Would take Adam Johnson to the World Cup?

MALCOLM MACDONALD:

Yes, I would take him without any hesitation whatsoever. He has pace, he is versatile and above all he produces crosses that create chance after chance for strikers.

I place a lot of store in other players’ reactions when a team-mate comes onto the pitch. I watched a Man City game the other week and when Johnson was brought on you could see the City players buzzing, knowing that he’d be delivering killer balls.

As a sub, Johnson has sparked the biggest reaction from other players that I have seen all season. That is just the kind of player you need in a World Cup game when you are struggling to break the opposition down in the second half. Mr Capello will have noted that too.

If you look at his main competition, the lad Walcott at Arsenal, I rate Johnson above him. Walcott is a very decent player with phenomenal pace. But I sometimes think that if the groundsman left the gates open at the end of the stadium where he drives his lawnmower in on a morning, during a game Walcott would hare down the wing and not stop until he was halfway up the M1! Walcott has the pace but not the end product.

BERNIE SLAVEN:

I’d take him to the World Cup without a shadow of a doubt. A lot of people in the world probably don’t know who Adam Johnson is, but I don’t see that as a problem.

They’ll know who he is well enough if he goes and does well in the World Cup.

I personally thought it would take him a bit of time to bed in at Manchester City, but he hit the ground running straight away and scored a couple of goals.

Most importantly of all, he’s a naturally left-footed player and England don’t really have that. Right-footed players are ten-a-penny, but genuinely left-footed players are special.

I watch a bit of kids’ football on a Saturday morning, and out of the 22 players that are lining up, you’re lucky if three are left-footed.

That carries right the way through to the senior game and means that, when you get someone like Adam, you have to make the most of them.

NICK PICKERING:

If it was down to me, Adam Johnson would go. I just think he’s an exciting player with pace, and that makes a big difference in international football.

England have a lot of talented midfielders, but they’re all fairly similar.

Adam Johnson offers you something completely different.

I know people will say he’s unproven at international level, but he was unproven at Premier League level and he’s done okay there.

He handled that step up in his stride, and I see no reason why he can’t handle the step up to international football in the same confident manner.

When you’re a young player, you often tend to play without fear, so I actually think this could be the perfect time to take someone like Adam Johnson to a World Cup finals. They play with abandon and I couldn’t really see anything fazing him.

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