AJ Didn't like playing wide

[NogoodBoyo]

Frankly my dear, I don't give a damn.
Nogood "Casablancaj, isit" Boyo

[Oiseau]

A lot of people my disagree with my opinions in this post, but there you go. I find it remarkable how fans' opinion of a player sours when they make a controversial move.

When AJ was in form, he had an excellent shot on him. We saw that last season. Yes, he got injured, but when he played for us he put 100% effort in. He seemed to really care about the club. His wage and contract demands weren't ridiculous given the contracts that some of our senior players had been given previously. He didn't leave us because he wanted to necessarily - we (or Jol's management team) didn't want him either. It's not like Zamora's situation at all and I don't blame AJ for leaving. Fair play to him for wanting to extend his playing career and earn money. If you were in his position, it's likely that you'd do the same.

AJ was never petulant. He got on well with squad and didn't cause any problems. He was one of the nicest Fulham squad member that I've ever met, actually.

I think that AJ was a much, much better player when deployed centrally. He was useless on the wing. Think about it - all of his best performances from last season came when he was played centrally. He was anonymous whenever he was on the wing and highly ineffectual. Everton also played him similarly on the wing with disastrous consequences. There's no point playing a player where they're not most effective (see: wingers on the wrong wing.)

So, essentially, I agree with AJ. He should have been played centrally but I don't blame Jol for playing him on the wing. That was his decision and how AJ gelled with the rest of the squad at the time. To make the best of AJ, though, he must be played centrally.

[AlFayedsChequebook]

A lot of people my disagree with my opinions in this post, but there you go. I find it remarkable how fans' opinion of a player sours when they make a controversial move.

When AJ was in form, he had an excellent shot on him. We saw that last season. Yes, he got injured, but when he played for us he put 100% effort in. He seemed to really care about the club. His wage and contract demands weren't ridiculous given the contracts that some of our senior players had been given previously. He didn't leave us because he wanted to necessarily - we (or Jol's management team) didn't want him either. It's not like Zamora's situation at all and I don't blame AJ for leaving. Fair play to him for wanting to extend his playing career and earn money. If you were in his position, it's likely that you'd do the same.

AJ was never petulant. He got on well with squad and didn't cause any problems. He was one of the nicest Fulham squad member that I've ever met, actually.

I think that AJ was a much, much better player when deployed centrally. He was useless on the wing. Think about it - all of his best performances from last season came when he was played centrally. He was anonymous whenever he was on the wing and highly ineffectual. Everton also played him similarly on the wing with disastrous consequences. There's no point playing a player where they're not most effective (see: wingers on the wrong wing.)

So, essentially, I agree with AJ. He should have been played centrally but I don't blame Jol for playing him on the wing. That was his decision and how AJ gelled with the rest of the squad at the time. To make the best of AJ, though, he must be played centrally.

Thats all well and good, but ultimately AJ was pretty crap for us (see my Marlet comparison earlier)

I have no problem with him, and yes he always gave his all but ultimately he cost a lot of money in wages and fee was injured for most of his time here and now takes a shot at the club. Classy.

[Oiseau]

A lot of people my disagree with my opinions in this post, but there you go. I find it remarkable how fans' opinion of a player sours when they make a controversial move.

When AJ was in form, he had an excellent shot on him. We saw that last season. Yes, he got injured, but when he played for us he put 100% effort in. He seemed to really care about the club. His wage and contract demands weren't ridiculous given the contracts that some of our senior players had been given previously. He didn't leave us because he wanted to necessarily - we (or Jol's management team) didn't want him either. It's not like Zamora's situation at all and I don't blame AJ for leaving. Fair play to him for wanting to extend his playing career and earn money. If you were in his position, it's likely that you'd do the same.

AJ was never petulant. He got on well with squad and didn't cause any problems. He was one of the nicest Fulham squad member that I've ever met, actually.

I think that AJ was a much, much better player when deployed centrally. He was useless on the wing. Think about it - all of his best performances from last season came when he was played centrally. He was anonymous whenever he was on the wing and highly ineffectual. Everton also played him similarly on the wing with disastrous consequences. There's no point playing a player where they're not most effective (see: wingers on the wrong wing.)

So, essentially, I agree with AJ. He should have been played centrally but I don't blame Jol for playing him on the wing. That was his decision and how AJ gelled with the rest of the squad at the time. To make the best of AJ, though, he must be played centrally.

