Player Watch Player Watch: Brennan Johnson

[Viking78]

Agree, he needs to do more with final ball but his movement, first touch and tactical discipline were very good. He and Porro caused a lot of problems down the right.
He could be a very good player for us.

 

[Gassin's finest]

That's just factually inaccurate. Bale broke out in 2011-12 when he was 22 (10 G, 14 A). He was a timid scrawny 16 year old who Harry almost sold. Remember the curse that he carried for so long? Remember how it suddenly clicked for him?

Johnson had a bad game today. He's been frustrating in terms of hitting good accurate crosses. But his first few games with us he was quite impressive. Recall his Dele-esque finish (just offside). He's created multiple opportunities for Richy to finish. I've also been impressed by the power of his long range shots when he's got a chance to fire away.

I think we all agree that it's too early. Thing is I think some of you are writing off his ceiling as well.

That's factually inaccurate. Bale was flying as soon as he joined us, and he was far from scrawny. He then had a bad run of injuries. By the time he was 22 he was destroying Inter Milan. And Harry Redknapp? He wanted to sign Phil Neville and Charlie Adam ffs. I wouldn't use him as a guide of judgement.

I'm absolutely not writing Johnson off. But he, and indeed no one else, is anything like Gareth Bale.

 

[newbie]

If I were to compare him to Bale, I would say he was inferior regarding: Pace, power, finishing, crossing, dribbling, aggression, belief, long range shooting....shall I go on?

He's nothing like Bale, and it's unfair to compare him IMO, who was already way better at a younger age

Exactly
Bale had destroyed the career of the best right back in the world by 21 and scored a hat trick against a team who had just one the champions league.

Bale was a different gravy, he was so good you had to respect his Man bun!

 

[Gassin's finest]

My two penneth is that Johnson has, through circumstance and necessity, has been thrown in at the deep end, and is having to play a lot of minutes as a key attacker. There's a lot on his shoulders and he's clearly struggling with the pressure and the relentlessness of it. With Kulu, Son, Solomon, Maddison etc coming back, that pressure will be relieved and he should hopefully get a chance to give himself a break.

 

[kendoddsdadsdogsdead]

BJ has been pretty poor imo. Kulu is much more of a threat to the oppo as RWF. Brennan really needs to show more aggression and fight for the ball and learn to shield it when he has it. Defenders so easily tackle him at the moment. He also desperately needs to improve his crossing to keep his place in this team at RWF. Honestly I think he's better suited to play down the middle like Son does or in the middle as part of a pair, (but that's not our set up) because he doesn't seem able to beat a man out wide and that might be due to a lack of acceleration from a standing start, I'm not sure. Out wide, he should push the ball past the defender and run onto it like Bale used to instead of stopping and then being out muscled off the ball or beaten for pace. He's faster once he gets going. The best moments are when Porro plays long through balls and he runs onto them, but again, even in great positions he doesn't back himself and smash it in the net like we're all hoping.
I hope Ange can get that aggression and ambition into him otherwise he's going to end up pretty ineffectual in this system.

Don’t see that. I really like him as a footballer but Kulu is very predictable at rw, very good in the middle third, but In the final third you know what he’s going to do every time. Doesn’t have the balance or pace to go on the outside. If he can improve that, then he’s probably ahead of Johnson. Johnson stretches the pitch for us and gets in behind. He’s got a decent first touch and can pick players out. It didn’t happen last night but we didn’t have many options in the box, no runners from midfield and Wan Bassaka is hard to get away from.

 

[Styopa]

I think Johnson shows real glimpses of quality. Even when he’s having a poor match he’s generally involved and popping up in the right places. He also seems to contribute with at least one or two decent crosses a match. He’s rarely anonymous when he plays.

I think the main issue is confidence and a lack of assertiveness. He doesn’t impose himself enough on games. He backs out of challenges like he doesn’t fully trust his body. He doesn’t strike the ball with enough convictions at times. He doesn’t run at players enough. I think all of these things can be trained and developed however, and I think it’s better for a young player to have these shortcomings than others concerning raw ability which might be harder to address.

