Fulham manager Martin Jol paid tribute to Scott Parker after the Whites came from a goal down to beat Everton.
The Toffees took the lead through Steven Naismith after 12 minutes but the west Londoners hit back in the second half through Dimitar Berbatov and Darren Bent to reach the fourth round of the Capital One Cup.
"[Scott's] a leader," Jol said. "We've got other experienced players but I'm very happy with his influence.
"He comes from another club and he tells us that we have to realise, even when I'm not there, that we play okay.
"We need goals like and we almost conceded in the last minute. If you have a corner kick in the last four minutes, we should be a bit more clever."
Bryan Ruiz and Aaron Hughes are still not match fit and Jol was delighted with the impact of Pajtim Kasami and Alex Kacaniklic - both of whom had difficult roles to play.
"Bryan is still a risk," Jol added. "That is why I had to play Kasami for example. He's young enough and energetic and that is what we needed.
"Alex Kacaniklic played for the first time on the other side and it's the same thing. You have to find out and come up with solution.
"I think in the second half we were more creative. We didn't play badly in the first half.
"The goal they scored was almost a hammer blow - here we go again. That was the feeling in the team.
"We've got some guys like Scott Parker - he's a big influence and I'm happy that he's here because he did very well over the last month."