Exclusive: McAvennie raves about ‘enthusiastic’ West Ham youngster Johnson
We’re delighted to welcome former West Ham United striker Frank McAvennie as our exclusive columnist. Each week he’ll be giving his views on the biggest talking points at the London Stadium…
Frank McAvennie has paid tribute to youngster Ben Johnson but claims the West Ham right-back cannot be expected to continue playing on the left.
Johnson, 21, is one of the more promising full-backs to emerge from West Ham’s academy in recent years but was a surprise inclusion in David Moyes’ starting line-up on Monday night when he played as the left-sided wing-back against Sheffield United.
It’s not the first time that Moyes has done that season as Johnson scored from that position versus Brighton in December.
However, Johnson is naturally a right-back but he has more competition for game-time in that role due to Vladimir Coufal and Ryan Fredericks seemingly being above him in the pecking order.
At left-back, Moyes likes to play Aaron Cresswell in a back-three at times and Arthur Masuaku is injured so there’s room for Johnson to shine there.
And shine he did against Sheffield United, leaving McAvennie purring over his performance.
“Johnson’s done well again,” McAvennie told West Ham Zone. “He’s young, enthusiastic and loves to play. I look at the players nowadays at West Ham and they’ve got a good squad and a good group of players. They’ve got that togetherness in them and it’s good to see.”
McAvennie added: “Johnson can play anywhere. I’m quite happy with him but I’m thinking will he want to play left-back if he’s a right-sided player?
“He’ll fill in there. He’d love to get a game there but a right-sided player doesn’t want to play on the left. He’ll do it for the team but not in the long-term.
“He might be good with both feet so some people like that. If he’s comfortable then brilliant.”
Johnson turned 21-years-of-age last month but has only made 16 senior appearances in his career so it would not be a massive shock to either see him loaned out next season or get bumped up Moyes’ pecking order.
Coufal and either Masuaku or Cresswell are going to have the left-back gig nailed down next term so the only real role for Johnson to get into is the second-choice right-back role.
Fredericks has been in and out of Moyes’ plans this season but enters the final year of his contract in the summer so we’ll see what happens with him.
However a loan move away from East London, perhaps to a decent Championship club, could do Johnson the world of good if he’s playing every week in one position.
In other West Ham news, Liverpool and Manchester United have posted an interest in Declan Rice.