Johan Elmander, the thoughts so far?

Wednesday, 12 November 08, 02:21 AM · Comments(3)

Elmander scores his first goal for the club

12 games into the season, nearly a third of the way through the season so i thought it was time to do a round up on our big summer signing Johan Elmander.

After making the perfect start scoring on his Bolton debut at home to Stoke things have just been on a drop for him. Being all the talk after the first game, Bolton fans couldnt wait to see there big money striker on the field again, although this time it was only to be for 15 minutes. Away to Newcastle, Elmander limped off the field after an earlier collision with Given and Coloccini.
The news was not good, it was revealed that Swedish striker would be out for upto 6 weeks with a hamstring problem.

Talk around the Reebok faithful was once again, "who can we rely on to score the goals?". n>
While Johan was out we scored 2 goals in 3 league games, so fans were optimistic when he returned to fitness for the Manchester United game at Old Trafford. He lasted 66 minutes before finally being replaced but looked lively. I wasnt too worried that he didnt score in that match, tough fixture and lacked game time so it was a good run out for him in the end. I had my fingers crossed we would see him score at West Ham anyway. After having the chances and troubling the Hammers defense a couple of times it was not to be. He seem isolated up front and after 73 minutes was replaced for Matthew Taylor who came on to score a 'typical Taylor thunderbolt goal'. Still no reason to complain as the work rate was there.

However the next three performances (Blackburn, Tottenham and Everton) lacked the sting he carried earlier in the season. Questions started to be raised on how much effort he was really putting in. Over those three fixtures we didnt score a goal and managed to get a point, A 0-0 draw out of a scrapy Blackburn match.

Elmander picked up an injury so missed our next home game against Manchester City, but was soon forgot about as we managed to pull all three points away from the Richest Club in the World. He got over it during the week and was brough back into the side for the Hull match, but once again, he had one of those games were he was hardly mentioned.

Off form and not 100% fit its no surprise that Johan has been dropped from the Sweden side who play Holland in a friendly next week.

8 Appearences, 1 goal. It was never going to be fireworks straight away but i was hoping for a slightly better return. He still might be gelling with our style of play but Megson needs to make sure he gets more stuck in and it can only be a matter of time before we see another goal. I personally would like to see him play off Davies more than just standing along side him. Making runs forward for the flick on's instead of staying static, eventually one will drop into his feet after he gets use to Davies and visa-versa. After 24 games we will have a better opinion, but i know i must give him time if i see an improvement in his work rate, if the efforts not there from him i wont be best pleased.

Fingers crossed he strikes this weekend, Liverpool at home and it would be a confidence booster if he was to score against the league leaders.

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