Everyone knows that size matters, which is why supporting Fulham has been so difficult this season. When it comes to ball control, the players at the struggling Barclays Premier League club are a match for most, but as soon as they have to defend a free kick or a corner, they are in trouble.

In the Premier League, height matters and the long and short of it is that Fulham are vertically challenged. In their past two matches they have conceded four goals from set-pieces and Roy Hodgson, the club’s new manager, has had enough.

Of the 11 players who started the FA Cup third-round tie against Bristol Rovers last weekend, only two are officially 6ft tall and anyone who has seen Antti Niemi, the goalkeeper, or Clint Dempsey, the United States forward, in the flesh will be wondering if they were wearing high heels when they were measured. “It’s something that we have to consider for the future,” Hodgson said before his team’s game away to West Ham United tomorrow. “I think we’ll bring in a rack to stretch them.”

Mohamed Al Fayed, the Fulham chairman, has promised to let Hodgson spend as much money as he wants to transform the club from a team of diddy men into high-flyers and the manager, who is 5ft 8in, insists that he will only sign players he can look up to before the transfer window shuts at the end of the month. “We have written profiles of the players we want to sign and we will only buy players who meet our criteria,” Hodgson said. Things have not been the same at Craven Cottage since Zat Knight was sold to Aston Villa for £3.5 million last summer. The central defender, who is 6ft 6in, towered over his teammates, but now diminutive players such as Danny Murphy and David Healy are expected to rise to the challenge of steering Fulham away from the relegation zone.

One player who would have made a big difference was Jan Koller, the 6ft 7in Czech Republic forward who was linked with the club last month, but the 34-year-old decided to move to FC Nuremberg from AS Monaco last weekend. Hodgson’s budget may not stretch to Peter Crouch, the 6ft 7in Liverpool and England forward who is unsettled at Anfield, so the only solution may be to track down the agent of Tor Hogne Aaroy.

At 6ft 8in, the Norwegian forward claims to be the tallest player in the game and Aalesund, the Norwegian Premier League club, would not stand in his way if the man mountain wanted to make a name for himself in England.