One To Watch: Daniel Johnson

This week, we have been blessed with a Tuesday night game away at Preston North End. Having won their last 2 games, confidence will be high in the North West for the home side, but who will Birmingham City need to look out for in particular?

Now, in my opinion, it’s hard to choose an individual player because Preston play as a team, rather than has single players. This means they’re effective without actually having many stand out performers week in week out. This is with full respect to our hosts.

However, I have chosen Daniel Johnson as a very lethal threat. The fact that he recently signed from the enemy, Aston Villa in January, should make you dislike him, but to top it off he is actually a gifted player who will do anything to score against his Birmingham rivals come what kick off.

Goals are a realistic target for the young man as well. He has scored 7 goals in 21 games which is pretty good going for a midfielder. His late runs into the box are usually what gets Johnson on the score sheet and we really do need to track that. I’d like to see Davis play purely to keep an eye on these runners as he is the best in the squad and anticipating danger.

The other thing I have noticed is that he is very fit. He will keep sprinting up and down the pitch for the full game and therefore we need to work hard in order to try and really tire him out in the opening stages. He likes to float around, picking up the ball when he can, but he just never stops. It is like a child who has had way too many chocolate buttons. He is like Forrest Gump. This will be a major threat in the latter part of the game where inevitably we will tire.

However, the weakness in Johnson’s game is defending. He is not the best tackler and therefore simple passes around him can be achieved especially if they’re played at a higher tempo than which he can cope with.

I believe that we can easily beat him when we go forward but we have to defend his shots as they can be ferocious from outside of the box and also track his runs. If this is achieved and we can get past their resolute defence, then I am sure we have enough to take home points.