Player Spotlight
Should Eddie Johnson Be a Starter or a Role Player?
Lethal in the air but not always the best at maintaining possession or pushing the attack forward, Eddie Johnson is a curious piece of the puzzle for the United States. Christopher McCollum explores the data.
EDDIE JOHNSON is a polarizing figure in the United States national team.
He became a young star in Major League Soccer and translated that success to the international stage; followed the money to Europe, where he struggled to the point of irrelevance for club and country; and then made a triumphant return to the U.S., playing a prominent role with both the Seattle Sounders and earning his way back into Jurgen Klinsmann's squad.
His fall from grace and subsequent return to glory is the sort of trajectory that drives many American sports films, and Johnson's fans are loud and loyal. He has scored seven goals in 16 games since rejoining the national team last year, including game winning goals against Antigua & Barbuda and Mexico.
Johnson is also a good luck charm for the national team, as it has not lost a game that he has scored in since he returned to the team in October 2012. The U.S., in fact, boasts an overall record of 14-1-1 in games where he’s found the back of the net. The results are tremendously positive and can’t be argued. Or can they? While Johnson has had a great strike rate as of late, a statistical analysis of Johnson's goals raises a key question: Is he a must-start player for Klinsmann, or a key role player who should come off the bench or play when others on the roster are unavailable?
All told Johnson has tallied 19 times for the U.S. national team: eight goals via header; six via unmarked tap-in, either without a goalkeeper or within 10 yards of goal, three breakaway situations where he has beaten an offside trap; one rebound tap-in; one goal off of a scrum from a shot off the crossbar; and one penalty kick.
Compared to other notable goal scorers currently with the team, Johnson’s percentage of headed goals is vastly superior to his peers. Among current players with 10 or more goals for the national team, only Altidore and Clint Dempsey are worth mentioning, and they do not come close to Johnson’s percentage of header goals.
One of the glaring points in these statistics though, is that out of those goals, Johnson has played a direct role in creating the play only two times, and in none of them did he create the goal by himself (unless you count his physical ability as creating chances, which you certainly can).
He has had nice plays in his national team career, he has converted some pretty combinations, but his stat sheet shows him to be an opportunistic striker more than a creative one. This is not to disparage the opportunistic striker—they are needed at every level and can be more efficient than those who dribble and dash. The bigger thing to read into Johnson’s stat line is that he is an effective target man, powerful in the air, and possesses the ability to render defenses useless on set pieces. There will always be a place for that, but we have to ask the question about whether or not it warrants as much time on the playing field as it gets. With Klinsmann’s ambitions of turning the team into an attacking unit, and showing some valid progress towards that goal this year, having Johnson on the field for the bulk of the game is counterintuitive if you look at his tactical and technical miscues either killing counter attacks, losing possession in the forward third, or in the case against Bosnia, giving up possession that directly resulted in a goal.
Johnson’s role on the team is to be that target man, but Klinsmann views him as an adequate option for the left wing, putting a heavy weight on Johnson’s shoulders for participating in counterattacks and possession play. He simply is not able to play up to the speed of his teammates, and this has proven frustrating for observers of the team. This frustrating lack in the level of his play should be equalized by his proficiency in the goalbox, but there’s another aspect that must be examined as well: Though Johnson scores goals, which teams does he score against?
The U.S. doesn’t have the luxury of being close neighbors to UEFA or CONMEBOL opponents, and the bulk of CONCACAF opponents sit outside of the FIFA Top 50. Johnson’s goals largely come against that competition, where they are useful for purposes of World Cup Qualifying or Gold Cup success, but he has shown to be largely unable to convert against the top competition that Brazil will offer next year. He has scored against 12 countries, with Guatemala, Honduras, Panama, and El Salvador being the teams he has scored against multiple times. Of the 12 countries he has scored against, only five—Mexico, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Panama, Honduras, and Argentina—sit in the Top 50. Prior to this year, only Argentina was on the list of teams he has scored against in the Top 50. Putting it another way, Johnson has faced Top 50 competition more than 20 times during his national team career, and he has only scored in five of them. A success rate under 25 percent is not acceptable for an international caliber striker who gets regular playing time. Because of this, we should look at a more specialized, and limited, role for Johnson than he currently has under Klinsmann.
There is need for target strikers on the national team, and there is room for them. They should get playing time, and they should play in specific areas of the field that optimize their qualities while minimizing their inadequacies. Johnson, for one, thrives coming off the bench and scoring late goals—as he did for the United States against El Salvador this summer. Should that be Johnson's role? A super sub who delivers the knockout blow? Or should he play on the left wing, where Klinsmann has used him on multiple occasions?
Considering his skill set, and the manner in which he scores goals, it seems fairly obvious that Johnson's ideal position is target striker. That's where he should play. But with Altidore and Dempsey ahead of him in the depth chart, as well as Aron Johannsson and Herculez Gomez in line to challenge Johnson for playing time, it's easy to envision a scenario where Klinsmann opts to push Johnson out to the wing and ask him to play a position that doesn't suit his strengths.
