Mikey Johnston

Best thing we did was get him on that contract when Chelsea were trying to get him for fuckall..

Will need a new one at some point soon..

 

As i said the other week. He feels he is ready and he absolutely looks ready. Terrified the defenders when he came on.

 

It's going to be his breakthrough season, the boy is a talent

 

Money..

 

A breath of fresh air to watch.

 

I don't understand your reply. We had the option on his contract, and we took it.

 

We will get a fee now, if we punt..

If he stays I’m sure he’ll play a part, just seems down the pecking order with Johnston, Morgan, Shved all featuring more and Arzani to come back too.

 

Not having a go at Boli here, it's still very early days with him, but when Johnston came on, totally changed the dynamic down the left side. In the second half especially their defence didn't know how to deal with him.

 

Wingers naturally will draw 2-3 players towards them as the opposition look to support the full back for protection, bog standard tactic teams employ for dangerous wingers, however, that tactic is a waste of time with Mikey.

Sinky would hit a brick wall in that situation and recycle. Jamesy is a bit more capable, can get to the bye-line or cut inside. Mikey however can draw those 3 players in and take them on effectively, his close control is tight, as I’ve said before, his feints are obscene, bamboozles everyone watching but what I like most about him is his decision making and at such a young age it bodes well for what he can develop in to.

Talking about his decision making, compare it to Sinky, quite predictable, 80% of the time he wants to push the two defenders back to about 14-16 yards on the wing to cut inside for a far post curler. Defenders have read his typical move set for some years now, hence why he’s just not as effective.
Looking at Mikey, I’ve already mentioned his ability dribble through players, he doesn’t repeat that over and over, it’s not the only thing he has in his bag.

Disguising passes inside from the wing as soon as he receives the ball, high tempo link up with Calmac.
He’s also capable of slowing it down if options are limited, giving defenders the impression he’s going to drive at them then he releases the ball back or inside when support becomes available.
He can hit the bye-line and simply cross, take the man on, or settle for that corner if the route ends up dead.

He has so much variation in his game it’s actually frightening.

To think about the players we’re developing and already have developed, it’s an abundance of players with excellent vision, skill and tempo. Think about a well gelled and developed unit up front with Mikey/Calmac/Christie/Rogic/Jamesy/Dembele(bit later perhaps)
It’s a dream to think about, actually, Eddy almost seems out of place there, yes he has skill and pace but he sometimes appears cumbersome and off wavelength, still though, he’s young and clearly will improve as will the rest individually, and that will give us a team to entertain and terrify opposition for years!

Can’t wait for this team to fully blossom!

 

A lot of people piling a lot too much pressure on the young lad for my liking... yeah, he looks brilliant, and the potential to outshine Sinclair is there and hopefully he'll develop that this year and become the player we all want, BUT he's not the finished article yet and he's still growing into the role. If we flog Sinclair and leave him as the only real option on the left then we expose him to a form/confidence slump in a way that's far too risky for me.

Sinclair has the extension year left, and only 2.5m on the table to buy him out. He's the perfect incubator player for the young lad - we can bring him off after 50-60 if Johnston is tired, or on at that time if he's off-form. He'll always give the same effort and goals/assists. On a personal note, I want him here for the 9iar celebration too, he deserves it. He'll give us another season to bed Johnston in, and that'll be priceless in my opinion. We also won't replace for better, so why sell, when there are far greater priorities in the team/squad

 

He's growing on me, still has to pick the right decision in matches though.

Even last game, we had a break and he coulda crossed for 3 Celtic players who were breaking and he tried to outpace their player and got beat.

But he's another reason not to buy any other wide players and could maybe do a no. 10 role, not up front though.

 

Yeah your right, he's improved vastly in a quick time, tbh I thought he had no chance to make it, didn't impress me apart from a few flashes here and there but of late has did really well.

 

Great to see the lad progressing and at 20 yo there's a lot more to come. My only real criticism is his decision-making re passes, he seems a little greedy at time. At 20, though, he as time to learn.

 

Didn’t think there was any tims in Tar-B!

 

I'm the only Tim in the village... more or less.

 

He'll get over that with experience. McGregor was the same when he came back from his loan deal, he would get the ball and 9 times out of 10 would just hit a shot regardless of how unlikely he was to score. (If anything McGregor has slightly gone too far in the other direction over time and should maybe be pinging a few more shots these days, he certainly has the ability.)

Back to Mikey, once he is more used to the players round about him, and can anticipate their runs and movement better, he's more likely to pass or cross early than just shoot or try to take on one player too many.

 

Yep, I agree with that analysis. I can only see MJ improving as seasons pass.

 

If he ends up as good as McGeady we’ll be laughing.