Roy Hodgson wants more of the same from Glen Johnson
Liverpool manager Roy Hodgson has told Glen Johnson he wants more of the same after the defender's impressive performance against West Ham United.
Johnson has been reported in the media earlier this season supposedly knocking Johnson for not justifying the £17 million the club spent on him in 2009. However, Johnson bagged a goal in the 3-0 win over
West Ham and collected a man of the match award.
"It was a performance at his level.
He's one of our star players and he gave a star performance," Hodgson told the official Liverpool website.
Hodgson said that Johnson's dip in form could be related to as far back as the World Cup with England. He suggests that Johnson is only finding full fitness and full performances
now after the campaign in South Africa over the summer.
"It was good for Glen. These players have just got back from a World Cup
and it might be that they're only starting to find their form now," added Hodgson.
Johnson was recently told to take a little break from the game by his manager because of fatigue. This resulted in some negative press but it is something that the Liverpool
boss says was necessary. "The enforced rest he had might have done him some good because he was certainly lively on Saturday, both going forward and defensively,"
said Hodgson.
Liverpool has just started to recover after a poor start to the season and it's no surprise that Johnson is playing a huge role in this. Liverpool needs him to be consistent
for the rest of the season if the club wants to challenge for the top places in the league.
"The start, we realised, was going to set us back quite a bit and we realised we
needed to get into a fairly rich vein of form. The last six league games and last two in the Europa League has been a good run where we've only lost once," Hodgson added.
Betting advice
Liverpool is a tighter defensive unit when Johnson is in the team and playing well. Back them to win playing at home in any game he starts.
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