Tottenham Hotspur boss Ange Postecoglou felt that Brennan Johnson ‘ran out of legs’ against Wolverhampton Wanderers.
Brennan Johnson ‘could have been a bit more positive’ in Tottenham Hotspur’s defeat at Wolverhampton Wanderers.
That is the verdict of boss Ange Postecoglou, who has been speaking to Football London after Saturday’s defeat.
Tottenham fans probably knew this would be a difficult game with no Cristian Romero, Micky van de Ven, Destiny Udogie or James Maddison.
Johnson did give Spurs the lead early on, but Tottenham couldn’t add a second and were made to pay as Wolves scored twice in the final stages to complete a remarkable turnaround.
Ange Postecoglou comments on Brennan Johnson display
Johnson gave Tottenham a dream start, tapping home Pedro Porro’s cross in the opening few minutes at Molineux.
The Welshman was handed a start on the left flank as he looks to get his Tottenham career kickstarted.
Johnson – a £47.5million deadline day signing from Nottingham Forest – has endured a tricky start having picked up an injury in September.
Now back in action, Johnson needs minutes and sadly had to be sacrificed in the first half against Chelsea on Monday.
That means Johnson isn’t quite fully fit and Postecoglou felt that he ultimately ‘ran out of legs’ against Wolves, seemingly exhausted before being substituted for Bryan Gil on 75 minutes.
Postecoglou believes Johnson could have been more positive in the first half, calling on him to make more of an impact in the final third.
The Australian feels there is a real goal threat from Johnson but he really needs minutes to find his best form.
“I hope so. It’s not the only measure,” said Postecoglou. “He’s one of the ones I think could have been a bit more positive for us in the first half but again Brennan’s not really had a clear run at it.”
“He’s had a real disrupted beginning to his career for us and I think the more we can get him into these situations there’s definitely goals in him. There’s more of a goal threat in him but again you could see at the end he ran out of legs because he hasn’t played a lot of football since the start of the year,” he added.
Johnson can nail down left-sided role for Tottenham
Tottenham clearly have major belief in Johnson – that’s why they spent heavily on him on deadline day.
Johnson’s start in North London has been slower than hoped but there is now a real chance for him to become a fixture of Postecoglou’s side.
Son Heung-min has moved up front this season and Richarlison didn’t exactly make the left wing position his own.
Johnson is now starting there and showed what he can do by scoring Tottenham’s opener at Molineux.
We need to see more of that and if Johnson can stay fit, we think he can make an enormous impact this season.
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