Martin Jol played down Bobby Zamora’s omission from the squad against Swansea today – insisting that he had not been at the centre of a row with the England striker.
The Fulham manager explained that he had left out his main striker with Wednesday’s must-win Europa League qualifier against Odense in mind and that he didn’t name Zamora on the bench as he was unlikely the change the course of the game as a substitute. Jol claimed he had made the decision to start with Andy Johnson as a lone striker on Thursday.
I made the decision on Thursday to play Andrew Johnson
because he works hard in training. The last couple of weeks we played with Moussa Dembele
I don’t have any problem with any player. The only thing I want is for them to give 100 per cent to the club and then there is no problem. I need all my players. We have another important game (against Odense) on Wednesday and Bryan Ruiz
He (Zamora) is probably not the player who is the best substitute so I thought it was better to wait for next week and important games coming up. He wants to play for this club.
I’m with Jol – Zamora has looked jaded recently and seems a smart decision given the Odense this week. Journos are so lazy – other managers in the league rest / rotate players to get the best out of their squad but with us they disregard form and consider it an opportunity to create mischief instead.
I’m with Jol too. It’s good that we have a squad we can rotate in attack. It’s not like we don’t get injuries to our strikers or have enough games to worry about is it? Squad rotation is essential.
Rather have Bobby for other games and give AJ the run out. Strikers are always delicate souls and need to be pampered and anyway it’s not like the press haven’t just admitted to making things up 😀