The boss decided to rest the trio ahead of Thursday's Europa League quarter-final against Wolfsburg and he is convinced it was the right thing to do.
The Tigers' relegation rivals are unlikely to see it that way but the Fulham boss isn't too concerned about their thoughts.
He said: "What most managers should be saying is how well we've done to keep playing the same players week after week. I don't think it's fair for anybody to suggest we can (cope with the number of fixtures) with 11 players.
"The players who've come into the team, I think I'm entitled to say those players are more than capable of playing at this level - (Chris) Smalling's a £10million Manchester United player, (Kagisho) Dikgacoi plays for South Africa and Clint Dempsey is the star of the USA team. So I didn't think we've done anything other than what anyone could expect us to do.
"I don't think the situation was any more complicated than we paid a high price for conceding such a bad first goal then, in the second half, when we looked like maybe we could take the game to Hull, we conceded another very poor second goal, which gave Hull something to hold onto, and they did that exceptionally well."