Johnston: Academy Breakout of the Year

This season’s academy breakout was Johnston. Mainly a wide attacker, he was asked to lead the line at Ibrox at New Year and some remember that rather than the string of performances that saw him establish himself in the first team squad.

2018/19 Appearances

With a mere 230 minutes banked prior to this season, the 20-year-old made the match day squad 39 times.

He managed to rack up 23 appearances across the season although only completed 90 minutes once. Of the academy graduates to feature this season in the squad (Church, Welsh, Henderson, K. Dembele and Oko-flex) Johnston easily had the most game time. For the purposes of this analysis I will rank Johnston against the other attacking midfielders and forwards who completed over 900 minutes – a population of nine players (Rogic, Forrest, Hayes, Sinclair, Johnston, Christie, Griffiths, Burke and Edouard).

2018/19 Ball Progression / Creativity

Firstly creativity.

Numbers are per 90m

Johnston’s sweet spot should be evident here – his ability to take the ball forward on the dribble. He ranks best on the squad at completing dribbles that take opponents out the game. He also is highly successful with the dribbles he attempts, with a squad leading 56% completion. Played primarily as a winger in the youth teams, his crossing is also impressive. Although not attempting a huge volume of crosses, his 18% completion rate is again the best in the squad. Where Johnston has not made such a mark is in turning those crosses and dribbles into chances. With 1 assist, his overall rate is the lowest of the attacking peer group. His xA is 8^th lowest as is the overall number of chances created per 90m. In terms of establishing play, he is average around completing all passes and Pack Passes. Although not shown, he is 2^nd best in Secondary Assist creation with 1.27 per 90m. Only Forrest is higher. So, he seems to get involved in the build up play but less in the final delivery to create chances.

2018/19 Goal Threat

Johnston managed an impressive 5 goals including 2 doubles against Dundee and Heart of Midlothian. When the annual striker crisis hit, he even filled in as a central striker in the course of 5 matches.

Numbers are per 90m

Johnston’s shot selection seems to be very considered. He does not take a lot of shots, but has very few blocked. 74% of them are from inside the box and his Accuracy is 2^nd in the squad at 52%. Therefore, he choses his shots well. And this season that worked out well for him. A very respectable 0.42 goals per 90m was ahead of his xG. Only Edouard had a better All Shot Conversion rate than Johnston’s 16%. With 0.17 Big Chances per match, Johnston is getting into good scoring positions. Where he needs to continue to work is off the ball. His Pack Receive rate is the lowest of all the attackers. This reflects on his ability to find space, to receive and control forward passes.

2018/19 Overall Attacking Threat

With a more than respectable scoring rate but a lowly assist rate, his Scoring Contribution data is mixed.

Numbers are per 90m

Only Rogic (nightmare season – see Rogic and the Slopes of Doom) and Hayes (played in defence on occasion) have lower overall Scoring Contributions than Johnston. It would not be a surprise for a young player to need to improve his all-round game.

2018/19 Defending

Finally, to round out the analysis, defensive performances, given his primary position is as a wide player.

Numbers are per 90m

Johnston’s DASR is quite healthy at 29%, just 1% below Forrest who is usually the bench mark for winger defending. He does get caught in possession a lot though as shown by the high Dispossessed and Unsuccessful Challenges numbers. His speed of movement means that his intercept rate is 2^nd amongst the 9 attackers. Overall, his defensive numbers are better than some might think given his relatively slight frame.

Summary

Johnston is the one academy graduate given significant minutes this season. He responded with encouraging scoring data although there are suggestions in the numbers, he will find it difficult to maintain those rates. So far, chance creation has not been shown as a strength and he will need to broaden his attacking threat to justify selection. His dribbling and crossing are real strengths but he needs to improve his off the ball movement, and ball protection. He only completed 1 full match suggesting he has a way to go to improve stamina and be trusted for the 90 minutes. It is a promising start for Johnston but he faces significant competition in the positions he favours.