Confusion about Adam Johnson

[beautiful_mind]

Johnson ?? OMG !!
Greatest source of frustration for me personally .This guy has the biggest potential in the team but he is so freaking misusing his talent so i feel seek watching his games. Is that difficult with his speed make 20 miters run and make a simple cross ??? Is that difficult to lift up your head to see where the teammates are on the field ?? I am afraid Manchini does not have that touch or the authority to make Johnson adapt his game to the team. A single weekend crush course with Mourihno would make this player the biggest resource in City. Just few things to change the guy has all tools he needs ,just need to apply them properly !!!

 

[lee-mcfc]

ten times better when he comes off the bench
running at tired defenders..hes excellent

when he starts hes not that good imo..

 

[c4lv3rt]

ten times better when he comes off the bench
running at tired defenders..hes excellent

when he starts hes not that good imo..

I agree that he's a better impact player atm, saying that he should be striving to get in the first 11 at all costs which means performing in games consistently!

 

[teddykgb]

I'll take up the mantle and defend him, since I think just about every post in this thread has been varying degrees of wrong.

Johnson is just a very different player from most of our lot, but he puts immense pressure on the defense and is probably our only player who can do something with the ball at his feet, which garners him a lot more attention and also means that he ends up with much less space to work in. These types of players are going to be hit and miss, because they're basically trying to employ ball tricks in 1 on 1 and 1 on 2 situations to create space, and that's fantastically hard to do. What most of you see as wasteful possession I see as an opportunity. I'm an American, so this analogy works well for me, but even the best baseball players only get on base 4 out of 10 times, and I think dribble players like Johnson have to have a similar mentality. He's going to make moves and fail far more often than he's going to succeed--but that's completely ok, because when he does succeed he's instantly created a chance. It's just the nature of the beast and the cost of creativity. It's just as wasteful when Yaya or Silva try an aggressive pass up field that ends up as a goal kick, but most of us are willing to tolerate 4 or 5 of those a match in the interests of creating opportunities, so why are 4 or 5 runs by Johnson such a tragedy?

In my opinion, Johnson really suffers because of our slow build up play. Everyone on here likes to label him as an impact sub, which I think couldn't be further from the truth (if you believe he's got to make a series of runs at a fullback to find success, you don't shorten his opportunities to do so by limiting his time on the pitch), but what he really needs is to have a stretched or strained defense to run at. He's actually quite remarkable at beating a single man, probably one of the best in the entire PL, but he's often running at 2 and 3 men because the entire defense is setup by the time we get him the ball. He often looks like he "disappears" because most of his appearances come when we manage to break fast and play him forward on the wing, which we seldom do more than 2-3 times a game. The rest of the match he's a ball trick winger running at a setup defensive line, and that's always going to be tough, but I don't think the problem is solved by removing Johnson, we just need to be better in attack to leverage one of the very few creative players we have. When Johnson isn't out there and we roll with someone like Milner, we become impossibly slow and direct and lack the ability to have a chance of opening up the defense, which is what Johnson brings.

It's sort of funny how we as City fans all seem to want these impact players but aren't willing to recognize that sometimes things aren't going to come off and a player is going to seem "wasteful" as a result.

 

[Tricky_Trev]

Hugely over-hyped due to his nationality. It annoys me that Mancini gets tonnes of stick from the press and pundits when he benches him, when it is Mancini that is correctly reading the situation. Should be used as an impact player.

 

[bluelol]

So to me AJ is one of our more confusing players. Some games he looks like "The Next Big Thing" and others he looks like he is auditioning for The Invisible Man.

His last three games for us have been really mediocre: Liverpool (though, to be fair, the entire team was wank that day), United (I know we say everyone was great but how much do you remember from Johnson in this game?), and Blackburn

In each, he had one or two of his dangerous moments but I don't remember them leading to anything. More often than not, he was invisible and contributed nothing. Against Blackburn he then had the audacity to have a mini-hissy fit like Milner when being taken off.

(Milner hasn't appeared since)

But what I noticed is that in the first half against Blackburn he was switched to the left with Kolarov for a few minutes and instantly had more of the ball, looked more dangerous, and more natural. Then in the second half he was back on the right and invisible again. That made me wonder if his tantrum was down to knowing he had more impact in a few minutes on the left than he'd had on the right.

Milner, the other tantrum thrower, is also played in a position that is not his best. So is this the player(s) underperforming or are they suffering from Bobby's love of playing several personnel (Johnson, Milner, Boateng) out of their best position? I want Johnson to succeed because at his best he is amazing (and chips in quite a few goals) but am seeing alarming signs of stagnation and would not be surprised if he is benched for West Ham.

Frustrates the shit out of me sometimes,

 

[DalbeyINUK]

Mancini said at the beginning of the season that he has a lot to learn and isn't the superstar he might think he is - yet!

Johnson needs to learn to become more visible and get himself into more space. He seems to be so easy to mark out of the game as he just wanders about waiting for the ball to be played rather than getting himself into space where getting the outcome is more likely to be a decent shot or cross rather than him lose it as he runs into four defenders.

Once again Mancini's controversial decision proves to be spot on.

This is a really good point, and is my number one gripe with AJ. He has the talent and ability to be a serious play-maker ala David Silva, but he doesn't have the work rate yet that DS has. If DS doesn't have the ball he's constantly moving trying to get into space to receive it or making runs into the box trying to cause havoc or running the opposing team down trying to win it back. AJ really needs to learn this skill to take his game to the next level.

 

[uwe282828]

He could become a true city legend but only as a left winger.he`s already getting found out onthe right hand side.

 

[Johnsonontheleft]

He could become a true city legend but only as a left winger.he`s already getting found out onthe right hand side.

This.

The lad has played on the left since he was barely out of nappies. Play him in his natural position please Roberto, Dzeko will thank you for it.

 

[taconinja]

He could become a true city legend but only as a left winger.he`s already getting found out onthe right hand side.

This.

The lad has played on the left since he was barely out of nappies. Play him in his natural position please Roberto, Dzeko will thank you for it.

Why? I don't think he's a very good crosser from either side.