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FIGHTING PROUD

The former Chelsea defender Glen Johnson has said that he is extremely proud of the fighting spirit shown by Liverpool in the match against his former club during the weekend. Liverpool were playing against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge.

They had a good record against the Londoners in recent seasons, but were coming into the match on the back of a disappointing start to the season. Liverpool are currently in the second half of the table having just taken 12 points from the opening matches. Yet, they managed to come out of the match with a 1-1 draw.

Luis Suarez secured the equaliser for Liverpool after the European championship had taken the lead through John Terry. Even though Chelsea dominated for the majority of the match, Liverpool were able to get back into the encounter through the second half goal from the Uruguayan. The England international Glen Johnson, who spent a few seasons at Chelsea, has said that he is extremely happy with the spirit shown by the team after having gone a goal down in the first half. Chelsea missed a number of good opportunities and were left to paid for the misses by the goals from Luis Suarez. After Liverpool scored, they looked like the likely team to score again in the match.

“If we had been offered a point before the game we probably would have taken it. Playing away at Stamford Bridge, it was always going to be difficult. Chelsea are very strong at home and we were expecting a tough game. We didn’t start well, they got the goal and usually when Chelsea go in front here they win. A lot of teams would have rolled over and ended up getting destroyed by four or five,” said Johnson after the match that help Liverpool cement the 12th position.

LIVERPOOL DESERVED MORE

The Liverpool defender, Glen Johnson, told Liverpool news that the way Liverpool players played in the match against Sunderland, they certainly deserved the one point that they got eventually.

The match between Liverpool and Sunderland, which was played at the Stadium of Light, ended in a draw with both teams scoring one goal each. As per Johnson, the boys never gave up. They kept fighting hard and got the reward for it. The body language of the team was extremely positive.

Sunderland took the lead in the 29th minute of the match against the run of play. Steven Fletcher was the one who opened the scoring for Sunderland. It was Craig Gardner who gave Fletcher a perfect pass and the Scottish player latched on the chance wonderfully. But, Luis Suarez gave the Liverpool fans a huge relief by scoring the leveller in the 71st minute.

Liverpool is yet to win a Premier League match this season. The team has played 4 matches in the ongoing Premier League season and haven’t managed to get three points in any of those matches. The team lost two matches, while, the remaining two ended in a draw. The team has managed to score only 3 goals in the current Premier League season so far.

The new manager of the team, Brendan Rodgers, is being criticized for the team’s poor performance in the ongoing season. But, Johnson thinks that Rodgers should be given a bit of time. As per Johnson, Rodgers is a fantastic manager and he is doing a fine job. But, everything is not in his hand. He can’t go out there and play. The players need to execute the plans in the middle. The team is getting better and better with every match and hopefully, the results would start going team’s way in the further matches.

JOHNSON EXCITED WITH RODGERS

Liverpool defender Glen Johnson has said that he cannot wait to start working with the new Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers, who he knows from his time at Chelsea.

Brendan Rodgers was the youth team manager at Chelsea before he was promoted to the role of the assistant manager under José Mourinho. Glen Johnson spent a few seasons at Chelsea before being transferred to Portsmouth for a fee of £ 4 million. Since then, he has become a £ 16 million signing for Liverpool. Even though he was criticised by the former Liverpool manager Roy Hodgson, he is definitely one of the best right back in England right now.

He has said that he cannot wait to start working with the new Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers, whom the club acquired from Swansea in the summer. Brendan Rogers has developed a reputation for playing beautiful and attractive football, which also pays dividends in terms of the three points as well. It is expected that he will be changing the whole ethos of the club in the next few years. The 39-year-old is one of the promising young managers in the country after having learnt his trade under the former Chelsea manager José Mourinho, who is regarded as one of the best managers in the world.

“After a long break after the Euros I’m really looking forward to getting back involved. I was fortunate enough to work with Brendan before and I know training will be fantastic. The lads have been working really hard and it was good to be part of training on Tuesday morning to get my legs going again. It will possibly be a different style under the new boss. We’ll play a passing game so a bit different to a few managers I’ve worked with before,” said Glen Johnson.

