Alistair Johnston

All I’m reading on here is “he shouldn’t have started” bla bla bla….”it’s all on Rodgers” bla bla bla. Can you imagine the uproar on here if he was on the bench then came on and we got beat!!!! The sports scientist would have given the all clear for him to start. Too many people on here twist the narrative to suit their agenda.

 

Sports scientists don’t make decisions on whether players are ready to play. It’s a combo of the player and the physio or doctor.

 

AJ actually started off fine and was getting the yards in so obviously he felt fine but pulled up then.

It was a gamble from Rodgers to play him and it backfired. Will probably be new year before we see him again.

 

Good point well made, nothing to do with Rodgers.

 

Thinking about it, is he any less injury prone than CCV?

 

Blaming Rodgers for this one is people who have a clear agenda, no doubt about it.

 

BR does have to take some responsibility in assessing when the player is fully ready to return, to what degree and capacity. Obviously takes medical advice on board, but the manager and his coaches are the ones that ultimately made the call that he was ready. Injuries in football happen, but had there not been the pressure to get AJ back into the starting XI asap, esp after the Dundee result, then we would now be looking at another stretch on the sidelines,

 

Even if he hadn't played on Thursday, he would likely have featured tomorrow. And same thing could easily have happened. Its a risk with any player returning from injury unfortunately. Its not like he played a huge number of minutes on Thursday, these things happen. No point in blaming the medical team or manager, its mostly bad luck.

 

I did say, that injuries happen in football, but I do think BR's decision to put AJ straight back into the starting XI after a couple of months out did speak to the manager's mindset at the time, coming off the heels of the Dundee performance etc. Yes, I also understand that both Ralston and Donovan are not as good as AJ, but if the Hoops were performing well going into that game, would AJ have been risked from the start on Thursday after having been out since August?

Put it this way, most players who return from injury are generally speaking, do so from the bench. Had AJ been on the bench with the intention to maybe come on for a cameo at the end of the game for instance, then (in hindsight), that option to sub a player off could've been used for CCV instead of having him play through the 90 and probably exacerbated the achilles issue that he has now. As it now stands, we have two players, literally half of our first choice defence, out for another extended period.

 

I do agree, I think Brendan is feeling the pressure and felt like starting AJ was his best chance of getting a result and building some momentum for tomorrow. Hard to disagree with the logic but probably not the best decision in hindsight. Unfortunately CCV gets injured every season and just part of the parcel with him. With CCV at least we do have some decent central defenders as back up. Its one area of the pitch we do have cover. AJ is far more of a miss despite the fact that Donovan does look good and is improving with the more minutes he plays. Ralston is limited we all know what we're getting. If AJ couldn't last more than 25 minutes however I'm not sure he was at all ready to be in the match day squad.

 

There are an entire backroom staff of sport scientists, physios, probably a specialist outside of the club who would have said AJ is good to go. Brendan isn’t to blame.

 

He has been in full training for a fortnight roughly I think it is. The manager will be getting advised on whether he is ready to play games and given he has been back in full training then there’s absolutely no reason why he shouldn’t have been. I think the plan would have been to give him an hour. I’d say starting him made more sense also as coming on as a sub would have been riskier in my opinion. It won’t stop people blaming Rodgers though, as there’s some fans who just can’t help themselves.

 

Respectfully, @murphy88 , PR campaign aside, BR has not been doing himself any favours in terms of the team for a long time. I take your point, and even said as much in my post, that he would have taken advice on AJ being available, but he selected someone who has not played since mid-August to start, and on th eback of a underwhelming run of form by the team and a absolutely dire showing at Dundee no doubt contributed to persuading his decision in this matter.

 

That’s total speculation. He was in training for a few weeks, so it wasn’t a huge surprise to see him start on Thursday. With a big game tomorrow, he would have needed minutes. I’ve no doubt the plan was to give him an hour and then take him off. If he had been on the bench on Thursday, played no minutes and we lost, I’ve no doubt the same people would have been moaning the fact he was on the bench and how he must be match fit if he is on the bench. Damned if you do, damned if you don’t comes to mind.

 

Johnston didn't make the Dundee squad 4 days prior so that also indicates it was a gamble. Seeing the team before the game I said pretty much this as when discussing it thought there was no chance he'd start.

It's also speculation to say that he was ready to go just because he'd been back in training. Whatever way you look at it, given how it turned out it was a poor decision. I'd like to think we'd learn from it but we've done it before so I doubt it.

Given people were surprised at his return having an opinion it was too soon is not something you can expect people not to think.

 

It’s not a poor decision from Rodgers. Unless he was going against others who would have no doubt felt Johnston was ready. Had it been a pointless game like when Ange played Kyogo against Betis in a dead rubber and he done his shoulder, I’d understand the anger towards the manager. Thursday wasn’t the same though.

 

He’s obviously told the medical staff he’s good to go

 

Aye, I wouldn't be surprised by that. Hopefully he learns a lesson, he looked pretty upset going off.

I've always found it strange that the individual player gets a say on this sort of thing. Sets up really perverse incentives.

 

I think it's a poor decision by all involved, including Rodgers and Johnston.

I agree Ange was really bad for it too. CCV playing injured at the end of his tenure was just selfish. Rodgers has an appalling record of doing it, his and Lennon's treatment of Tierney still makes me angry to this day.

I'm not particularly angry at Rodgers this particular time, just disappointed it happened when as an outsider it felt clear beforehand that it was fairly likely to happen. Certainly not guaranteed though.

I've held the same position on numerous similar occasions across a lot of managers, including the last 3. I find footballs approach to this pretty amateurish in all honesty.

 

Agreed.

It was another poor decision by Rodgers, he should have wrapped AJ up in cotton wool for Tynecastle, especially coming back from a bad hammy injury, on a night when the temperature was predicted to drop. He, Rodgers did the same thing rushing his pal Schemeichel back from a bad chest injury to play in the Cup Final, and it ultimately cost us the Treble. If Sinisalo had kept his place, as he should have done, we would have won the Treble. Rodgers has been making serious errors of judgement for the last ten months now.