got the home advantage and we need the points really."

Jol was the last Premier League manager to back former England boss Fabio Capello, who quit as national team manager after a rift with the FA.

"I feel it was his decision and although he had a very good record he made his mind and he freed the way for someone else," Jol said.

"I feel there is enough time to make a decision on that (next England manager) because you could do it for the short term or do it for the long term and there are enough candidates here who could do a terrific job."