According to Greek language source Nova Sports, Nottingham Forest are on the verge of signing former Sweden international defender Mattias Johansson from Greek side Panathinaikos.
They add that, with the Swede coming towards the end of his current deal in Greece, a move to Nottingham Forest won’t be a difficult decision to reach.
They go on to add that both parties are “in advanced discussions” with the intention being that Johansson joins Forest “in order to play there from the new season.”
Who is Mattias Johansson
Johansson started his journey in football with Kalmar in his native Sweden before a £1.3million move to Dutch side AZ Alkmaar at the start of January 2012. He stayed for five years in Holland, only leaving in early August 2017.
During his time with Alkmaar, he made 176 appearances, scoring 6 goals and adding 11 assists for the Eredivisie side. His time in Athens is coming to a close after 70 games for the Greek side, games which have brought 5 goals and 4 assists.
YouTube: Mattias Johansson Skills
What does Mattias Johansson bring to the table?
The above radar, using data from smarterscout (free account required) gives an overview of the type of player that Johansson is. He has a high rating (77) for defensive quantity – the number of times that he has been called on to defend this season. However, this needs to be tempered with a lower quality rating (43) of defensive actions.
Other defensive actions where he is less strong include his ability to win aerial battles in open play (33) and open-play ground duels (48) where he loses out to opposing tackles. However, there are highlights in his play such as his skill and ability (81) to regain possession in ground duels when he doesn’t have the ball.
He is also strong at disrupting opponent moves (84), meaning that he often gets into situations where he intercepts the ball, tackles players or clearing the ball from dangerous areas. He is also good at recovering a moving ball (68), showing a better-than-average ability to intercept the ball when the opponent is passing.
On a different front, his link-up passing is good (90) but he often struggles to play the ball towards the opponent’s goal (12) which means that he doesn’t create many assists. Other stats for him show that this season, for Panathinaikos, Johansson was involved just 23% of the time in moves leading to a goal and 34% of the time in moves leading to a shot.
Reflections – does Mattias Johansson fit what Nottingham Forest need?
I’m going to stick my neck out here and say no. Well, no with reservations anyway. If Forest are lucky enough to gain promotion to the Premier League, then Johansson might be a decent option for the bench and a back-up to Matty Cash.
Should Matty Cash stay at Forest, either in the Premier League or the Sky Bet Championship, I cannot see a way that Johansson could up his game to depose Cash from his marauding right-back position. Cash’s output this season is much more superior. He’s scored 3 goals and provided 4 assists.
Aside from these headline figures, and using data from WhoScored, he also creates opportunities for teammates, with 1.2 passes per 90 creating chances for those around him. He’s also defensively sound with a total of 7.4 defensive actions (3 tackles/1.5 interceptions/2.9clearances) per 90. This shows that he can be relied upon when needed to get back and get stuck in.
In short? Well, Johansson will be on a free with his deal in Greece set to end but Forest should only consider him as a back-up to Matty Cash.
