Source: Eurosport
Cottagers chief applauds Super Dan
Fulham manager Roy Hodgson has saluted skipper Danny Murphy for his part in the Cottagers' Premier League success this season.The former Liverpool and England star is in the form of his life at the age of 32 and spearheading Fulham's push towards a place in Europe.Murphy has hit six goals and been one of the most consistent performers in the division this season, but his starring role has come as no surprise to Hodgson."All the credit goes to him. All we can do is make sure we prepare him well for games and make sure he is comfortable with the role we give him," said Hodgson. "Danny has always been a very thoughtful player. He analyses his own game and likes to analyse the games of opponents and what his own team-mates are doing."The environment here and the way we approach football coincides very well with Danny's philosophy."The west Londoners travel to Manchester City on Sunday having already banished any lingering fears of relegation and are in with a shout of finishing in seventh, which would be enough to secure a place in next season's Europa League.Hodgson is not losing any sleep over the race for Europe, however, and insists a strong finish to the season is his priority."My major concern now, having reached a position of relative safety, is that we keep the levels of performance up in the last seven games to give us the position in the table that we would like," he added."All season we have been very cautious, we've said all along that our major concern is safety."But I think now we have reached 40 points at this stage of the season we can forget about relegation."There are seven games left which is about 20% of the season and we want to make the last 20% of the season as good as the first 80%."We want to make certain that we finish well and not leave a bad taste in our mouths by not keeping up that level of performance and allowing ourselves to relax."In the Premier League it's very difficult for anyone to say 'this will be an easy game'. For us every game is a potential victory or a potential defeat."Even in games we've lost this season we've always been in there fighting and I am very anxious for that to continue."I think Europe will be something that just happens to one team. I don't think any of the teams who could finish seventh are saying they want to be in Europe. It's more a question of seeing how well we play the last seven games."If we got to two or three games left and the goal was in sight then teams might say 'we fancy it', but with seven games to go most of us will wait and see."If it happens it happens and we'll be very glad - but let's make certain we don't let the season degenerate."[LNB]