TOO TIRED

Liverpool defender Glen Johnson has said that the national team failed to get past Italy in the quarter-finals of the Euro 2012 due to the fact that they were extremely tired. England manager Roy Hodgson has been using most of the players in all of the matches up until now due to the squad stands being depleted by injuries to crucial players like Lampard and Gareth Barry.

As a result, Glen Johnson has conceded that the team was extremely tired in the latter stages against Italy. England were eliminated from the Euro 2012 after being defeated by Italy on penalties following the 0-0 draw.

England failed to create major chances in the match, while they also failed to take the ball away from Italy. As a result, Juventus midfielder Andrea Pirlo enjoyed a lot of the ball, which allowed him to create a lot of openings for Italy. Glen Johnson has attributed tiredness to the fact that they were not able to get possession of the ball in the middle of the park. Every time Pirlo got the ball, he found himself in lots of space that allowed him to be at his brilliant best. Pirlo has already been responsible for much of Italy’s success at the Euro 2012.

“There were times when we gave the ball away cheaply. If we’ve got the ball, the opposition are working that bit harder. We definitely need to keep the ball better and then, when we do go forward, we will be a bit fresher to cause them more problems. The way we set out and the way we work for each other, we are always going to be hard to beat. We worked well as a team, we defended well and we caused them a few problems,” Johnson told the Mirror.

JOHNSON BLAMES WOODWORK

Liverpool defender Glen Johnson has said that the woodwork is the reason for Liverpool not finishing in the Champions League this season, which ultimately led to the sacking of manager Kenny Dalglish.

It has been a very unlucky season for Liverpool after they have struck the woodwork on numerous occasions in the league. Glen Johnson has identified this as the major reason for them not finishing in the Champions League positions. Even worse is the fact that Liverpool finished the league in eighth position, which is the worst for half a century. Liverpool have been linked with a number of managers to replace Kenny Dalglish.

A lot was expected out of Kenny Dalglish after Liverpool spent more than £ 100 million in the summer, but he was able to bring only Carling cup success to the club. He recently said that he would not swap anything for the Carling cup, but the owners of the football club are of a different opinion. Qualifying for the Champions League will ensure that the club would receive around £ 35 million in bonus TV money, which is something that will help sustain Liverpool’s future success according to the owners. Hence, they have set the minimum target of finishing in the Champions League positions for their new manager.

“I don’t remember any team in the history of football hitting the woodwork as often as we have this season. But they are the fine lines people talk about. What width is a post? Probably three or four inches. If the ball goes two inches more in one direction it’s probably hitting the woodwork and going in. With all of the shots that hit the woodwork we could have had 15 more points this season. That would have put us right up there towards the top four,” said Glen Johnson.

WE NEED TO WIN AT ANFIELD

Glen Johnson has said that Liverpool must not only perform away from home, but also at home as well.

Glen Johnson scored against his former club Chelsea to give the Merseyside club a last-minute win over their rivals, which helped them strengthen their position towards qualifying for the Champions League. Liverpool have not qualified for the Champions League for quite some time now and Glen Johnson also reckons that home form is vital if they are about to do so. Even though Liverpool have been spectacular away from home this season, they have struggled to recreate the magic at Anfield.

One of the reasons that has been spoken regarding this situation is the counter-attacking style of Liverpool. Further, Liverpool play at a very high tempo with a lot of pressing. This becomes especially useful for teams that are playing away from home against teams that need to attack in front of their home supporters. This necessarily does not play at Anfield where teams can just setback and invite Liverpool on to attack. The 2-1 win over Chelsea becomes extremely crucial when you consider that it has helped Liverpool move level on points with Tottenham and Arsenal, their two main rivals for the fourth position.

“Normally a team’s best form is at home. As long as we can start picking up a few more points at home and doing what we are doing away then we won’t be too far away. We haven’t been playing badly at home. We’ve created some fantastic chances and if we’d taken one of them in a few games then we’d have nine or 10 more points and it would make it a whole new ball game.”,” Johnson said. Despite being pretty far away from the top, Johnson also reckons that Liverpool can win the title.