Pundit claims Brennan Johnson needs to be ‘thick-skinned’ despite abuse

Jamie O’Hara says Brennan Johnson should not let online criticism affect him too much on the pitch, calling on the Tottenham man to become more ‘thick-skinned’.

Brennan Johnson received abuse last week

Johnson deactivated his Instagram account last week in light of the vitriol directed at him from some fans on the back of his performances in the North London Derby.

Ange Postecoglou has since leapt to the defence of the winger, insisting that while criticism is fair game, there is no room for abuse on social media (Football.London).

The Tottenham head coach also confidently asserted that Johnson will come through this spell and contribute in a major way to the side this season.

The 23-year-old gave the perfect response, coming off the bench to score a late winner for Spurs in their Carabao Cup third-round tie against Coventry City, which helped the Lilywhites seal progression to the next stage of the competition in dramatic fashion.

Jamie O’Hara tells Johnson to brush it off

O’Hara believes that the former Nottingham Forest must become more ‘hard-nosed’ and has to accept the fact that criticism comes with the territory when playing for a big club.

The former Spurs midfielder told Grosvenor Sport: “I still think the criticism of Brennan Johnson is justified. He hasn’t been good enough since he joined Spurs. I was happy for him when he scored that last-minute winner against Coventry, but the criticism still stands and he needs to improve.

“You need to perform at the highest level when you play for Tottenham – you’re not playing for Nottingham Forest anymore where you can have one good game in three and everybody says, ‘oh, he’s a good player!’

“I’d say every footballer in their career at some point has been affected by fans giving them stick. It’s part of the job and everyone goes through it – including me when I played. Players like Brennan need to be hard-nosed and thick-skinned and play through it.

“I’ve got no problem at all with him scoring in the 90th minute and giving the middle finger to the fans – I was a big fan of that – but you can’t be too sensitive. You’ve got to be harder mentally to play for Tottenham.”

Spurs Web Opinion

O’Hara’s sentiment here is so old-fashioned. He is acting like Johnson only has to deal with constructive criticism and ‘banter’ – not even mentioning the abuse. Offering someone the advice of just ignoring abuse is so old-fashioned. It is completely normal to be impacted by it and to deal with it in your own way. Brennan Johnson is not the problem here, the strange fans who abuse or go out of their way to put players down are the problem.

The general consensus seems to be that criticism is acceptable while abuse is not, but I personally think that even over-the-top criticism is not acceptable when you are directly commenting on a player’s post or tagging him. Fans can voice whatever opinion they want but it takes an extremely immature person to go out of their way to ensure that a player sees their post.

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