Glen Johnson

[PTP]

Its a risky World Cup strategy that though PTP - he has a national press ready to campaign on him being poor defensively and ready to shout for the Spurs right back to come in and take his Ingerlund place. On form, there isn't anything between them - they're both rubbish.

that was kinda my point about him being fit he'd be on the plane.

other than walker and johnson then there isn't any other right backs in the equation - at least none that i can think off, so if both are fit both will go regardless of club form imo

[PTP]

only other i can think of is Micah Richards but he is in and out with injury and not first choice at City.

i'd 'guess' that two of those three will be picked.

as big chief has said...i reckon we will see johnson keep going through the motions and then come the last few games step up his efforts just to make sure.

[Fosterbloke]

What's this one trick then?

Getting picked every ****ing game.

[Shaggy]

Completely fallen off a cliff. Been a fan since he signed but his form since pretty much last January has been below par. In this last 3 months or so it's been completely unacceptable. It's got to the point now where I want him out of the team but Kelly isn't up to it in my view and Wisdom is on loan. Unless we buy one, Wisdom has every chance of starting next season as our right back.

[PTP]

really frustrating with Kelly - there clearly seems to be something wrong there cause he just can't get in.

really makes you wonder why wisdom was allowed to go on loan....

ok, maybe at the time on paper, we had two other right backs, two left backs, four centre halves and then a back up/emergency full back in flanagan if needed.

So getting regularly game time for him elsehwere seemed sensible...

but all of a sudden, the defence have just started to collapse

[danperkins]

Kelly looked so promising but injuries really have halted his progress...desperate luck.

[RedRum]

McLaughlin and Robinson would do a better job than Johnson and Cissokho have been

[Pablo]

I know it's hard to tell as he's a laid back character, but he really doesn't look that arsed any more. He really does look like he's going through the motions. I think it was a mistake to loan Wisdom for the entire season, he'd probably start for us know if he wasn't on loan. If not he'd at least give Johnson some much needed competition.

[PTP]

edit - this was in reply to DP re Kelly - wrong thread for it but i had such high hopes for him that i thought we were looking at a potential captain in the future. but he's just not progressed with his injuries - personally i wonder if we'd have been better off sending him on loan to get game time/fitness under his belt and kept wisdom here. Surely Wisdom at RB and Johnson at LB would have been better than Cissokho?

it's frustrating though - at the start of the season, full back looked our strongest position in terms of depth - Johnson/Kelly/Wisdom/Enrique/Cissokho plus if desperate Sakho could cover left back, it meant that Flanagan didn't even get mentioned by any of us on here and robinson was sent on loan without a hint of any issue.

all of sudden come the summer there is an argument we need to completley re address full back

Johnson - looks like he's not interested, certainly doing nothing to justify his apparent wage demands.

Kelly - can't get fit, be it physical or mental, it may be time for him to move on sadly as we can't afford passengers. We dont have the money to have people not offering us something. I'd consider selling, certainly if we can put in some sort of first refusal by back clause should he go elsewhere and get fit/fufill his potential.

Enrique - is decent enough but ideally we need a top class full back who is consistent at first choice with enrique then in the squad offering good cover.

Cissokho - way off the pace and will be sent back

it also means that flannagan has seemingly saved his career here

Robinson - can't comment on as not seen enough.


i'd say - for next season, if i was playing 'champ man' - i'd be thinking i'd be doing the following in the summer....

RB
1st Choice - top right back - Johnson gone
2nd Choice - Wisdom - Kelly gone
decent back up - flanagan

LB
1st choice - top left back
2nd choice - enrique - cissokho gone
decent back up - robinson

there will be an argument that robinson/flanagan won't get game time, but if we make champions league then we'd need that strength in depth, but in this instance i'd consider loans for one of/or both providing there is call back option

[danperkins]

edit - this was in reply to DP re Kelly - wrong thread for it but i had such high hopes for him that i thought we were looking at a potential captain in the future. but he's just not progressed with his injuries - personally i wonder if we'd have been better off sending him on loan to get game time/fitness under his belt and kept wisdom here. Surely Wisdom at RB and Johnson at LB would have been better than Cissokho?

it's frustrating though - at the start of the season, full back looked our strongest position in terms of depth - Johnson/Kelly/Wisdom/Enrique/Cissokho plus if desperate Sakho could cover left back, it meant that Flanagan didn't even get mentioned by any of us on here and robinson was sent on loan without a hint of any issue.

all of sudden come the summer there is an argument we need to completley re address full back

Johnson - looks like he's not interested, certainly doing nothing to justify his apparent wage demands.

