LONDON — Ange Postecoglou praised Brennan Johnson’s ability to bounce back from the online abuse that he has received as the winger scored the winning goal for Tottenham in their 3-1 win over Brentford in the Premier League on Saturday.
Johnson scored Spurs’ second goal in their come-from-behind victory three days after his 92nd-minute strike saw Spurs advance into the Carabao Cup round-of-16 at Coventry City’s expense.
The 23-year-old’s upturn in fortunes came after he deactivated his Instagram account following the heavy criticism he received in the wake of Spurs’ north London derby defeat last Sunday.
“Brennan’s had a top week. He scored in the cup to get us through and scored the winner, and scored a fantastic goal again today to get us there [win over Brentford],” Postecoglou told his postmatch news conference.
“He was a real threat all the way through. And he had a bit of a tough period last week. But sometimes it gives you perspective about what’s important and what’s important to Brennan is that he’s a much-loved teammate.
“Like I said last week, he works hard every day and I know he will make a big impact for our club.”
Saturday’s match marked the first time in which Johnson has scored in back-to-back games for Spurs since arriving at the club in a £47.5 million ($59.8m) deal last summer.
“I had a say on social media and all that stuff during the week, but anyone who watches Brennan play, if they think he doesn’t give everything he can every week and work as hard as he can for the team, and how much he cares, I’d be very surprised,” Postecoglou said.
“But that’s the one side, like I said, for every footballer you’ve got to go through difficult moments and he’s handled it really well. And I think it gives you perspective that when the next difficult moment comes — inevitably it always comes — I’m sure he’ll know what’s important to him.”
Postecoglou’s team found themselves behind inside the first minute of their clash with Brentford in north London, but rallied impressively to level through Dominic Solanke who scored his first goal for the club seven minutes later before Johnson put Spurs ahead. James Maddison put the result beyond doubt with a goal late in the second half.
“It wasn’t an ideal start obviously, but to be honest it was like it never happened. The boys just sort of went at it. That’s what we wanted to do,” the Spurs boss said.
“I kind of knew Brentford … They’re going to be pretty aggressive with and without the ball and we love that part of the game and we thought if we really sort of brought our own energy and intensity that we know we can, with and without the ball, we could cause them a lot of problems, and we were relentless the whole game. And I thought we deserved the win.”
