David Moyes has shared how West Ham United defender Ben Johnson is in a much better place now than where he was a couple of months ago.
The 23-year-old West Ham full-back seems to have regressed badly over the past 12 months.
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Johnson has really struggled when playing in either full-back positions. I actually believe that he’s better when playing as a centre-back as part of a back three.
The Hammers academy graduate just doesn’t seem to possess the attributes needed to play at either right-back or left-back.
Every time that the 23-year-old has played in either full-back position, he has looked miles off the pace.
His positional sense is terrible and his awareness of space in behind him and his opponent’s position is off the scale bad. On top of all of that, his final ball is terrible. All of that lends itself to being better suited to playing as a centre-back.
He is very athletic and is actually very strong in the air. He has impressive pace in his locker as well.
West Ham ace Ben Johnson is improving, Moyes claims
The Hammers boss was speaking to reporters yesterday about the 23-year-old, and responded when asked whether he is prepared to throw him into the starting lineup, as quoted by Football.London:
“I’ve got to say Ben’s come on and done well. He’s had a couple of games where I didn’t [bring him on]. But he’s training really well at the moment and he’s just got himself into a wee bit better place than a month or two ago, he’s looking a bit better. I’ve got no qualms about playing Ben. He played at Derby and has had a few minutes since then so hopefully we can keep getting him some time.”
I would love nothing more than Ben Johnson to go on and fulfil his potential at West Ham.
As things stand though, the jury is still very much out as to whether he’s actually good enough to play Premier League football.
Hopefully the 23-year-old impresses whenever he is given a chance by Moyes. However, I believe that his chances of doing that will increase drastically if he is played in central defence.
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