England and Liverpool defender Glen Johnson insisted that he has got no problem whatsoever playing under Roy Hodgson’s management, and the differences that he had with the Three Lions manager during his stint at Anfield are things of the past.
The 27-year old struggled with his form for the Reds and England during Hodgson’s brief 4-month spell as manager at Anfield, with some reports indicating that the duo never enjoyed the best of relationships.
However, the former West Brom boss named Johnson in his initial 23-man squad for the ongoing European Championships.
With the Three Lions having secured a quarterfinal berth against Italy on Sunday courtesy their impressive victories against Sweden and Ukraine in the group stages, the Liverpool man revealed that he was getting along nicely with his manager and rubbished
the talks of his differences with him.
He told the reporters in an interview, “Yes, I spoke to Roy. We had a general chat, the same sort of chat he had with everyone else. There was never any problems.”
The defender mentioned that he was under no pressure of justifying his place in the team, insisting that it was his good performance for the Reds at the first place that earned him an international call-up, and that his differences with Hodgson was a retroactive
matter.
He added, “I did not feel I had to prove anything, no. Whatever happened at Liverpool happened. Roy picked me for his first squad so I didn't have to prove anything.”
Even though England kicked off their Euro 2012 campaign as one of the tournament underdogs, their top place finish in the intriguing Group D has once again put them in the limelight as one of the frontrunners for the title.
Johnson divulged that he had no doubts whatsoever about the team’s potential right from the start, and pointed out that it were the fans who lacked confidence in their team.
He went on to say that given England’s last-eight match against Italy goes on a penalty shoot-out, he won’t cow away from taking the spot kick, but admitted the manager will face a tricky decision of selecting the best five kick takers.