Fulham boss Martin Jol is happy to be counting on striker Pavel Pogrebnyak.

Pogrebnyak has netted five goals in his first three Fulham appearances, leading many to ponder why nobody else made a move for the Stuttgart striker.

When asked why other clubs did not take a chance on him, Jol said: "It is very easy. He only scored one in 18 and wasn't always playing.

"In England you want the best and they probably thought he was not good enough for their teams or had other targets.

"He was on my list for the last couple of years and I knew he was the type of player who could fit in with us and we were lucky to get him.

"You have to look at good players who are probably not doing so well at that time.

"Yakubu at Everton was the same and Blackburn got him on the cheap, but he has scored 13 or 14 goals.

"You need a bit of luck but you need to be confident of their quality. That is what Blackburn did and that is what we did with Pavel."