Thats all well and good, but ultimately AJ was pretty crap for us (see my Marlet comparison earlier)

I have no problem with him, and yes he always gave his all but ultimately he cost a lot of money in wages and fee was injured for most of his time here and now takes a shot at the club. Classy.

You can't blame a player for injuries. It's not as if the club or AJ could have predicted that. When AJ was fully fit (last season especially) he was excellent and scored some brilliant goals. His movement was great and he actually made most of the Pog's goals.

I don't really read the quote as AJ taking a cheap shot at Fulham. Where does it say 'I hated my time at Fulham and Jol is useless?' The media twists things far, far out of proportion. We have no idea what else he might have said, good or bad.

It's not very insulting either. He said, "Martin Jol is a great coach." That's a compliment. All he says is that he wanted to play centrally. That's hardly a cheap shot. It sounds like his honest opinion and it's opinion that I agree with in part.

[AlFayedsChequebook]

A lot of people my disagree with my opinions in this post, but there you go. I find it remarkable how fans' opinion of a player sours when they make a controversial move.

When AJ was in form, he had an excellent shot on him. We saw that last season. Yes, he got injured, but when he played for us he put 100% effort in. He seemed to really care about the club. His wage and contract demands weren't ridiculous given the contracts that some of our senior players had been given previously. He didn't leave us because he wanted to necessarily - we (or Jol's management team) didn't want him either. It's not like Zamora's situation at all and I don't blame AJ for leaving. Fair play to him for wanting to extend his playing career and earn money. If you were in his position, it's likely that you'd do the same.

AJ was never petulant. He got on well with squad and didn't cause any problems. He was one of the nicest Fulham squad member that I've ever met, actually.

I think that AJ was a much, much better player when deployed centrally. He was useless on the wing. Think about it - all of his best performances from last season came when he was played centrally. He was anonymous whenever he was on the wing and highly ineffectual. Everton also played him similarly on the wing with disastrous consequences. There's no point playing a player where they're not most effective (see: wingers on the wrong wing.)

So, essentially, I agree with AJ. He should have been played centrally but I don't blame Jol for playing him on the wing. That was his decision and how AJ gelled with the rest of the squad at the time. To make the best of AJ, though, he must be played centrally.

Thats all well and good, but ultimately AJ was pretty crap for us (see my Marlet comparison earlier)

I have no problem with him, and yes he always gave his all but ultimately he cost a lot of money in wages and fee was injured for most of his time here and now takes a shot at the club. Classy.

You can't blame a player for injuries. It's not as if the club or AJ could have predicted that. When AJ was fully fit (last season especially) he was excellent and scored some brilliant goals. His movement was great and he actually made most of the Pog's goals.

I don't really read the quote as AJ taking a cheap shot at Fulham. Where does it say 'I hated my time at Fulham and Jol is useless?' The media twists things far, far out of proportion. We have no idea what else he might have said, good or bad.

It's not very insulting either. He said, "Martin Jol is a great coach." That's a compliment. All he says is that he wanted to play centrally. That's hardly a cheap shot. It sounds like his honest opinion and it's opinion that I agree with in part.
[/quote

Ok, maybe it is not a cheap shot, but it does strike me as self serving - the reason I underperformed was because I was shunted to the left wing etc.

I contend that he was far from excellent for Fulham though. We never really missed him whilst he was out, he was never a key player and he didnt score enough goals.

[leonffc]

A lot of people my disagree with my opinions in this post, but there you go. I find it remarkable how fans' opinion of a player sours when they make a controversial move.

When AJ was in form, he had an excellent shot on him. We saw that last season. Yes, he got injured, but when he played for us he put 100% effort in. He seemed to really care about the club. His wage and contract demands weren't ridiculous given the contracts that some of our senior players had been given previously. He didn't leave us because he wanted to necessarily - we (or Jol's management team) didn't want him either. It's not like Zamora's situation at all and I don't blame AJ for leaving. Fair play to him for wanting to extend his playing career and earn money. If you were in his position, it's likely that you'd do the same.

AJ was never petulant. He got on well with squad and didn't cause any problems. He was one of the nicest Fulham squad member that I've ever met, actually.

