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"JOHNSON 2 STAY!!"

andy johnson must stay at palace!! the best striker in the premiership bar henry last season and we deserve to keep him.
Sven should still consider him for the squad even in the championship.

Blank wrote:
> The only reason he got so many goals is because he was with a crap
> club. I doubt he'd get so many if he were playing for one of the top
> clubs. Life's strange like that.

sorry, a what club? i think i must have misread you..

Yes, sorry, I put "crap" when I meant "pile of steaming crap."

last time i checked you had to be half - decent to get into the premiership though.
mind you, i must admit some of our performances matched your description!!

Lil Bro wrote:
> I'm fed up of this hailing of Johnson. He was good last season, yeh,
> GOOD, that's it. He was second top scorer, but HALF of his goals were
> penalties. You'd expect every clubs top scorer to score 9 out of 10
> penalties, so congratulatiobns, Johnson can put it away from 12
> yards.



If you'd watched the games you'd see that AJ wins most of his penalties because players cant handle his pace (and diving ;) ) and runs at defenders so much that he could get 3/4 more penalties in a game if the ref was leaning that way. He scored over 20 in 03/04, over 20 in 04/05 and will probably get another 20 at least in 05/06.

He's a great player, and works so hard to win the ball and must have the biggest work rate in our team. I do however think Ashton and Defoe are probably better players, because they score big goals, AJ rarely scores a spectacular goal, he's more of a poacher. He's a very good poacher, I just prefer someone like Ashton's style.

Also JFH said something about our tactics being to pass to AJ everytime. Our midfield isnt creative enough to have tactics, its just win the ball then get rid of it and hope. :(

The only way Andy Johnson is going to the World Cup is if Stevie Gerrard needs someone to carry the Premiership trophy for him.

I expect Lampard will lend it to him at some point...

Time_Warp wrote:
> AJ rarely scores a spectacular goal, he's more of a poacher. He's a very
> good poacher, I just prefer someone like Ashton's style.

Yeah, but out of all the English strikers I would have liked to see him claim that fourth spot in the 23-man squad.

He's the absolutely ideal substitute striker - perfect physical attributes in his pace, acceleration, agility and strength, which is obviously exactly what you want against a tired defence. Whatsmore, his record on penalties proves he can deliver under pressure and can put the ball exactly where he wants it.

However, what I think could be the most convenient aspect of his game in terms of playing for England is that he's so similar to the strikers we've already got. I'd rather see him in the squad than Peter Crouch given that we'd have to completely change tactics when Crouch comes on, and as international squads have little time as it is to assimilate a level of unity and way of playing between them, it doesn't seem such a good idea for England to also develop a new system for when target-man Crouch plays.

I would have also liked to see Ashton develop over the next year but it seems he's intent on staying at Norwich. There's no reason why he won't still be improving, but alongside the already-discussed disadvantages of trying to claim a World Cup place from a lower division, Sven seems to have little idea he exists and I would have thought if he wants to truly make an impact then its even more important for him to get back into the Premiership than it is for Johnson.

Vassell may be a bit of a wild-card this season after coming out of injury, and I've no idea what state Alan Smith will be in next summer if he continues to be played rarely and in midfield. Heskey I suppose will have to have an excellent season if he is to get the country back on his side.

Yeah I agree Mav. The one thing most people don't see about AJ is his work rate. He works harder than any other player I've seen and thats his key to sucess.

I like crouchy though, sort of loveable in a freakish sort of way...

Our Dean has been tremendous since we got him.
I can say we would of been relegated alot earlier last season without him. Not that the team relied on him but if he had signed at the start of the season then I really think we would of stayed up. He scored 20 goals for Crewe in that half season already. Yes, it was only for Crewe but 20 goals in that amount of time is good going, especially considering the squad quality surrounding him.

But to be fair I would like to see him involved in the England squad, so maybe a transfer next time round wouldnt be too bad.
One game, one goal this term. Along with the all singin' all dancin' AJ.

Andy Johnson is exactly the kind of player England need to bring on just before the penalty shoot out :D

The problem I see for England at the moment is that there's no strikers that definitely deserve the 4th place over the others. Owen, Rooney & Defoe will definitely be there (cba with the Defoe debate) but then it's not obvious who to pick our of AJ, Ashton, Crouch or Smith. They're all very different strikers yet you wouldn't really say one is better than the other. Of that list Crouch would be last for me and Ashton, although without a doubt a future international, simply hasn't proved himself to the extent that I feel he would need to. That leaves Smith and AJ. The advantage of Smith is that should it be needed, he can play almost anywhere in the forward line (except left midfield) and play there well. The advantage of AJ however is his obvious goal poaching ability. Given long enough on the pitch (and not played on the right wing) you'd fancy him to grab a goal in nearly every game he plays. He's certainly always dangerous, always threatening. Personally I'd give him the fourth spot, maybe even third in the pecking order in front of Defoe, who, for me, has shown so much potential but just hasn't delivered on it enough to be guarenteed an England place.

But of course, with that solution, you leave out Smith...