Sam Johnstone - now retired

[mr underhill]

his kicking is awful - I watch him regularly and invariably we loose possession from it.

[paul_e]

His kicking bothers me but nothing like as much as his indecisiveness from crosses.  Far too often he  ends up 3-4 yards off his line doing nothing to cut out crosses and being in a poor position to deal with the chances that come from them.  He is a great shot stopper and often manages to throw himself in front of those shots but if he had some command of his box he'd not be in that position in the first place.  He flapped at 3-4 crosses on Tuesday and had to make a few saves because of it but against better sides they'll bury those chances,

[Mortimer's Bear]

Must just be me then but I find the negativity in this thread a little strange, I think he's a fantastic goalkeeper.

[Ad@m]

his kicking is awful - I watch him regularly and invariably we loose possession from it.

I had put that down to a tactical decision.

Not deliberately giving the ball away, but rather that it seems 90% of Johnstone's kicks get directed to Snodgrass with the other 10% going to whoever's up front on their own.  Invariably, doing that when the nearest Villa player to either of them is 30 yards away is likely to end with us losing possession.

[Clampy]

Must just be me then but I find the negativity in this thread a little strange, I think he's a fantastic goalkeeper.

I wouldn't go so far to say fantastic but I think he's been pretty decent for us overall. I hope we get to keep him.

[Nastylee]

Must just be me then but I find the negativity in this thread a little strange, I think he's a fantastic goalkeeper.

For his age, you will do well to find better. Too many goalkeeping experts on the forum these days. Let's be honest, if we don't go up he'll be snapped up by a PL club and we will be mourning his loss in a few years.

[Dave]

Must just be me then but I find the negativity in this thread a little strange, I think he's a fantastic goalkeeper.

For his age, you will do well to find better. Too many goalkeeping experts on the forum these days. Let's be honest, if we don't go up he'll be snapped up by a PL club and we will be mourning his loss in a few years.

That sounds like the prediction of a goalkeeping expert to me. To many of them around these days.

[Nastylee]

Must just be me then but I find the negativity in this thread a little strange, I think he's a fantastic goalkeeper.

For his age, you will do well to find better. Too many goalkeeping experts on the forum these days. Let's be honest, if we don't go up he'll be snapped up by a PL club and we will be mourning his loss in a few years.

That sounds like the prediction of a goalkeeping expert to me. To many of them around these days.

More like common sense/stating the bloody obvious.

[paul_e]

Must just be me then but I find the negativity in this thread a little strange, I think he's a fantastic goalkeeper.

For his age, you will do well to find better. Too many goalkeeping experts on the forum these days. Let's be honest, if we don't go up he'll be snapped up by a PL club and we will be mourning his loss in a few years.

That sounds like the prediction of a goalkeeping expert to me. To many of them around these days.

More like common sense/stating the bloody obvious.

More like you having a different opinion.

That said I've never said Johnstone won't be a good keeper, I just don't think he's ready to play top flight football right now, he's a great shot stopper but that's not enough to be a great goalkeeper, if he knows that and works on the rest of his game then he might well be the keeper that some think he already is.

[JUAN PABLO]

Johnstone

distribution 1/10
crosses       5/10
shot stopper 11/10

might help if he didnt keep kicking it up to Verne Troyer but sort that out and Id be very happy to sign him up for good.

[tomd2103]

Must just be me then but I find the negativity in this thread a little strange, I think he's a fantastic goalkeeper.

For his age, you will do well to find better. Too many goalkeeping experts on the forum these days. Let's be honest, if we don't go up he'll be snapped up by a PL club and we will be mourning his loss in a few years.

That sounds like the prediction of a goalkeeping expert to me. To many of them around these days.

More like common sense/stating the bloody obvious.

More like you having a different opinion.

That said I've never said Johnstone won't be a good keeper, I just don't think he's ready to play top flight football right now, he's a great shot stopper but that's not enough to be a great goalkeeper, if he knows that and works on the rest of his game then he might well be the keeper that some think he already is.

He's been good enough keeper for where we find ourselves at the moment.  He does have flaws though - his kicking and his general command of his area being the main ones.  I think the latter will probably come with more experience and the confidence that will bring.  As for his kicking, I think opinion is slightly skewed by the fact that he is obviously asked to kick in a very specific way out to Snodgrass on the right wing.  The 'in-to-out' strike (right footer kicking to the right wing in this case) is quite an awkward one to execute and he does get it wrong fairly often.  If we played two up front and he was just ordered to kick it straight up to them, I don't think he would struggle as much.     

[paul_e]

I agree he's been fine this season, other than the odd mistake that you'd expect but, as I've said before, I'd worry about going into a premier league season with him as the only viable option as he has bene this season.

[tomd2103]

I agree he's been fine this season, other than the odd mistake that you'd expect but, as I've said before, I'd worry about going into a premier league season with him as the only viable option as he has bene this season.

I'd go along with that Paul.  I have found myself having to have a reality check in terms of my expectations of players over the past couple of seasons, for without wishing to be unkind, they are playing in the Championship for a reason.  Villa have been a top half top flight team for most of my life and we have had players during that time that have befitted a club in that position, but we wouldn't be able to attract that quality of player in the position we are in now and I sometimes find myself still having unrealistic expectations.       

[Dave]

I agree he's been fine this season, other than the odd mistake that you'd expect but, as I've said before, I'd worry about going into a premier league season with him as the only viable option as he has bene this season.

I don't think I would, and I was pretty sceptical after his first half season.

I also don't think though that he's about to be swept away from us by a Premier League side and on to an England call-up. It wouldn't surprise me if he were our keeper whichever league we're in next season.

I think plenty of Premier League teams would be happy to have him in reserve, but he wouldn't be in the first team of more than a one or two.

[McGraths Dry Cleaning]

His kicking isn't great but then the rest of the team struggle finding our own players from throw ins and free kicks. And our corners aren't great. Isn't this just part of a general problem at Villa? We seem to struggle with the basics. We don't seem to have much movement so doesn't that make it harder finding someone from any of these situations?