Stoke City have found a signing they have waited six years for Viktor Johansson’s stunning double save against Bristol City was the latest evidence that Stoke City pulled off a great piece of transfer business.
There was a slick Bristol City move in the second half at Stoke when, having already come from 2-0 down to be level at 2-2, Mark Sykes passed inside from the right for Max Bird to spin and slip a pass for George Earthy, sprinting between Ben Wilmot and Michael Rose to get into the box one-on-one with the keeper.
About 19,000 fans took a deep breath as Earthy poked his shot towards the left post – but then up went an arm from Viktor Johansson. The rebound fell to Sykes for a header but Johansson was already up, diving to his right to push that effort wide and away from danger.
That was on the back of an excellent diving save in the first half to stop a Bird long ranger that was arrowing towards the top right corner and it was no wonder that the home supporters behind both goals were singing the Sweden international’s name.
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It would be helpful for him and less stressful for everyone else if he had to face fewer shots, of course, and Pelach admitted that his team had been “fragile” defensively. At the moment, 26-year-old Sweden international Johansson is setting the standards.
“He did his job,” said head coach Narcis Pelach. “It’s what I expect from every player, to perform. It’s the third game in a row that he has performed at a very good level [following previous draws with Swansea and Norwich] and today we have a point because of him. I’m very pleased with him but I want more performances like that because he’s capable of that. This is his next step as a player.”
A keeper of Stoke’s own who stops shots was one of the biggest ticket items on Stoke’s to-do list heading into the summer transfer window. That might sound surreal, as if it should be taken for granted, but it’s true.
Stoke have worked their way through a carousel of stoppers since relegation in 2018. Jack Butland actually had a decent first season back in the Championship but he was closing his chapter at the club and it was a difficult finale for various reasons.
Adam Federici, Adam Davies, Angus Gunn, Andy Lonergan, Joe Bursik, Jack Bonham, Matija Sarkic, Mark Travers, Tommy Simkin and Daniel Iversen have all been asked to step up since then and, as the gloves were passed around, no keeper has made more than 23 league starts (Bonham, 2022/23) for Stoke in any of the last four seasons. Four of them have been loanees.
Apologies to mention xG but bear with us because this tallies with the eye test too. Stoke just haven’t been very good at saving shots in that time. In each campaign since 2019, Stoke have conceded more goals than would be expected for the standard of shots they have faced. It was 7.3 more in 2019/20, 11.2 more in 2020/21, 4.1 more in 2021/22, 8.2 more in 2022/23 and 1.3 more last term. Ouch. That’s all combined with not having a striker who can be clinical at the other end.
Yet this year, Johansson has already prevented 5.6 goals compared to what would have been expected according to the stats compilers at fbref. That only trails Swansea’s excellent Lawrence Vigouroux (5.8) in the Championship in a table where Stoke have been near the bottom for so long.
The task for Pelach is to get his defence to bring down the number of expected goals regardless of who’s behind them but the early summer business to bring in Johansson, triggering a relegation release clause of about £1 million to snare him from Rotherham United – where he was a club hero – on a three-year contract looks like a steal. He looks the real deal.