I think that AJ was a much, much better player when deployed centrally. He was useless on the wing. Think about it - all of his best performances from last season came when he was played centrally. He was anonymous whenever he was on the wing and highly ineffectual. Everton also played him similarly on the wing with disastrous consequences. There's no point playing a player where they're not most effective (see: wingers on the wrong wing.)

So, essentially, I agree with AJ. He should have been played centrally but I don't blame Jol for playing him on the wing. That was his decision and how AJ gelled with the rest of the squad at the time. To make the best of AJ, though, he must be played centrally.

Feel free to trawl through any of my old posts, possibly going back the 'the offal' days too if you like. You'll find that my opinion isn't related to a 'controversial move'.
I've always stated
• poor in a 1v keeper situation
• runs out wide too often leading to
- him rarely being able to beat the 1st defender with his cross
- him rarely being able to beat a marker  in a 1v1 (usually ending in a throw)
• not as quick as some / he likes to believe
•Oh, and always injured.

I can't see how you say people are bitter because he's gone to QPR. I think it's hilarious!!

[Herbie]

He does score some good goals; the volley in the Europa League last season or the nicely worked free kick with Murphy. 

I thought he could have played a good role out on the wing, as he was quite good at playing on the shoulder of someone, getting in behind and pulling the ball back into the box.  It was just frustrating though when he would get put through 1v1 as it felt like more often than not he would fluff his lines.

I dont pay too much attention to how much he cost, there's nothing he can do about that.  However, I think most of the disappointment, some more than others, comes from the fact that he never really set the club alight.  His signing was seen with excitement as a big step, but his Fulham career was punctuated with too many spells on the sidelines for him to make the impact that we thought and hoped he could.  I've no doubt that he's a nice guy and he appeared to like the club and the fans, but it feels like he never really got going for us.  I always defended AJ saying that he will come good when he gets match fit, but that never seemed to happen for more than a handful of games. I still think that if he gets a good run together, he can be a dangerous player, it's just a shame we didn't get to really see the AJ that we hoped we would.

[HatterDon]

What people never appreciated about AJ was his ability to stretch defenses. When he'd make a diagonal run towards a corner flag, he'd pull defenders with him opening up holes. If you look at Duff's and Dempsey's goals over the last three seasons, you'll see him involved that way many times. Duff especially would cut inside when he ran to the right flag. It worked a lot and we got good results thanks to his endless running.

It's sad, really, that so many people measure strikers only on the basis of goals. Both AJ and Bobby Z were vastly unappreciated because they didn't score as much as their transfer fees warranted. Both of them contributed a lot more than goals, but evidently I'm one of the few who appreciated what they brought to the team.

Best of luck to Our Late President. It's a shame his new club is going to be relegated.  yee-haw!

[BalDrick]

Seeing Mr HatterDon post has just reminded me what club AJ supports - one that is very unpopular round QPR way.

[Me-ate-Live, innit??]

A lot of people my disagree with my opinions in this post, but there you go. I find it remarkable how fans' opinion of a player sours when they make a controversial move.

Sour ????
Nooooooooooooo my opinion of AJ  was never good.  IMO, Bobby was twice the player for half of the price,  so I would say after all this time, my opinion is running to rancid. 
Neither do I see the move as controversial,  I  am just glad to see that the lightweight has moved on,
he will not trouble us running into the corners of the South Africa Road Stand   

[LBNo11]

...I can understand some of AJ's frustration.

When he was actually playing, and used as a lone striker, he had to cope with having balls pumped up high into the air for him to try and win against the central defenders who were usually at least 8"  taller than him:he would be knocked off the ball too easily, so he would take the ball to the wing and pull the defence away from the goal as they followed him, then he would cross the ball to where he himself should be - in front of the goal.

On the odd occasions the ball was crossed to him they would come in high instead of along the ground or knee height where he may have capitalized on the situation, but when such an event happened he rarely scored anyway...

[NogoodBoyo]

Never saw AJ as much of a wide boy myself, I didn't. 
Nogood "too squeaky by half, isit" Boyo

[alexbishop]

I think AJ just doesn't suit a lone striker role. His best performances were when he played off Bobby Z or Pog.

Jol's system is to use one striker but clearly still wanted to find a role for AJ in the team as I think he values his work ethic. Hence why he tried him out wide. Yea it didn't work out but fair play to Jol for trying to find a role for AJ in his system.

Think Aj is better off at QPR with Bobby Z by his side.