New Fulham striker laments ‘difficult system’ at Everton
by stresster on August 9th, 2008
| 270 words |
The Toffees may have landed fifth place in the Premier League last term, although it doesn’t appear that every member of the squad was a happy one. These days, football managers have a tough old job on their hands trying to keep everyone happy, especially those on the fringes of the first-team who are asked to play out of position.
Setanta report that Andy Johnson was not a happy bunny during his final season at Goodison Park, being deployed on the wing in a supporting role to Yakubu. Indeed, while Everton were at one stage challenging Liverpool for fourth place in the Premier League, the striker was clearly disgruntled at being forced to play a bit-part role for the Blues.
“They (Everton) only play with one up front away, and at home really, so you had four strikers playing for one place, which was quite difficult,” said the 27-year-old.
“Yak (Aiyegbeni Yakubu) was the main guy up front and I was playing off him, sometimes a little bit deeper on the wings and that hindered me.
“I didn’t really settle and had quite a lot of injuries. The one up front formation limited the amount of games I played. I was out on the right and didn’t really get going.”
It’s clear that Fulham haven’t spend a huge amount of money to use AJ sparingly at Craven Cottage, and it’s entirely likely that he and Bobby Zamora will team up in attack for Roy Hodgson’s men. Everton fans, are you sorry to see Johnson go or do you think it’s a sound bit of business for a squad player?
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Tagged Under: andy johnson, David Moyes, everton fc, Fulham FC
SteveBlue - August 9th, 2008 at 8:28 pm
I thought that johnson was a good player for us, whenever he played he gave us new options and mixed things up and always looked like he was a thorn in the opposition’s side. The thing is though, that he was not an out and out goalscorer like Yakubu is, and being totally honest making an imeediate profit of nearly £2million and that rising a further £2.5 million i would say is a great bit of business considering that he has only scored somethin like 22 goals for us whereas the yak fired 21 in all comps last season. At the end of the day its money which can be used to buy a complimenting strike partner for yak, if only everton would hurry up and sign one!!!!
Delroy McGinty - August 9th, 2008 at 8:43 pm
if he didnt settle then why state he wanted to stay several times? marble head
Davo - August 9th, 2008 at 8:55 pm
The bottom line is the lad didn’t quite have the killer instinct. Good player who just lacked the final ingrediant.
Jumping Johnnie - August 9th, 2008 at 9:33 pm
He had a fair crack of the whip, don’t really understand why he is complaining he got plenty of chances but didn’t really give us what we were looking for ?. A good player though I would have kept him but he’s not in the same class as the yak, he still petrifies defenders when he runs at them though which is always good & who could forget the goals against R.S. so good luck Andy in the future.
MM - August 9th, 2008 at 10:02 pm
I hope AJ’s legacy at Goodison is not undermined by any ‘dispute’ with DM. Despite the out of context quotes the press put in their headlines, I believe the man to be a genuine pro and a grafter . Good luck to him. I predict he will not celebrate if he scores against us.
idiot fans - August 10th, 2008 at 10:49 pm
i hope he does celebrate when he bangs four past the toffs, if everton we’re playing in my back garden, i would close the curtains.
Lee EFC - August 11th, 2008 at 2:34 pm
even if he does score 4 past us it will only be for 1 season cos fulham will be in the championship next season, roy hodgson is a terrible manager just look what he did to blackburn even with all that money,
I think we will be lucky to finish in europe next season like, due to the fact every club has strengthened quite a lot around us, and we had the weakest squad anyway but in Moyes we trust
jarty - August 12th, 2008 at 2:36 pm
i liked aj , he gave us a different option when he played but what I can’t understand is when he was asked by many fans before the Cambridge friendly if he was leaving he told them he wasn’t , and if he didn’t like the system David Moyes deployed why did he sign a 5 year contract only 6 months ago ? We were playing the same system then . A bit inconsistent I would say . Having said that , I wish him all the best in his future career