 

[Nick-TopSpursMan]

Bale hit the ground running, scored a wonderful goal away to Fulham showcasing his technique and running power and then scored a beautiful freekick against Arsenal showcasing his ball striking.

He then had a bad injury and was out for ages. When he came back he looked a shell of himself and had lost confidence but the initial player we saw in the first games looked special.

The chances of Johnson being as good as Bale are slim to none but that doesn’t mean that Johnson can’t become a good player in his own right.

Once we get everyone back and have more options in midfield and attack, I think he will improve and start to feel more comfortable.

 

[Gb160]

There is one problem with BJ, and thats the price tag.
If he'd cost 5m/10m even 20m, his signing would've been much more under the radar.
The bottom line is with that kind of price tag people, myself included, expected more of an end product., even with the young/new system caveats.

Also to people saying 'get behind him ffs!'...no-one is going to games and booing him, we all want him to do well and improve. But there's nothing wrong with posting on a message board that that he's been disappointing so far, if thats how some of us feel.

There's clearly potential there, here's hoping he ends up closer to Son than Sess in a few years time.

 

[newbie]

That's just factually inaccurate. Bale broke out in 2011-12 when he was 22 (10 G, 14 A). He was a timid scrawny 16 year old who Harry almost sold. Remember the curse that he carried for so long? Remember how it suddenly clicked for him?

Johnson had a bad game today. He's been frustrating in terms of hitting good accurate crosses. But his first few games with us he was quite impressive. Recall his Dele-esque finish (just offside). He's created multiple opportunities for Richy to finish. I've also been impressed by the power of his long range shots when he's got a chance to fire away.

I think we all agree that it's too early. Thing is I think some of you are writing off his ceiling as well.

bale scored a hatrick in 2010 in milan

 

[Japhet]

Don’t see that. I really like him as a footballer but Kulu is very predictable at rw, very good in the middle third, but In the final third you know what he’s going to do every time. Doesn’t have the balance or pace to go on the outside. If he can improve that, then he’s probably ahead of Johnson. Johnson stretches the pitch for us and gets in behind. He’s got a decent first touch and can pick players out. It didn’t happen last night but we didn’t have many options in the box, no runners from midfield and Wan Bassaka is hard to get away from.

I think Kulu would be more effective on the right if Porro would go on the outside a bit more and whip the crosses in. The standard play though is Kulu passing back to Porro which destroys momentum. It would mean extra work for the midfield though covering defensively for Porro, but the do a ton of that anyway.

 

[fishhhandaricecake]

C'mon Fishy, Johnson has 11-12 starts now..

As I said way to early to properly judge him and he's only 22.

I agree he can improve but I don't agree with those writing him off after barely half a season, frankly ridiculous.

 

[kendoddsdadsdogsdead]

I think Kulu would be more effective on the right if Porro would go on the outside a bit more and whip the crosses in. The standard play though is Kulu passing back to Porro which destroys momentum. It would mean extra work for the midfield though covering defensively for Porro, but the do a ton of that anyway.

Agree, definitively would And Porro can do it occasionally but to ask him to come inside and play as a midfielder, then be able to get around the back on the outside with the timing you need is asking a lot.

 

[Japhet]

Agree, definitively would And Porro can do it occasionally but to ask him to come inside and play as a midfielder, then be able to get around the back on the outside with the timing you need is asking a lot.

It's more like swapping offensive roles with Kulu, but I know where you're coming from.

 

[Archibald&Crooks]

As I said way to early to properly judge him and he's only 22.

I agree he can improve but I don't agree with those writing him off after barely half a season, frankly ridiculous.

