ToffeeWeb - Season 2007-08

The Mail Bag

Johnson a winger?

This may cause a stir and some heated debate but I am seeing Johnson more as a winger than an out and out striker. Two reasons really: he is so quick that given the right ball he could supply Yak as we saw on Saturday; also his lack of goals is worrying. Whether this is to do with carrying the load prior to Yak arriving or confidence I'm not sure but he seems best as a supplier rather than the finisher we bought him for. 11 goals last term was ok in context with what other English strikers scored but he will never get twenty goals in a season because of his unselfishness.
Chris Keightley, harwich Posted 04/09/2007 at 10:26:18

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Lyndon

Trouble is he's not that great at crossing and he can't beat a man with skill either. He's a striker who needs service to score goals. IMO, he would have got closer to 20 goals last season with better service — there were times when he was getting one decent goalscoring chance a game and spending the other 90 minutes chasing the ball about.

I've always said that he'll score goals with the right service. Right now he needs a goal and hopefully the Yakubu partnership and Gravesen's ability to thread a good throughball will help. The winner against United wouldn't be a bad start :)

jack
1 Posted 04/09/2007 at 15:51:50

i think that statment is true jhonson is not a brilliant finisher compared to yak but he is fast and can draw players towards him to play yak threw and can take the ball past a lot of people but if he was to play him up front i would have anachibee in front of him

Graham Nolan
2 Posted 04/09/2007 at 15:56:15

I don’t think it would be a good move to play Johnson out wide. His game is all about getting on the end of things and (hopefully) putting the ball in the net. I feel confident that if AJ gets one goal then many more will follow.

Adam Carey
3 Posted 04/09/2007 at 16:08:09

AJ may not be as clinical with his finishing as first thought but if we are commenting on his 11 games without a goal it must be playing on his mind to.
The through ball from Tommy on Saturday is probably the first ball played along the ground for him to run on to all season. I think that with this kind of service as well as Yakubu to take some pressure off will see AJ hit the back of the net and then his confidence will grow again.

Joe Clitherow
4 Posted 04/09/2007 at 16:11:36

absolutley spot on Lyndon IMO.

This topic has also been covered in great detail in a thread below.

McKinney
5 Posted 04/09/2007 at 18:37:21

Oh the famous 20 goal a season striker! Maybe Johnson isn’t that, but how many teams can boast one of those? Especially outside the top 4!

As Lyndon said, he needs good service to score goals and, whilst his current failure to score is concerning, he should get better service than last season. His performances have been ok and he has been unlucky on a number of occasions.

He is still talked about as one of the better buys of last year so what has changed? Knee jerk reactions are not a good idea, especially when the team are doing ok. Only one game we haven’t scored in this season, so not exactly panic stations.

COYB

Andy
6 Posted 05/09/2007 at 16:06:46

If I had been our first choice penalty taker last year you could add five goals to his tally and suudenly 17 goals is a great return