IT is human nature to search for a fall guy in times of trouble; someone who we can point a finger at, a singular reason in times of collective underachievement as too why our expectations were not matched with the cold, hard currency of results. Glen Johnson has been the epitome of this man.
The Liverpool full -back has an undoubted talent for marauding down the flanks, providing much needed width and penetration to counter-balance an often compact midfield.
On the flip side this has often left gaps behind him leaving us exposed in vital areas in our final third. This has made him a Jekyll and Hyde figure in the eyes of many.
Johnson’s up and down form often creates debate as to whether he is overrated or underrated. Both points are viable as he has the profile, and the England regular spot where he is constantly favoured over the impressive Micah Richards. This has its downside as every mistake, every brain freeze in defense and every missed placed pass is under the microscope.
This summer his form in the Euro’s has been much like the country’s performances: solid and effective without being spectacular. His remit is to defend and stay tight, a must for an England side who came up against more accomplished technicians. Johnson has played this to a tee, in particular the impressive way he stifled France’s Franck Ribery whose pace, cunning, prodding and probing were not enough to get passed him as he performed in a dogged and athletic fashion.
This tactical adjustment of playing 10-20 yards deeper shows the best of his defensive capabilities. But why can’t he be as solid and consistent in a Red shirt? I believe he has suffered due to the unbalanced set up of the side last season. On the right Jordan Henderson was mainly deployed as a wide-right midfielder, naturally cutting inside to the middle leaving big gaps out wide therefore increasing his offensive and defensive responsibilities, this would often lead to mistakes particularly when he was up against a tricky winger or a 4-3-3 formation where he could often be outnumbered.
The left hand side bore a similar problem especially in the second half of the season when Jose Enrique was making up for the ineffectual Stewart Downing by bombing on, leaving gaps behind him which were cruelly exposed when the Agger-Skrtel axis was broken up.
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The former Portsmouth man has veered from the sublime to the ridiculous at times this year. His winner at Chelsea was classic Johnson cutting in from the right having found himself in an advanced position before coolly slotting past a prostrate Petr Cech; these athletic surges around the back are a widely welcomed, giving us an extra attacking dimension, but on the other side of the coin he showed his ugly side at home to West Brom where he pondered on the ball long enough for Peter Odemwingie to steal possession and somehow snatch victory for the Baggies from the jaws of defeat – well a draw at least.
Such contrasts in form sums up our sorry season. This has perhaps been a reason why people have been so divisive in their opinions of him. With eye-catching performances being counter-balanced with shoddy errors littered all over the pitch.
From the back-end of the Benitez era to the present day Johnson has perhaps been a victim of his own versatility, often fitting in on the left covering injuries and suspensions and allowing the development of Martin Kelly, who may eventually usurp him for club and country. Of course there has been calls for managers to utilise his attacking talents as a winger for most of his career, this is a job he could do satisfactorily but the job of a modern full-back is to be up and down the pitch, it is almost like the wing-back position which is not currently in vogue.
As he approaches his thirties it is vital that he adjusts his game to become a more solid full back as the ravages of a decade of top level football start to take its toll on his athleticism. All players can improve themselves no matter where they are in their career and the England full-back is no exception, it will be interesting to see how he fares under Brendan Rogers tutelage and hopefully for our sake, there will be less of his bi-polar form and be simply ‘rated’ rather than under or overrated.
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Definitively !! I don’t know why but Liverpool fans very often praise Kelly and many would have given him Johnson’s place and “cash in” on him.
They fail to realize that modern football needs pacey full backs who can attack and if we had quality winger to link up with Johnson our right side would really be opening up those defenses.
We have Lucas Leiva, one of the best defensive midfielders int the league to cover for him when he is attacking.
I think the point is that we want to see Kelly grow and shine for us. And unfairly for jonhson, Kelly plays at the same place. But jonhson is too good and too young to be benched. Maybe Kelly could play in the centrum of the defence with Agger, why not? More technical skills than skrtel
Now that we’ve lost Dirk why not try Kelly as full back and Johnson as a winger, he couldn’t be worse than Henderson. We have no money to spare to replace Dirk and as I’ve said Henderson is ineffectual so why not give it a try during the friendlies.
Johnson isn’t as good at the back as he is going forward, and i agree with Bill he should be given a proper chance on the wing now Kuyts left with Kelly right back.
Saying that Johnson has done really well in the Euros and for me he was England’s best defender, all the LFC players did well apart from Hendo but he really didn’t play much.
I think with BR he will be given a chance to attack even more as Rodgers likes his fullbacks to attack and deliver cross after cross like the Swansea fullbacks did last season.
I think Glen had an excellent Euro 2012 and, Stevie aside, was England’s best player – don’t think he got the praise he deserved during the tournament.
For LFC at times, he has often been our best player going forward (discounting Suarez). It’s just that he will always have that defensive lapse in him, though I reckon a lot of the criticism he receives is a little unfair.
