{"id":12137,"date":"2021-12-02T18:21:01","date_gmt":"2021-12-02T18:21:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nottinghamsport.com\/?p=12137"},"modified":"2021-12-02T18:21:01","modified_gmt":"2021-12-02T18:21:01","slug":"how-good-is-brennan-johnson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nottinghamsport.com\/index.php\/2021\/12\/02\/how-good-is-brennan-johnson\/","title":{"rendered":"How Good Is Brennan Johnson?"},"content":{"rendered":"

In our latest series of opinion polls on Nottingham Forest players, this week our very own Callum Castel takes a statistical look Brennan Johnson as he asks via his twitter poll, how good is he? For more of Callum’s recent articles on Reds players click here<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

Brennan Johnson is yet another exciting prospect of the Nottingham Forest Academy. As a Nottingham born player, Johnson has been knocking at the door to get a consistent run in the first team for his home club. After short runs in the Forest first team, an outstanding season on loan in League One at Lincoln City has gained the 20-year-old his chance in the Championship, playing in all 20 of the reds\u2019<\/em> league games so far this season.<\/p>\n

In his time at Lincoln, Johnson scored 11 goals for the Imps whilst laying off five assists. It was clear that the youngsters\u2019 pace, acceleration, technical ability, and sharp, dynamic movement caused a lot of problems for League One defenders, proving to Chris Hughton and now Steve Cooper that Johnson was ready for the step up. As well as this, Johnson had also worked his way up from the Wales youth setup to now becoming a regular in the Wales senior squad, making seven appearances for the national team so far.<\/p>\n

So far this season for Forest, Johnson has produced three goals and four assists during his first season as a regular starter for the Championship side. To put this into perspective, only Lewis Grabban has more combined goals and assists for the club (9) than Brennan Johnson and Philip Zinckernagel on seven. Additionally, only Zinckernagel has more shots per game (2.1) than Johnson (1.7) whilst the two wingers both put 0.6 of their shots on target, highlighting that Johnson has had slightly better accuracy.<\/p>\n

In terms of creativity, the Welsh international has produced the most \u2018big chances\u2019 for Forest (5) ahead of Zinckernagel (3) and Max Lowe (2). This also puts him third in the Championship for players under 21, behind Morgan Gibbs-White (7) and Ryan Giles (11). Johnson also completes 10.5 passes per game with a 71% success rate, also creating one key pass per game.<\/p>\n

It is Brennan Johnson\u2019s raw pace and ability to get in behind though, that sets him apart. Most notably, the 20-year-old\u2019s assists for Lyle Taylor against Coventry and Lewis Grabban against Huddersfield showed Johnson\u2019s ability to outpace and expose defenders before laying the ball on a plate for the striker in the middle.<\/p>\n

This is highlighted by the fact that Djed Spence has the most completed the most successful dribbles for Forest this season (1.7) ahead of Zinckernagel (1.5) and Johnson (1.4), but it is Johnson who has the more successful in his attempts (51%) ahead of Spence and Zinckernagel who both completed 48% of their attempts.<\/p>\n

Johnson\u2019s protean ability to create a chance out of nothing through ball carrying into space can earn his side anything from a corner to a penalty, assist or a goal. Last season at Lincoln City, Johnson won a total of seven penalties that were a result of defenders not understanding how to take the ball from the pacy winger once his acceleration had picked up and he was still manipulating the ball. Johnson\u2019s natural ability makes it easy to evade challenges or draw contact regularly to earn his side those penalties.<\/p>\n

This has been seen for Forest also this season, however referees haven\u2019t given many of the penalty calls from fouls on Johnson. Forest have only had two penalties this season though, and with Spence winning one against Bristol City, it was Johnson who won the second against Preston. However, it wasn\u2019t his pace and dynamism that won this penalty, it was his ability to manipulate the ball and get in front of the defender first before being tripped over.<\/p>\n

Though Johnson has been involved in scoring and creating goals, he has been accused of going missing from time to time by Forest fans. When you look back to the game against Barnsley, the 20-year-old scored one and assisted one, having successfully completed 2\/2 dribble attempts, 12 accurate passes and getting 30 touches on the ball. However, for the most recent games against Reading, Luton and West Bromwich Albion, Johnson has had less of an impact.<\/p>\n

Most recently, against West Brom, Johnson didn\u2019t have any goal involvements, completed 1\/3 dribble attempts, had seven accurate passes, and touched the ball 26 times, similarly to the games against Reading and Luton. Nevertheless, having only just left his teenage years behind, Johnson is surely allowed to have big games and quieter games, having shown a massive amount of potential already. After all, his numbers weren\u2019t spectacular against West Brom, but he was the only Forest player on the pitch to have a shot on target.<\/p>\n

Brennan Johnson has been a shining light for Nottingham Forest and with Brentford attempting to lure the youngster to the Premier League on several occasions during the most recent transfer window, it is clear that the forward has an abundance of potential – consistency will come with time.<\/p>\n

With Johnson\u2019s potential and consistency levels in mind, a poll was put out on social media to ask \u201cBrennan Johnson, how good is he?\u201d receiving 117 votes.<\/p>\n

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#NFFC<\/a> fans, once again I need your help!<\/p>\n

Brennan Johnson, how good is he?<\/p>\n

\u2014 Callum Castel-Nuovo (@callumcasteln) December 1, 2021<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n