Fulham manager Roy Hodgson believes he has created a platform for success after trimming down the squad he inherited from Lawrie Sanchez.

Hodgson took over at Craven Cottage in January and arrived to find more than 30 senior players in the Cottagers dressing room, and after allowing a number to leave almost immediately, he also sold several others during the summer transfer window.

The former Inter Milan boss believes Fulham's young players will benefit, as it offers them a realistic hope of breaking in to the starting XI.

He said: "I think what I'm most happy about is that we've changed the squad around and we've got a small squad now, a squad that we really believe in and is well-balanced.

"When I came in January we really had far too many players and lots of them just trebling or quadrupling up for positions, never getting a game and obviously costing the club a lot of money, but not playing any football.

"Whereas now, with a squad of only 23 players, of which three are goalkeepers, it will give the younger players, like (Robert) Milsom and (Wayne) Brown, a chance to push forward and show what they can do in the first-team squad.

"It will give the players on the fringes a greater chance of playing, and although the squad is at the limit in terms of size, at least it's full of the right type of players that we want to be at the club and not just players that one has inherited and that are here really by default rather than anything else."