Adam johnson fearless !

[Dave Ewing's Back 'eader]

Whether AJ (or SWP) play will be based on tactical decision - passing game or running game.

We now have verstatile players such as Milner who offer us tactical flexibility by changing their position / role mid game and other players who bring particular talents to the team - De Jong, AJ, SWP - who sometimes will play and other timesw not.

Johnson, and to a different degree SWP, represent something rare in British football - the ability to run past defenders - Johnson has a great trick where he knocks the ball off his standing leg to go between two defenders.

In the Liverpool game this ability was invaluable against Daniel Agger centre back playing out of position.

AJ's passing record, however, did not match the rest of the midfield:
AJ - 24 successful out of 33 passes made
Barry - 48 / 53
DeJong - 41 / 43
Milner - 29 / 36
Yaya Toure - 36 / 37
Tevez - 23 / 26

NB: Gerrard - 49 / 63 outpassed by Barry and DeJong

Benchmark: Scholes - 78 / 83 Fulham; 76 / 85 Newcastle

This is where the statistics, useful as they might be, don't tell us anything about the quality of the passes. It was AJ who passed, double nutmegging two Dipper defenders for JM to get behind the defence and pass for GB. Also, AJ 'earned' us the pen.

He is the kind of player who will frighten the best defenders because they don't know whether to 'stick or twist' with him. Let 'im into the pen area and defenders will be brickin' it.

 

[Timmmmahhhh]

Doesn't like the rain tho does he?

Doesn't seem to put the effort in as much when it rains!!

Not knocking the lad, had a brilliant game last night, and like someone says, there is a buzz everytime he picks the ball up!!

 

[jimharri]

The dippers rate him very highly (the best English winger since McPointyman, no less!) and are raging that they didn't get him. As if!

<a class="postlink" href="http://www.redandwhitekop.com/forum/index.php?topic=262296.0" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.redandwhitekop.com/forum/ind ... c=262296.0</a>

 

[persvenality cult]

backs up the theory that most of his failed passes were attempts to find someone in the box.

the ability to find team mates in the box, is the holy grail for any attacking player. if he added that to his game he really would be a world beater, but he's new to this league, hopefully as he gets used to the pace of the game and the movement of our players, this will improve. at the moment, he's not that good at it, and to be fair, we aren't getting that many bodies in the box on a regular basis.

by winning penalties and causing havoc, he's still doing more than enough at present.

 

[Tricky_Trev]

The dippers rate him very highly (the best English winger since McPointyman, no less!) and are raging that they didn't get him. As if!

<a class="postlink" href="http://www.redandwhitekop.com/forum/index.php?topic=262296.0" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.redandwhitekop.com/forum/ind ... c=262296.0</a>

That's good to read. They rate him just as highly as us, which shows there are no blue-tinted specs involved. He really is going to be a world beater given time. He's fuckin' class.

 

[skillman]

Whether AJ (or SWP) play will be based on tactical decision - passing game or running game.

We now have verstatile players such as Milner who offer us tactical flexibility by changing their position / role mid game and other players who bring particular talents to the team - De Jong, AJ, SWP - who sometimes will play and other timesw not.

Johnson, and to a different degree SWP, represent something rare in British football - the ability to run past defenders - Johnson has a great trick where he knocks the ball off his standing leg to go between two defenders.

In the Liverpool game this ability was invaluable against Daniel Agger centre back playing out of position.

AJ's passing record, however, did not match the rest of the midfield:
AJ - 24 successful out of 33 passes made
Barry - 48 / 53
DeJong - 41 / 43
Milner - 29 / 36
Yaya Toure - 36 / 37
Tevez - 23 / 26

NB: Gerrard - 49 / 63 outpassed by Barry and DeJong

Benchmark: Scholes - 78 / 83 Fulham; 76 / 85 Newcastle

Wow at Yaya, his passing ability is second to none and you're forgetting that half of Johno's 'passes' are crosses which is a 50/50 chance, unlike Gerrard and Barry for example who are there to play it simple and across the midfield where they know they have a guarenteed reciever.

 

[Tricky_Trev]

backs up the theory that most of his failed passes were attempts to find someone in the box.

the ability to find team mates in the box, is the holy grail for any attacking player. if he added that to his game he really would be a world beater, but he's new to this league, hopefully as he gets used to the pace of the game and the movement of our players, this will improve. at the moment, he's not that good at it, and to be fair, we aren't getting that many bodies in the box on a regular basis.

by winning penalties and causing havoc, he's still doing more than enough at present.

How accurate are those chalkboard thingys? I mean... where's Johnson's pass to Milner for Barry's goal? It's not even on there. I really don't think you can use chalkboards for any kind of analysis. Sometimes i wonder if they just make it up and randomly arrange a load of arrows on Paint or something.

 

[Rammyblues]

Don't want to put a dampner on an excellent performance last night but I will reserve full judgement to see what he does against a full back not a centre back playing out of position.

 

[skillman]

Don't want to put a dampner on an excellent performance last night but I will reserve full judgement to see what he does against a full back not a centre back playing out of position.

People say that Kuyt is underated and unfairly called 'just a workhorse' but last night he played against a centre back out of position in Lescott.

 

[persvenality cult]

How accurate are those chalkboard thingys? I mean... where's Johnson's pass to Milner for Barry's goal? It's not even on there. I really don't think you can use chalkboards for any kind of analysis. Sometimes i wonder if they just make it up and randomly arrange a load of arrows on Paint or something.

pretty accurate in general...

but that's a good question

I think what's happened is they've judged that Johnson's pass clipped Agger's toes on the way through, it's shown as an incomplete pass to Agger.