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Brennan Johnson

Maybe Son could teach Brennan his step-overs and Brennan could teach Son his runs into the box :)
 
Mcfee said:
I think this “tap-in merchant” is a load of nonsense. Some of the best strikers in history could be described in the same way (not that I’m saying he’s one of them). As many have already said, being in the right place is a skill in itself and not to be taken for granted.
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No one is saying it isn’t a skill, but in the modern game forwards need to offer more. The days of making a living being a poacher have been over for a while. Forwards have to be more rounded, more complete players these days. All forwards have bad days so it’s important to be able to hang your hat on something else and contribute in other ways other than goals.
 
Easy to label him as a tap in merchant, however his ability to put them in the net brings my mind to the Lineker quote

“Everybody says it's being in the right place at the right time. But it's more than that: it's being in the right place all the time.”

Yesterday when Son took a shot you could see Brennan throwing himself at the far post, sliding to reach and be the first one on the spot if the ball should have ended up there. Now the ball didn’t even got close and it looked silly, but next time it maybe would, and then it would have looked “easy”. A lot of effort goes in to be a “tap-in merchant”.
 
Mcfee said:
I think this “tap-in merchant” is a load of nonsense. Some of the best strikers in history could be described in the same way (not that I’m saying he’s one of them). As many have already said, being in the right place is a skill in itself and not to be taken for granted.
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He's not a striker though.

If he was playing up top it would have be different but the issue is (well mine at least) is that he's not every good at the things he should be at in his position, beating a player, passing, tracking back. I'm delighted at his goals however I think it's unrealistic to just saying he's good just because of them, as then he'd be expected to score at the same rate from his position over a sustained period of time. That would put him in the elite category.

I think the era that you can carry a player in the hope the get on the end of something has ended. Even someone like Haaland with his goal record is completely ineffective if he doesn't score.
 
lol 'carry a player' If we are carrying Johnson, then what the hell are we doing with all our other forwards who don't have 17 goal contributions this season? With the exception of Son our forwards are all young with growth potential including Johnson. For a 23 year old to be demonstrating real productivity is a good thing, he is the least of our problems right now...
 
If he was a striker he would be getting praised for scoring these goals. As a wide forward you are always judged on your goals and assists, he has 9 goals and 2 assists in 23 games played, if we were linked to a 23 year old with those stats in the premier league people would be happy with them coming in.

I know he is not the winger everyone craves but he is doing a decent job of scoring goals. There are a lot of wingers out there that are flashy and skilful but have no where near the goalscoring stats Johnson has.
 
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harr1984 said:
lol 'carry a player' If we are carrying Johnson, then what the hell are we doing with all our other forwards who don't have 17 goal contributions this season? With the exception of Son our forwards are all young with growth potential including Johnson. For a 23 year old to be demonstrating real productivity is a good thing, he is the least of our problems right now...
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Because the aim should be to get a player like Salah or even Son up until 2 seasons ago, a winger/forward who scores AND creates. Johnson is good at the former but doesn’t really do the latter. I’ve said many times I don’t think our forwards are good enough, not just Johnson. And we score so many goals partly because we are so gung ho.
 
Jurgen the German said:
Because the aim should be to get a player like Salah or even Son up until 2 seasons ago, a winger/forward who scores AND creates. Johnson is good at the former but doesn’t really do the latter. I’ve said many times I don’t think our forwards are good enough, not just Johnson. And we score so many goals partly because we are so gung ho.
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Of course that would be nice but the point is there aren't many Salah or Sons at Johnson's age. I agree that the level of our forwards need to improve, but with Odobert, Moore, Johnson and potentially Yang there is some likelihood we have players who can already do that over time. I've said many times we should sign a wing forward of proven quality to go with our youngsters as there is no guarantees they will all end up delivering.

And to your last point, as much as we are an attacking side the goals are very much spread around and if it was as simple as he should be scoring a load because we are an attacking team then why haven't the others matched him? Son hasn't scored many, Solanke hasn't - in fact our two joint top scorers are Maddison and Johnson who seem to get a hell of a lot of the criticism.....
 
harr1984 said:
Of course that would be nice but the point is there aren't many Salah or Sons at Johnson's age. I agree that the level of our forwards need to improve, but with Odobert, Moore, Johnson and potentially Yang there is some likelihood we have players who can already do that over time. I've said many times we should sign a wing forward of proven quality to go with our youngsters as there is no guarantees they will all end up delivering.

