Is anyone worried when AJ comes back he won't be the same?

[The Rock]

Lacking pace, fragile, no touch, like Collins John. He's been class and a great footballer, but it's been a long time and I hope he can reproduce his previous self.

Is anyone else worried?

[HatterDon]

There's always a concern about how a player will respond to significant injury. He might be a hobbling shadow of himself. Contrariwise, he might turn out to be a 10m quid striker we effectively gained in November for no transfer fee. I'm full blingo on these sort of things. I think it likely that we'll see the AJ we saw at the beginning of last season before he got body checked into Emergency Ward 10.

[horse1031]

I dont know on that one.  He never played up to his potential at Fulham even when he wasnt hurt.  He did look pretty good preseason last year until he got bowled over by that guy from Amkar.  I do think he is a class footballer and brings something to the table for fulham.  I think he is a good finisher and it an intelligent football brain.  Hope he can get his shooting boots on quick!  he is just injured ALL the time...

[Tom]

No, because he wont be the same. Don't old your breath for that.

[jarv]

Shearer had lots of injuries, didn't seem to bother him. Van Persie keeps getting injured but always looks dangerous, as does Saha. I think AJ will be useful.

[Logicalman]

I hope that AJ can get over the injuries and produce what we all know he is capable of. Unlike Shearer, etc, though, he is not as robust as some of us might wish to see, and so his confidence could be a big matter when he does (finally) run out with the lads again.

Only time will tell, though I like the new Dumbo/Joe combination up front, hopefully though Joe won't find it takes him half as long to find his shooting boots as it did Bobby 2 seasons ago!!

[Lighthouse]

Well here is the irony. If AJ comes back I bet he will be better than we expect while he doesn't have to play next to BZ. Alongside a fit Kamara or Dembele I think he will do fine. Or better still alongside the striker we have to buy in January.

[jarv]

Dembele and a fit AJ looks like a fine combination. Both quick, both skillful (Dembele has quite a bit more though) and can surely interchange a lot on the field.  Supported by demps, Davies and Etuhu, should see some good football. That's MH job to make it happen.

[AlFayedsChequebook]

Dembele and a fit AJ looks like a fine combination. Both quick, both skillful (Dembele has quite a bit more though) and can surely interchange a lot on the field.  Supported by demps, Davies and Etuhu, should see some good football. That's MH job to make it happen.

What would excite me is AJ's movement combining with Dembele's selfless passing - I can see a number of one-on-one situations where AJ is put through by Dembele, and we all know that AJ can finish

[finnster01]

Even if he comes back fine as an aged bottle of Pomerol, the biggest problem I see with AJ is his constant drifting out to the sides and not stay in the box. Dembele also tends to do that somewhat, but that may be on MH instructions for all we know. So if both our central strikers drift away, who is going to be the killer in box (while BZ is out)?

I am with Lighthouse. I like us to get a real inside-the-box finisher for Christmas this year. After Nevland left, killer finishing was an issue until arguably Dembele came on, but we have yet to find a good partner for him that works. Plus Dembele now is on his second stint on the injury list, and maybe that is a function of butchering and youth exuberance, but two bigish injuries back to back is also a concern to me in terms of fitness over a long Prem season.

[Tom]

He didn't do anything for us before getting hurt, what makes you think he will do something for us after he is healthy?

[finnster01]

He didn't do anything for us before getting hurt, what makes you think he will do something for us after he is healthy?

I think that is too harsh Tom, he wasn't that bad before getting hurt, but he was far from 10.5 million good either

[AlFayedsChequebook]

He didn't do anything for us before getting hurt, what makes you think he will do something for us after he is healthy?

Apart from starting to perform well in tandem with Bobby Z you mean?

Look, AJ is a striker. Yes he used to drift into the channels but he certainly knows how to finish. We desperately need strikers, who would honestly say they would prefer Kamara or EJ up top than AJ?

I for one am looking forward to him returning next weekend and scoring the winner, having replaced an ineffective and wasteful Kamara

[Tom]

He didn't do anything for us before getting hurt, what makes you think he will do something for us after he is healthy?

I think that is too harsh Tom, he wasn't that bad before getting hurt, but he was far from 10.5 million good either

He wasn't scoring for us. He missed a squater right in front of the goal. Far from a 10.5 million paid player. I think he has been very disappointing for us so far.

[ImperialWhite]

He didn't do anything for us before getting hurt, what makes you think he will do something for us after he is healthy?

Apart from be our top scorer the season we qualified for Europe, you mean?! A 10 million quid striker he probably aint, but he's still pretty good - he's as good as Zamora, just not when they're both on the pitch together.

[ImperialWhite]

He didn't do anything for us before getting hurt, what makes you think he will do something for us after he is healthy?

I think that is too harsh Tom, he wasn't that bad before getting hurt, but he was far from 10.5 million good either

He wasn't scoring for us. He missed a squater right in front of the goal. Far from a 10.5 million paid player. I think he has been very disappointing for us so far.

Yes, we can probably meet in the middle - a good striker, but not worth £10mill. And as others have said, he's better than Elm, EJ and Kamara. (AND, even if we do want to sell him, what makes you think anyone will buy him for a good price until he starts scoring again?)

[Tom]

He didn't do anything for us before getting hurt, what makes you think he will do something for us after he is healthy?

he's as good as Zamora, just not when they're both on the pitch together.

No, not even close.

[RidgeRider]

I'm taking a wait and see. AJ did put some goals in for us, but didn't pair well with BZ it seems. His hiding in the corners worried me last year when he was healthy, so I wonder what that was all about but I have no reason to believe he can't come back and be useful. My worry, as has been stated, is he came to us injured and he has remained that way in his time with Fulham. We can just hope for the best and maybe he will surprise us all.

[SmithyFFC]

We had a great season without him last year and even the season before he didn't contribute as much as I'd hoped. I doubt he'll score 5-10 goals.

[AlFayedsChequebook]

We had a great season without him last year and even the season before he didn't contribute as much as I'd hoped. I doubt he'll score 5-10 goals.

Europa League excluded, we had a far better season WITH him, we finished 7th remember. That season he scored 10 in total, with 7 in the league and 3 in the FA Cup. Not a great record but remember that was a much more defensive team than the current incarnation.

If AJ can get in the positions that Kamara was getting into (which is more than likely) then we are looking at 10+ goals this season.