The Official Darius Johnson thread

Highlights from our match with Phoenix. You can see Johnson creating problems for us several times. He's the guy that took off thru midfield and Jona fouled him for the 2nd yellow, then in the 2nd half, beating multiple guys on our left wing to deliver crosses (good example is 8:20 in the video where he beats a couple of guys and plays a cross that very nearly ended in a goal). Weird that his overall stats in USL are pretty mediocre at best. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

 

We need another #10, a #9, and a #6 before this. What the hell?

And at 26 he’s not a future player. Are we going to cut someone?

Go Quakesfans!!

 

Provided this isn't our only addition, I like it. He had some real athleticism! We're not exactly stacked at the wings either.

 

This is a guy you bring in late against tired legs and let him run right at the defense. He cuts back on a dime and leaves defenders tied in knots. Play him opposite Temo and teams are going to be in trouble and likely to foul.

 

Also, if I’m not mistaken the Quakes once signed a guy by the name of DWayne De Rosario after he ripped up their defense in an Open Cup game.That worked out pretty well as I recall.

 

I’m under no illusions than this guy will be another DeRo but his game is a little like DeRo’s. He likes to take guys on, a progressive dribbler, the kind of player Bruce usually doesn’t like but maybe he figured we need a guy like this to try to break down defenses in certain game states like you said. He’s also a little on the taller side for a winger like DeRo was, around 6’.

 

Backup to Judd. Low risk and I liked his athleticism in the US Open Cup Game.

 

He’s not a 9, he’s a winger, but he could spell Bouda, who can spell Judd.

 

Seems like a good pickup, still room to add a DP, so I'm on board

 

I don’t think we’ll get a DP TBH. I think TAM player will be about the limit. Or an El Cheapo DP that makes $850k and they just don’t bother to buy him down, like Grey Goose was back in 2022 or whenever that was.

 

I'd work on converting him to an LB. He's very athletic, but for whatever reason that athleticism and skill hasn't converted very well into goals or assists over his entire career at multiple places...don't know what the disconnect is but it's worth a shot to try to convert him from forward to fullback like Bruce did with Benji. I mean with some training and given enough time he might not look all that different than Jones did at LB. We need to get Ricketts upfield and Romney is strictly a shakey stop gap liability at LB...who knows, if he potentially shows some ability defending, we might build some athletic left side depth...which we definitely need

 

DJ is a righty I believe. Bruce won’t develop a righty into a LB unless he happens to be really good with his left.

 

I don’t care where we play him. Right now our bench is thin and not particularly talented, I see absolutely no downside to signing him,

 

Assume you are talking about next season because trying to convert him mid-season wouldn't make a lot of sense...

 

We have a long four week break coming up, I am sure that is plenty of time to look at him as a left back and integrate him into the team. Maybe a closed door scrimmage with Monterey Bay FC as well?

 

Not happening any time soon...probably about as long as it took Benji...which i believe was probably close to a year. But he has have some level of grit and attitude...otherwise it wouldn't be worthy of consideration...i believe he's also played some left and right mid in his career...hopefully he has a fundamental concept of defending...not just a fairweather attacker...the scourge of the earth imo... is there anything worse in the soccer universe haha

 

Again, though DJ is a righty. He's not going be a left back. Right back maybe, but we have Benji, Jasinski, and Marie there. It's not a position of need at all really. I think where DJ can add value is a wide attacker. We just don't have anyone who can beat someone isolated 1v1 on the wing except sometimes Ricketts.

We could give DJ minutes that Skahan is occupying now say as a right side attacker sub. Skahan is a hustle guy but doesn't have that 1v1 ability to beat people and unbalance defenses. Or left side attacker who can spell Timo. And if he looks really good on the right he could start to compete with Bouda for minutes there. Bouda also doesn't really have 1v1 "beat people" ability. He can get *just* enough separation to get a cross off, but he doesn't normally go by people.

 

Agreed, DJ will take some of Skahan's minutes because he's a more archetypal winger. Jack fits better as a pressing-oriented #10 to shake up the game in the 2nd half with his movement and activity. I don't understand this whole thing about making Darius a fullback, we have dudes who can play the position(s).

 

Archetypal Quakes - got a talented attacking player? It's back to fullback for you!!

 

correct me if i'm wrong, but isn't Jones a righty...Bruce put him at LB and he isn't all that and a bag of chips with his left foot...just adequate. But this is all hypothetical anyway....Johnson probably has a better left boot than Jones...but we have no idea if he has the defensive chops to even consider the change...it was just an opinion...when you see a very athletic attacker that doesn't have great numbers and is approaching 26-27...you might look at other possibilities....like we did with Benji...it actually happens a lot, forwards being converted to fullbacks.

 

Yeah, I get it.

FWIW Jones has played a lot of left back in his career before Bruce played him there. And he's developed a workable left boot. He's like Salinas in that regard. But generally Bruce is pretty adament about natural footed defenders, both with fullbacks and CB's. It's true we don't know yet how good DJ is with his left foot. But anyway I think the obvious thing to do for now is to play him either at right side (natural) winger or left side (inverted) winger.

 

Jones is good with both feet, crosses well with his left, and is adept tucking inside as an inverted fullback. In fact he is supposedly more comfortable playing left back.

If not for DeJuan's ill-timed injuries (both last summer and this spring) there's a decent chance he is on the World Cup roster. You can't just approximate that by telling a fast guy from USL to give it a go in the back line.

 

Someone asked Bruce in the postgame if we acquired Darius just on the basis of his game against us with Phoenix and Bruce said that Shalrie coached him with Grenada, so we already knew about him to some extent. That makes me feel a little bit better - that we didn't base our evaluation on just one game.