Who Is Brennan Johnson?
The EFL Championship is a league filled with talented players who will eventually make a name for themselves in the Premier League.
In the last summer transfer window, we saw Michael Olise, Emi Buendia, and Adam Armstrong move up to Premier League football and Arnaut Danjuma move up to La Liga and UEFA Champions League football.
This Championship season is no different with several highly talented young players and their exodus to the Premier League has already started with Fabio Carvalho all but certain to join Liverpool.
Another young player who could well be making the step up to Premier League football is Welsh youngster Brennan Johnson.
Johnson has been an integral part of Steve Coopers revival of Nottingham Forest.
It has recently been announced as the EFL Championship’s young player of the year, an award previously won by Olise and Jude Bellingham.
He is currently being linked with Newcastle United, Leeds United and Brentford; however, if Nottingham Forest manages to achieve promotion, signing Johnson will become much harder.
This tactical analysis and scout report will examine Johnson’s game and some of the key attributes that have allowed him to win the EFL Championship Young Player of the Season.
It will also identify any potential areas he may need to improve.
Brennan Johnson Position
Johnson can best be described as a complete forward playing part of a striker partnership in Nottingham Forests 3-4-1-2 tactic.
Now, Johnson has a wide skill range that allows him to be deployed in a number of different roles, including as a number 10 or winger. That’s not to say these are his best positions, but he does have the skill set to play there.
As part of his role as a striker, Johnson does love to drift wide and occupy space on the wide right.
Nottingham Forrest playing without conventional wide men allows Johnson to drift wide into these areas.
Despite being comfortable in wide areas, Johnson is as comfortable playing more centrally and playing like a more traditional striker.
Johnsons tendency to drift wide can be reinforced by looking at his heatmap.
Johnson displays blistering speed and acceleration to get away from defenders both on and off the ball, which also makes him a real asset in attacking transition situations for Nottingham Forest.
He also demonstrates great link-up play which will be discussed further in this analysis.
