James Maddison lifted his arms in the air, acting as the conductor for Tottenham Hotspur’s supporters as he urged them to create more noise.
Ange Postecoglou’s side had just taken a 2-1 lead against Brentford on Saturday after they recovered from the shock of conceding inside 25 seconds. It was a significant moment as they wrestled back control of the game and took a huge step towards winning for only the second time in the league this season.
Following back-to-back defeats to Newcastle United and Arsenal, plus an unconvincing last-gasp Carabao Cup victory over Championship side Coventry City in midweek, this was the tonic everybody needed to lift their spirits, but the identity of the goalscorer at that particular moment was crucial to the feeling of goodwill which enveloped the fans.
Last week, Brennan Johnson deactivated his Instagram account due to the abuse he received after Spurs lost that north London derby at home. The 23-year-old forward then started on the bench against Coventry, before scoring the winner in second-half stoppage time. His muted celebration suggested what happened off the pitch had taken its toll.
That is why, when Johnson burst past Nathan Collins and drilled a right-footed shot past goalkeeper Mark Flekken in the 28th minute, the crowd at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium erupted.
Johnson shushed the Brentford fans, still bitter that their club made multiple offers to sign him from Nottingham Forest but failed to complete a deal, and was then surrounded by his team-mates as chants of ‘There’s only one Brennan Johnson’ rang out loudly.
The Wales international had scored in consecutive matches for the first time since he joined Spurs from Forest last August for £47.5million ($63.2m at the current exchange rate). The last time he found the net in back-to-back club games was in May 2022, when Forest were on their way to promotion from the Championship.
Maddison wanted him to enjoy the moment, which he deserved.
“He works so hard for the team and made so many runs in behind to stretch Brentford,” Maddison told The Athletic. “How many times did he come short and Pedro (Porro, Spurs’ right-back) clipped a ball for him to chase? It creates more space in the middle for me and (Dejan) Kulusevski. Unselfish stuff like that people don’t always see.
“So when he does score, and they can shout his name, I was just getting them going. That will mean a lot to him and his family here. That is back-to-back goals. He is a great kid and I love him so I was just trying to give him confidence.”
Head coach Postecoglou admitted the forward had endured a “tough period” but has not spoken to him directly to offer further support. Johnson has, unfairly, become a scapegoat for sections of the fanbase but his performances are symbolic of the long-term project Postecoglou is overseeing.
This is a young squad with vast potential, who are growing together as a group and learning to become more consistent. Mistakes are going to happen. Tottenham spent a lot of money on Johnson because he could both contribute immediately and potentially develop into an elite winger. That is still a work in progress.
Last season, Johnson scored five times from a figure for expected goals (xG) — a metric that measures the quality of chances a team creates — of 10.6. As such, he was the biggest underperformer in front of goal in the Premier League behind Everton striker Dominic Calvert-Lewin.
If he continues to work hard on the training pitch, you would expect the quality of his finishing to improve — it was certainly a crisp strike that beat Flekken.
Johnson created the fourth-most chances from open play (45) for Tottenham in the Premier League last season, behind Maddison (47), Kulusevski (66) and Son Heung-min (67) but started fewer games than all of them. He was joint-top with Son for league assists (10).
Postecoglou used Son, Richarlison and, on rare occasions, Kulusevski at centre-forward last season. Now he has £65million club-record signing Dominic Solanke to play off, do not be surprised if Johnson benefits from having a consistent presence up front and registers even more assists than that.
Johnson’s overall performance against Brentford demonstrated how much of a devastating attacker he can be.
Thomas Frank’s visitors lined up in a 3-5-2 formation, with Collins as the left centre-back and Keane Lewis-Potter as an aggressive left wing-back who pushed high up the pitch. That meant Johnson had large pockets of space to drive directly at Collins in.
Kulusevski created a good opportunity for the Welshman in the 10th minute but his shot flashed past the post. In the second half, Cristian Romero launched a counter-attack which ended with Johnson dragging another attempt wide, before lifting his shirt up over his head in frustration while Postecoglou dropped his hands to his knees.
These are the moments where Johnson needs to become more clinical, which Postecoglou acknowledged before the game, while not every opposing team will afford him as much space as Brentford did.
“With Brennan, it is just the consistency in his game, which we are constantly working on with him,” Postecoglou said on Friday. “He is always getting into good areas, it’s about decision-making at certain times in that front third but it is a difficult position to play as a young player; once he unlocks in his head the stuff he is really good at and adjusts his game to get the most out of that aspect of it, he will become a very important player.
“He works hard on that every day and sometimes people just look at goals and assists, which is the obvious measure for attacking players. He gives us a lot of other things, particularly working hard defensively. When he first came to us it wasn’t something natural to him, but he has got a lot better at that. Now it’s putting layers on his game.”
At the end of a week which has been a rollercoaster of emotions, Johnson will be hoping his latest match-winning contributions can be a springboard for an exciting second year with Spurs.
(Top photo: Johnson shushed booing Brentford fans – and his critics; Alex Pantling/Getty Images)