I’m a ManUtd fan so maybe not welcome here (though Fowler and Bellamy are two of my favourite all time players), but I thought Glen Johnson did really well in Euro2012, he has improved defensively since joining Liverpool and is better than Ashley Cole now.
The problem for England lies in midfield, the lack of players that can retain possession and bring others into the game, rather like Xabi Alonso and Mascherano used to do for Liverpool so that Gerrard is free to support the strikers. The solution is Michael Carrick, or perhaps even two holding players similar to Germany with Khedira-Schweinsteiger. I would favour Wilshere or Leon Britton of Swansea alongside Carrick.
As an aside, Liverpool will be a force again with Rodgers in charge, he is the best young manager in the game (bit miffed he won’t be replacing Fergie, maybe we’ll get Martinez of Wigan one day instead).
Looking forward to future tussles with our great rivals.
Are you any bit concerned about Ashley young’s performances as a Man Utd fan? I was surprised at how poor he was at the Euros.
Young was shockingly bad, along with Milner. I would have taken Adam Johnson myself. The problem with Young is he is right footed so has to cut in all the time, he needs a fullback to overlap. I guess that chasing shadows wore him out so that whenever he got possession he was too tired. Welbeck was easily United’s best player at the Euros, his pass completion rate was 91% which is impressive for a forward. Gerrard was the best player overall in the group stages, but didn’t get much help from Parker, Milner or Young against Italy. Carrick and Gerrard linked up well for England before, but then Carrick was out of the team the next match and never got a look in ever since.
I can understand why Liverpool supporters got fed up with Hodgson, his tactics seem stuck in the 1970s. Lets hope he adapts.
You think after peddling the same 1970’s tactics for 36 years, he’ll suddenly change approach?? I’m afraid, he’ll cement our place in the second tier of world football.
Under Eriksson, Capello et al, we had the hope of better football even if never transpired. We appointed coaches to drag the team up, but now we have appointed a guy who will be dragging us further backwards…
@Mcgrath Everyones welcome here mate, even if you support Utd, if we can all have a good debate where things don’t get out of hand it’s all good.
P.S. ive been a fan of Scholes n Giggs and Ronaldo
i just don’t think Rooneys world class, good player but not world class his international performances have proved that.
johnson is very good.i feel he shud play rite side of mid and let kelly play rite back
This notion that glen Johnson can’t defend us trash. He always covers his centre backs these days, when they get caught out, often coming over like a sweeper from the right to make the tackle /block . His defending has improved hugely. Had a good euro campaign as well
He saved England more often than Terry or Cole did
Must have posted it a dozen times last season, Johnson was by far our best attacking player on the right side and should have been our right mid in front of Kelly. Nice to see I’m not the only one who thought so.
Excellent article! The timing of this article is strange for me because he’s the one player i’ve been thinking about sence the Euros started. I personaly think he is the perfect wing back. The Italian formation of 442 with a dimond midfield and 2 marauding wing backs would be the perfect formation to incorparate Johnson in.
Couldn’t agree more.
His pace is really needed as wing back, we have the midfield to cover him when he goes forward, so whats the problem with him at right back?
I’m happy with him at right back too, but I just think his best attributes are attacking ones and to use these to our advantage I would like to see him in the more advanced right wing back role rather than the more ‘defensive’ right back role.
Do me a favour! Glen Johnson is average. For all of you idiots commenting on the art of being a full back………It’s what you do off the ball that counts. The problem with Johnson – as it has always been is positonal sense. Johnson was guilty numerous times for being slow to get out & slow to get back ‘head in the clouds defending’ . If we sell him & get £20 million……..I’ll be happy! God……I’d be happy to see someone go down the wing for Liverpool…….cos Johnson don’t!!!!!!!!!
Another incapable of communicating without calling names! And 20 mil for Johnson! Oh dear! Enough said.
Lol £20m for a player you don’t rate?
Hes a class player!!
Here we go, the Philip Lahm of non-league football has just schooled you all in the art of full-backery.
if johno played for barcelona or real madrid we’d all be saying “wish he played for us”
top man
Yes we do underate him.He was consistently good going forward and as a defender last season. He is much better than Kelly even defensively. Kelly is the o al
Apologies pressed wrong button. Was going to say that we all hope that the local lad Kelly does well. I think centre back could be his future
He’s not local mate he’s from Bolton
What are you on about? M. Kelly was born in Whiston. Or does that not qualify as local anymore? It’s not hard to find that out either, just check lfc.tv.
Johnson has always been totally underated by our fans … He won’t be at Madrid!!
Kelly unfortunately can’t cross to save his life and loses more headers in 1 on 1 situations(Opta) but he’s very good at timing his tackles and is still young. Iv heard he’s naturally a Central defender. So he can be used across the back four!
But hes championship level compared to Johnson…. Next we’ll be comparing spearing to Gerrard :/
I wouldn’t say under-appreciated but maybe under-rated. I would also say that his ability to attack is vastly under-rated too. A right side with Kelly at RB and Johnson just ahead of him in midfield would be defensively solid and very productive at the opposite end too.