Johnson is not as quick as Bale. It's Bale's lightning pace that destroyed Maicon last night.
All this stuff about Johnson being a poor defender... it looks to me more that he's often caught out of position on his own flank, but actually does a lot of useful covering for the centre backs when the ball comes in from the other side. He can defend. So why does he often look weak there?
It's this thing about being out of position. The thing is, an attacking fullback such as Johnson can't just play that role without the rest of the team being set up to support it. He badly misses Mascherano's mobility to get across and snuff out the danger behind him. And he's more effective with Kuyt in front of him, because Kuyt will get back and swap places with him when he needs to. He could do with a quicker, more mobile right-sided centre half to help him (and vice versa).
Thinking of all the flak Johnson gets (unfair flak, in my view), I watched Ashley Cole in Chelsea's last game. There's just not that big a difference between Cole and Johnson. Cole was also found stranded plenty of times forwards of the ball, but nothing came of it. That's because he is playing for Chelsea, who are in great form and are a side full of really athletic players, and of course Chelsea were the club who wanted to buy Johnson back when he came to us instead.
I like Johnson. H'es one of our classiest players. He needs the rest of the buggers to work with and for him. He'll look great when Liverpool as a whole get better.
