There is a lot of pressure on Brennan Johnson at Crystal Palace ahead of the 2026/27 campaign.
Expectations were high at Selhurst Park after the Eagles spent £35m to sign the Wales international from Tottenham in January, but the former Nottingham Forest star has struggled and is yet to score in 26 appearances for Crystal Palace.
Johnson can do much better, as he showed at Spurs in the 2024/25 campaign when scoring 18 goals in 51 appearances to fire the north Londoners to UEFA Europa League glory.
Tottenham fan Brogan Clasper has now spoken to We Are Palace to explain how Pierre Sage can help the Welshman – who has taken the No.23 shirt – rediscover that form.
How can Brennan Johnson make a name for himself at Crystal Palace? 🏴
Exclusive: Pierre Sage told to focus on low crosses to help Brennan Johnson
Clasper said: “Having also watched Johnson struggle towards the end of his time in north London, I can only sympathise with Palace fans. At times it felt like Johnson was only truly good at one thing – arriving at the far post and tapping the ball home. It was a real strength of his, and his 2024/25 return of 11 goals in the Premier League and five in the Europa League was largely down to that ability.
“He failed to offer much else with the ball actually at his feet, which leaves Pierre Sage with a pretty clear route to take if he wants to get the best out of Johnson: have the winger on the opposite side fire in low-driven crosses over and over.
“Without tapping into that trait, I can only imagine fans at Selhurst will grow frustrated with what Johnson offers. He may have scored the winning goal in the Europa League final, but I still struggle to believe we were able to recoup £35m for him.”
On the basis of how RC Lens played last season, the 47-year-old may actually be the perfect coach for Johnson, who was told to check his shoulder more often during Sage’s first training session.
As explained by the respected Total Football Analysis – who published a detailed report on how RC Lens played under Sage last term – the Frenchman typically instructs his players to get the ball wide and cause overloads in order to eventually create chances from crosses, whether that be a cutback or a driven pass to the far post.
They added that Sage’s RC Lens side were ‘deadly effective from crosses’ last term as they won the Coupe de France and finished second in Ligue 1 behind PSG.
Any changes you would make to this predicted lineup? 🤔
Really hope Romain Esse impresses 🤞
In this respect, the former Lyon boss may well be the man to finally help Johnson become a star at Crystal Palace.
