- Oct 1, 2005
- 9,171
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I think he starts ahead of Deki personally. Mainly because he has pace and we severely lack that at the moment.I want a player who is an obvious upgrade on what we already have at the club, especially at the quoted price. If we sign him then I sincerely hope I'll be proven wrong, but I really don't think Johnson fits the bill.
Right now there are two obvious shortcomings in our attacking options: A striker to compete with Richarlison/Son up front, and a winger who can beat his man 1-v-1 and create chances for others. Johnson may nominally be able to play either position, but his stats suggest he'd be a mediocre option for the former and a genuinely woeful option for the latter.
Regarding his suitability for the striker role, Johnson underperformed his non-penalty xG last season -- in other words, he was a slightly below-average finisher. Fine for a bottom feeder such as Forest, but miles off of what we should be looking for.
Regarding his suitability as a winger, Johnson ranked in the first percentile for shot-creating actions last season. In other words, he was among the absolute worst wingers in the top leagues for creating chances for others. Perhaps some of that can be explained by Forest being such a poor team, but I guarantee that if you put Perisic or Manor Solomon (not to mention others we've been linked with such as Doku) in that side they'd still have been able to beat their man and dig out dangerous crosses at a rate that far eclipsed what Johnson offered.
I just don't see what he brings other than raw pace that would represent an upgrade over what we already have in place. That's not a £50m signing, not even close.