The London club sit in the relegation zone of the English top flight having picked up just one point from their last four outings after an opening-day victory over Sunderland. But, after Dimitar Berbatov and Darren Bent inspired a 2-1 Capital One Cup win over Everton in midweek, Jol is hoping his charges can kick on in the league.
"If you look at our programme, we had three away games and two of them were against Arsenal and Chelsea so we were probably fortunate to get one away win against Sunderland," he said. "If the mentality stays the same as it was [on Tuesday against Everton] then we have two home games [against Cardiff and Stoke] coming up now so hopefully we can get back in the other half of the table."
Jol has a number of injury concerns to contend with ahead of the visit of Malky Mackay's men, with attacker Bryan Ruiz (ankle) and defender Aaron Hughes (groin) facing late fitness tests. Goalkeeper Maarten Stekelenburg (shoulder), defender Matthew Briggs (groin) and midfielder Ashkan Dejagah (ankle) are all ruled out.
Cardiff are still adapting to life in the Barclays Premier League, and were reminded of the harsh nature of the competition as they suffered a 1-0 defeat to Tottenham at the weekend courtesy of a last-gasp Paulinho goal. That loss was the Welsh club's first in four games and, although Mackay's men were defeated 3-2 by West Ham United in the Capital One Cup on Tuesday, Cardiff should return to London in confident mood.
After finding the net at Upton Park, Peter Odemwingie will hope to open his Barclays Premier League account for Cardiff against a side that has taken just one point from their last six home Barclays Premier League outings.
Stoke City are the only away team who have failed to score in the last 17 Barclays Premier League games at Craven Cottage, and with striker Andreas Cornelius (ankle) their only absentee, Cardiff will have hope of clinching only their second league win of the campaign.
Fulham (from): Etheridge, Stockdale, Amorebieta, Hangeland, Hughes, Riether, Riise, Senderos, Boateng, Duff, Kacaniklic, Karagounis, Kasami, Parker, Richardson, Sidwell, Taarabt, Zverotic, Bent, Berbatov, Rodallega, Ruiz.
Cardiff City (from): Lewis, Marshall, Moore, Amondarain, Brayford, Caulker, Connolly, Hudson, Lappin, McNaughton, Taylor, Theophile-Catherine, Turner, Cowie, Gunnarsson, Kim, Kiss, Medel, Mutch, Noone, Whittingham, Bellamy, Campbell, Gestede, Mason, Maynard, Odemwingie, Smith, Velikonja.
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