Eddie Johnson offers something that few others in the U.S. national team pool can provide: a reliable aerial prowess. Among target strikers in the box, he is twice as likely to score with his head as his closest peers.
With Fabian Johnson getting increased minutes on the left flank and Graham Zusi having opportunities on the right, there will come a time when the United States is playing the world’s best and needs to convert a set piece to get a result. It’s at that time when Eddie Johnson will need to be in the box, looking to improve on that 25 percent goal-scoring rate against Top 50 teams. It’s in those games where he must be utilized up top as a target man, because without a consistent ability to possess and control the game through the midfield and transition into the attacking third against the world’s best teams, scoring through the air on a set piece will likely be the Americans' best opportunity. Johnson is a necessary component to the team, but the numbers indicate that he’s that sort of role player, not a starter.
This is Christopher McCollum's first piece for American Soccer Now. Follow him on Twitter.
Compared to other notable goal scorers currently with the team, Johnson’s percentage of headed goals is vastly superior to his peers. Among current players with 10 or more goals for the national team, only Altidore and Clint Dempsey are worth mentioning, and they do not come close to Johnson’s percentage of header goals.
One of the glaring points in these statistics though, is that out of those goals, Johnson has played a direct role in creating the play only two times, and in none of them did he create the goal by himself (unless you count his physical ability as creating chances, which you certainly can).
He has had nice plays in his national team career, he has converted some pretty combinations, but his stat sheet shows him to be an opportunistic striker more than a creative one. This is not to disparage the opportunistic striker—they are needed at every level and can be more efficient than those who dribble and dash. The bigger thing to read into Johnson’s stat line is that he is an effective target man, powerful in the air, and possesses the ability to render defenses useless on set pieces. There will always be a place for that, but we have to ask the question about whether or not it warrants as much time on the playing field as it gets. With Klinsmann’s ambitions of turning the team into an attacking unit, and showing some valid progress towards that goal this year, having Johnson on the field for the bulk of the game is counterintuitive if you look at his tactical and technical miscues either killing counter attacks, losing possession in the forward third, or in the case against Bosnia, giving up possession that directly resulted in a goal.
Johnson’s role on the team is to be that target man, but Klinsmann views him as an adequate option for the left wing, putting a heavy weight on Johnson’s shoulders for participating in counterattacks and possession play. He simply is not able to play up to the speed of his teammates, and this has proven frustrating for observers of the team. This frustrating lack in the level of his play should be equalized by his proficiency in the goalbox, but there’s another aspect that must be examined as well: Though Johnson scores goals, which teams does he score against?
The U.S. doesn’t have the luxury of being close neighbors to UEFA or CONMEBOL opponents, and the bulk of CONCACAF opponents sit outside of the FIFA Top 50. Johnson’s goals largely come against that competition, where they are useful for purposes of World Cup Qualifying or Gold Cup success, but he has shown to be largely unable to convert against the top competition that Brazil will offer next year. He has scored against 12 countries, with Guatemala, Honduras, Panama, and El Salvador being the teams he has scored against multiple times. Of the 12 countries he has scored against, only five—Mexico, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Panama, Honduras, and Argentina—sit in the Top 50. Prior to this year, only Argentina was on the list of teams he has scored against in the Top 50. Putting it another way, Johnson has faced Top 50 competition more than 20 times during his national team career, and he has only scored in five of them. A success rate under 25 percent is not acceptable for an international caliber striker who gets regular playing time. Because of this, we should look at a more specialized, and limited, role for Johnson than he currently has under Klinsmann.
There is need for target strikers on the national team, and there is room for them. They should get playing time, and they should play in specific areas of the field that optimize their qualities while minimizing their inadequacies. Johnson, for one, thrives coming off the bench and scoring late goals—as he did for the United States against El Salvador this summer. Should that be Johnson's role? A super sub who delivers the knockout blow? Or should he play on the left wing, where Klinsmann has used him on multiple occasions?
Considering his skill set, and the manner in which he scores goals, it seems fairly obvious that Johnson's ideal position is target striker. That's where he should play. But with Altidore and Dempsey ahead of him in the depth chart, as well as Aron Johannsson and Herculez Gomez in line to challenge Johnson for playing time, it's easy to envision a scenario where Klinsmann opts to push Johnson out to the wing and ask him to play a position that doesn't suit his strengths.
Eddie Johnson offers something that few others in the U.S. national team pool can provide: a reliable aerial prowess. Among target strikers in the box, he is twice as likely to score with his head as his closest peers.
With Fabian Johnson getting increased minutes on the left flank and Graham Zusi having opportunities on the right, there will come a time when the United States is playing the world’s best and needs to convert a set piece to get a result. It’s at that time when Eddie Johnson will need to be in the box, looking to improve on that 25 percent goal-scoring rate against Top 50 teams. It’s in those games where he must be utilized up top as a target man, because without a consistent ability to possess and control the game through the midfield and transition into the attacking third against the world’s best teams, scoring through the air on a set piece will likely be the Americans' best opportunity. Johnson is a necessary component to the team, but the numbers indicate that he’s that sort of role player, not a starter.
This is Christopher McCollum's first piece for American Soccer Now. Follow him on Twitter.
