Roy Hodgson thinks that Andy Johnson’s return can help Fulham build on a good start in the Premier League.
Johnson, missing since August with groin and shoulder complaints, returned to the team as a substitute at Chelsea last week and started his first game for the club since then against Swindon in the FA Cup on Saturday. The Fulham manager is happy to have his first choice striking partnership available again.
Bobby and AJ have a good understanding together and AJ gives us that threat in behind. Andy Johnson and Bobby Zamora are our first choice strikers. We have others, Zoltan (Gera) has done a great job in there, of course we’ve got (Erik) Nevland, (Diomansy) Kamara and (Seol) Ki-Hyeon.
But Andy Johnson and Bobby Zamora were the two players who were bought to play in those positions and they are the two players who last season kicked us into seventh place.
I reckon that away somewhere like Stoke, we might be better off with Gera supporting Zamora in a 4-4-1-1, rather than the more conventional 4-4-2 that we tend to play with Zamora and AJ in the team. We just seem to attack much better in this system, as Zamora stays more central with Dempsey, Duff and Gera all supporting him (more of a 4-2-3-1 at times). The trouble with the 4-4-2 I feel is that Zamora and Johnson both wander much wider than they should do – we already have excellent players down the flanks in Duff and Dempsey, and need our strikers to remain central.
How key Gera has been in our build-up remains to be seen, but as well as linking up terrifically with Zamora and the wide players, he can also drop deeper when we’re under pressure and add an extra body into midfield. Sure, this does mean that Zamora is occasionally isolated up front, but he seems to be revelling in this role, holding the ball up and winning set pieces.
It will be very interesting to see how we line up offensively going into tomorrow’s game.
On a point of fitness more than anything else, I’d be very surprised to see AJ start at Stoke. He played 20 minutes at Chelsea and 83 minutes against Swindon – and looked knackered by the end of that one. Hodgson’s admitted he may have rushed Johnson back a little too quickly last time so it would make sense to ease him gently back into first team football.