The trouble is, some people judge solely by this or that game, this or that player, largely based on the latest 90 minutes, they just see that so judge on that with no consideration for any other influences or even balance. He played bad, so he's bad. And what 'bad' on SC is, is often times harsh to say the least and that's not even mentioning the scapegoat rule

United's first goal was, IMO, a bit of a lucky break for the player but that didn't stop criticism. And there's another issue, why does the always have to be criticism. Sometimes we concede a goal because well, you know, there's another team on the pitch. Go back through the season and you'll be hard pressed to find a goal that wasn't down to one of our players.........It's a joke. We lose and the players get criticised, we win or draw and fuck me, the first thing you get is people criticising. Literally. The first thing. The micro analysis everywhere has gotten out of hand

 

[Marty]

As I said way to early to properly judge him and he's only 22.

I agree he can improve but I don't agree with those writing him off after barely half a season, frankly ridiculous.

Johnson wasn't signed to be an automatic starter this season either and he's now started 10 of our last 11 fixtures. I remember a lot of people complaining Son wasn't good enough after his first half season as well. Some players just need time, others hit the ground running immediately.

I think Johnson needs a spell out of the starting lineup now but the Twitterati have already made him the next scapegoat now Dier's left and that's just not even slightly OK.

 

[Fergus]

Don't disagree about how he should have responded - however we don't know whether he was sick like his ream-mates.

Calling players out is easy and not necessarily helpful.

I have never called a player out for a perceived lack of ability or even frequent glaring mistakes, but an aversion to physical contact is a very worrying sign in an experienced professional footballer (91 games for Forest in the Premier League and Championship, 40 games for Lincoln in League 1, 21 full international games for Wales) who aspires to be an elite player.

 

[joey55]

I think regardless of what Johnson's qualities are, aren't or could potentially be, what is apparent, is we are one special player away from being serious title challengers and the obvious place where we can accomodate that player is the RWF role. We can't have a regular first team spot where we "develop" players. That's for mid to lower table teams. Title challengers have players like Johnson as bit part options, who hopefully improve or go on loan to improve. Despite paying a large fee for him, I still think our biggest and perhaps only major investment, in the summer, needs to be RWF and ideally Olise. Sonny, Madders and Kulu are all good enough, but we need at least one player that combines, both speed and technical brilliance to take us to that next level. Johnson needs another season or 2 of improving and even then it's unlikely he'll reach Mane levels, which is what is required to win Prem titles.

I'm basing this on the assumption we aren't suddenly going to find another Harry Kane for the CF role.

 

[ohtottenham!]

Johnson wasn't signed to be an automatic starter this season either and he's now started 10 of our last 11 fixtures. I remember a lot of people complaining Son wasn't good enough after his first half season as well. Some players just need time, others hit the ground running immediately.

I think Johnson needs a spell out of the starting lineup now but the Twitterati have already made him the next scapegoat now Dier's left and that's just not even slightly OK.

I agree. Early days and he's had to recover from an injury as well. Also think that currently, he's physically struggling with the demands of his role in Ange's system offensively and defensively, but that will improve too given time. He didn't perform well today, but he's shown enough in his performances that he can add value to the team when required.

Be great when we get key players back. He'll look much better than he did today, whether as a starter or off the bench.

 

[allatsea]

People on here prematurely writing off players?

Never happens on SC.

 

[allatsea]

The trouble is, some people judge solely by the game, that player, largely based on the latest 90 minutes, they just see that so judge on that with no consideration for any other influences or even balance. He played bad, so he's bad. And what 'bad' on SC is, is often times harsh to say the least and that's not even mentioning the scapegoat rule

United's first goal was, IMO, a bit of a lucky break for the player but that didn't stop criticism. And there's another issue, why does the always have to be criticism. Sometimes we concede a goal because well, you know, there's another team on the pitch. Go back through the season and you'll be hard pressed to find a goal that wasn't down to one of our players.........It's a joke. We lose and the players get criticised, we win or draw and fuck me, the first thing you get is people criticising. Literally. The first thing. The micro analysis everywhere has gotten out of hand

Hojlund's goal was peak Berbatov. Wonderfully taken goal.