What's new

Player Watch Player Watch: Brennan Johnson

Albertbarich

Well-Known Member
Jul 4, 2020
7,293
28,130
In a match where we played youngsters, backups, players supposedly frozen out, and players out of position, it was he who showed such a lack of quality and looked most out of place. I’m sorry, but no one can convince me this is a key player in a team looking to challenge for titles in time. There are a few we should be ruthless with, but this is the issue I’d address first. He cannot be starting games consistently for this team. He can change a game in an instant, but he cannot affect it consistently. Which is not what you’re looking for in someone playing full matches. A obvious bench player brought on in situations where there’s space to exploit is what he is. Why I’ve always said a RW is our biggest need.
When you say titles do you mean the championship?
 

Buster18

Well-Known Member
Sep 27, 2005
1,150
2,637
He would work so much better ad a second striker in a 4-4-2, Gray as the holding and a three of maddison/biss/sarr/kulu/benta/bergvall and with solanke/richy and son/johnson/Werner up top. But the manager would never try that.
No one decent anywhere has played a 442 as an attacking formation for about 15 years. You’d need he’ll of a lot better CF than Johnson for it to work anywhere these days.
 

Buster18

Well-Known Member
Sep 27, 2005
1,150
2,637
Adringa for Brighton tonight was so shit.

If people watched half these guys as much as they watch Johnson their opinion might not be quite as bad.

Not saying Johnson is near the top of that list, he isn't. But he's above some on there.
Adingra May have been shit tonight but that’s one game. Johnson is shit every game. Johnson is shit every game because he does not have the technical capability to be any different.
 

okc1992

Well-Known Member
Nov 11, 2024
319
938
I’m going to put my answer in a spoiler as to not take the thread too far off topic.

I think it’s a tricky one as there’s question marks about all of the likely available options imo. Players like Bakayoko, Quenda, Kubo, Conceição (still hasn’t signed for Juve), Mbeumo, Semenyo (although he is another right footer) even Dibling will all probably be financially beyond us for a Jan pic up or just completely off the market (regardless if one rates them or not). Fact is no club is going to want to loose their best players in Jan and many will set a higher asking price this window. Shopping at smaller teams or those financially insecure is the work around here or a loan for an out of favour player which I’m not a huge fan of unless they are someone we wanted prior anyway.

Kühn being at the older end at 25 I can’t quite tell if he’s a player that would fade significantly in the PL. No doubt he looks excellent in the SPL but aside from the odd game I’ve never seen him look particularly remarkable in the CL. I must say I’m a little unsure about him but maybe I’m just being harsh.

I like Osorio and he has a lot of attractive attributes but im not sure he’s ready for the PL and you’re spot on about him drifting inside. As I mentioned in the scouting thread a while back I think he is developing into more of a wide playmaker which suits his strengths. He will need to move on this summer if he wants to develop imo tho. A move to the Eredivise or La Liga would be good for him. But I could see the club liking him.

I wouldn’t be overly surprised if we ended up going for another left winger that can also cover the right this window with the intent of bringing in one of the aforementioned more expensive right wingers in the summer. I also wouldn’t be too surprised if we looked towards the French market given the financial insecurity of a lot of teams. Fofana at Lyon I could imagine us looking at but I’m not sure he is quite at the level we need yet especially from a 1 v 1 perspective. I think he needs another year or two.

I did see Bakwa being mentioned on here but he’s another one that is more like a wide playmaker who drifts inside a lot than a touchline winger. I’m not sure I see him as a great fit. Plus I doubt Strasbourg would sell to us.

Ether way I think we won’t prioritise a particular side and rather focus on who we believe matches most of our criteria at a manageable price point. The simple fact is even with Odobert and Moore slowly returning to fitness and Yang now here we are in desperate need of more technical quality across our attack. We need addition’s on both wings so we will prioritise fit and availability over ideal dominant foot I reckon.
Thanks for the summary. I agree I can see the club going for a left winger as I can't see any of the established RW being sold in January. I really like the look of Fofana but he is still raw and we have Odobert

I've seen people talk about Cherki on X but as much as I love him on the ball, he just doesn't have the work rate.

If Johnson wasn't so passive on the ball I would have loved to have gone for Ben Doak.
 

Strikeb4ck

Well-Known Member
Aug 8, 2010
4,598
9,794
You all are far too reactionary.

He's not good enough to be a starter for us long term. His technical ability is just not good enough. He doesn't strike a ball well. He can't beat players 1v1 consistently. The comparison(s) to Bale is absolutely ridiculous - Bale was a one of a kind phenom who had incredible strength, pace, and could strike a football unlike just about anyone else in the world. Johnson is a winger with a bit of pace who happened to have found his shooting boots and the ball at his feet more often in the past few weeks than the year before that.

I'm very happy for him to be having a little purple patch here and that he is able to showcase his worth considering some of the absolutely unwarranted vitriol he was getting. You could tell his mental health was in a bad place, so this is the best way he could have responded.

But he has not changed as a player in the last month or so. He's just not good enough as a footballer to be anything more than a squad option.

I fully expect to be downvoted for this post, but we can quote it a couple months from now whenever we hit our next patch of bad form and he gets back to being a scapegoat.
This post got downvoted and hate-quoted to oblivion because I didn't buy into the purple patch. We literally had people comparing him to Bale because he poached tap-ins for a few games running while doing fuck all else. Forum is a comedy show.

