Martin Jol's off the wall message to his 'lovers'

Martin Jol has turned to pop legend Michael Jackson in a bid to convince his struggling Fulham team they have enough lovers and it is time a few fighters made their presence felt.

There must be something in the water at Craven Cottage. First, within the shadow of the famous Thames-side ground, Mohamed Al Fayed erected a statue of the late Jackson, who was a friend of the Fulham chairman. Now Jol has started quoting the iconic entertainer.

Many Fulham supporters regard Al Fayed’s monumental salute to Jackson as an embarrassing joke. But they will be hoping Jol is deadly serious when he says his side, who head to Liverpool tomorrow hovering five points above the Premier League relegation zone, should show more fight.

Jol admitted that Fulham’s tepid capitulation to derby rivals Queens Park Rangers last weekend, which left his side with just one win in nine games, had left him “very annoyed”. As a result, a lacklustre performance that gifted QPR their first win of the season became the subject of a training ground summit.

“We spoke about it in a meeting,” said Jol. “It was a bit longer than normal and hopefully the players understood that we have to come up with better results and we have to show people that we can play with passion and with our hearts.”

Jol, demonstrating an impressive knowledge of music, referred to Jackson’s platinum-single The Girl Is Mine, released in 1982 and featuring Paul McCartney. During the duet, Jackson tells the former Beatle, “I’m a lover, not a fighter”.

Jol went on: “I always make the separation, like Michael Jackson, between lovers and fighters. Who is a fighter and who is a lover?

“You have to realise that players like Dimitar Berbatov and Mladen Petric are not warriors. You will always have lovers but you need the fighters in your team as well and maybe we can show that to our fans.”

Unfortunately, Jol’s hopes of a Jackson-inspired ‘Thriller’ at Anfield has been hit by the suspension of Steve Sidwell, his most committed scrapper. Mahamadou Diarra is out injured, casting a doubt over the Malian’s participation in the Africa Cup of Nations next month, meaning Jol will almost certainly have to rely on the pairing of Chris Baird and veteran Greek Giorgos Karagounis at the heart of his midfield.

Facing them will be Luis Suarez, the Uruguayan Jol helped shape into a prolific goal-scorer during his 18-month spell in charge of Ajax. The Dutchman said: “He is one of the best strikers in Europe, probably the world.

“But in training this week we tried to work on a certain shape with certain players, and we do still have the players to do a job.”

If, that is, they are up for a fight.