View: Tottenham boss Postecoglou needs to drop Richarlison and start Brennan Johnson
Brennan Johnson’s cameo appearance for Tottenham during the 2-1 win against Crystal Palace on Friday 27 October proved that he must be starting in Richarlison’s place.
After yet another lacklustre performance from Spurs’ number nine, throughout which he offered very little in the final third, within minutes of his replacement Johnson coming onto the pitch, Tottenham had a second, and the Welshman was instrumental in the build-up.
Spurs signed Johnson from Nottingham Forest for a reported fee of £47.5million (Sky Sports News, 2 September) on transfer deadline day, and after the club paid a fee like that, many would have expected the winger to be a big part of Ange Postecoglou’s plans.
So far that has not yet materialised, and the 22-year-old has made just one league start, however, this has been due to injury issues keeping him out of the side, and now that he is back fit, it is time for Postecoglou to throw him straight into the deep end, and his performance against Palace proved this.
Having come onto the pitch in the 64th minute, Johnson had an assist to his name just two minutes later.
As the ball was played out wide to him after a delightful switch of play from Pape Matar Sarr, Johnson kept the attack moving by heading the ball into the path of James Maddison.
What was particularly impressive is after the Wales international played the ball forward, instead of standing and watching, he continued his run into the box and offered Maddison an option.
Maddison found Johnson, who then played a quick first-time pass to Son Heung-min who finished expertly to all but seal the three points for the visitors.
Although he made just two touches in the entire build-up to this goal, they were both crucial and demonstrated his ability to slot in seamlessly to Spurs’ front three, especially when considering those two touches were more than Richalrison had offered after an entire hour played.
In addition to his involvement with the goal, his overall numbers were very positive. During his 26 minutes on the pitch, Johnson completed 88 per cent of his passes, with two of those being key, created one big chance, won two of his three ground duels and made two tackles (Sofascore).
He was awarded a 7.3 match rating, 0.6 points higher than Richarlison’s 6.7, despite being on the pitch for considerably less time. In comparison to Johnson, the Brazillian completed just 74 per cent of his passes with only one of those being key and won the same amount of ground duels (two), despite contesting seven more overall (10). He also gave possession away 20 times and managed just one tackle in yet another underwhelming display.
With Spurs top of the table and their rivals hunting them down, the pressure will only continue to increase on Postecoglou’s team, and they cannot afford to be carrying any dead weight, which is unfortunately what the stats suggest Richarlison is at this moment in time.
As per fbref, he is in just the ninth percentile of his positional peers in the Premier League for the number of goals he has scored (0.17 per 90), despite sitting in the 99th percentile for the number of shots he is taking this season (3.68 per 90). This demonstrates the 26-year-old’s wastefulness in front of goal which might not be costing Spurs yet, but could in the long run.
With the Premier League visit of fierce rivals Chelsea to come next for Tottenham on Monday 6 November, that could be the perfect time for Johnson to start and truly cement himself in the hearts of Spurs’ supporters, and more importantly, Postecoglou’s long-term plans.
In other Tottenham news, ex-Spurs-scout Bryan King has offered his player ratings for the Crystal Palace team from the win at Selhurst Park.