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Club Focus – Manchester City – Adam Johnson the pick of Manchester City’s England stars
Six Manchester City players were on the field by the time the final whistle blew on England’s impressive 3-1 victory over Switzerland. On from the start, Gareth Barry forged an impressive partnership with the adventurous Steven Gerrard in the centre of midfield. Steady and accurate in his passing over the international games, he never found himself as isolated as he did when embarrassed by Mesut Ozil for Germany’s fourth goal in that infamous second-round defeat in South Africa. Joleon Lescott has often looked a nervous figure on his isolated appearances for England. On Tuesday he reverted to club type – rarely flustered and using his athleticism to neutralise the ponderous Swiss attack. Nerves are antithetical to Joe Hart’s approach to goalkeeping. Whilst his handling was occasionally suspect in Switzerland, he had pre-emptively atoned for that with two fantastic saves with the score at 1-0 against Bulgaria. Having spared Glen Johnson’s blushes, his reflex save facing Dimitar Rangelov’s shot drew comparisons to Peter Schmeichel James Milner’s versatility saw him ease into his role on the left side of a midfield four, supplementing his work-rate with purposeful bursts down the wing – one of which drew the challenge from which Stephen Lichtsteiner was red-carded.
Each player justified Fabio Capello’s faith in him, their assured performances crucial to stabilising an England team hoping to renew the public’s faith and support. Yet it was a substitute who stole all hearts and headlines away. Adam Johnson is in many ways an anachronism, a hark back to the days football was played on pitches more mud than turf, the ball leather and laced and full-backs were tough-as-teak, stoic defenders. Since joining City from Middlesbrough in a bargain £7 million January deal Johnson has grown more muscular. Taking to the field on Friday and Tuesday the less educated viewers would still have presumed him a boy amongst men. Chicken-legged and knock-kneed, he looks less like an international footballer than the archetypal Comic Book hero who overcomes adversity, accompanied by nobody but his faithful dog, run rings around opponents in his rags.
And humiliate he did. So often football today is consumed by fear. Terrified of the consequences of making mistakes or upsetting the tactical balance of the team, players forego their individuality. The mundane is preferred to the magical. A sideways pass rather than a trick becomes instinct. Consumed by worry, Ashley Young, Theo Walcott and Shaun Wright-Phillips have constantly passed up chances to impress, their touch heavy, their finishing poor and passing inaccurate. Johnson, on the contrary, was hampered by no such fear. His instinct when receiving the ball, whether on the left wing where he started his career as understudy to Stewart Downing at Middlesbrough or on the right where he plays the majority of his football, is to turn towards goal. He reduced the pitch to a one-on-one battle with his man-marker. More often than not he defeats him.
Growing up idolising Ryan Giggs, he matches pace with assured technique. He was equally comfortable taking on his marker on the outside as he was cutting inside to shoot. His first touch against Bulgaria was a shot steered wide from twenty yards. Not to be deterred he implored the ball in the same position moments later. This time the ball hit the back of the net.
The old cliché of leaving the pitch with chalk on his boots doesn’t necessarily apply to Johnson. His awareness of his teammates is a facet of his game which has improved immeasurably since joining City. Seeing him gliding inside two challenges before weighting a perfect through-ball to Wayne Rooney in the first-half of the Switzerland game may have came as a surprise to Middlesbrough supporters who sometimes criticised him of being too slow to release the ball. His head no longer in his chest, the winger’s heightened awareness sees him link with his teammates equally as well as he isolates his opponents. He sees opportunities that he would have passed up earlier in his career. A subtle dart in from the right wing and he latched on to Stephen Gerrard’s slide-rule pass. Talent and instinct took him beyond the stricken Diego Benaglio in the Switzerland goal and his finish at high speed was more composed than it looked. More than the goal at Wembley, it announced him as an indispensable component of England’s squad.
At the same time as the other City players began to prove that, in spite of the disastrous World Cup, they are capable international players, Adam Johnson provided a glimpse of what might have been. No use looking back to his omission now, though. Better to anticipate the future – a future which is brighter for England and Manchester City with Johnson at the heart of it. Blackburn on Saturday are fearful of being his next victims.
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