Tottenham will welcome Brentford on the 6th of December, looking for a win after a 2-2 draw against Newcastle.
The North Londoners finally found a way to stop the losing blows as they drew at St James’ Park in the midweek. And while it was an underwhelming performance from the Lilywhites, Cristian Romero churned up a 12-year goal record for second time this season as the game came to a controversial 2-2 conclusion.
Thomas Frank badly needed his wide forwards to drag Spurs up the pitch (much like what we saw from the hosts’ wingers). But instead Brennan Johnson put in a performance where he was more anonymous for most of the game.
It was a kind of performance which should make Frank think very hard about picking him up in the eleven against Brentford this weekend.
Brennan Johnson had a poor game against Newcastle
The Welshman was on the pitch at St. James’ Park for 77 minutes. But the stats show that he should be benched on Saturday.
The former Nottingham man had zero shots to start with. He had almost no penalty-box threat. For a starting left winger who is chasing the game for a lot of his time on the pitch, he only managed to get on the ball inside the Newcastle area twice. Those numbers are nowhere near intriguing, given that his primary job was to stretch Eddie Howe’s defence and try to threaten the goal.
Tottenham already have problems going forward these days. And then you have to almost carry a winger that is neither shooting nor arriving in the box, which doesn’t make sense.
He only completed 12 of his attempted 21 passes, of which only one (1) pass was into the final third. Then, to add to those underwhelming numbers, he was 0/2 on successful dribbles. So now suddenly your winger is neither good at carrying the ball nor at protecting possession. And it doesn’t end there. He won just 29% of his ground duels.
[Stats by Fotmob]
Author Opinion
Going up against Brentford, who are a side that loves to go close to the opponents and try to win those first and second balls, Johnson would just be more of a liability. If you think that he could get in behind and try to be at the end of passes (something he has done a lot of times wearing the Lilywhites badge), it is quite difficult given how compact Keith Andrews’ side are.
It just makes sense right now to either go into a 4-2-2-2 against Brentford or start someone like Odobert or Richarlison this weekend. Should Brennan Johnson this weekend? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.
