Player Watch Player Watch: Brennan Johnson

[Tarnished]

And if he'd gone back at Wan-Bissaka again and again, United may well have finished the game with 10 men. Being regularly flattened goes with the territory if you are a wide attacking player. Christiano Ronaldo had the shit kicked out of him continuously as an 18/19 year-old at United, back when refereeing was a lot more lax and defending a great deal cruder, and just kept getting back up and looking for more.

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.

 

[FibreOpticJesus]

He was really poor today, but give him time. If he ups his aggression and workrate he’ll look a different player. Ange and the scouting department must have felt he had it in him/had the right character to be a success so let’s see.

Agree we must give him time. But I do have misgivings on his end product. Always difficult to measure a player on one game but time and again he gets to the byline and cannot deliver a decent cross. His head is always down and his ball is either overhit or to nobody as there is no one in the box. He hardly ever beats his man and the defender know this and that he will not cut in on his left. This slows the game down and allows the defence to organise and the attack breaks down. If we are lucky we might get a corner. As like yesterday a corner can be a good outcome with Porro’s delivery but that only benefit against teams that defend poorly in that department. I also am not sure he has a quick footballing brain. Yesterday in the first half we saw Werner take on a shot when the better ball would have been a slip pass to Benty who was arriving in the box. 2nd half same opening and Werner passed to him and we scored. Hence I like to think he learnt and used his brain.
I hope I am wrong and that Ange and his team work on him ready for next season. With European football next season we need a balanced squad and for me with the intensity of our game we need to utilise the whole squad and with Kulu likely to play in the 10 role as well as on the right it is in this area where we need to strengthen with a pacey ball playing right sided forward.

 

[allatsea]

Will soon find himself out of the team unless his finishing etc doesn't show a marked improvement. No way does he keep Kulu out of the team once all our CMs are back.

 

[Shanks]

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 do agree on this, not specifically calling him out, and I haven't seen too many people say he won't be good enough, just that so far leaving more questions than answers, which I also think is fair too.

I was expecting someone quick, but I've yet to see him burn past a full back, reactions to passes, physical strength all quite clear to see aren't on display at the moment.

I'd also give benefit of thr doubt on illness too, but it's most times he plays outside of the cameo appearances that these performances are put in unfortunately.

As I've said and a few others too as well though, he likely would have featured as an impact sub this year anyway, so it's unfortunate with our injuries, so hopefully these aspects will be worked on in the background too.

 

[oohaahedgar]

It’s too early to write him off I’m optimistic he’ll come good. He needs to braver in his decision making. He always looks for the easiest option even if he knows it won’t work. eg , cross first time even if he knows no one is in there. Shoots rather than bring it down, gets rid of it rather than taking on a player and getting fouled. Needs to man up, that will come with confidence.

 

[VancouverSpurs]

I can easily see a young Bale in Johnson. He's got speed for days. Just put on some good muscle and gain confidence. I can see him chipping the ball past defenders and running onto it ala Bale v Maicon. Give him time.

 

[JAYSTAR]

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.

 

[Ron Burgundy]

I see a lot of posts saying things like "it's too early to write him off". I see only a very small portion of people actually doing that.

Most are saying:
- he looks too timid - confidence is an issue
- he should take his man on more, and back himself
- final ball, in particular finishing needs to be worked on
- could track back a bit more and show more aggression
- we would have really wanted more so far
- but does have his moments...
- ...and is young and in a new team
- we'll need to be patient with him

All the above being reasonable. The response of "come on, what do you expect" is a reaction to why you think you're reading, not actually reading.

When Deki and Son are back, he can go to playing an impact role as a sub, which is likely the best for both the team, and the player at this point. Has potential, but doesn't feel ready

 

[rebrab]

I can easily see a young Bale in Johnson. He's got speed for days. Just put on some good muscle and gain confidence. I can see him chipping the ball past defenders and running onto it ala Bale v Maicon. Give him time.

