6:00AM GMT 28 Oct 2012
The Liverpool fullback declared that he had spent his entire career “ignoring” the opinions of people who have doubted him – starting with Jose Mourinho when the pair were at Chelsea.
“It takes a lifetime to build a reputation and two minutes to kill it,”
Johnson, now 28, said. “Once people have made their mind up about you, they
rarely change. When I went to
Then Mourinho came in and he had his own opinion, his own style and his own players that he liked. Just because one manager didn’t fancy me, it didn’t make me a rubbish player overnight.”
Johnson’s importance to
Unlike other senior players that Rodgers inherited such as Stewart Downing and
Jose Enrique, Johnson has not been singled out for criticism by the manager
and may be tasked in Sunday's derby with curbing the attacking instincts of
another England fullback —
Johnson was substituted at half-time during the Europa League tie at home to Anzhi Makhachkala on Thursday after feeling a muscle spasm, but Liverpool said later that it was only a precautionary measure and he will be fit. It was another example of the thinness of this Liverpool squad.
“If I couldn’t defend I wouldn’t be playing for Liverpool and I wouldn’t be playing for England,” Johnson said. “I just ignore it when people say that. It’s just opinions and the only opinions that matter to me are the club manager and the national manager.
“I’ve said since I broke into the West Ham team that I’m confident in my ability. I know I can defend and attack. I just find it funny when people say I can’t defend because I’ve proved over the years that I can. I think it just gives people a talking point. They’ve got to be critical about everybody. That’s just the way of life. But I wouldn’t be where I am today if I couldn’t defend. I don’t know what games they [the critics] have been watching over the years.”
Certainly he would point to his vital last-ditch tackle for
“All I’ve ever wanted to do was play football,” said Johnson, who has already achieved with Liverpool more than double the number of league games he played for Chelsea with Rodgers being his fourth manager at Anfield in just three years.
“Those few years at Chelsea [where he was replaced by Paulo Ferreira] when I wasn’t in the team I just wanted to go and play. So I was over the moon when I signed for Portsmouth purely because I wanted to play football. I’ve been playing on the left all season for Liverpool. But I don’t mind either. I‘m happy at left or right back.”
