Tottenham head coach Ange Postecoglou believes Brennan Johnson can become a "significant contributor" for the club if he can navigate a difficult period.
Johnson fired Spurs into the last 16 of the Carabao Cup on Wednesday with a stoppage-time winner at Coventry, but his celebrations were muted. It had been a tough few days for the £47.5million attacker after he received social media abuse following a below-par display against Arsenal on Sunday, which resulted in Johnson deactivating his Instagram account.
Postecoglou leapt to the 23-year-old's defence on Tuesday and again offered his unwavering support a day later.
"With Brennan, you know I spoke about it (Tuesday) that he comes in, works hard at his game and when you're an attacking player, you're always kind of getting measured against certain things," Postecoglou said. "I said, if he can get through this period and just be positive and and play like he can, he can be a significant contributor to us and credit to him. He got a good goal."
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Johnson's goal and an impressive second-half cameo from Djed Spence, who grabbed an 88th-minute leveller, were among the few positives for Spurs after a 2-1 victory. Attackers Wilson Odobert and Timo Werner were both forced off with suspected muscle injuries ahead of a busy period for Postecoglou's team.
The Spurs boss added: "Wilson looked fairly significant, so we'll just wait and see. Timo, again not really sure if it was just fatigue but yeah, a bit unfortunate for both of those. Obviously, both play in a similar position as well."
The absence of Odobert and Werner could open the door for 17-year-old forward Mikey Moore to get minutes off the bench in Saturday's home match with Brentford. Spurs will aim to halt a run of mixed Premier League form against the Bees after the last-gasp Carabao Cup win helped Postecoglou calm some of the growing unrest.
However, opposite number Mark Robins backed the Australian to bring success to Tottenham after his Coventry side pushed them all the way.
"If you are Tottenham Hotspur, you are probably relieved to go through at our expense," Robins said. "I think they are really well managed by the way. I think he is a top manager, Ange. The way they play is a really good way of playing, which will bring them good results, but that's the nature of where we are in life really. People want everything yesterday and it's ridiculous really."
"We already had a couple of injuries, and I had some pretty good players on the bench that I thought could make an impact, but it doesn't take away from Lucas's performance. I thought he was outstanding tonight. They they're going to play a lot of football for us and hopefully getting through tonight, whether it's 90 minutes for Archie [Gray] or you know, 60, 70 for Lucas, will put them in a good space."
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