He's not good enough. He's also not as bad as some of you are now making him out to be while he's going through a rut. And if nothing else, can we stop with the abuse of these players to where they're deactivating social accounts?
 

jezz

Well-Known Member
Aug 21, 2013
5,818
9,089
I don't rate the guy at all.
But 50 million is not his fault.
Levy won't take a hit on him either.
He really needs to be a reserve striker
Porro and Djed should be the right side of the team but that's not happening
 

isaac94

Well-Known Member
Jan 5, 2017
3,202
10,584
He’s beyond poor technically, but for me I just can’t get past his ‘workrate’

The body shape he has when he tracks back is like a lad at the finish line of a double marathon. It’s bizzare for a PL player to look so gassed, you just never see that at this level. The players are machines, so I’m not sure what the story is there.

There was a point in the first half today where Lewis Hall was shepherding a ball out and it was more than alive, but this guy didn’t want to know about it. His actions and the way he challenged for it was embarrassing, it was as if he couldn’t give a fuck but knew he had to be seen to make some sort of showing.

Solanke or Kulu would have kept it in.

You can forgive a lad for being shite but the effort just isn’t there with this fella.

50M!
perfectly sums him up
 

Joely

Well-Known Member
Jan 20, 2011
1,928
5,073
Never really been convinced he has the all round game to be a regular in a team looking to push on to bigger things.

Feel when the time and space isn't there his mind is almost scrambled and there is no real conviction in anything he does or tries. Believe part of it is down him probably lacking the technical ability to impact in build up phases especially in deeper areas.

For all the talk about his pace, not found him to be a dynamic kind of forward who looks to make things happen, seems more the type to wait for someone else to come up with something he can take advantage off.

That is fine and he has done well with the amount of goals he has scored but when the game isn't necessarily going your way and awkward, always feels he is never really in the game and we are an attacker down.

Believe he is useful as part of the squad and has shown he he has the knack of getting onto the end of things and also think he can be a decent finisher on his day but with his limitations just struggle to see him becoming a fundamental piece of the team in this setup.
 

robhumphreys

Well-Known Member
Jul 12, 2004
421
1,171
Today he needed to show up as one of the few experienced players. He was one of our worse players. Needs to go at the end of the season
 

Cochise

Well-Known Member
Aug 8, 2019
5,858
15,279
Right footed right wingers are in such short supply. It's a massive drawback of the system because the few top class operators required to make the system tick are out of our pay bracket.
 

Buster18

Well-Known Member
Sep 27, 2005
1,150
2,637
Right footed right wingers are in such short supply. It's a massive drawback of the system because the few top class operators required to make the system tick are out of our pay bracket.
What top class right footed ring wingers are there? I can’t think of any and I also can’t think of why you’d want one.
 

DiVaio

Well-Known Member
May 27, 2020
4,380
18,245
I don’t think he’s a starter in any system if you’re asking me. I’d just sell him and buy a proper winger that will give proper service to our quality no.9 who would score an absolute hatful if we had good wingers. I don’t know when I’ll get bored of repeating this but good wingers would have an absolute field day in Ange’s system and would be blitzing fullbacks every week, scoring and assisting so many goals. It drives me mad seeing the players we have on the wing because good wingers would absolutely run the show in this system.
Or... maybe this is Ange's system because that's how we play for last 1.5 years and also based on his comments, not a imaginary 1v1 dribbly wingers based on twitter tacticos analysis of his Celtic team.
Our best goalscorer and 4th most used player this season in all competiton is a starter.
 

Flobadob

Well-Known Member
Jul 22, 2014
4,026
13,775
Or... maybe this is Ange's system because that's how we play for last 1.5 years and also based on his comments, not a imaginary 1v1 dribbly wingers based on twitter tacticos analysis of his Celtic team.
Our best goalscorer and 4th most used player this season in all competiton is a starter.
Or… maybe the club and Ange actually agreed and tried to sign Neto, a far better RW, to replace him in the summer. I really can’t wrap my head around how anyone watches him play football and can garner the energy to defend him as a player. A few tap ins doesn’t even come close for me.
 

Bobbins

SC's 14th Sexiest Male 2008
May 5, 2005
22,056
46,976
Impact sub only on current form.

does make you wonder how we paid £50m. Compare him to the likes of Savinho or Doku at City and it’s not a good look.
 

Cambridge Spur

Well-Known Member
May 13, 2015
849
3,019
Posted in the Muani thread but I wonder whether he would make a decent striker? I don’t rate him as a winger but you can’t deny that his finishing is excellent.
 

Buster18

Well-Known Member
Sep 27, 2005
1,150
2,637
Or... maybe this is Ange's system because that's how we play for last 1.5 years and also based on his comments, not a imaginary 1v1 dribbly wingers based on twitter tacticos analysis of his Celtic team.
Our best goalscorer and 4th most used player this season in all competiton is a starter.
Dribbly winger😂.

Even the posters backing Johnson recognise he can’t dribble. Only Spurs could spend £50m on a winger that can’t dribble.
 

BPR_U16

Well-Known Member
Jun 28, 2006
1,905
2,939
Thought he would come good this season - and tbh his goal scoring record is ok.

But his general all round contribution is poor. Goes missing for long periods of games, does not show for ball, his crossing and passing not good, does not track back well, does not hold width it is merely his finishing and attacking of box from opposite flank that he does well.

Might be the zange system but he needs to do more
 

GutBucket

Well-Known Member
May 26, 2013
7,459
12,950
Thought he was a terrible signing but I am actually happy we got him now, not many players can produce double figures 2 seasons in a row, and we lost Kane and prime Son. He will never be the type to stay wide and cause problems, but he really has to improve his defensive work.

There's a reason why we tried to buy Neto, we need another RW but we have worse players than Johnson, who is still young and will Improve. I think we will sell him eventually and he will do ok somewhere else, but his potential is limited with his lack of technical quality. His HG status and finishing ability will always find some buyers.

His injury record is pretty decent too, we don't have too many of those.
 
Top