He definitely has that Bale-like pace but not the power at the moment (which of course was incredibly rare). It was quite interesting to compare him and Werner, who from the eye test looks lighter on his feet with more acceleration.

I’m sure we’re dedicating quite a lot of coaching to help him up his game. May be an impact sub once everyone is back, but next season after a full pre-season is a fairer time to judge him

 

[Gassin's finest]

I can easily see a young Bale in Johnson. He's got speed for days. Just put on some good muscle and gain confidence. I can see him chipping the ball past defenders and running onto it ala Bale v Maicon. Give him time.

Nah. Johnson is 22. Bale already had it at 16.

 

[Ron Burgundy]

He definitely has that Bale-like pace but not the power at the moment (which of course was incredibly rare). It was quite interesting to compare him and Werner, who from the eye test looks lighter on his feet with more acceleration.

I’m sure we’re dedicating quite a lot of coaching to help him up his game. May be an impact sub once everyone is back, but next season after a full pre-season is a fairer time to judge him

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

 

[Nick-TopSpursMan]

Aside from his lack of belief and conviction, a lot of his problems come from the fact he’s so upright and rigid.

If you watch him, everything he does is very much in straight lines and his body is very stiff, both in and out of possession. This gives him a real lack of agility and he struggles to be fluid on the ball.

He gets the ball in or around the edge of the box and he can’t weave for example because he’s so rigid and upright. It really minimises the impact he can have.

If he can at least become more aggressive and have more belief, he should be able to use his speed to beat defenders in straight lines to create more chances/take more shots etc.

There was one incident second half yesterday where he received it in the box and instead of squaring up his defender and trying to make something happen, he literally just got rid of the ball as quickly as he could and smashed it against a defender. You can’t be treating the ball as a hot potato if you’re going to play in a top team.

If we can get him believing in himself more we should be able to get a lot more out of him. The upright and rigid thing is harder to fix though, I’m not sure we can coach him to be more fluid on the ball.

 

[worcestersauce]

Apparently he was one of the players affected by the sickness yesterday so probably not a game to make the conclusive judgement on.

 

[fishhhandaricecake]

It’s just to early to properly judge, some of you were writing Kulu off after an initial 20 min sub appearance, some of you were writing Porro off last season when the guy had just moved counties and leagues into a very off form toxic team, some of you wrote Modric off after a few games when we signed him.

As I said when all are fit he’ll mostly be an impact sub and a longer-term development option, absolutely nothing to worry about at this stage.

But people always need someone to pick on don’t they .

If a player is shit and looks completely out of their depth and/or has had a good few seasons with us and it’s just not happening then I’ll be the first to call it out but some of these judgements of Johnson saying “he will never make it with it”, “he won’t be world class” “he’s not good enough” etc are imo ridiculous at this stage.

Let’s see how he goes, room for improvement for him absolutely but personally I think he’s been pretty decent all things considered.

 

[he is you know!]

I'm sure he can improve, especially by scoring and hope yesterday was just one of those games.

However, as it stands he has 6 goal involvements to Deki's 7 having played 500 minutes less.

Also only behind Richarlison and Son on current FF form.

 

[IfiHadTheWings]

He'll be fine in time, just needs to stop that 1st time cross, it's going to give me a coronary.

 

[VancouverSpurs]

Nah. Johnson is 22. Bale already had it at 16.

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.

 

[FrankSpencer]

Apparently he was one of the players affected by the sickness yesterday so probably not a game to make the conclusive judgement on.

I watched a phase of play at about the 55 minute mark and he looked like he was physically going to be sick! Definitely not himself.

 

[Metalhead]

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.

People on here prematurely writing off players?

 

[Gilzeanking]

It’s just to early to properly judge, some of you were writing Kulu off after an initial 20 min sub appearance, some of you were writing Porro off last season when the guy had just moved counties and leagues into a very off form

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