And to your last point, as much as we are an attacking side the goals are very much spread around and if it was as simple as he should be scoring a load because we are an attacking team then why haven't the others matched him? Son hasn't scored many, Solanke hasn't - in fact our two joint top scorers are Maddison and Johnson who seem to get a hell of a lot of the criticism.....
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Fair point about the other forwards not chipping in with enough goals. To be fair to Solanke, I don’t think we create enough chances for him, but all forwards need to create opportunities for themselves nevertheless. Back to Johnson, his overall play hasn’t improved enough IMO since we signed him.
 
harr1984 said:
lol 'carry a player' If we are carrying Johnson, then what the hell are we doing with all our other forwards who don't have 17 goal contributions this season? With the exception of Son our forwards are all young with growth potential including Johnson. For a 23 year old to be demonstrating real productivity is a good thing, he is the least of our problems right now...
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In games that he doesn't score what would you say he provides?

If he went on a non scoring run (which every single player in the world does) what would you identify as his main skill set?

He's a wide player with 2 assists. I don't think it's unreasonable to ask and hope that he improves that side of his game and his defensive contribution otherwise yes it is carrying a player. The definition of the term is having someone who only contributes movements. As Alli found, successful careers aren't built on that.

This is meant to be a forum to discuss things yet it's interestingly 'be happy with what you've got or else'.
 
Mcfee said:
I think this “tap-in merchant” is a load of nonsense. Some of the best strikers in history could be described in the same way (not that I’m saying he’s one of them). As many have already said, being in the right place is a skill in itself and not to be taken for granted.
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So very true.

However, I'm sure you'll agree that conficence and composure also plays a critical part. You may recall that shortly after his arrival Brennan endured a sustained spell when he just couldn't hit a barn door from six inches. The crowd were on his case and maybe he allowed that to get to him a bit. If so he deserves huge credit for overcoming his self-doubt in the teeth of abuse.

I'm guessing also that Ange deserves some of the credit for sticking by him.
 
fernadez said:
In games that he doesn't score what would you say he provides?

If he went on a non scoring run (which every single player in the world does) what would you identify as his main skill set?

He's a wide player with 2 assists. I don't think it's unreasonable to ask and hope that he improves that side of his game and his defensive contribution otherwise yes it is carrying a player. The definition of the term is having someone who only contributes movements. As Alli found, successful careers aren't built on that.

This is meant to be a forum to discuss things yet it's interestingly 'be happy with what you've got or else'.
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Not sure where your bit in quote has come from, no one has said this? He is a forward who has a goal contribution every two games, please tell me how many of our forwards are doing better than this?

Sure, you can dream of these all singing and dancing forwards, but the reality is we aren't Real Madrid so we have to invest in potential and develop - we spent 50m on this guy so Ange clearly identified him as someone with big upside and he is 23 years old and producing the thing that's hardest to do - score goals. His best years are likely yet to come as long as he keeps working.

We aren't carrying a guy who contributes something quantifiable every two games, otherwise we are carrying just about every forward at the club. If all out forwards were having the same output then yeah, we can look at who's contributing what in other areas but until then someone scoring at the rate he does is a valuable asset and fudge knows where we would be without his goals....
 
Spur of the moment said:
So very true.

However, I'm sure you'll agree that conficence and composure also plays a critical part. You may recall that shortly after his arrival Brennan endured a sustained spell when he just couldn't hit a barn door from six inches. The crowd were on his case and maybe he allowed that to get to him a bit. If so he deserves huge credit for overcoming his self-doubt in the teeth of abuse.

I'm guessing also that Ange deserves some of the credit for sticking by him.
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It was after 3 months wasnt it and really showed the ignorance of so called fans
You can see it now
He scores 2 goals and yet doesn’t get any assists so isn’t good enough for some
 
harr1984 said:
Not sure where your bit in quote has come from, no one has said this? He is a forward who has a goal contribution every two games, please tell me how many of our forwards are doing better than this?

Sure, you can dream of these all singing and dancing forwards, but the reality is we aren't Real Madrid so we have to invest in potential and develop - we spent 50m on this guy so Ange clearly identified him as someone with big upside and he is 23 years old and producing the thing that's hardest to do - score goals. His best years are likely yet to come as long as he keeps working.

We aren't carrying a guy who contributes something quantifiable every two games, otherwise we are carrying just about every forward at the club. If all out forwards were having the same output then yeah, we can look at who's contributing what in other areas but until then someone scoring at the rate he does is a valuable asset and fudge knows where we would be without his goals....
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Mate you’re typically a very level headed poster who is always honest about how much we overrate our players. But can I ask why you didn’t address the points he raised in what was a sensible, reasonable post? What are Johnson’s other strengths?
 
Jurgen the German said:
Mate you’re typically a very level headed poster who is always honest about how much we overrate our players. But can I ask why you didn’t address the points he raised in what was a sensible, reasonable post? What are Johnson’s other strengths?
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Because I wasn't coming on here saying he does x,y and z - I was picking up on the claim he is being carried, which is nonsense. You could literally switch it and say Johnson is carrying most of the forward line considering his attacking numbers and that being the most significant thing to contribute as a forward....
 
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