In an interview with Sky Sports News (for the story see here), Roy Hodgson has said he thinks that Andy Johnson’s thigh injury will probably keep him out until the Arsenal game.
Hodgson is hopeful that Johnson might play some part in that fixture, but he didn’t sound 100% certain. One wonders then what that means for your front line against Hull on Saturday. Having spent a tidy bundle of cash on Bobby Zamora, you would expect the former West Ham forward to start. Who’s going to join him?
My personal preference is for Erik Nevland, but Roy has already made clear that he thinks Erik The Great is better coming off the bench against tired defences. Whilst this is a credible theory (borne out by the way that he notched some crucial goals in the run-in last year, i.e. Reading and Birmingham), I’d like to see Nevland and Zamora rekindle the partnership that started so promisingly against Celtic.
Hodgson’s deployment of Seol Ki-Hyeon as a second striker has come in for some criticism amongst the fans (even though I felt he had a good game against Torino). One swallow doesn’t make a summer – as we Brits should know. He’s flattered to deceive in his brief Fulham career so far – hitting the heights as a sub against Manchester City, but falling below the standard we’d expect since. Whether he’d flourish against Hull, or even get the chance, remains to be seen.
There’s been plenty of speculation about the Fulham future of David Healy, with him being linked to several Championship clubs and, strangely, Newcastle. Hodgson has just been asked about the Northern Irish international on Sky Sports News and delivered a pretty non-commital answer. He could ‘fully understand’ the speculation over Healy as the new signings would be first choice, but that was as far as he would get to pointing the way to the exit door.
