Aston Villa, Sam Johnstone Growing In Confidence
By Josh Tonti
On-loan Manchester United goalkeeper Sam Johnstone is brimming with confidence after four clean sheets in five matches. After a shaky start in Birmingham, how did Johnstone, and the rest of the defense, turn it around?
Sam Johnstone’s arrival to Aston Villa drew many questions from supporters. Why an untested third-string goalkeeper, and why replace the talented youngster, Pierluigi Gollini? The Manchester United goalkeeper needed to prove he is the man for Steve Bruce’s Aston Villa.
However, Johnstone did not exactly induce confidence in his first eight starts. Only a brief 2-2 draw with Preston North End resulted in any points. The other seven league matches? Losses, and they were ugly.
Indecisiveness and poor distribution resulted in several key mistakes in Aston Villa’s multiple defeats.
Lately, though, everything is rosy with the claret and blue. With Jonathan Kodjia carrying the goal burden on his back, the club has seen four wins from five. All four being clean sheets. Tommy Smith’s cross-goal laser was the only shot to get past Johnstone.
Is this run of form some sort of epiphany for the on-loan goalkeeper – or is it simply a result from excellent defensive structure? The evidence suggests it is a mixture of both.
Johnstone’s ambiguous WhoScored ratings stood at over 7 for three of the five matches – generally a strong sign of positive performance. The praise however really should fall onto the back line and Mile Jedinak.
Aston Villa have only conceded eight (!) shots on target the last five league matches. An absolutely incredible rate from the number of general shots fired. The Villa defense is doing an excellent duty of limiting damage from the opposition’s attack. As such, Johnstone has seven saves from these eight shots-on-goal.
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While Sam Johnstone is definitely improving match after match, the real results have come from the defensive unit as a whole.
Saturday’s test with Wigan offers another chance to test Aston Villa.