Thursday, September 15, 2011

Reds Wait On Johnson Fitness

Assistant manager Steve Clarke is not prepared to speculate on the fitness of Glen Johnson and expects Liverpool to have a point to prove against Tottenham at the weekend.

England full-back Johnson suffered a hamstring injury in the defeat to Stoke last Saturday having only made his first appearance of the season as a late substitute.

The 27-year-old had been sidelined with a thigh problem and his latest setback therefore represents a frustration for manager Kenny Dalglish.

Ahead of Sunday's trip to Spurs, Liverpool is waiting to discover the extent of Johnson's injury and Clarke does not want to guess before medical assessments are complete.

Dalglish's right-hand man told Liverpool's official website: "We are still waiting on the results of Glen's scan so until that comes out there's no point in speculating about it.

"We will just see how he is when we get the scan and see what the timeframe is."

On top of Johnson's injury, the loss to Stoke came has a huge annoyance to Liverpool in a game in which they dominated, but lost to Jon Walters' controversial penalty.

It was Dalglish's side's first defeat of the season and Clarke is expecting the squad to bounce back when they take on Tottenham at White Hart Lane on Sunday afternoon.

"When you've been in football as long as I have you know these things can happen. You can completely dominate the game, create many chances and not manage to get a goal that would have given us some reward for the hard work we put in," said the Scot.

"Stoke got a soft penalty which gave them an undeserved lead and I think that was the first time they had been in our penalty box.

"Once they got themselves in front they proved to be very difficult to break down and they were difficult opponents on the day.

"Everyone was disappointed in the dressing room after the game because we lost the game. We as the coaching staff have to try to put forward the positives.

"We played well and we created enough chances to have won two games so we have to give the players the positives and understand their disappointment at the same time.

"It's a long season and you know you will get setbacks but it's how you react to those setbacks. The mood in training has been fine and the players know they performed to an acceptable standard obviously without the required result against Stoke.

"We have to make sure when we go to Tottenham on Sunday that we put in an acceptable performance, only this time make sure we get the required result."

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