Kelly - can't get fit, be it physical or mental, it may be time for him to move on sadly as we can't afford passengers. We dont have the money to have people not offering us something. I'd consider selling, certainly if we can put in some sort of first refusal by back clause should he go elsewhere and get fit/fufill his potential.

Enrique - is decent enough but ideally we need a top class full back who is consistent at first choice with enrique then in the squad offering good cover.

Cissokho - way off the pace and will be sent back

it also means that flannagan has seemingly saved his career here

Robinson - can't comment on as not seen enough.


i'd say - for next season, if i was playing 'champ man' - i'd be thinking i'd be doing the following in the summer....

RB
1st Choice - top right back - Johnson gone
2nd Choice - Wisdom - Kelly gone
decent back up - flanagan

LB
1st choice - top left back
2nd choice - enrique - cissokho gone
decent back up - robinson

there will be an argument that robinson/flanagan won't get game time, but if we make champions league then we'd need that strength in depth, but in this instance i'd consider loans for one of/or both providing there is call back option

Kelly really did look like he was going to be a fantastic prospect. Guy has been ravaged by injuries since he was 16. A lot of very serious injuries too. The guy literally has missed hers of football, incredibly bad luck really.

I think many of us thought we were well stacked defensively, and now as you say it genuinely looks like we are going to have to have a complete reshuffle.

We really have had rotten luck with injuries this season... and the pity being our new signings just don't look either ready for first team action Or just not good enough. Aspas, Cissoko & Moses have been disappointing to say the least. Illori & Alberto have had little or no time and for the moment, in a season where we need to make a push for champs league... that money spent of those two could be seen as been better used to effect the quality of the first 11.

[Red_Polo]

We've got lots of full backs on the books, but Johnson was really the only one you could say was a sound first choice player. Depth in numbers but not in quality, especially annoying to then consider the others who are approaching the right level are so injury prone.

[RedRum]

Johnson has always been overrated. Like most English players.

[Daniel 7]

that was kinda my point about him being fit he'd be on the plane.

other than walker and johnson then there isn't any other right backs in the equation - at least none that i can think off, so if both are fit both will go regardless of club form imo

Its a strange one, if you think over the last few years, fullbacks have been at an absolute premium, but there aren't that many you can think of across Europe, off the top of your head, that you would go "excellent player" - maybe apart from Lahm or Alba. I remember Clichy was heavily linked before he went to City, but he hasn't exactly set the world alight. Maybe its because of the current fashion for attacking fullbacks that they're being judged across every third of the pitch - like Kelly. He seemed a decent defender but doesn't offer anything going forward. Its a difficult position to pin down, the full back.

Most of the full backs in the league, its easy to pull them apart if you want to.

Johnson has always been overrated. Like most English players.

Nah

[Shaggy]

Nah

He's the antithesis of your typical English player. Most, yeah, are wildly overrated. Johnson has found himself in the odd position of being an excellent attacking right back and most English football fans and media deriding him with the usual tedious platitudes like "fair enough he's alright going forward but he can't defend etc". And often from people who covet the likes of Dani Alves. In fact I think, for the most part, he's been one of the most badly misunderstood footballers in the country.

His form for the best part of 12 months has been piss poor, but prior to that he'd been, on the whole, excellent for us.

[PTP]

He's the antithesis of your typical English player. Most, yeah, are wildly overrated. Johnson has found himself in the odd position of being an excellent attacking right back and most English football fans and media deriding him with the usual tedious platitudes like "fair enough he's alright going forward but he can't defend etc". And often from people who covet the likes of Dani Alves. In fact I think, for the most part, he's been one of the most badly misunderstood footballers in the country.

His form for the best part of 12 months has been piss poor, but prior to that he'd been, on the whole, excellent for us.

when defending Johnson to the people who argued he was crap at defending, i used to say - ok name the one right back in the world you'd have if you could have any - regardless of what team they supported most said Dani Alves - id' then argue, who was a better defender Alves/Johnson

sadly, Johnsons form the past 6-12 months means i no longer argue the toss and just put my head down and walk away muttering cunts