Brennan Johnson’s life at Tottenham didn’t start as he would have liked and his problems continued against Everton.
Spurs had to settle for a point as they drew 2-2 with the Toffees at Goodison Park on Saturday 3 February.
Richarlison’s goal was cancelled out as Everton twice came from behind, but Jarrad Branthwaite scored the equaliser in the 94th minute to break the hearts of the visiting fans.
It was a tough game and far from the visitors’ best performance this season, as they seemed to struggle at times with the atmosphere at Goodison Park, especially in the closing stages of the game.
Ange Postecoglou opted to start Brennan Johnson in place of Dejan Kulusevskiy, as Tottenham News announced during the week, but as has often been the case this season, the Welsh international was unsuccessful.
The problems continue:
Since his £47.5million transfer from Nottingham Forest in the summer (Sky Sports News, 2 September 2023), things have not been easy for Johnson.
He has scored just two goals and four assists in 17 Premier League appearances for Tottenham, and although he was among the goalscorers against the Bees last time out, he has failed to build on that momentum at Goodison Park.
According to Sofascore, the striker completed only 40 per cent of his passes, which will be particularly disappointing for Postecoglou, given the manager’s preference for possession-based football.
He failed to redirect the ball accurately into the box in one attempt and failed to successfully carry a long ball forward in two attempts. He did not show quality on the ball, completing only 50 % of his dribbling attempts.
If he had problems penetrating forward, he also had great difficulty when the ball was coming the other way.
He won only three of his seven duels on the ground and none of his three duels in the air, was outplayed once and gave the ball away 11 times.
Spurs fans will obviously have to be patient, as Spurs expert John Wenham pointed out earlier.
While Postecoglou will still want to give the 22-year-old more time to establish himself, the Australian will be hoping that the club’s investment will start to pay off sooner or later.