This summer, Tottenham Hotspur have signed a centre-forward (Dominic Solanke), two left-wingers (if you count Timo Werner as well as Wilson Odobert) and two very talented 18-year-old midfielders (Archie Gray and Lucas Bergvall).
But there has been no new right-sided attacker. The plan was always for Brennan Johnson, who has started both of Spurs’ opening Premier League games, to begin the season as the first-choice right-winger, sharing minutes with Dejan Kulusevski.
To some Tottenham fans, this is a source of frustration. They would rather see a ready-made superstar in that role, someone who can come straight in and win games on their own. Johnson has almost become a victim of the club’s reluctance to upgrade from him. The team look well set for a second season under popular head coach Ange Postecoglou but Johnson has become a target for the grumbling of a minority.
But that view ignores the reasons the 23-year-old Wales international is so popular with Postecoglou and why he has become such an important part of his Spurs team.
Ultimately, Johnson gives Postecoglou what he wants from a winger. In the Australian’s structured positional game, he asks at least one winger to stay high and wide, stretching the play and creating space infield for a midfielder or ‘inverted’ full-back to exploit. And when the ball is on the far side of the pitch, the idea — very broadly — is for the opposite winger to attack the back post to potentially convert a low cross.
And there is no question that Johnson dutifully follows Postecoglou’s instructions to the letter.
There is much to be said for Kulusevski as a footballer but he is not especially fast, he is very left-footed, and his instincts are generally to come inside towards the ball.
Kulusevski is a brilliant technical player but often leaves you with the impression he is an individualist trying to find his way in a coordinated, synchronised world. Johnson, as well as his reliability, availability and defensive efforts, offers a clear interpretation of what their manager wants.
Johnson celebrates his goal in the 4-0 win against Aston Villa in March (James Gill – Danehouse/Getty Images)
This became clear last season as Johnson settled in and delivered respectable numbers for his first year with Spurs. It was not easy moving from Nottingham Forest, with a big price tag, at the very end of the window when the season had already been underway for three weeks.
The plan was to be patient and ease him but early injuries to Ivan Perisic and Manor Solomon left Tottenham short in wide areas and Johnson ended up playing more than was envisioned. He started 13 straight games across all competitions between early November and late January, and by the end of that run he looked low on confidence.
It took a spell on the bench to revive Johnson’s season. He started coming on as a second-half substitute and looked far more relaxed and comfortable, running at tired full-backs and turning games in Spurs’ direction.
On January 31, he came on at half-time with Tottenham losing 1-0 at home to Brentford. But he was soon there, attacking the far post, turning in Werner’s cross and putting his team 2-1 up. They went on to win 3-2.
Ten days later, Spurs hosted Brighton, again went behind early on, and Johnson came on just after the hour. When he timed his far-post run, he met Son Heung-min’s cross to score a 96th-minute winner. It was one of the moments of the season for Tottenham. And then when they were trailing at home again, this time to Crystal Palace a few weeks later, Johnson won the ball back, burst past two defenders and drove in one of those low crosses, from which Werner equalised. Spurs went on to win, 3-1.
After that game, Postecoglou said those moves — a low cross finished off at the far post — were not happening “by accident”. This was the reward for months of hard training. And it was becoming clear how Johnson fitted into the Postecoglou plan.
The manager also praised how Johnson was “understanding better the demands of the position, which is a bit different to what he was used to”. At Forest, especially in their 2021-22 promotion season, Steve Cooper gave his countryman the freedom to attack how he wanted when they were in possession. Coming to Spurs was a different challenge.
By the end of last season, Johnson was a regular for Tottenham, starting 10 of the final 12 games, even moving out onto the left at the end when Son played through the middle.
Johnson finished with a decent haul of five goals and 10 assists. Only Son had more goal contributions for Spurs in the Premier League. You could even argue Johnson should have registered 11 assists, given that one of his classic low crosses was bundled into the net by Luton Town’s Issa Kabore on March 30, with Werner lurking just behind him, but passes turned in by defenders for own goals do not count as assists.
Only Ollie Watkins (13) and Cole Palmer (11) got more Premier League assists than Johnson last season.
You can see from these graphics how dangerous he’s been from that area near the byline.
Yet it still feels now, at the start of Johnson’s second season in north London, as if there is far more to come.
Anyone who saw him in action for Forest knows what an exciting innovative player he can be under the right conditions. And if he is to secure that place in the Spurs team for this season, Johnson will need to show the confidence that is a cause and a consequence of scoring goals. He has all the ability required to embarrass defenders but often looks reluctant to do so.
Johnson has had a few bright moments already in the opening two games.
Against Leicester, he nearly put Spurs ahead early on with a clever volley that was well saved by Mads Hermansen. Soon after, he got on the end of a James Maddison free kick and drove it straight across the face of goal, inches away from being a clever assist. And then on Saturday against Everton, it was Johnson who started the move which led to the game’s opener, driving forward down the right, into the box, and combining with Maddison and Kulusevski, who eventually set up Yves Bissouma.
Like many attacking players at this stage of a season, it feels as if an early goal or two is exactly what Johnson needs. But if he starts well and develops more of that confidence he exudes at his best, then he can progress to another level over the next nine months, not just the perfect executor of the manager’s plans but a consistent match-winner too.
Do that, and the debate about his place in the side will move on to somebody else.
GO DEEPER
Performances will always be the priority for Postecoglou
Additional reporting: Mark Carey
(Top photo: Mark Leech/Offside via Getty Images)
